# Medical Knowledge in Star Trek **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 17, 2011, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342 "2011-07-17T10:32:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/21 "2011-07-18T08:07:17Z")
Both Bones and Scotty just lied about their abilities so that they would look better when they pulled off the “impossible”. They were very competent but didn’t set expectations too high. [QUOTE=McCoy] I don’t know nothing 'bout birthing no alien babies! [/QUOTE] And the kid is named McCoy. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/22 "2011-07-18T11:26:09Z")
No one’s mentioned that the 75-year **earlier** NX-01 Enterprise’s doctor _was a freaking alien himself!_ Whenever answering these questions you have to balance the **nerd - ST as real** with the **realistic - ST as TV show** reasons. By and far the reason Deforest Kelly played the character like that was because it fit the dramatical needs of the TV series. ST:TOS is often (accurately) described as being a three-way love/hate triangle between Kirk, Spock & McCoy. Their character’s dynamics had to play off of each other: Spock was the brain, McCoy the heart, and Kirk was the cock, sorry, Kirk was the arbiter of which got used when. Consequently McCoy, along with being a more than adapt physician, was a very emotional, old school, and decidedly _human_ being. He certainly wasn’t prejudiced, just the opposite, but it made sense that he not be real ‘worldly’, new-age kind of doctor that was an expert in too much alien anatomy. Plus, if you think of the NCC-1701 like an aircraft carrier Bones would have spent 99.99% of his time treating the 400+ humans on board rather than too many aliens. With that in mind it kind of made sense to have Phlox from ST:ENT be more flexible both because the NX-01’s crew was much smaller and because so much less of the galaxy had been explored at their time. Interesting that the Drs of the Star Trek series were always very likable characters: McCoy, Crusher, Phlox, Voyager’s holographic ‘The Doctor’. Except for Bashir, he was kind of an immature jerk. And Dr. Pulaski, what a miserable c\*nt! ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/23 "2011-07-18T12:52:55Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > No one’s mentioned that the 75-year **earlier** NX-01 Enterprise’s doctor _was a freaking alien himself!_ > > Whenever answering these questions you have to balance the **nerd - ST as real** with the **realistic - ST as TV show** reasons. By and far the reason Deforest Kelly played the character like that was because it fit the dramatical needs of the TV series. ST:TOS is often (accurately) described as being a three-way love/hate triangle between Kirk, Spock & McCoy. Their character’s dynamics had to play off of each other: Spock was the brain, McCoy the heart, and Kirk was the cock, sorry, Kirk was the arbiter of which got used when. > > Consequently McCoy, along with being a more than adapt physician, was a very emotional, old school, and decidedly _human_ being. He certainly wasn’t prejudiced, just the opposite, but it made sense that he not be real ‘worldly’, new-age kind of doctor that was an expert in too much alien anatomy. > > Plus, if you think of the NCC-1701 like an aircraft carrier Bones would have spent 99.99% of his time treating the 400+ humans on board rather than too many aliens. With that in mind it kind of made sense to have Phlox from ST:ENT be more flexible both because the NX-01’s crew was much smaller and because so much less of the galaxy had been explored at their time. > > Interesting that the Drs of the Star Trek series were always very likable characters: McCoy, Crusher, Phlox, Voyager’s holographic ‘The Doctor’. Except for Bashir, he was kind of an immature jerk. And Dr. Pulaski, what a miserable c\*nt! Don’t forget Dr Boyce (John Hoyt) from “The Cage” pilot who carried around a portable martini kit because a man will sometimes tell his bartender things he won’t tell his doctor. He was also smart enough to warn at a briefing about the Talosians’s power of deceptions. OTOH Dr Piper (Paul Fix) in “Where No Man Has Gone Before” didn’t get to show much warmth. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/24 "2011-07-18T15:59:28Z")
Would it actually make more sense to keep ship crews segregated? Each member species is going to prefer an enviornment slightly different than others in terms of gravity, temperature, and atmospheric mix. McCoy gets assigned to ships that are 99.9% Human. M’Benga gets assigned because Spock is there (and is the son of an important Vulcan). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/25 "2011-07-18T16:30:10Z")
I don’t buy that it was just good-natured self-deprecation. In Star Trek VI, his lack of familiarity with Klingon physiology ends up almost thrusting the Federation and the Empire into full-on war, and at trial with his and Kirk’s lives at stake, he still admits (with considerable frustration) that his knowledge of Klingons is inadequate, and that he probably couldn’t have saved the ambassador. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/26 "2011-07-18T16:54:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Not necessarily. Member nations have ambassadors to the UN. It’s not really clear whether the Federation is a nation in its own right, or more like a UN-style treaty organization. I kind of think of it as an EU sort of thing - like what the EU’s fans would like it to be in twenty years or so, so. There’s a common currency, civil service, foreign service and military, and a fairly strong common foreign policy and defense policy. However, national sovereignty remains with the member worlds, who still can choose to maintain their own militaries and conduct their own foreign affairs outside the Federation framework. (Recall Spock’s efforts in TNG to advance the cause of Vulcan/Romulus reunification.) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/27 "2011-07-18T20:01:45Z")
> [@Hades](#): > > He was the Vulcan Ambassador to Earth, not the Federation. Vulcan’s always been a member of the Federation, and in the same episode he was introduced in, you had the Tellarites and Andorians, two more obviously alien species who were also member species. And in Amok Time T’Pau is described as the only person to turn down a seat on the Federation High Council (or something like that.) She also has enough clout to get Kirk off after he disobeys an order. Vulcans however are still considered odd in TOS time. Commodore Decker seems unaware ahead of time that Vulcan don’t bluff, which would be odd if he went to the Academy with them. You never get from TOS that first contact was made with Vulcan, and that they came to earth before we went there. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/28 "2011-07-18T21:03:20Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > …You never get from TOS that first contact was made with Vulcan, and that they came to earth before we went there. Sadly, it is almost as if the writers never watched other episodes/movies. there were so many contradictions, drove me crazy. I know a lot of fans love endless wanking about how this and that fit together but, c’mon, enough! ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/29 "2011-07-18T22:03:01Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > Sadly, it is almost as if the writers never watched other episodes/movies. there were so many contradictions, drove me crazy. I know a lot of fans love endless wanking about how this and that fit together but, c’mon, enough! By VOY and ENT, the franchise was huge. But, even with the size, fans could keep up with things. Why couldn’t the creators? The TOS issues I can let slide. Things were different then, no one knew what was to come in later years. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/30 "2011-07-18T22:21:42Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Has it occurred to anyone that Starfleet, far from being the premier organization for exploration and scientific research, may actually be the dumping ground for half-wits and slackers who are otherwise just in the way of real progress? Telephone sanitizers? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/31 "2011-07-19T02:01:28Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > I was watching the original series recently and I noticed Bones mentioned that his knowledge of Alien (non Human) anatoimy and physiology was rudimentary at best, when Sarek had a heart attack he struggled to help him (saying in essence he wished he knew what the stats meant). Back to the OP for a minute. You’ll recall that in \*The Trouble With Tribbles \*McCoy was able to simply wave his medical scanner over Arne Darvin and deduce from the readings that Darvin was a Klingon. So, while McCoy shuddered at the thought of actually performing open heart surgery on a Vulcan for the first time, he probably had about all the training Starfleet offered. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/32 "2011-07-19T03:14:02Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > And in Amok Time T’Pau is described as the only person to turn down a seat on the Federation High Council (or something like that.) She also has enough clout to get Kirk off after he disobeys an order… On a side note; is T’Pau supposed to be related to Spock somehow? Somehow I got the impression that she was supposed to be his (great-)aunt. Spock’s family is supposed to be one of Vulcan’s leading families (isn’t Spock the great-grandson of the Vulcan who made first contact with Zephram Cochrane?). ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/33 "2011-07-19T03:38:05Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Commodore Decker seems unaware ahead of time that Vulcan don’t bluff That’s the same sloppy-writing behind concepts like Vulcans don’t lie. Of _course_ they bluff and lie, but you don’t _tell_ the round-ears you bluff and lie, especially when you’re trying to bluff and lie to them. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/34 "2011-07-19T05:41:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t buy that it was just good-natured self-deprecation. In Star Trek VI, his lack of familiarity with Klingon physiology ends up almost thrusting the Federation and the Empire into full-on war, and at trial with his and Kirk’s lives at stake, he still admits (with considerable frustration) that his knowledge of Klingons is inadequate, and that he probably couldn’t have saved the ambassador. It could be that most of the time it was good-natured self-deprecation, but in _Star Trek VI_ he really didn’t know what he was doing with Chancellor Gorkon. Treating Vulcans, Andorians, or Tellarites (and Humans, of course) is one thing–they’re Federation members, and presumably any Federation doctor who doesn’t have direct experience could at least look them up in the standard databases. Klingons, at the time of ST:VI, were still The Enemy. A Federation doctor might genuinely lack vital information about them. (Perhaps Romulans might be easier to deal with, even when Federation-Romulan relations were in one of their deep freeze phases, since Romulan anatomy and physiology are fairly close to Vulcan.) ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/35 "2011-07-19T05:46:30Z")
Klingons had, as of STVI, still only been recovered from the failed Augment virus for a couple decades, so what medical information the Feds had on them may well have been out of date, and only updated to record unaugmented Klingon physiology after that incident. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/36 "2011-07-19T06:39:11Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > That’s the same sloppy-writing behind concepts like Vulcans don’t lie. Of _course_ they bluff and lie, but you don’t _tell_ the round-ears you bluff and lie, especially when you’re trying to bluff and lie to them. Vulcans lie, but I’m not sure about bluffing. In **The Corbomite Maneuver** , after Kirk bluffs, Spock says poker is interesting and Scotty and McCoy cheerfully offer to teach him how to play. However I don’t know how anyone even partially observant could go through college without seeing someone play poker. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/37 "2011-07-19T06:54:47Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > But let’s remember a lot of TOS was written for humour. You had a form of humour with some Southern USA person continually bad mouthing his own abilities but were actually quite smart. Like several years later Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina would continually say during the Watergate hearings that he was “just an old country lawyer”. Right sure,Harvard Law School in 1922 was just filled with country bumpkins. I doubt very much if there was some overriding concern to present a fully formed picture of the 23rd century. Just a bunch of writers, producers, actors and crews trying to make a 60 minute show every week to make a living. I don’t mean to come off rude but I think too many people simply forget these guys are just trying to make a living. I’d be very much surprised if there were anyone in these sorts of conversations who was unaware of this. The point of the game is to treat these shows like they were created with a coherent internal logic and history, and then trying to explain the apparent lapses and contradictions. Pointing out that it’s just a TV show, and that the writers didn’t care about stuff like that, is not only redundant, but kind of a spoilsport. > [@](#): > > Like Groucho Marx said on college tours in the early 1970s when students would ask “how did you arrive at the theme of Duck soup that the masses are fodder to be manipulated by the elites?”. “We were sitting around one day trying to think of our next picture and one of us said-let’s make a war movie. Groucho willmake a great head of state because he talks so fast and Harpo will look funny as a general. You don’t like my answer? Well, I think when Melville wrote Moby Dick,he was just trying to write a sea story. It was the critics who thought he was being symbolic”. [hijack]We know from Melville’s own letters and diaries that his symbolism was entirely intentional. After finding some moderate success as, essentially, an author of travelogues. Later in life, he befriended Nathanial Hawthorne, who introduced him to literary ideas and themes he hadn’t encountered before (in particular, a deeper critical understanding of William Shakespeare) that he consciously attempted to include in _Moby Dick_.[/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/38 "2011-07-19T12:44:45Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Vulcans lie, but I’m not sure about bluffing. In **The Corbomite Maneuver** , after Kirk bluffs, Spock says poker is interesting and Scotty and McCoy cheerfully offer to teach him how to play. However I don’t know how anyone even partially observant could go through college without seeing someone play poker. So figure Spock was bluffing and the problem disappears. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/39 "2011-07-19T16:49:26Z")
It’s sort of like the scene in in _Babylon 5_ when Londo is teaching Lennier to play poker. He looks at his hand, comments “Interesting; the odds of this hand are only 1 in 2.6 million”, and everyone else folds. Londo berates him for giving away his hand like that, saying that he could have won much more… But it’s never actually revealed to have been a winning hand. Lennier told the truth: The odds of the hand he was holding most assuredly _were_ 1 in 2.6 million. But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t bluffing. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342/40 "2011-07-20T07:16:45Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > Sadly, it is almost as if the writers never watched other episodes/movies. there were so many contradictions, drove me crazy. I know a lot of fans love endless wanking about how this and that fit together but, c’mon, enough! I don’t think anything about the Vulcans making first contact with Earth before we had ventured out into the galaxy contradicts anything from the original 60s show. The series was smart enough to never go into too many details about its alt history timeline. Actually its not just being smart, its that it wanted to be an accessible, adult drama just as much (more really) as a nerdy, teen scifi series. Famous Roddenberry description - “wagon-train to the stars…” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-knowledge-in-star-trek/589342.md?page=1)