History Main / TheMccoy

* Oddly, Jack [=McCoy=] of ''LawAndOrder'' is not {{The McCoy}} for the show. That role is typically filled by the female A.D.A. Except when Angie Harmon played that role as a conservative Republican, so they made the new D.A. a female college professor, and made ''her'' {{The McCoy}}. Of course, some can take it too far: Serena Southerlyn was too much {{The McCoy}}, which resulted in her being fired. This also led to a WallBanger example of SuddenlySexuality.

** [[FlatWhat Churchill as McCoy?]]

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leonardmccoy_5742.jpg
[[caption-width:300:Can't you see from my expression how inhuman this so-called "logic" is!?]]

* ''{{Babylon 5}}'' had Dr. Stephen Franklin.
** Except, notably, in a scene in the fourth season. While talking a member of the [[LaResistance Mars resistance]], he has to defend [[TheCaptain Sheridan's]] decision to use [[spoiler: [[OlafsHammer Shadow-modified telepaths]] against the Earth Alliance fleet.]] While he still doesn't like it, he acknowledges that they don't have any better options:
--> '''Resistance fighter''': [[spoiler: You're using these people! Using them as if they were weapons!]]
--> '''Franklin''': [[spoiler: They ''are'' weapons.]] ... [[spoiler: We can't remove these implants without technology back on Earth. They're [[GondorCallsForAid fighting for their freedom]] like the rest of us, they just don't know it.]]

[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/NotRealMcCoy.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:"[[StealthPun There's no bones about it!]] He is ''not'' [[IncrediblyLamePun the real McCoy]]!"]]

-->''"By God, [[TheKirk Jim]]! You can't seriously be considering this!? [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight Screw]] the PrimeDirective, [[NoTimeToExplain there's no time for debate!]] We have to act now to rescue the high priestess; [[FriendOrIdolDecision forget]] the {{MacGuffin}} and think about doing what's'' right!"

-->''"By God, [[TheKirk Jim]]! You can't seriously be considering this!? Screw the PrimeDirective, [[NoTimeToExplain there's no time for debate!]] We have to act now to rescue the high priestess; [[FriendOrIdolDecision forget]] the {{MacGuffin}} and think about doing what's'' right!"

* Ron Weasley is very much this in the HarryPotter books.
** Debatable. Ron tends to take the longer view. Hermione fits the role better, especially with her insistence that the House Elves be freed, no matter what they happen to think of it.
*** Hermione alternates between being TheSpock and being {{The McCoy}} depending on the situation. They're all combinations of TheKirk, TheSpock and {{TheMcCoy}}.

*** Hermione alternates between being TheSpock and being TheMcCoy depending on the situation. They're all combinations of TheKirk, TheSpock and TheMcCoy.

*** Both Jack and Daniel could turn into [=McCoys=]. They'd often get into arguements, not about whether to help, but HOW to help. A prime example; in Scorched Earth an alien wants to terraform a planet so his civilization can be rebuilt there. The terraforming would kill the population already living there. Daniel wants to talk to the alien and reach a compromise. Jack wants to blow him up.

** When Willow was kidnapped, the Scoobies (especially Oz) were TheMcCoy, Giles was TheKirk and Wesley was TheSpock.
* Oddly, Jack [=McCoy=] of ''LawAndOrder'' is not TheMcCoy for the show. That role is typically filled by the female A.D.A. Except when Angie Harmon played that role as a conservative Republican, so they made the new D.A. a female college professor, and made ''her'' TheMcCoy. Of course, some can take it too far: Serena Southerlyn was too much TheMcCoy, which resulted in her being fired. This also led to a WallBanger example of SuddenlySexuality.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* According to co-writer Roberto Orci, the 2009 StarTrek film maintains this trope, but swaps Kirk and [=McCoy=]:
--> "[=McCoy=] in a way represents for us, or represented for us, the extremes of Kirk and Spock. If Spock is extreme logic, ... extreme science, and Kirk is extreme emotion and intuition, here you have a very colorful doctor, essentially a very humanistic scientist. So he, in a way, is literally and figuratively a representation of two extremes that often served as the glue that held the trio together."
** Though it comes off in a very similar manner to the show, and is very well played.
* [[StarWars Anakin Skywalker]] shows elements of this trope in the Prequel Trilogy. Especially since this was the reason he turned to TheDarkSide.
* Mr White of ''ReservoirDogs'', in comparison to the cold and logical Mr Pink and the psychotic Mr Blonde. He tells the dying Mr Orange his name and defends him all through the movie from accusations that Orange is a rat, based purely on the fact that he likes the guy.

* Churchill was a TheMcCoy and [[FranklinDRoosevelt FDR]] was a Kirk. Whether Marshall or [[JosefStalin Stalin]] was TheSpock depends on how you view Stalin.

* Maria Theresa often seems to come off as a TheMcCoy . Like Churchill she had her [[LadyOfWar ruthless side]] though. It comes with [[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask the job]].
* A number of political controversies seem to be about TheMcCoy ness versus Spockness. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement No Examples Please!]]

[[AC:Web Original]]
* In the ''[[GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse Global Guardians]], both Arachne and Ultra-Man fill the roll of {{The McCoy}}. Achilles, the team leader, is TheSpock, while Guardsman is TheKirk.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* Katara from ''AvatarTheLastAirbender''. She once detained the group for three days to help a village who lived on a polluted river, even destroying the factory that polluted it.
* Sam in ''DannyPhantom''. She forces Vegan meals and steals frogs from being dissected in her school, displays her disguise on a BeautyContest to bring individuality to the girls, and other humanitarian beliefs she has up her sleeves. When she's not doing that, then she makes sure Danny is going the right path.

* In {{Harkovast}} Scatterpod plays TheMcCoy to Quinn-Tain's Spock over the morality of Quinn-Tain killing [[http://www.drunkduck.com/Harkovast/index.php?p=719524 BrightLeaf]].

[[AC: VideoGames]]
* In {{Persona 4}}, this role is shared by [[TheLancer Yos]][[ButtMonkey uke]] and [[TheChick Ri]][[MissionControl se]].
* Garrus Vakarian of the MassEffect Series evolves into this over the course of Mass Effect 1 & 2. By the second game, he forms a team of [[CowboyCop Cowboy cops]] to combat the corruption on the station in Omega. [[spoiler: True to the "Get into hot water" portion, his whole squad ends up massacred.]]

* Murrue Ramius from GundamSeed is a more reasonable McCoy in a command position.

* In {{Harkovast}} Scatterpod plays the McCoy to Quinn-Tain's Spock over the morality of Quinn-Tain killing [[http://www.drunkduck.com/Harkovast/index.php?p=719524 BrightLeaf]].

{{The McCoy}} is part of a PowerTrio along with TheKirk and TheSpock. Where the former is rational and [[TakeAThirdOption intuitive]], and the latter is [[TheStoic cold]] and logical, the [=McCoy=] is [[HotBlooded emotional]] and [[TheHeart humanistic]]. He cares about others deeply; for him doing the right thing is not a question of convenience or moral relativity, but about the concrete reality ''right now''. Which is to say, someone like TheKirk cares about saving people; the [=McCoy=] cares about making things ''right''. This often leads the heroes into hot water as this concern for others blinds him to complications in the Moral Dilemma Of the Week and leads him to advocate (or take it upon himself to do) "the right thing", regardless of how disastrous it would be in the short or long run.

Also, the [=McCoy=] exists as a counterpart to TheSpock. If they are the moral center of the team in general too, then they are TheHeart as well.

* A number of political controversies seem to be about TheMcCoy ness versus Spockness. No Examples Please!

*** Both Jack and Daniel could turn into McCoys. They'd often get into arguements, not about whether to help, but HOW to help. A prime example; in Scorched Earth an alien wants to terraform a planet so his people can live there. The terraforming would kill the population already living there. Daniel wants to talk to the alien and reach a compromise. Jack wants to blow him up.

*In the Star Trek novel ''Vulcans Forge'' Rabin(an earlier friend of Spocks) is like this, though more [[BewareTheNiceOnes friendly]] and less crotchety then ...Mmm...the real [[TheMcCoy McCoy]].

*Churchill was a TheMcCoy and FDR was a Kirk. Probably Marshal was TheSpock.