History Characters / StarTrekTheOriginalSeries

* TheAce: Like Kirk, an experienced and capable multi-talented officer who went on to have a distinguished career as a captain of his own. Unlike Kirk, who [[MarriedToTheJob never made time for a family]] and whose hobbies seem limited to [[RatedMForManly drinking, womanizing, and the occasional manly camping trip/rock climbing expedition]], Sulu ''also'' managed to have a happy marriage, a beautiful daughter who followed in his footsteps, and cultivated a variety of interests outside his career, including fencing, botany, and tea.

* RankUp: At some point prior to ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', he got promoted to Commander.

* ChivalrousPervert: He’s the one that pushed girlfriends on Kirk in the academy days, and apparently flirts a lot (the bio has Kirk be annoyed that he’s hitting on the female crew too much), but he’s a nice guy.

* ActionGirl: In "Mirror, Mirror" and "The Gamesters of Triskelion."

** She shares a kiss with Kirk in "Plato's Stepchildren," although given that it was under alien MindControl and both were [[MindRape rather traumatized]]; if anything, it may be ShipSinking.

* BrokenAce: He goes through this arc in "Relics" when it's discovered he was stuck in a transporter loop on the ''Jenolan'' for 75 years. Upon seeing that the engineering technology of his time has jumped so far ahead, he [[DrowningMySorrows takes to Ten Forward]] and guzzles down some Aldeberan Whisky.

* FishOutOfTemporalWater: His fate in ''TNG'' shows that in 2294, he was on the way to a retirement colony when the ship he was riding on crashed on a Dyson Sphere. He and one other crew member used a transporter loop to hold themselves inside until someone could find them, but it wouldn't be until 75 years later when the ''Enterprise''-D happened to pass by the area did they pull him (and only him, his friend's pattern had deteriorated too much) out. When he heard that the ''Enterprise'' came to the rescue, he thought Kirk had pulled the ''A'' out of mothball to find him (having forgotten Kirk had died just a year prior), only to realize how far out of time he really was when Worf showed up. He spends most of his guest spot trying to readjust to his new time.

The helmsman, thankfully living in a time before bridge consoles were MadeOfExplodium. Sulu was an affable and level-headed officer, a staple of bridge drama and landing parties. He worked well with other members of a crew and sometimes shared his hobbies: botany, antiquing, and fencing (although the last one was not exactly in a clear state of mind). When Chekov was added to the cast, they formed a ThoseTwoGuys dynamic. Although it was never ''firmly'' established in canon (where there is no clear command structure after Kirk-Spock-Scotty, and several different characters, Sulu included, are shown to take the conn), Sulu is generally regarded as the ship's Third Officer and fourth-in-command.

* BerserkButton: He's a very calm, polite, and peaceful man...unless you call the ''Enterprise'' a piece of garbage. Then he'll punch you in the face regardless of the cost.

* DrowningMySorrows: He always had a liking for the stuff, along with Bones, but after his nephew dies, Scotty thinking Peter stayed to impress him, he gets to the point in the books where Kirk has to pull rank and order him to bed.

** This trend continues into the films. In ''[[Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture The Motion Picture]]'' Chekov gets electrocuted by one of V'ger's energy blasts. In ''[[Film/StarTrekTheWrathOfKhan Wrath of Khan]]'' he gets a Ceti Eel in the ear; ''[[Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome The Voyage Home]]'' sees him nearly fatally injured when he falls off a ship onto the dock below. Walter Koenig jokingly subtitled the second film ''Star Trek II: Chekov Screams Again''.

** This trend continues into the films. In ''[[Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture The Motion Picture]]'' Chekov gets electrocuted by one of V'ger's energy blasts. In ''[[Film/StarTrekTheWrathOfKhan Wrath of Khan]]'' he gets a Ceti Eel in the ear; ''[[Film/StarTrek4TheVoyageHome The Voyage Home]]'' sees him nearly fatally injured when he falls off a ship onto the dock below. Walter Koenig jokingly subtitled the second film ''Star Trek II: Chekov Screams Again''.

** This trend continues into the films. In ''[[Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture The Motion Picture]]'' Chekov gets electrocuted by one of V'ger's energy blasts. In ''[[Film/StarTrekTheWrathOfKhan Wrath of Khan]]'' he gets a Ceti Eel in the ear; ''[[Film/StarTrekTheVoyageHome The Voyage Home]]'' sees him nearly fatally injured when he falls off a ship onto the dock below. Walter Koenig jokingly subtitled the second film ''Star Trek II: Chekov Screams Again''.

-->'''Chekov:''' Blood sample, Chekov! Marrow sample, Chekov! Skin sample, Chekov! If--if I live long enough, I'm going to run out of samples!

* ShesGotLegs: Janice Rand, and more specifically Grace Lee Whitney herself, is ''why'' the Starfleet miniskirt was so short. Whitney was a dancer, and wanted to show off her stems.

->'''Played by:''' Mark Lenard

* AmbiguouslyChristian: He frequently swears in the name of God, or Heaven. He explicitly mentions Jesus in ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'', one of only two times in the history of the entire franchise He is mentioned by name[[note]]a bit character in the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "Storm Front" also mentions him[[/note]]. When he is about to [[spoiler: kill the salt vampire]] in "The Man Trap", he asks the Lord to forgive him. He teases Scotty once for "not believing in God." He remarks in "This Side of Paradise" how their rejection of the spores is the ''second'' time Man's been thrown out of Paradise[[note]]Kirk, another Ambiguous Christian, corrects him by saying that '''this time''' they walked out on their own[[/note]]. His staunch pacifism is certainly consistent with the tradition of Christian pacifism, and many conscientious objectors have served as medical personnel. However, the character never came out and professed a belief in the divinity of Christ (or in any other religion).

* BadassPacifist: He's a doctor and takes that very seriously. However, that doesn't stop him from doing extremely dangerous things to save lives. Circumstances sometimes force him to show that he is a decent shot and somewhat competent brawler, but he is hardly a willing CombatMedic, both disgust with violence and unashamed fear always extremely apparent on his face. Possibly best seen in "Space Seed," where he doesn't flinch at Khan holding a knife to his throat and even gives advice on the best way to kill him from their current position.

** In “This Side Of Paradise”, what gets him out of a spores-induced HappyPlace is even just the suggestion of not being a doctor anymore.

* CombatPragmatist: [=McCoy=] is especially fond of hitting an enemy (or even a reluctant friend) with a hypospray to render them unconscious/simulate a disease/etc. in order to get the upper hand. In "Amok Time," he does this ''[[HeroicBystander without being an actual participant in the fight]]'' in order to save Kirk's life and Spock's career.

* DeadpanSnarker: He specializes in snarky comments. "This Side of Paradise" has a couple gems.

* DrJerk: While he's a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, his [[ImADoctorNotAPlaceholder cantankerous reminders of his actual occupation]] qualify for this trope. In "Friday's Child," he persuades an obstinate, haughty patient to let him ease her pain...by slapping her in the face. {{Justified|Trope}} in that the woman in question was a Capellan, a ProudWarriorRace that regards a show of force as a sign of respect and honesty, and that [=McCoy=] was an expert on this species, having been part of the first contact team that discovered them years earlier. Given that the woman later gave birth [[MeaningfulName and named the child after [=McCoy=]]], it worked as well as intended:

** Especially in "This Side of Paradise," when he's under the influence of AppliedPhlebotinum that makes him more irritable.

* FirstNameBasis: With Kirk, although in Kirk's case, it's [=McCoy=]'s nickname, "Bones," never his first name, "Leonard." (Kirk does call him "Leonard" exactly once, in "Friday's Child", but it's context-specific.)

** [[TheMcCoy [=McCoy=]]] is always trying to get an emotional rise out of [[TheSpock Spock]], but in the episode "Plato's Stepchildren," [=McCoy=] jumps to Spock's defense when powerful aliens force him to cry and to laugh. And in other episodes, he's usually the first to jump to Spock's defense any time ''anyone'' attacks or insults him, possibly because his issues with Spock are more of a giant angry moral debate while other people tend to operate out of pure racism.

* FourTemperamentEnsemble: [=McCoy=] is the Sanguine. While he's the [[GrumpyBear complainer]] of the group, he's also got a folksy joie de vivre and casual manner that [[{{foil}} directly]] contrasts Spock's strict stoicism.

* GrumpyBear: [=McCoy=] is constantly grumbling about space travel, supercomputers, Spock, unruly patients, etc, etc.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Is the Admiral of a medical branch in TNG, and seemingly learns from the mistakes of Kirk in the movies, being as peaceful as his GrumpyBear self gets.

** He will follow Kirk into the pits of Hell and back, but he'll [[GrumpyBear grumble]] about it first.

The helmsman, thankfully living in a time before bridge consoles were MadeOfExplodium. Sulu was an affable and level-headed officer, a staple of bridge drama and away missions. He worked well with other members of a crew and sometimes shared his hobbies: botany, antiquing, and fencing (although the last one was not exactly in a clear state of mind). When Chekov was added to the cast, they formed a ThoseTwoGuys dynamic. Although it was never ''firmly'' established in canon (where there is no clear command structure after Kirk-Spock-Scotty, and several different characters, Sulu included, are shown to take the conn), Sulu is generally regarded as the ship's Third Officer and fourth-in-command.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: The name ''Enterprise'' is so legendary that (as shown by ''Trek'' scenes that take place in the future) it spawns centuries' worth of LegacyVesselNaming.

For tropes relating to his appearance there, along with the other holograms, see, ''Characters/StarTrekProdigy''.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Is the medical branch of an Admiral in TNG, and seemingly learns from the mistakes of Kirk in the movies, being as peaceful as his GrumpyBear self gets.

* AllThereInTheManual: The character originated in an ultimately unused script, which gave his first name as Joseph and his nationality as Ugandan. An early novel used "Geoffrey" and the Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse named him [[MeaningfulName Jabilo]].

* UnresolvedSexualTension: The Talosians noted that she was attracted to Pike, and her official biography confirms this, but we don't know if anything came of it. He was apparently still in love with Vina as he later accepted retirement with Talosians to be with her.

* UnresolvedSexualTension: The Talosians noted that both Pike's first officer, the original Number One, and his yeoman were attracted to him, but since we never saw anything further of Pike's adventures, we don't know if anything came of it. He was apparently still in love with Vina as he later accepted retirement with Talosians to be with her.