Meeting Admiral McCoy | Star Trek: The Next Generation - Encounter at Fa...

"Treat her like a lady, and she'll always bring you home"

When I watched this scene, some 37 years ago, I was surprised to see McCoy show up in the series.  It was a scene to pass the torch to the new crew and to calm the nerves of hardcore fans.  This sort of thing isn't done today. I love that the one TOS crew member, who retired numerous times, came back to Star Fleet and became a flag officer.  In the 78 years between the movies, McCoy is 137 years old.  It should be noted that Spock is still alive in the TNG era, too.  

I love that Data reminds McCoy of his friend Spock.  The “almost as bad” is an inside joke about how many encounters the TOS crew had with androids.   Data would later meet Spock and have another heart-to-heart talk about life five years later.  Another thing to note is that McCoy’s speech ties directly to the final episode of Star Trek Picard.  “She’s always taken care of us.”  That is a nice bookend to the McCoy scene.  Simply brilliant.  

With all the rewrites to the pilot, McCoy’s cameo was added much later.  Gene wanted to keep it a secret and did not write the name “McCoy” anywhere in the script.  

The interesting thing about this scene is that Dr. McCoy is wearing his TOS movie-style pants and boots with a cheap silver admiral top.  The studio originally had McCoy in a different uniform.  He was to wear a modified TOS movie uniform with less old-age makeup.  I have the test photo below.  I think Gene didn’t want that much of a connection to the movies because it still left a bad taste in his mouth.  Remember that the studio forced him out of his film producer position after TMP.  

So, they threw out the TOS shirt and threw him in that cheap shirt you see on screen.  They just kept him in his movie-style pants and boots.