# Medicine in Star Trek

Medicine in Star Trek refers to the medical technologies, procedures and conditions as seen in the Star Trek fictional universe.

## Repeated

    Leonard McCoy: I'm a doctor, not a ______________!
   * [various episodes]
   * Examples: a moon shuttle conductor / bricklayer / psychiatrist / mechanic / engineer / scientist / physicist / escalator / magician / miracle worker / flesh peddler / veterinarian.
    Leonard McCoy He's dead, Jim! (Var.: "She's..." or "It's...")
   * [various episodes]
   * DeForest Kelley first uttered the line "He's dead, Captain" as a military physician in the 1956 film, "The Man in The Grey Flannel Suit".
    Emergency Medical Hologram: Please state the nature of the medical emergency.
   * First uttered in "Caretaker", Star Trek: Voyager, (January 16, 1995); story by Rick Berman, Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor; teleplay by Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor

## Quotes

* Deanna Troi: Poverty, disease, war. They'll all be gone within the next fifty years.
** Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, and Ronald D. Moore; Star Trek: First Contact, (Dec 13, 1996)
* Mr. Spock: Jim, I remind you that this is a silicon-based form of life. Dr. McCoy's medical knowledge will be totally useless.
    Capt. Kirk: He is a healer, let him heal.
   * Gene L. Coon, Star Trek: The Original Series, "The Devil in the Dark", (March 9, 1967).
* Dr. McCoy: Biped. Small. Good cranial development. No doubt considerable human ancestry. Is that how you're able to fake all of this? Very good. Modern museum perfection. Right down to the cement beams. Very, very good. Oh, I'd give a lot to see the hospital. Probably needles and sutures. All the pain. They used to hand-cut and sew people like garments. Needles and sutures. Oh, the terrible pain!
** Harlan Ellison, Star Trek: The Original Series, "The City on the Edge of Forever", (6 Apr, 1967).
* Tasha: Sorry to call you, sir. Not strictly security. It's about the dietary requirements of the Antican delegates.
    Rriker: I thought that had been taken care of in advance, Tasha.
    Tasha: So did we, sir. Their live animals were beamed aboard. We were going to preserve the meat for them, but they say we must bring it to them alive.
    Riker: Then do so. Lieutenant Yar was confused. We no longer enslave animals for food purposes.
    Antican: But we have seen humans eat meat.
    Riker: You've seen something as fresh and tasty as meat, but inorganically materialised out of patterns used by our transporters.
    Antican: This is sickening. It's barbaric.
   * Michael Halperin, "Lonely Among Us", Star Trek: The Next Generation, (2 Nov, 1987)
* Patient: Doctor.
    Dr. McCoy: What's the matter with you?
    Woman Patient: Kidney ...dialysis.
    Dr. McCoy: Dialysis? My god, what is this, the Dark Ages? Here, you swallow that. If you have a problem, just call me.
   * Steve Meerson, Peter Krikes, Nicholas Meyer and Harve Bennett, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, (November 26, 1986).
* Intern #1: Did you hear anything?
    Intern #2: I was there. I heard the whole thing.
    Intern #1: Weintrub said radical chemotherapy or she's gonna croak. Just like that.
    Intern #2: Well, what about Gottlieb?
    Intern #1: All he talked about was image therapy, or otherwise he'd cut it out.
    Dr. McCoy: Unbelievable.
    Intern #1: You have a different view, Doctor?
    McCoy: It sounds like the goddam Spanish Inquisition!
   * Steve Meerson, Peter Krikes, Nicholas Meyer and Harve Bennett, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, (November 26, 1986).
* Doctor #1: A simple evacuation of the expanding epidural hematoma will relieve the pressure.
    McCoy: My God, man, drilling holes in his head's not the answer. The artery must be repaired. Now put away your butcher knives and let me save this patient before it's too late!
    Doctor #1: I'm going to have you removed.
    Kirk: Doctors! Such unprofessional behaviour. ...Into that little room please.
    Doctor #1: What is that? A gun?
    Medical Staff: What is this? ...I have no idea! (Kirk fuses the lock of the little room with his phaser)
    Doctor #1: He melted the lock!
    McCoy: We're dealing with medievalism here! ...Chemotherapy! ...Fundoscopic examinations!
   * Steve Meerson, Peter Krikes, Nicholas Meyer and Harve Bennett, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, (November 26, 1986).
* Vina: They found me in the wreckage, dying. A lump of flesh. They rebuilt me. Everything works. But they had never seen a human. They had no guide for putting me back together.
** Gene Roddenberry, "The Cage", Star Trek, NBC, (February 1965).
* Mr. Spock: Doctor, if I were able to show emotion, your new infatuation with that term would begin to annoy me.
    Dr. McCoy: What term? 'Logic'? Medical men are trained in logic, Mr. Spock.
    Mr. Spock: Really, Doctor? I had no idea they were trained. Watching you, I assumed it was trial and error.
   * Gene Roddenberry and Gene L. Coon, Star Trek: The Original Series, "Bread and Circuses", (March 15, 1968).

## See also

* Medicine
* Star Trek