The Real McCoy

The Real McCoy is a Star Trek: The Original Series comic strip. It is the third story in the US Comic Strips series, published by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. The story was set after, depicting events from Captain Kirk's second five-year mission aboard the refurbished USS Enterprise (NCC-1701). In this story, written and drawn by Thomas Warkentin, McCoy’s ex-wife conspires with her current husband, a discredited doctor who surgically alters his appearance to replace McCoy and steal his patents.

Summary
En route to Tarsus II aboard an old freighter, ill-reputed physician Anton Zauber emerged from a forming pod with his face, voice and fingerprints changed into that of Leonard McCoy, a man he said he’d hated for half his life. He and his wife Joann Zauber, “after years of planning and work,” conspired to destroy McCoy.


 * Captain's Log: Stardate 7535.1.
 * We have taken aboard the philosopher Zantra, Special Advisor to the Zaranite High Council. We are providing his passage to the Zaran system, where he plans to argue secession from the Federation.

At their introduction, Zantra said Spock was legendary on Zaran, while Spock said Zantra’s “achievements in pure logic are honored throughout the galaxy.”

Meanwhile, Zauber caused a Rigellian fever outbreak at the refueling station on Taurus II by poisoning the water supply with gram-negative bacillus. His plan was to create a medical emergency to lure the Enterprise to the station, then to abduct McCoy. At Joann’s suggestion, she was poisoned as well.


 * Captain's Log: Stardate 7537.2.’’’
 * We have entered orbit at Tarsus II in response to an urgent distress call concerning an outbreak of Rigellian Fever at the fueling and ship repair station there. Doctors McCoy and Chapel are beaming down with a medical team.

After treating the 200 people at the station, they’re told about the freighter that arrived yesterday. Fearing the freighter’s crew could have been the source of the plague and ought to have been treated first, McCoy and Chapel raced into the freighter and ran into Joann, whom McCoy immediately recognized. After being treated, Joann asked to speak to McCoy alone. After Chapel left to see to the station’s crew, McCoy was stung with a paralysis drug. Zauber appeared and taunted McCoy, taking his clothes and wrist communicator. To get information he’d need for the impersonation, he injected McCoy with “five grains of verilamine” which would compel him to answer questions.

A medical droid placed McCoy in an isolator. When Chapel returned, Zauber (as McCoy) said he was taking two patients aboard, Joann as well as Anton Zauber, who was so photo-sensitive that opening the isolator would kill him. Zauber had brought McCoy in case he required further information.


 * Captain's Log: Stardate 7536.2.
 * The Rigellian fever is under control on Tarsus II, and Doctor McCoy has taken aboard two special patients. We have left orbit to resume our heading for the Zaranite system.

In a restricted room in sick bay, Zauber woke McCoy to monologue. He was Anton Zauber, always in McCoy’s shadow, a fellow student in medical school who watched as the woman he loved was married and divorced by McCoy. Zauber’s medical license was taken nine years ago, with McCoy as the chief witness. Now he plotted to steal the royalties from McCoy’s patents.


 * Excerpt from Kirk’s Journal: :Most of Bone’s [sic] free time is spent with the two special patients he took aboard at Tarsus II, leaving Spock and me to play host to our distinguished passenger, the philosopher/Advisor Zantra, en route to plead the secessionist cause before the Zaranite High Council.

In the officer’s lounge, Kirk and Spock chatted with Zantra. Suddenly, the Zaranite collapsed. Spock said he could only hear one of Zantra’s two hearts beating. Chapel ordered a flourine-gas room readied. Body-scan showed his “left heart slowed to a beat interval of three minutes… right heart beating normally.”

During the trip, Kirk and Spock had noticed McCoy wasn’t behaving like himself. In particular, McCoy’s prognosis seemed less about caring for Zantra than the political consequences of his death. He’d told Kirk he was retiring as soon as they reached a starbase. He’d told Spock he wanted his share of their joint patents paid to his account rather than being donated to charity. Yet Chekov verified the Zaubers had valid Earth passports. Spock researched the Zaubers, learning about Zauber's trial and that McCoy had previously been married to Joann. When Anton as McCoy said he was going to perform open heart surgery on Zantra, and Chapel questioned it, he overreacted. Chapel reviewed Perscan information on McCoy, then told Kirk the data showed an abrupt change after Taurus II, suggesting he was a completely different person. Rand verified transporter records showing McCoy had returned from Taurus II. Spock reasoned that if McCoy were really aboard, but not the person they’d been seeing, perhaps he was in the isolator. With a mind-touch, Spock confirmed that McCoy was in the isolator, and they pulled him out and revived him with three micrograms of cordrazine.

Meanwhile, Joann had been having second thoughts about the next step in the conspiracy, killing McCoy. Encountering McCoy with Kirk and Spock, she exposed the conspiracy and confessed to still loving McCoy. Security confined her to quarters. McCoy said she and Anton both would need psychiatric help.

Learning that Zauber was about to begin a questionable medical procedure on Zantra, Kirk, Spock and McCoy raced to the operating room. Exposed, Zauber threatened Chapel's life with a laser scalpel. Behind them, Zantra awoke, sat up, and yanked Zauber’s oxygen hose, causing him to collapsed on flourine gas fumes. After Chapel pulled Zauber from the surgical room and he’d been taken away, McCoy explained that a rare condition affected old Zaranites where “left and right hearts will alternate for occasional periods of rest and repair.”

Later, in the officer’s lounge, Zantra said the “heart-rest period is a good time to think,” and he’d reconsidered secession, deciding instead that the Federation’s mix of cultures required the balancing logic of the Zaranites. He asked Spock to play a game of chess with him.

Characters

 * James T. Kirk • Spock • Leonard McCoy • Christine Chapel • Montgomery Scott • Janice Rand • Pavel Chekov • Zantra • Anton Zauber • Joann Zauber

Starships and vehicles

 * USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) • Skorpius freighter

Locations

 * Tarsus II fueling station • Andorian asteroid belt Zaran system

Races and cultures

 * Human • Zaranite • Rhaandarite • Arcturian • Saurian

Science and technology

 * medical droid • chemical propulsion freighter • holostat patterns • forming pod • Rigellian fever • plague • wrist communicator • isolator • laser scalpel • Flourine gas • body-scan • perscan • Vulcan mind-touch • Vulcan lyrette • hypo spray Russell’s Paradox • verilamine • ryetalyn • gram-negative bacillus • cordrazine • Kirlian scan • diasonics • open heart massage

Other references

 * Earth passports • section chief • officer’s lounge • medical patents • Starfleet charities

Related stories

 * - Described the starship refit, crew changes, and technology updates that occurred prior to the events of this story, as well as introducing the Zaranites.
 * - Describes effects of Rigellian fever and its cure as ryetalyn.

Information

 * This is the third of 20 story arcs set after the events of, and is set during Captain Kirk's second five-year mission aboard the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701).


 * McCoy’s ex-wife Joann Zauber is prominently featured in this story. She is presented as a much different character than the ex-wife usually depicted, Jocelyn Treadway.


 * The story prominently features Zaranites, which were introduced in . Three Zaranites in engineering uniforms told Scotty they wished to remain aboard the ship if Zaran seceded from the Federation. Two Zaranites in regular crew uniforms discussed secession; one said he was a transporter operator.


 * A one-panel cameo included five aliens. It depicted an Arcturian (possibly Taskul, the dilithium mining expert from the previous comic strip story); a Saurian crewman; an Andorian crewman; a Rhaandarite crewman (possibly the one seen on the bridge in, named Ensign Omal in or Ensign Vaylin Zaand in ; and two Zaranites.


 * This story arc’s title was printed in the first panel, printed on March 9, 1980.