Leonard McCoy payment for his appearance. In the "" episode "", McCoy mentions he has a daughter, Joanna. Although Chekov's friend Irina in the original series episode "The Way to Eden" was originally written as McCoy's daughter, it was changed before the episode was shot. In the 2009 "Star Trek" film, which takes place in an "alternate, parallel" reality, McCoy and Kirk become friends at Starfleet Academy, which McCoy joins after a divorce that he says "left [him] nothing but [his] bones." This line, improvised by Urban, explains how McCoy earned the nickname "Bones". McCoy later helps get Kirk posted aboard the
Leonard McCoy character's prominence, Kelley's contract granted him only a "featuring" credit; it was not until the second season that he was given "starring" credit, at the urging of producer Robert Justman. Kelley was apprehensive about "Star Trek"s future, telling Roddenberry that the show was "going to be the biggest hit or the biggest miss God ever made". Kelley portrayed McCoy throughout the original "Star Trek" series and voiced the character in the animated "Star Trek". Kelley, who in his youth wanted to become a doctor like his uncle, but whose family could not pay for a medical education, in part drew