Original artwork, not a still
I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer.
— Star Trek: The Original Series • 1966
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
McCoy's complaint is the series' favourite running gag: a ship's surgeon asked to do something absurd and doing it anyway. The bricklayer version is the best because Kirk's reply, that he is a healer, explains why the joke works. Across the series he swaps in mechanic, engineer, escalator and more, and fans now shorten it to "Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a...", even though he was never recorded saying "damn it".
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for Star Trek: The Original SeriesShow the scene
In "The Devil in the Dark" (Star Trek, season 1, first aired 9 March 1967), something is killing miners on the pergium-mining colony of Janus VI. Kirk and Spock find the creature, a wounded silicon-based Horta, and Spock mind-melds with it. Kirk hurries McCoy to the cavern, tells him to treat it, and McCoy sees a being that looks made of stone and protests. Kirk answers by reminding him he is a healer. McCoy does the job by trowelling emergency-shelter thermoconcrete into the wound, and later tells Kirk that he has cured it.
Sources (3)
- Star Trek transcript, "The Devil in the Dark" (chakoteya.net)Cavern scene where McCoy arrives, and McCoy's later report to KirkReference checked
- Wikiquote, Star Trek: The Original SeriesThe Devil in the Dark; 'Repeated lines'; 'Misattributed'Reference checked
- Star Trek transcripts, other episodes (chakoteya.net)The Doomsday Machine (mechanic); Mirror, Mirror (engineer); Friday's Child (escalator)Reference checked
Context reviewed
