Did You Know? Dr. McCoy stood up to Khan in deleted scene

In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode, “Space Seed,” Dr. McCoy had a few words to say to Khan after the tyrant took control of the Enterprise. 

“Space Seed” is one of the most favorite episodes of Star Trek: The Original series because it introduced Ricardo Montalban’s deviously evil character, Khan Noonien Singh. Genetically engineered to be superior to other races, Khan and his band of Augments over took the Enterprise and threatened to kill Captain Kirk (William Shatner) by throwing him into a decompression chamber. Surprisingly, one of the most passive crew members aboard the Enterprise stood up to Khan…at least before the scene was deleted. [via Whatculture]

Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) took umbrage with Khan’s dictatorial ways in the scene. McCoy reminded Khan that he owed the doctor who’d saved the dictator’s life.

"‘I never thought I’d say this to a patient, but you owe me something! In case you’ve forgotten, I saved your life!”"

He then grabs Khan by the arm, but is quickly shot down by one of the Augments. Khan tells Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) that the doctor is only stunned as he will avoid bloodshed if possible.

It’s not clear why this scene with Dr. McCoy was deleted.

It’s unknown why this scene was deleted, but it’s a shame it was. Dr. McCoy took a risk standing up to Khan, and he did it to protect the crew of the Enterprise. He knew Khan’s strength and abilities and still stood up to him. That takes bravery, and it would have been nice to have seen a little more of that from Dr. McCoy.

He might have been a country doctor, but he wasn’t one to stand by and let his friends get hurt. There were plenty of other scenes that could have been cut to make room for this one, in my opinion. At least we still get to see it, even if it is over fifty years later!