How Star Trek Beyond Changed Spock And Bones’ Relationship, According To An Exclusive Clip

The two previous entries in the rebooted Star Trek franchise were very much focused on James T. Kirk and his relationships with the crew of the Enterprise. Star Trek Beyond, however, gave several of the other crew members time to build relationships, most notably, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy. A new clip has been sent to us where the two actors behind the roles talk about how these two characters had to change in order to survive in the new film.

The core of Star Trek has always been the relationship between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, the conflict between the logical and rational argument from the Vulcan, and the rash, emotional response from the human doctor. While Star Trek in television form had years to build on this dynamic, the rebooted films have had to try to recreate it all over the course of a few movies. This has meant that we haven't really had an opportunity for the two conflicting personalities to work together directly until Star Trek Beyond.

Following the destruction of the Enterprise, McCoy and Spock find themselves alone on an alien planet, and Spock is pretty seriously injured. He needs McCoy to stay alive but carrying around an injured man doesn't do much for either of their odds of survival. The fact that both of them have to rely on each other to survive makes each one much more vulnerable to the other, a situation they would surely not otherwise find themselves in.

The rebooted Star Trek films have been an interesting exercise. As an alternate timeline story, what we have are characters that the audience knows well, but that haven't quite become those characters that we know. The films have very much been about them becoming the people that we know they'll become. The audience would have little doubt that Spock and McCoy would be there for each other, but that doesn't mean either of them knows that at the beginning of Star Trek Beyond. As Zachary Quinto says, it's not something that we've seen before.

They need to find some common ground, and really show up for one another in a way that we've never seen them do before.

Star Trek Beyond was a rock solid movie, and the scenes between Karl Urban and Zachary Quinto were some of the major reasons why. The pair was as much fun as they have ever been, but their scenes also had a heart to them. Each of them grows more over the course of the film than any other characters.

What did you think of Spock and Bones in Star Trek Beyond? If you somehow missed it the first time around, the film is available on digital download services now and will hit Blu-Ray November 1.

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.