I was pointing at this fanfic last night, with Oaths (of one kind and another) on my mind, and was surprised to find that I couldn’t reference an earlier take on this theme. This was because I don’t have a copy of Doctor’s Orders in the house right now (it’s in storage: you have no idea how authors’ copies start to pile up after a while) and I actually had to download an illegal copy of the book to see what I wrote for McCoy all that while ago. But here it is.

“In the ancient names of Apollo the Physician and Aesculapius, and by Health and Allheal who are the God’s daughters, I swear this oath - though chiefly swearing by the One above Them, Whose Name we do not know.

I swear to wield my art in such ways, and only in such ways, as serve to preserve sentient life in its myriad forms, or to allow such life to depart in dignity. I shall turn aside from every act, or inaction, which would allow any being’s life to depart untimely. Into whatever place I go for the healing of the sick, I shall hold such things as I see there to be as secret as the holy Mysteries. I swear to perform no procedure in which I am unqualified; neither shall I use my position as a tool in the seduction of any being.

I will teach this, my art, without fee or stipulation, to other disciples bound to it by oath, should they desire to learn it; and I shall hold the ones who taught me the art as close as family, and help them in their need should they require it.

I ask the Power That hears oaths to hear me swear this one. As long as I keep it, may I stand rightfully in the respect of my fellow beings; but should I break it, may the reverse be my lot.”

(Hippocratic Oath, revised [for Leonard McCoy, CMO, NCC-1701])

Obviously there are resonances here to the Wizard’s Oath and vice versa (this was written some years after the first version of the Oath) — but that should be no surprise. (And the Wizard’s Oath has other resonances buried in it: the Oath(s) that Green Lanterns take would be one of these. There may be someone under a rock somewhere who doesn’t know how big a GL fan I am, and if so, this is their chance to be informed.)

…Anyway, when we were graduating nursing school, we were given a choice which oath we preferred to take. I went Hippocratic. (I did it in Greek. No one noticed, I’m sure…except perhaps “the One above Them, Whose Name we do not know.”) So when other people reference the Oath respectfully, or do personal recensions, I’m inclined to get a little misty.

So there.  :)

grumbleknits:

Because there isn’t enough De on people’s dashes right now. 

The first of my favorite Doctors. What a man.

daunt:

lazulisong:

daunt:

John Watson & Leonard McCoy….and company.

They would commiserate well in this sense, I think. Though on fundamental doctor levels I don’t think they would mesh, lol.

STILL, I will draw all the Army/Fleet Doctors ALL THE DAYS/NIGHT/DAY.

After a while, when all attempts at gaining any attention have failed, John looks at Dr McCoy. “Cuppa?” he says.

“Cuppa what?” says McCoy.

“Well, tea,” says John, “but under the circumstances, there’s a pub down a ways.”

“First sensible person I’ve met,” mourns McCoy, as they leave Sherlock and the pointy-eared man staring each other down coldly, “and it’s god knows how many years in the past.”

Oh my god. I love you.
Can I give you things?  My first born? Kittens?  ANYTHING? 

Seconded. (Because it’s always the Doctors with me. And right there are two of the only ones I would actually call Doctor: the third one was my psych supervisor, and the fourth doesn’t seem to have another name. Well, not one he routinely shares.)

Any chance of the reverse angle?…  :)

Some thoughts about an old fictional relationship that’s suddenly grown a touch warmer.

Sherlock and Spock. I’ve been a friend of the one since my teens — maybe earlier — and an off-canon chronicler of the other for twenty or thirty years. As such, the confluence of the two universes was hardly news to me: Star Trek (and Star Trek writers) have had the hots for Holmes for a long time, and dialogue references and outright cameos are commonplace.  …There’s no denying that 1701/1701A and 221B are thematic and spiritual neighbors. The Trek universe has been nodding amicably toward Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation for many years.

But this was the first time the other universe, in mass media at least, had ever nodded back…

seanchaidh101:

vibrant-oxymoron:

I love this so much.

*snicker*