star trek - Why was Admiral "Dr." McCoy inspecting Enterprise-D?

On stardate 41153.7, the 137-year old Admiral Leonard McCoy inspected the USS Enterprise-D during its first mission. He commented on the great significance of the ship's name to Lieutenant Commander Data, telling Data "You treat her like a lady... and she'll always bring you home." (TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint")

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Why exactly would a medical doctor go inspect a new ship? He wasn't a line officer (his "admiralty" was a special rank of "branch admiral". or an engineer, and Enterprise-D wasn't some marvel of medical technology. Why would Dr. McCoy travel all the way to Deneb IV to do this?

I would prefer canon explanation (I don't have a better theory than "it may have been due to being the only surviving senior officer of NCC-1701/NCC-1701-A Enterprises", and as per comments, that theory is wrong).

Answer

According Leonard McCoy's memory beta wiki page, the novel Encounter at Farpoint explains how he got there and why he wasn't at the ship's launch:

In 2363, McCoy suffered an injury after tripping over one of his great-great-grandchildrens' toys which necessitated a stay at Bethesda Starfleet Hospital, preventing him from attending the launch of the USS Enterprise-D. In "revenge", McCoy connived the USS Hood to take him to Farpoint Station, where they would be transferring crew to the new Enterprise. McCoy inspected the ship's medical facilities of the new ship, and was escorted back to the Hood, via shuttlecraft, by Lieutenant Commander Data. McCoy told the young android the ship was new but had the right name, and that if she was treated well she'd always bring the crew home. (TNG novelization: Encounter at Farpoint)

References:

Encounter at Farpoint (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

Leonard McCoy @ Memory Beta

I haven't actually read the book, but if someone has a copy hopefully they can provide a more detailed answer.

Comments

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