freaky4the-vulcan

[freaky4the-vulcan]

happy pride from the trans flag on the floor in deep space nine

[freaky4the-vulcan]

K/S is canon

Here are some moments that just don’t make sense otherwise.

1x10 “The Corbomite Maneuver”

If Spock bashfully drops his gaze, it means you just flirted with him.

1x13 “The Conscience of the King”

MCCOY: Did it ever occur to you that he simply might like the girl? 

SPOCK: It occurred. I dismissed it. 

Spock himself has said, “Insufficient facts always invite danger.” How could he dismiss it with absolute certainty? Think about it.

3x04 “And the Children Shall Lead”

Spock calmly allows Kirk to cling to him during a meltdown in the turbo lift and doesn’t even flinch or move away even though their faces are inches from each other. Way above the call of duty for a first officer and even a “friend.”

3x01 “Spock’s Brain”

KIRK: Spock, is that you? 

SPOCK: Captain? Captain Kirk? 

KIRK: Yes, Spock. Yes. 

SPOCK: Captain, there is a definite pleasurable experience connected with the hearing of your voice.

1x08 “Miri”

SPOCK: I am a carrier. Whatever happens, I can’t go back to the ship, and I do want to go back to the ship…….. Captain. 

KIRK: Of course, Mister Spock………

The way Spock pauses and says “Captain,” and they stare into each other’s eyes like they’re sharing a private joke like no one else knows they’re ravaging each other between shifts. Honestly, just quoting it doesn’t do it justice you need to just watch it.

ST: TMP

Self-explanatory.

ST:TFF

If you still think their relationship is platonic after this, I can’t help you. You need a professional at this point.

WHAT

[freaky4the-vulcan]

Star Trek - Strange New Dumb Comics #78

when sulu overhears the captain talking about literary tropes

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all i can look at is uhura why is she serving so hard

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THE WIGGLES!!!

has this been done yet

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One of the cutest and most underrated aspects of TNG is the fact that in any given scene Data is copying his friends’ posture and mannerisms

[freaky4the-vulcan]

on amok time again: they really did "spock experiences primal alien mating drive and murder fuck ritual," and didn't even play with "and this is an excuse to see our prim and proper mr spock get sensual with a lady!". like he expends ALL of his hot dominating fantasy uncontrollable lust rage energy ON KIRK. they wrote that and had ONE chance to make spock have any scandalous, carnal housewife jerk off material romance they wanted with any sexy space woman in the universe, and they chose kirk. when he does interact with a woman he throws a soup at her

[freaky4the-vulcan]

Okay Listen-

It’s Sulu’s AMAZING outfit from The Voyage Home hours

Or really just Sulu appreciation hours periodt

The freakin POISE

The CAPE

It SWOOSH

THE TEAL SHIRT UNDERNEATH, the black pants the shoes just UGH, the whole thing!!

WHERE DOES THIS MAN SHÖPPE???

I WAAAAANT IT!!

[freaky4the-vulcan]

Made me cry laugh at work-

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happy pride

[freaky4the-vulcan]

happy pride 🖖

[freaky4the-vulcan]

Leonard Nimoy on The Flip Wilson Show

@thevulcantrekkie @starship21zedna9 @spock-in-awe @beyondspock

[freaky4the-vulcan]

My episode for yesterday was S2EP13 "Obsession" - it was a pretty strong episode from a classical drama perspective, but what interested me most were the few halftone moments in which TOS still maintains its Shakespearean complexity.

Because I watch TOS in TV order, this episode came right after S2EP12 "The Deadly Years", and it felt pretty organic for me. If in "The Deadly Years" we are reminded of Kirk's ego (and how he actually controls it), in "Obsession" we return to his guilt. And these things are often intertwined. Jim's guilt stems from not living up to his own expectations, and his expectations are always high. And while most of the time they are justified, and his ability to judge his own limits is exemplary, he also has his moments of failure. But what really makes him a good captain is not that he can remain objective in his own judgments, but that he can admit when he is not.

Reminding us of S1EP14 “The Conscience of the King”, in this episode we see again how emotionally sensitive Spock’s concern turns out to be, and how well he actually understands Kirk. In fact, it's always interesting to watch - Spock, a Vulcan with pure logic who has difficulty understanding people's emotional motives, read Kirk so easily and unerringly. So we have this scene where Spock says the very words that Kirk needs to hear, even though he doesn't want to; the words that he actually knows but refuses to admit. And Kirk, of course, immediately distances himself from this; by suggesting that Spock devote his time to someone who really needs help (alluding to Ensign Garrovick, who, like Kirk, is struggling with guilt at this moment), he seems to be saying - I don't need help, I can handle this myself:

SPOCK: Captain, the creature's ability to throw itself out of time sync makes it possible for it to be elsewhere in the instant the phaser hits. There is therefore no basis for your self-recrimination. If you had fired on time and on target eleven years ago, it would have made no more difference than it did an hour ago. Captain Garrovick would still be dead. The fault was not yours, Jim. In fact, there was no fault. KIRK: If you want to play analyst, Spock, use someone else, not me. My concern is with the ship and the crew.

It's a very restrained and tense scene, all that I love about TOS actually - Kirk's profile in the semi-darkness of the studio shoot, his inner distance from Spock at this moment is physically felt, and I'm honestly ready to think that he really rejected those words. But then we get to the scene where Kirk, helping Ensign Garrovick understand that he did everything he could in that situation and should stop blaming himself and feeling guilty of things that were beyond his control, repeats Spock's words almost word for word, and then it just folds, falls into place - he listened to him, he didn't reject his words, he carried them within himself all this time:

KIRK: Very commendable, Ensign. What was your impression of the battle? GARROVICK: I don't understand, sir. KIRK: I'm asking for your military appraisal of the techniques used against the creature. GARROVICK: Ineffective, Captain. I realise, Captain, you did everything you could do. I know that. It's just that nothing works against a monster that can do the things that thing does. KIRK: And Ensign, what is your appraisal of your conduct on the planet? GARROVICK: I delayed firing. KIRK: If you hadn't delayed firing? No difference, Ensign. No weapon known would have made any difference. Then or eleven years ago.

And this is actually a very good example of the most important moment for me in the K/S dynamic - while Kirk is responsible for the lives and safety of his crew and ship, it is Spock who is responsible for the lives and safety of him.

[freaky4the-vulcan]

I’m reading the old Star Trek books from the 70s hunting for vintage spirk and in a fun short story from Star Trek: The New Voyages 2 Kirk and a bunch of other crew members accidentally end up swapping genders (but not Spock 👀). It’s a 70s look at this idea so it’s pretty problematic but it does delve into some interesting thought processes especially considering it’s written by women. I would love to see a modern Star Trek show like Discovery take a crack at this especially now that we think about gender and identity differently than we did then. Anyway from an early time in the story everyone keeps going on about how beautiful kirk’s female body is so I thought I’d give drawing it a try.

[freaky4the-vulcan]

A couple of thoughts on Spock and McCoy's relationship (and, probably, about K/S too).

It becomes more apparent in season three, though it's actually an ongoing trend, that McCoy often worries about Spock more than about Kirk when they're both in danger. Not because he worries about Kirk any less, but because he worries about Spock differently. In S3EP10 "Plato's Stepchildren," the most psychologically difficult episode that N and I watched the other day, this is well-read in the moment of bullying that Parmen arranges when he tries to convince McCoy to stay. Kirk, of course, orders McCoy not to accept Parmen's offer under any circumstances:

KIRK: McCoy. No matter what he makes me say or do, the answer's no. MCCOY: No, Parmen! Stop it!

And as hard as it is, McCoy holds himself back because he respects him as a captain first and foremost. He worries about Kirk, of course he does, it's natural for him, it's a habit developed over the years and close friendship, but he trusts his decisions:

(Kirk rolls in agony.) PARMEN: Well, Doctor? MCCOY: I have my orders.

But when it comes to Spock, it's more complicated. He has an awareness of the limits of Kirk's endurance (and again, he has to see him as a captain first and trust him in that), and the way he worries about Kirk is objectively logical. But his worry about Spock is more of an emotional response. He noticeably distrusts Spock's ability to recognize his own limits, especially emotionally, often referring to his emotional repression. He worries about Spock in a way that Spock himself is incapable of worrying about (or at least incapable of doing so fully), about what Spock constantly neglects - his psychological state:

(Spock is forced to dance close to Kirk's head. Flamenco-style, I think, ending with a boot directly over Kirk's face. Then Spock is allowed to rest, and he starts to laugh heartily. He crawls over to Alexander, who cannot help but join in.) MCCOY: He's a Vulcan. You can't force emotion out of him. PHILANA: You must be joking, Doctor. MCCOY: You'll destroy him. PARMEN: We can't let him die laughing, can we? (Now Spock cries.) MCCOY: I beg you.

McCoy definitely cares about him. All those scenes where he suddenly and seemingly for no reason starts lecturing Spock about his inability to feel feelings and accept his own emotions are usually the very moments when Spock actually feel feelings but trying to repress it, which makes me think that McCoy is telling him all these things at those moments not because he's an insensitive bastard, but because he's just very aware of what's going on with Spock emotionally.

Unlike Kirk, who is actually very similar to Spock in his perception of the world and his way of thinking, McCoy and Spock are really radically different people. He doesn't understand Spock as fully or as deeply as Kirk does, but he can understand Spock's emotional state (and he can be straightforward with him about it). Where Kirk accepts Spock unconditionally and completely for who he is (with Spock's inability to feel in a normal human way, this complexity of his world, this internal struggle), preserving that right for Spock to be exactly that, because again, Kirk doesn't want him to be anything other than who he is, even if it means he can't be with him the way he wants to (which brings us back to the similarity between Kirk and the Companion from Metamorphosis), McCoy doesn't need to do this. He doesn't buy into all that Spock "too complicated to feel simple feelings" nonsense, and he doesn't hold back on his choice of words when it comes to talking about it. McCoy perceives Spock through the lens of his own human perception, seeking in him what he can understand and explain through emotion. And while this is not real acceptance, it's also not an attempt to change him. In fact, it's this emotional vision of McCoy, his pressure on Spock's emotions, that quite often turns out to be true, because Spock obviously still has a human side.

When we observe the dynamic between the three of them, we realize that Kirk's feelings about Spock are obviously different from his feelings about McCoy, who is apparently his closest friend in TOS (which makes me as a viewer wonder if this was done consciously, considering that K and S relationship was really positioned as special and unique, even without any romantic reading). And McCoy undoubtedly understands how indispensable, unique, viscerally important Spock is to Kirk. He, more than once, when faced with a choice between danger for himself and Spock, tries to take the hit, realizing that losing Spock would be harder for Kirk. The whole dynamic of McCoy and Spock's relationship reminds me of a situation where your best friend falls in love (so completely and irrevocably), and trying to understand why he did it and what he found in this other person, you start to look at them, and in the process of this exploration, you unexpectedly get used to them, find your comfort in their company, and (just a little, of course) you start to understand why your friend fell in love so much. This person becomes dear to you, and you start to worry about them no less than you do about your friend, and maybe even more, because you understand that this person is vital to your friend's happiness, the most important in the whole world to him. So, in the end, McCoy now has to take care of two idiots instead of one, which hardly makes his life easy.

Therefore, the well-being of these two is personally important to him. He often reacts angrily to the actions of either of them when it could hurt the other, and more than once acts as a "voice of reason", reminding (not always gently) of this super-importance between the two of them. To a certain extent, it is Kirk, their shared concern and responsibility for him, that really holds McCoy and Spock together, and I think that if Kirk had died, this delicate attachment that exists between them would have collapsed under the weight of grief, although in the opposite situation McCoy and Kirk's friendship and Kirk and Spock's closeness would have survived. But in all this, McCoy really, genuinely worries about Spock. Unable to fully understand and accept his complexity, he simultaneously sympathizes with him and tries to help in any way he can. And he's also important to Spock, not just as Kirk's closest friend, someone who's emotionally important to him, but, actually, as his own friend too. Their relationship is more fragile and complex than a simple friendship, and often exists despite contradictions, but what unites them outweighs the rest, bringing some balance.