#bonus: Spock makes a joke! ‘take d’artagan here to sick bay!’ sometimes he just can’t resist being human even now

[ichayalovesyou]

(Re)Discovering A Strange New Spock: “The Naked Time” (1x04)

Previous: Charlie “X”

Next: The Enemy Within

A meta anthology where I re-examine TOS, especially Spock, in light of the new information Discovery & Strange New Worlds has revealed about him to us.

Onto the Analysis! (SUPER EXCITED for this one!!)

Opening Banter w/ McCoy

Now, the appropriateness of Bones’s comments in regards to Spock’s physiology has been a topic of debate since the moment that the nature of Spock & Bones relationship has come into question.

We know they’re both massive smartasses, the most pointed of Bone’s remarks being “assuming you call that green stuff in your veins blood”. Which poses the question, has Spock obnoxiously corrected or split hairs or revealed something he should’ve said much earlier about his own physiology talking to McCoy? We know for a fact the answer is yes, often while also calling Bones ability to do his job into question a la “beads and rattles”.

If my speculation is right, McCoy probably expected Spock to go off on some “um, actually” monologue. Instead he gets a snide remark about how happy Spock is his physiology is not Human. Ironically, admitting to delight, which is of course, an emotion.

If there is anything that notoriously, repeatedly pisses Bones off is Spock looking down upon humanity and being disgusted by the humanity that is within himself. That flares Bones temper more than any insult Spock ever throws at Bones himself. He bites his tongue this time, but we know he won’t always.

All that being said, this is the friendliest they’ve been (with Jim’s life not in the balance) since the M13 Salt Vampire incident in The Man Trap. Even if the banter is condescending, it’s better than outright arguing/hostility.

Spock & Chapel Under The Influence

So the WHOLE point of this episode is that the virus not only intoxicates but reveals the hidden nature/truths that the infected individual has been repressing, it unleashes emotional inhibitions. My point being…

I don’t think Chapel has admitted ANY of this to Spock’s face before, ever. In fact, I’m willing to bet they will never have anything candid and truly romantic in Strange New Worlds because of the newfound significance of this scene.

She will be pining for him for the next seven years, because he is engaged. She will get engaged to Roger Korby, who is so much like him but not. Roger will disappear, presumed dead, before they can be married. But Spock is here, she knows Spock is alive, and this virus is making her feel some kinda way about it.

Another layer to this is that Spock’s feelings regarding Chapel are obviously perturbing for him. This much is true in SNW as it is in TOS, he’s letting her touch him but refuses to call her Christine, Chapel only calls him Mr. Spock. The familiarity, the friendliness is gone but the emotions are there. He says “nurse, you shouldn’t-“ because they’re both engaged, but he lets her touch him.

The way he freezes and turns when she blurts out “I’m in love with you Mr. Spock” is such an Oh God No moment for him. Which is why I’m thinking she NEVER told him the truth. He can’t even look at her as she makes truthful, intense observations about who he is that fill him with shame even if they shouldn’t.

Then all he can do is apologize profusely! Is he apologizing for being human or for being Vulcan? Is he apologizing for leading her along without noticing? Is he apologizing because he doesn’t love her in the way she would like him to? Is he apologizing because he can’t be with her because they’re both engaged? Is he apologizing to her because he wants to do away with the failings of emotion altogether??

Is it ALL of these things at once?! Probably! Not only that this is one of the last times he calls her Christine post SNW! I would like to say THANK YOU Strange New Worlds for making this scene so ridiculously juicy! Holy moly!

Spock Under The Influence

After an incredibly emotional encounter like that, is it any wonder Spock has a full on nervous breakdown? All that grief, all that rejection, all that turmoil erupting to the surface the minute he walks away from someone who understands him, or at least tries. Regardless of how he feels about her.

We haven’t seen him process any of the awful emotional losses he’s taken up to this point. So we can presume that losing Michael, letting Pike sacrifice himself for him, his failing engagement with T’Pring, and now the intense encounter with Chapel are all hitting him like a ton of bricks. The virus isn’t allowing him to use his Vulcan training to compartmentalize any of it anymore.

He tries to use the good old fashioned Vulcan mantra “I am in control of my emotions” which fails. He then tries to calm himself by telling himself he’s an officer, and “my duty is to” to what? To your family? To the sister you lost? To the fiancé who’s rejected you/you’ve rejected?To Starfleet? To the Captain you lost? To your new Captain? Who provokes new emotions in you that you despise? That sends him flying off the handle even more. Logic and duty are failing him.

He stumbles over to the view screen, he tries to communicate? To work? “Too late” too late for Chapel to reach him because he’s chosen his Vulcan nature over his Human one? Too late to stop himself from caring about other people? Why? Because Kirk carved into his heart before he was aware and could prevent it? All of the above? Again, probably.

Then, he tries to start doing math (presumably). Which is where the L’tak Terai comes in. My guess is it gets worse when he’s distressed, he can’t do whatever he was trying to do on the monitor if he’s too upset to keep the numbers, or anything else, ordered properly in his mind.

We see him desperately try to communicate with Michael and his mother in Light & Shadows by repeating the coordinates to Talos IV in the wrong order over and over. We can only assume he feels like he’s lost his grip, so for whatever reason he is, with effort, counting by twos, in order. This also fails him as he ultimately becomes a sobbing mess before he can get to eight.

The problem isn’t because logic is failing him or because of his L’tak Terai, it is because he has been deeply, vehemently, neglecting his emotions.

“I’ve Got It, The Disease… Love”

When Kirk enters, Spock immediately reveals more of the truth to Jim. His attitude toward his mother has changed since the earlier meltdown “just because one of my ancestors married a human female” has transformed “my mother, I could never tell her I loved her”.

Chances he regrets how he’s been regarding her previously. Which lends more credence to my L’tak Terai (inherited from Amanda) theory. While his resentment for his father always broils beneath the surface. This is the closest he’s come to relying on his humanity since SNW.

“Jim, when I feel friendship for you I’m ashamed” he says this like a revelation, like he wasn’t aware of the shame until now, or at least not it’s source. He’s allowed himself to get close, and the sign he’s beginning to accept that lies in the fact that he only calls him Jim in this scene. He’s allowing himself to care about Jim and acknowledging that truth within himself. Something he’s been fighting since The Man Trap.

But Jim (understandably) isn’t listening, which frustrates Spock. He’s trying to be vulnerable against his usual judgement right now. So he speaks in the language Jim is speaking, violence. They’re hands are locked in a stalemate for a moment. A stalemate Spock could easily win if he wanted to considering he smacks Jim across the room moments later. The logical conclusion is that he allows it to be a stalemate.

We already know how Vulcans regard touch, touch of the hands especially. If nothing else it is a desperate “stop fighting me, look at me, please listen to me” move, perhaps telepathic, perhaps not. I wonder if Spock had surmised that the disease transfers through touch, and in his inhibited judgement, allowed himself to infect Jim. Forcing Kirk to be as vulnerable and uninhibited as he is.

What does Jim do as he realizes the infection has gotten to him? He tells Spock not to love, whether he’s referring to Spock telling him he was his friend, a confession of affection, or was informed that love from when their hands clutched. He is telling Spock not to love him, that they’re both better off without love.

Spock watches with sympathy as Jim reveals that the weight of being the youngest captain in the fleet, not only that but captain of the flagship, is CRUSHING him. Jim interestingly correlates how Spock feels about him to his burgeoning affection for Janice, but feeling as though he can’t ever reach for her. As if those feelings weren’t all that different.

Like Spock, he’s terrified that if he lets himself feel, it will destroy everything he’s worked so hard to maintain. In this, Spock looks at the man he’s finally allowed himself to acknowledge as his friend, and sees himself. In that moment he follows his sister’s advice “find the person that seems farthest from you, reach for them”.

All he can do to help Jim now is to try the impossible, the one in ten thousand chance. He does the thing that is hardest for him to do, he follows his gut and takes the risk, the intermix formula. Because right now, it’s the only chance they have, and Jim needs him, Kirk said as much himself.

Closing Banter

When Spock enters the bridge, he’s still infected, and asks Kirk if he is alright. He calls him “Jim” in front of the entire crew for the first time, rather than as a hushed aside.

There’s a subtler conversation going on between Spock & Jim when Kirk asks what the time warp did to them. He is not only asking in a literal sense, but asking what transpired in the conference room did to the two of them.

I believe this confirmed that when Spock tells him they have three days to relive. Almost as if he’s asking if he wants to just pretend what happened did not, that it’s water under the bridge. Kirk’s response is “not those last three days.” As if to say no, what happened between us matters to me.

“This does open some interesting prospects Captain” then conveniently followed by some technobabble. The question, now that they both acknowledge the confrontation was important for their relationship, is what do they do now?

“We may risk it one day, Mr. Spock.” Other than the literal professional conversation they’re having what else could this possibly mean? Other than that they will one day risk openly caring about each other, being open to love, whatever form that does or does not take.

It is an unbelievably important moment for their relationship, and for Spock overall.