#the world is hollow. i have touched the sky.

[discoonthegrass]

I’m just curious since most of the old married Spirk fics I have read don’t really touch on Bones’s situation. I once read a really intriguing one where he was married to Natira!

[dreamicus]

For The World is Hollow and I Have Toched the Sky isn't just weirdly poetic without any meaning,.it s actually the best and coolest title ever because. You see. Life is bad and they're in space

[trek-tracks]

Imagine this. You're Spock. You've tried not to get yourself emotionally involved with your crewmates. It's not going very well. Your doctor goes and contracts a terminal illness and doesn't tell you (but luckily your captain can't go three seconds without breaking Space HIPAA or whatever exists in the future) and then tries to run away and die on an asteroid. You take out the Instrument of Obedience, privately thinking that it would be nice to have some control over this maniac you somehow care about's actions. You spend Surak knows how much time downloading and translating an entire civilization's medical library to cure him. No problem. It was just an incurable disease. You didn't need to sleep this month.

Two episodes later, another alien civilization tries to check said doctor out like he's a library book and then writes "withdrawn" on his forehead and pretends they don't have to give him back. He tells you to leave to save yourself; he'll stay. Did you mention you decoded an entire medical archive like two weeks ago for---fine. You go through unspeakable emotional violations to put him back into circulation on the Enterprise. It's cool. You didn't need your dignity anyway.

Two episodes after that, your illogical, self-sacrificial doctor mutinies and sedates you--the ranking officer in charge--undoing the fact that, again, how many hours did you spend? Curing an incurable illness because you couldn't let him die? Singing like an idiot in front of a bunch of snickering Platonians with laurel leaves on your head and no pants to speak of?--so he can get himself tortured to death on your behalf. You convince an empath to save him. He pushes her away because he "can't destroy life." Your captain is crying. The shiny force field shows everyone that you're having very non-shiny emotions. Do Vulcans even believe in hell

You think you've finally reached some sort of sacrificial detente. It's been a while. Neither of you have died on the other's behalf. You've both had to save your captain a few times, but that's normal. All in a day's work. Then said captain wants all three of you to check out a mysteriously abandoned library of time periods. You should have figured you would wind up in some sort of frozen wasteland with your doctor and no perceivable way to return what you'd borrowed. Well. At least there's the two of you so that you can keep an eye on--

He falls down in the snow. His hands are blue. "Go on without me," he says, dramatically. "Alone, you have a chance."

yeah I'd strangle that fucker against a cave wall too

[forecast0ctopus]

she was putting the moves on this man like crazy

[major-comet]

the biggest problem with tos’ episodic format is that the episode usually ends pretty quickly after the conflict resolves and then they never really talk about it again - no matter how intense or harrowing it was

which means that we don’t get to actually *see* the interpersonal fallout of bones being diagnosed with and cured from a previously-incurable terminal illness (that he didn’t even want to tell jim and spock he had), and then just four episodes later drugging them so that he can go be tortured (and likely die) instead of spock, and so jim doesn’t have to make the choice between them.

did they talk about it? beyond just a standard debrief and a “never fucking do that again bones i swear to god i mean it this time”? did they make it the captains’ quarters for the debrief, only for mccoy to be pulled into a crushing, trembling hug as soon as the door shut while jim tried to assure himself that bones was still here, was still breathing? spock hovering nearby - a hand gently coming to rest on his shoulder?

why didn’t mccoy want to tell them about the xenopolycythemia, anyways? to try and hold onto a few more normal-ish months before every time they looked at him their eyes would be filled with grief - mourning a man they hadn’t yet lost? the same reason he ran away; to spare them what he went through with his father?

only for him to immediately turn around and throw himself back to the wolves to (almost) die right in front of them anyways

i don’t really know how they handled it. whether they talked about it and attempted to soothe the hurt, or just resolutely tried to bottle it up.

but i do know this: spock eventually came back from gol because jim simply (though accidentally) called out for him in a moment of need. bones only came back because jim personally drafted him back into starfleet

[spockeveryday]

[rikers-trombone]

star trek the original series has some beautiful wack episode titles like ‘the city on the edge of forever’, ‘for the world is hollow and I have touched the sky’, ‘and the children shall lead’ like are you KIDDING ME??? for the world is HOLLOW and I have TOUCHED THE SKY???? bring back beautiful lengthy episode titles

[cheer-deforest-kelley]

Some sweet kissing by De.

Kissing the Mrs.

And one more. Ummm….

[this-blog-needs-a-new-name]

Can we all stop being so observing so much? It’s barely 6am and my heart just shattered again 😭

[skybson]

3x8 - For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky

[gaykarstaagforever]

You mess with people in neon plaid and bedazzled leather kepies, you get what you get, Kirk.

[trek-tracks]

Spock, observing the proper form of the "protective body lean over the imperiled body of Dr. McCoy" from Captain Kirk

Spock, putting his "protective body lean over the imperiled body of Dr. McCoy" lessons into practice.

[mysticum-draconis]

But then, two Doctor McCoys just might bring the level of medical efficiency on this ship up to acceptable level!

- Spock.

Doctor McCoy I drew in March last year vs Doctor McCoy I drew in March this year! There’s some obvious improvement, but I’m still kind of pleased with the one on the left, despite it looking very washed out (plus, I drew that one before I had my retractable eraser, which is an absolute must for drawings this small!)

Please don’t use or post on other websites without credit or permission, thanks 🙏

[olivrsm]

[spockeveryday]