What do we think Spock is thinking at the beginning of For The World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky? When he sees that Kirk has put in a request for a new CMO effective immediately and then doesn't request McCoy to join the away team, when he sees McCoy in the transporter room anyway and a tense scene where Kirk doesn't seem to want him to join, where McCoy almost pleadingly insists on his value to the team and asks!! to go down too with this fog of bitten back grief enveloping them?
like without context, McCoy asking, begging to be transported down with them? and Kirk actively not wanting him there? Spock's not snarking about it bc he's Calculating
(via @palpunte)
Ruminating! That is such a good word for it, exactly - and yes that makes his reaction later make even more sense. He's known that McCoy is leaving without knowing why, has been working on integrating these, and then finding out it's a deeper more final sense of leaving - still doesn't know how to respond beyond knowing he has to hold on
Yes! Spock doesn't know! And taking this beginning scene into consideration it makes the *holding on* moment feel even deeper and I love it so much π₯Ή
Also, having read a bit more about Nimoy and Kelley's approach to acting and (especially) how they tried to sneak in Spock and McCoy moments in TSFS, I'm left wondering how much of this wasn't spelled out in the script but played out by the actors to add more layers of characterization and meaning, because both of them were actors who sought to do that...
Yeah I've been very slowly going back through because there's so many moments I've forgotten about from the first run!
(via @thesovereignchimera)
exactly!! and I didn't include it here, but the opening of this scene is Kirk and Spock walking in to see McCoy literally skipping over to the transporter, hopping himself up. He's never so easily and eagerly gotten on that thing in his life!
(via @blanc-ci)
god don't even get me started on that. The symbolism of Spock removing the Instrument of Obedience from McCoy will not cease to drive me insane. It calls back to Return of the Archons to me, Spock performing his first meld that we see to try to find McCoy's mind, how disturbed he is to find him basically lobotomized with him actually sucker punching a guard after finding that out. It makes me think of McCoy constantly being willing to sacrifice his life for Spock's mind. The both of them intensely invested in and protective of each other's autonomy, actively desiring the intimately understood opposition from the other's mind
