That Mcspirk Feeling When

the aliens basically “conquered” earth but according to intergalactic standards the snake aliens are being hella soft on the humans lol and its because humans and the snake aliens are compatible sexually and for reproduction. humans can bear their eggs.

so the aliens made sure to have a peace treaty but all in all according to intergalactic laws the aliens conquered earth and could just do wtv they want with the planet and its inhabitants.

yes you can argue about whether the feelings are platonic or romantic, but it’s not just subtext. spock canonically and explicitly has strong feelings for his captain and it’s a struggle he faces throughout the entire series and especially in the movies. i would go as far as saying it’s his whole character arc (along with just feeling emotions in general)

Gimmie Eridians who are absolutely heartbroken to hear that humans where so desperate and so scared that they where willing to part with not just one Grace, there were three of them! Gimmie Eridians touched to find that the humans planned a way for their sacrifices to be as comfortable as possible. Gimmie Eridians who send earth a message saying “We know it must have hurt to send your heroes to die, but one made it and he’s safe here. We lost 22 good Eridians on the journey we would have lost 23 if not for your Grace.”

However, I had actually forgotten that one of my favorite early scenes involves the whole soft-lit gorgeous lady with the starry-eyed close up shtick, and is actually my favorite instance of it in the whole show. Unsurprisingly, it's Uhura.

More specifically, it's the scene in "The Naked Time" where they're trying to get control back from a drunken Riley before he endangers the whole ship, and Kirk (unfairly) snaps at Uhura out of general frustration and tension. Uhura (quite fairly) snaps back:

Sir, if I could cut him off, don't you think I—!

And she's right, and he knows she's right, and he immediately apologizes to her on the bridge with very evident sincerity. Uhura is so startled and touched by his immediate apology that the episode halts mid-disaster for a moment just to linger on her reaction. Her expression goes from indignant to soft with full starry-eyed glamorous lighting:

"It must have serious value!"

Some significant details that remain relevant throughout TOS that we find out in the first pilot of TOS as we know it, because of Gary Mitchell:

Kirk has been known for years as a bookish nerd; those, like Gary, who know him more personally know that Kirk particularly likes "longhair" writers.

People whom Kirk has a personal relationship with call him Jim.

Women in Federation cultures do still have to navigate institutional misogyny and it informs their motives, something we'll see many times again.

Humans can have natural telepathic abilities to varying degrees (though most don't), enough to be measured and recorded in medical records and family histories. (TOS follows this up in S3 with one of the greatest women of the week of TOS, Miranda Jones, and a really intriguing expansion of the world building around human telepaths.)

Kirk and Gary were not fellow cadets; Gary (against then-upperclassmen's advice) took Kirk's notorious "think or sink" class when Kirk was a lieutenant known as a strict and demanding Academy teacher, and Gary was a cadet, likely in his first year. Gary was a fairly poor student, to the point that Kirk is unflatteringly suspicious of Gary now being able to read someone like Spinoza that he couldn't as Kirk's student (this is the first of many implications that behind all the sci-fi paraphernalia, Kirk's core specialty is philosophy).

The show is deeply hostile towards pretenses to divinity, even backed by real power, all the more if the power is not accompanied by ethics and compassion (the nature of this kind of power is that it generally won't be).

Spock has served on the Enterprise for years alongside people like Gary.

Behind whatever front Kirk puts up, his overriding priority within the privacy of his mind is his mama bear fixation on protecting his crew/ship.

Figures in Kirk's life tend to be a bit creepily obsessed with him below the surface or to find him fundamentally off-putting and cold; Gary is very much one of the former.

Dehner is flawed and can be impulsively reactive in the way of many human characters, but she's basically governed by highly cerebral professional ethics in a way that's fundamentally more similar to Kirk than Gary's manly physical heroism without thought. That fundamental rapport (the first of many instances of it between Kirk and various women, from young to ancient) is what allows Kirk to reach her in a way he has never been able to reach Gary, his former student turned friend and protégé he's tried to guide onto more thoughtful paths.

Spock is coolly analytical in his judgment and will accept the deaths of his own colleagues for the common good (though not Kirk's, really) and is full-on Team Murder at times.

The Enterprise is not Kirk's first command, brilliant prodigy though he is; he requested Gary for the crew of his first command, Gary nearly died for him, and Gary served for years on the Enterprise while Kirk's star was rising.

Despite his charm and ready use of it, Kirk is in reality much less libido-driven and hedonistic about sex and pursuing women than more typical men of the future like Gary; where Gary favors casual (even if unwise) shore leave flings and hitting on his co-workers, Kirk strongly prefers serious romantic relationships and has been increasingly alarmed about Gary's habits including the shore leave flings. Back at the Academy, Gary had to plot with a technician who had a crush on Kirk to get him (Kirk) to notice her, though she was enough his type that they had a very serious relationship and nearly got married (the relationship was happy enough that this had the intended secondary benefit of Kirk slightly lightening up as a teacher, though he retained his stack of books with legs reputation, and he feels somewhat betrayed by discovering Gary's involvement even after the fact).

Particularly after it’s been around for a while, you know it’s unwinnable going into it. Not only does that promote a sense of fatalism, but it paradoxically absolves the participant of any responsibility. If you can’t win, then you can rest secure that it wasn’t your fault, your choices didn’t matter, and the system was rigged against you. It’s not an especially good lesson to teach, though I suppose it does get you ready for evil Starfleet admirals and bureaucracy.

In a way, what Kirk did was more than change the conditions of the test for himself; by opening up the possibility of winning, he changed the psychological value of the test for everyone who came after him.

This raises the question: what is the Kobayashi Maru test really trying to measure, and what kind of captain is Starfleet really looking for? Someone who will accept an unwinnable situation with grace, or someone who knows the situation can’t be won, but fights anyway?

Kirk believed he was being tested on how he “accepts” the scenario, and so he reprogrammed it to show that he doesn’t believe in such a scenario, or at least doesn’t believe in accepting it, or that he can think in a larger context.

These are both very good points, but I guess my question remains: is it really a failure scenario or lesson if you are put into an artificially-created situation where nothing you do matters, and you know that going into it? That you could be replaced by a stuffed animal, whose decisions would have equal impact on the outcome? If we completely divorce cause from effect, what lesson is that teaching? I realize that, sometimes, what we do doesn’t matter. I suppose one aspect of the test is to see if the participant truly believes it’s unbeatable or not, which will shape their behaviour and participation going in.

Since Starfleet is so full of Badmirals and upper-level corruption, I suppose the lesson might be, partially, not to trust institutions blindly, including your own. I don’t know if that’s what they really intended.