From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.tos   
   From Address: philnblanc@comcast.net   
   Subject: "Tholian Web" Notes (K/S)  [Humor, commentary]   
      
   Tholian Web Notes   
   by Laura Goodwin   
      
      
   This is a great episode for Spock fans, because Spock is the star of the    
   episode, and at the center of all the action. Even more delightful,    
   Spock acts like a steely, logical, buttoned-up, _proper_ Vulcan the    
   whole time.   
      
   This is especially remarkable, since Spock is relentlessly bedeviled by    
   Dr. McCoy through the whole misadventure. Normally McCoy can get a rise    
   out of Spock, but NOT TODAY.   
      
   This is not a good episode for McCoy fans. The relationship between    
   Spock and McCoy is spotlighted, and it clearly is not a happy    
   relationship. McCoy is nasty, cruel and unsupportive to Spock, pretty    
   much through the whole thing. His bare-knuckled ugliness is not only    
   painful to watch, but it's clearly unjustified and utterly    
   unprofessional, to boot.   
      
   McCoy has never been harder on Spock, but strangely, Spock's never    
   stayed cooler. This is remarkable, and demands examination.   
      
   As we saw in Journey to Babel and other episodes, Spock is a paradoxical    
   creature. He's never more logical and relentlessly unemotional than when    
   he is using his Vulcan mental disciplines to cope with huge emotional    
   stresses. We've rarely seen Spock so stone-faced and mechanical as we do    
   in this episode. Anyone who knows Spock well knows that he gets like    
   that when he's coping with a horrendous emotional blow or strain.   
      
   What blow or strain? Well, what's the whole episode about? Spock and    
   Kirk are separated. Kirk's life is in danger. Spock risks absolutely    
   everything, tries absolutely everything, and almost loses everything,    
   including the crew and ship - because he adamantly refuses to give up on    
   Jim. Even after he has formally declared Jim to be dead, he refuses to    
   give up and leave without him. That, my friends, is not logical - and    
   McCoy tries to draw our attention to the fact that it's not logical,    
   several times.   
      
   Spock's behaving logically, but he's not motivated by logic. Obviously    
   he's motivated by love for Jim. His love for Jim, his desire to try    
   anything, everything, in a wildly improbable attempt to rescue Jim -    
   even if it costs everything... is nothing new. This insane, obsessive    
   degree of devotion is a hallmark and linchpin of the Kirk/Spock    
   relationship.   
      
   There is no heterosexual "romance" for even a second in this episode,    
   nevertheless it is a fiercely romantic episode. Spock spends the entire    
   episode obsessing about Jim Kirk: trying to save Jim's life, trying to    
   be reunited with Jim. Blah, blah, blah alternate universes. Blah, blah,    
   blah Tholians threaten the ship.   
      
   Boy visits derelict ship with boy, boy and boy are separated by bizarre    
   circumstances, boy moves heaven and earth to get boy back, even long    
   after it seems logical to try - that's basically the plot. Boy gets boy    
   back... that's the happy ending.   
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