From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.tos   
   From Address: null   
   Subject: Re: "Tholian Web" Notes (K/S)  [Humor, commentary]   
      
   McCoy was insubordinate.  Spock should have immediately put McCoy on   
   report.  After that, the brig.   
      
   On Sat, 17 Sep 2011 01:51:31 -0400, ToolPackinMama   
    wrote:   
      
   >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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