Spock's Daddy Issues | Star Trek TOS 2x10

[@charleyg313]

Kirk: “I have interesting trauma too you know” Trekkies: “Shhh we wanna keep up with the Spocks” Kirk: “I witnessed a genocide once” Trekkies: “Aww Spock expressed an emotion” Kirk: “My brother and his wife died last year” Trekkies: “ASDFGHJK Sarek and Amanda just touched hands” Kirk: …. Kirk: “…. Oh no my shirt got torn again and my tits are on display”

[@RenTheBarbarian]

“Shut up, Kirk, you’re not here to be deep, you’re here to look hot and occasionally punch something”

[@subscorpion9560]

“It isn’t always about you Kirk! So shut up and let others get the spotlight”

[@elim_inator]

This is so accurate it hurts 😂

[@andrewwilliams9599]

Kirk: Did I also mention I let my crush die in order to save humanity Trekkies: Yeah, yeah. Walk it off, big fella.

[@charleyg313]

@@andrewwilliams9599 I mean, trying to remember and list all of Kirk’s trauma is just such a chore, meanwhile Spock’s daddy issues are just right there y’a know!?

[@thorninthewires2038]

My headcanon is that after this episode Bones was finally fed up with dealing with the secrecy of Vulcan biology and that was what convinced him to hire doctor M'benga

[@RenTheBarbarian]

That’s what I used to believe, of course that doesn’t explain why he’s on Pike’s Enterprise in SNW…

[@andrewwilliams9599]

@@RenTheBarbarian Kelvin timeline, anyone?

[@RenTheBarbarian]

@@andrewwilliams9599 Unfortunately SNW has been established as part of the Prime timeline (I keep forgetting to make that video on why I didn’t care for season 1…)

[@andrewwilliams9599]

Don't worry, I was kidding. Kelvin timeline is a PITA.

[@subscorpion9560]

One of my top 10 episodes in TOS. I love that it shows Spock’s parents and how they symbolize Spock’s internal struggle with his two cultures. I see how Sarek can be real tough on Spock and Amanda, almost like how some fathers want their sons to be “tough like a man and not weak like a woman”. Spock does what he can to be as Vulcan as possible but as this show goes on you can see his human side coming out, caring about others, showing how that doesn’t make him weak. It balances out both of his cultures. Sarek is a hard shell to crack but deep down in that brooding tone is a loving husband and wife that defies the Vulcan norm by falling in love, especially to a human.

[@robabiera733]

"Embarrassment is an emotion." EVERYTHING!!!!

[@Sara_TheFatCultureCritic]

This episode has some of my favourite Bones moments. That Teddy bear moment is perfection

[@pedrorios2650]

I don’t usually comment, but I absolutely love you Star Trek analysis! Also, I empathize and understand with Spock’s tenuous relationship with his mother. It makes me wonder intensely about their relationship while he was growing up.

[@RenTheBarbarian]

I imagine there must have been arguments over Spock getting bullied. I can definitely see Sarek being like “He is a Vulcan, he will not let their idle taunting affect him” and Amanda (having been a schoolteacher) just not having it in the slightest and wanting to at the very least have a conversation with the bullies’ parents.

[@elim_inator]

I never made the connection between Vulcans and toxic masculinity, but it makes so much sense. That's an excellent analysis of this episode, and basically of Spock's most iconic character trait. Consider my mind blown. 🤯

[@chronicallyonline945]

1:43 I LOST IT 😂🤣

[@silversam]

I've been watching TOS since I was 12 and can categorically say that your synopsis is way more fun than the episode. Make the subtext text! 😃

[@rainyfeathers9148]

Captain... meet your in-laws.

[@RenTheBarbarian]

Jim meeting Sarek and Amanda: “hi I’m a big fan of your work”

[@rainyfeathers9148]

@@RenTheBarbarian 🤣🤣🤣

[@girlwiththegreenhair]

I love this episode so much, great commentary as always! I never connected Vulcan philosophy to toxic masculinity myself, but i definitely see it now! Also, I'm really glad i didn't drink anything while watching or my laptop would have been full of it

[@robabiera733]

Thank you!

[@anthony0358]

This was a great episode and a great review! I thought it was a huge plot hole that. Mr. Scott often assumed command. Yet not in this case. I shared it on my social media pages. Also, Spock’s parents were not at Spock’s wedding either

[@RenTheBarbarian]

Thank you for sharing! 😁

[@tamakunminnip2117]

They said Scotty had never been in command during a combat situation. Also Kirk was going to had cammed to Scotty after insuring Spock went to sickbay for Sarek's surgery.

[@Asher8328]

I've always been a bit unsure at how Vulcans are written in ST. On the one hand, it's easy to imagine them saying things like, "Racism is illogical," and championing the ideals of IDIC, but when you look at their actions... they seem more than capable of being racist and xenophobic. Maybe the best thing to say is that there is a wide variety of people in their culture, just like any other culture, rather than portraying them as monolithic (as ST tends to do with just about every society).

[@RenTheBarbarian]

Yes, sadly a failure on the part of Trek and its worldbuilding. Even when Vulcans who defy the status quo (like Sybok or the Syrannites in ENT) are shown, they’re portrayed as fringe weirdos; the exception, not the rule. As for the IDIC thing, I chalk that up to purely a case of failing to practice what they preach. Pretty human of them, honestly.

[@ethancoltrane5754]

​@RenTheBarbarian I always felt like that the ideals of logic don't mean the same thing to all vulcans. Non-canon example: a character from Star Trek Online, Savel, is the Enterprise-f's Chief Medical Officer, and it's been mentioned that other Vulcans found it odd that he went into medicine, a job that requires compassion, (a supposedly "emotional" trait) to be successful. His response? "Compassion is logical."

[@Asher8328]

@@ethancoltrane5754 People rationalize their actions all the time, and it seems Vulcans aren't any different. Even someone like Valeris would probably say that everything she did was only being "logical."

[@ethancoltrane5754]

​@Asher8328, exactly what I was saying. Valeris thought her actions were logical, the character I mentioned thought his career choice was logical, the logic extremists thought their actions were logical.(hence the name.) Except, those extremists (and Valeris too, probably), were trying to force their idea of what "logic" is onto everyone else. I was trying to expand on your prior point (I probably didn't do a very good job at that, but still...)

[@luminiferous1960]

@@ethancoltrane5754 What many fail to understand is that logic is a methodology of making valid deductions from premises which are assumed to be true. Different premises can lead to different, but still logically correct deductions and actions based on the premises. However, if the premises are factually or ethically wrong, then the logically correct deductions from the premises will also be factually or ethically wrong. Thus, Valeris' actions were logical given that she held the premise that the Klingons were untrustworthy from which she logically deduced that the Klingons would eventually use the peace treaty to undermine the Federation and gain an advantage over the Federation. (There is a strong parallel here to the infamous Munich Agreement of 1938 between Britain, France, Italy, and Germany, which the British Prime Minister declared secured "peace for our time," but which just gave Germany more time to build up its forces before invading Poland in 1939 to start World War II. Similarly, Germany signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union in 1938, and then broke it in a surprise attack on the Soviet Union in 1941.) Valeris' actions would certainly be illogical if she held the premise that the peace treaty would be good for the Federation as held by Spock. However, she and Spock held different premises, so that although their goals and actions were diametrically opposed, each of their actions followed logically from their opposite premises. Since the premises referred to possible future events, the truth of their premises could not be known ahead of time.

[@robabiera733]

As though toxic masculinity was the ONLY masculinity. Oh wait, did somebody say Stoicism? Ahem.

[@andrewwilliams9599]

"Got a feeling '23 is gonna be a good year..." Sorry. Could have resisted. Didn't. As we later learn, logic, as Spock says in Season 3, "is the discipline that saved my planet." From what little we know of pre-Surak Vulcan society, that seems to be true. (And also that Vulcans apparently have had some kind of space travel for two millenia, hence the Vulcan/Romulan split.) So it's understandable that as a society. Vulcans would be reluctant to let their emotional guards down except at prescribed times (like the pon farr, and doesn't that remind you of the Archons and their Festivals?) This, of course, is what happens when you're constructing a character's back story on the fly, because you're also doing xenobiology, xenopsychology and xenoeveryotherdamnthing on the fly. Which is why Star Trek succeeded as well as it did: because they had real SF writers who could write scripts and were experienced in creating alien societies on paper, as well as just plain damn good writers like Gene Coon and Dorothy Fontana. It also gives future writers plenty to work with, as we've seen in Trek and Doctor Who. So the continuity can be fuzzy at times, but good writing can make it work. So saith we all.

[@ethancoltrane5754]

It still frustrates me to no end that they keep mispronouncing "Babel". It's pronounced like the word "babble" (which, If you've read the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, you would know is some very obvious forshadowing.)

[@RenTheBarbarian]

I know, it drives me crazy too. Maybe they changed the pronunciation so the allusion wouldn’t be so on the nose?