#the empath

[chaos-whatever]

Don't worry about them :)

[starberry-cupcake]

they just did all these little things to each other throughout decades and new versions need to get on this level of being weird with each other (affectionately)

[trek-tracks]

Imagine this. You're Spock. You've tried not to get yourself emotionally involved with your crewmates. It's not going very well. Your doctor goes and contracts a terminal illness and doesn't tell you (but luckily your captain can't go three seconds without breaking Space HIPAA or whatever exists in the future) and then tries to run away and die on an asteroid. You take out the Instrument of Obedience, privately thinking that it would be nice to have some control over this maniac you somehow care about's actions. You spend Surak knows how much time downloading and translating an entire civilization's medical library to cure him. No problem. It was just an incurable disease. You didn't need to sleep this month.

Two episodes later, another alien civilization tries to check said doctor out like he's a library book and then writes "withdrawn" on his forehead and pretends they don't have to give him back. He tells you to leave to save yourself; he'll stay. Did you mention you decoded an entire medical archive like two weeks ago for---fine. You go through unspeakable emotional violations to put him back into circulation on the Enterprise. It's cool. You didn't need your dignity anyway.

Two episodes after that, your illogical, self-sacrificial doctor mutinies and sedates you--the ranking officer in charge--undoing the fact that, again, how many hours did you spend? Curing an incurable illness because you couldn't let him die? Singing like an idiot in front of a bunch of snickering Platonians with laurel leaves on your head and no pants to speak of?--so he can get himself tortured to death on your behalf. You convince an empath to save him. He pushes her away because he "can't destroy life." Your captain is crying. The shiny force field shows everyone that you're having very non-shiny emotions. Do Vulcans even believe in hell

You think you've finally reached some sort of sacrificial detente. It's been a while. Neither of you have died on the other's behalf. You've both had to save your captain a few times, but that's normal. All in a day's work. Then said captain wants all three of you to check out a mysteriously abandoned library of time periods. You should have figured you would wind up in some sort of frozen wasteland with your doctor and no perceivable way to return what you'd borrowed. Well. At least there's the two of you so that you can keep an eye on--

He falls down in the snow. His hands are blue. "Go on without me," he says, dramatically. "Alone, you have a chance."

yeah I'd strangle that fucker against a cave wall too

[possumtion]

I am normal about the empath (lie)

(Prompt fill for the @mcspirkevents bingo card: “Final Moments)

[cakesandsnouts]

"Can't we do something?" "I'm afraid not." STAR TREK 03.12 The Empath

[forecast0ctopus]

noooo they gave him the worst crop top of all time……..sick and twisted

[major-comet]

the biggest problem with tos’ episodic format is that the episode usually ends pretty quickly after the conflict resolves and then they never really talk about it again - no matter how intense or harrowing it was

which means that we don’t get to actually *see* the interpersonal fallout of bones being diagnosed with and cured from a previously-incurable terminal illness (that he didn’t even want to tell jim and spock he had), and then just four episodes later drugging them so that he can go be tortured (and likely die) instead of spock, and so jim doesn’t have to make the choice between them.

did they talk about it? beyond just a standard debrief and a “never fucking do that again bones i swear to god i mean it this time”? did they make it the captains’ quarters for the debrief, only for mccoy to be pulled into a crushing, trembling hug as soon as the door shut while jim tried to assure himself that bones was still here, was still breathing? spock hovering nearby - a hand gently coming to rest on his shoulder?

why didn’t mccoy want to tell them about the xenopolycythemia, anyways? to try and hold onto a few more normal-ish months before every time they looked at him their eyes would be filled with grief - mourning a man they hadn’t yet lost? the same reason he ran away; to spare them what he went through with his father?

only for him to immediately turn around and throw himself back to the wolves to (almost) die right in front of them anyways

i don’t really know how they handled it. whether they talked about it and attempted to soothe the hurt, or just resolutely tried to bottle it up.

but i do know this: spock eventually came back from gol because jim simply (though accidentally) called out for him in a moment of need. bones only came back because jim personally drafted him back into starfleet

[vonnebenan]

I tried to make a gifset but kept getting distracted because I need to stare at these scenes

[thymelessink]

There are so many episodes of Kirk getting hurt, Spock getting hurt and Kirk getting hurt again...

But actually I need more episodes of this man getting hurt

I need him to look pained and pretty, to strongly endure whatever alien torture one can come up with but I also need him to be rescued like a damsel in distress and to be comforted by his two boyfriends

[kyanitedragon]

Me: I mean sure Spock and McCoy would be interesting together but idk I don't really ship it ship it

S3 Spock @ McCoy:

Me: Oh. Oh.

[electronickingdomfox]

Reddit asking the real questions.

And then the correct answers:

The tragedy is that they DID film a shot of half-naked McCoy, and then never got to use it in the final episode!

[iamenits]

[maid-of-the-golden-deer]

found a book (10 in a series that goes over the whole show i presume) that adapts episodes into short stories and this is from the empath and its KILLING me

not only does it explicitly call what spock feels for his friends Love by the most reliable expressor of emotions in the series, a literal empath, but posits that bones didnt only volunteer to undergo the vian's tortue bc hes so noble of spirit, but bc gem reveals to him that spock himself tries to volunteer out of that same love

im gonna cry. scream. biting and thrashing none of them can properly express themself but they love each other so much anyway

[trek-tracks]

I love them and whatever the heck it is they've got going on

[tostrekkiegirl]

When I posted before about James Blish's adaptations of Star Trek episodes, I hadn't realized that he was adapting the scripts and not the finished product that was filmed- someone pointed that out to me in a reply. That puts it in a different light...

I read "The Empath" of course, and it seems when they filmed, they toned down how bad McCoy looked after being tortured (though I heard the episode was banned somewhere (the UK?) for some years anyway.

"McCoy hung limply from ropes attached to the ceiling. His features were battered to a pulp. Blood dripped from his open wounds and through the remnants of his uniform."

Also, I wonder if Deforest Kelley came up with the line, "You've got a good bedside manner, Spock," because it must not have been in the script.

Something else interesting is that in this novelization, when McCoy is trying to stop Gem from sacrificing herself to save him, he actually tries to get up and falls twice!