#tmp calls me

[soulzerofever]

wip wip wip while i’m bored at work 💃💃💃💃

[saturn-garden]

i feel like a stroke victim

[shanarra-story]

"With additional voices from"

You narrated half of the episode. Even more, you narrated the part that contains actual episode and not the dialogues for the bigger storyline. That is not something you describe as additional.

[jonahmagnus]

I dont feel like doing the background. I refuse. Hes baking..... 🥹 hes baking and hes happy and hes ALIVE....

Version with bg sketch under the cut ✂️👇

[theaethernetconnection]

I hear your Mr. BONZO is a bear, I regard your Mr. BONZO is a bear. BUT CONSIDER: Mr. BONZO as a fat Twink. I know that one of the "requirements" to be a twink is that he be thin and young and all that shit but personally I would like to see more fat twinks. At the very least lemme see babygirl mr. bonzo is that so much to ask

[statementlives]

this just in, sam didn't get hired at the magnus institute because he kept called the staff "sensei" during his internship and they simply couldn't handle the thought of a nerd becoming the archivist.

[mag200]

why dont you reach into the deepest part of yourself and put that twist on the outside of the clay, and as soon as you can scream you’ll have your own face staring back at you. and maybe you’ll calm down.

why dont you make some little creatures out of polymer clay and maybe you’ll calm down

[edwardallenpoe]

So I just got done watching ST:TMP and I'm too exhausted to give a full analysis but it was good, and not as gay as I expected tbh (tho it is pretty gay trust) so rn I'm taking back all the trash talk I said or had for the movie, it was good👍

[thecorruption-thespiralsversion]

TMP Stream Of Consciousness Theory

(Like, I'm forming it and I'm not sure where I'm headed here)

Spoilers All - TMP

So as I'm reading through a lot of Lena Post on here it's starting to strick at me. Her wording when she vaguely explained things to Gwen in EP 13, Futures.

Gwen asks if they're the bad guys.

Lena hesitates before answering "We are... Managing, the bad guys."

Unlike the The Magnus Institute they aren't collecting Statements, they're keeping track of them.

Lena doesn't see herself and her work as good, but a necessary evil.

This would make Lena NOT Jonah's Parallel, but Gertrude's.

To Gertrude, Michael was a necessary evil, but she hurt no more people than absolutely necessary.

Lena isn't willing to put her employees in unnecessary risk.

The Magnus Institute was destroyed and OIAR has something called The Magnus Protocol.

They're preventing the Dread Powers from taking hold. Be it Fear, Hunger, or Regret. They're making sure no one of them gets a real foothold into our world. And if one gets to close. Well, they have their last resort.

The Magnus Protocol

Non Vacillabimus

We Will Not Falter

[theendorisit]

apropos of nothing, I made Tape-E

Who is Tape-E?

During one of the TMA livestreams (trying to remember which one), a fan question was asked ‘Is there a mascot (for the Archives or the show itself not sure)?’ One of the team suggested ‘Tape-y?’, to which everyone else responded with ‘Oh no!!’. So I thought, oh yes! So yeah, this is your fault 😘

What is Tape-E?

As Mr Bonzo is a parody of Mr Blobby, Tape-E is a parody of Clippy (these last two names rhyme).

Who is Clippy?

Clippy was a microsoft office assistant, introduced in 1997. He was a little virtual paperclip (officially called Clippit, but that name never caught on) who sat on the bottom right corner of the page, and was programmed to give advice in popup speech bubbles when certain actions were taken. For example, if you wrote out an address and ‘Dear’, Clippy would say ‘Looks like you’re writing a letter. Would you like help?’. The name Tape-E in the livestream seemed to be referring to Clippy, as there are many similarities in the behaviour of Clippy, and the actual tapes/ tape recorders in-universe:

always on by default

appears at inconvenient times

provides help you do not want

hated by (mostly) everyone

watching you with cold dead eyes

enjoyed by nostalgia and retro seekers

Why make Tape-E?

As I am of the same generation as some of the RQ peeps, I unironically loved Clippy and Mr Blobby as a child, and it gives me great joy to imagine, in the TMP universe, Sam getting a little pop up: ‘Looks like you’re trying to code a case file! Would you like some help with that?’ In our world this would be impossible - Windows NT (as the official name) was dropped in 1996, one year before Clippy was born, BUT there is voice recording on TMP’s ancient computers, so it’s not totally impossible! 😅😁

What are cassette tapes?

Just a little recap for those who didn’t grow up with tapes: Cassette Tapes contain information embedded in magnetic tape, wrapped around one spool and attached to a second spool. When played, the spools are turned by the machine and the magnetic tape is wound onto the other spool, the information read out through speakers as the magnetic tape moves through sensors. As the magnetic tape can contain different information depending on the direction of tape movement, you can flip the cassette tape over in the machine, and play the tape again, hearing another load of information. This concept is never utilised in the show, but it does mean that cassette tapes have A-sides, and B-sides (as Vinyl records do). Here, of course, this stands for Archivist-side, and Brutalpipemurder-side. On occasion, the magnetic tapes would become damaged, or bent, and could be pushed out of the cassette, causing a horrible noise, and terror to small children who were only trying to listen to their Just William tapes. When this happened, a pencil (or in my case, my little finger) could be jammed into the spiky spool ‘teeth’, to rewind the magnetic tape back into the cassette. Maybe that’s why the eyes are red? 🩸 I am very glad that the TMA tapes are magic, and record endlessly, never need flipping, and never get chewed up by the hungry machine.

Why is the name Tape-E?

Canon answer: the name stands for Tape-Eyes. Possibly Tape-Entity? Undecided.

Actual answer: Tape-y, Tapey and Tapie spellings look weird to me. I think Tape-E looks best.

Why a tape and not a tape recorder?

if you can crochet a tape recorder, you’re a genius and I love you.

What gender is Tape-E?

I might refer to Tape-E as male sometimes because that’s how people often referred to Clippy. But Tape-E is whatever gender Tape-E feels like being.

Why now?

Why not? also now is a good time because TMP episode 15 is an excellent episode

What’s going to happen to Tape-E?

I’m going to gift it to Jonny sometime, if we get more liveshows or book signings. It’s his fault this exists after all. Plus you can write whatever you like in the speech bubbles! Hopefully I can give it calmly? But maybe Tape-E will be yeeted in his general direction in a fit of ADHD-fuelled social anxiety. Only time will tell.

Tape-E is a pattern and design created entirely by myself. The inspiration and world building from whence it came, is entirely the genius of @jonnywaistcoat Jonny Sims, Rusty Quill @rqbossman and The Magnus Archives, which is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill and licensed under a creative commons attribution, non-commercial share alike 4.0 international license.

Clippy was invented by Microsoft and Kevan Atteberry, who now illustrates children’s books.

Mr Blobby is an adorable abomination, created from a fevered mind.

[kristsune]

Got a request for this one, and I'm so glad I did. It's both wonderful and heartbreaking hearing these two moments back to back.

TMA 111/TMP 8

[beans-in-your-socks]

Ok wait would you guys be interested in reading my essay once it’s finished because quite a few people seem to be agreeing with me on this one.

here’s a larger summary of the points I discuss

Pls let me know if u guys would wanna read it :)

how I look trying to explain to other TMA fans why I dislike Michael!distortion

[vlly-of-despair]

Ok but like, we need to talk about Alice and the ‘victim’… (spoilers for TMP)

I’ve been kicking around the theory for a little bit in my head now that the Magnus Institute program for gifted children is meant to find children who have an aptitude to act as conduits for the Fears via meditation practices that can transport their consciousness to the ‘Somewhere Else’, aka the layer of reality in which the Fears resign.

I made a past post about this, but for a summery: In the Magnus Archives, the Fears are described as gods from another realm, not necessarily from another universe, but rather in a different layer of reality we usually can’t see or comprehend, but can bleed into our world in the small weirdness of the statements we see throughout the narrative, and humans being able to harness gifts derived from the warped reality of these beings via becoming an Avatar. In the Magnus Protocol, people may channel the powers that may be from the layer of reality through becoming an ‘External’ or by an object, or environment. They categorize cases regarding the Somewhere Else as subjects being viabilities as subjects, agents, or catalysts (see ep 9 as an example of this cataloged on record).

Now, I personally believe whatever the Magnus Institute was cultivating, they wanted to specifically target areas of greater knowledge.

In TMA 127, John describes to Basira the ability to see into the minds of others as:

It’s like there’s a, a door, in my mind. A-a-and behind it is, is the entire ocean.

Before, I didn’t notice it, but now, I – I know it’s there, and I can’t forget it, and I can feel the pressure of the water on it… when I’m around p-people, or.. places, or.. ideas? A drop or two will push through the cracks at the edges of the door. And I’ll… know something.

Now both Sam and Gerard both applied to the Magnus Institute program, but were not accepted. When we saw the ARG Mag Testing sheets from past children’s names, as well as the criteria they ranked the children on, many being less so on their intelligence, but on their empathy, obedience, and conformity. So my best guess is that they find the most obedient children of high intelligence, those who may be able to harbor great ‘knowing’ and ‘seeing’ about the intellectual comprehension of most people, and that are apathetic enough to endure the possible… casualties tapping into the Eldritch horrors may call upon. Then they train them to become figures similar to the Archivist, but to the degree in which they can ‘open the door in their minds’ completely. This didn’t go so well… like at all… taken by the fact that the ‘protocol’ was enacted and the whole institute burned to the ground. Did they open a rift to this dangerous world? Is the OIAR fighting against those who try to push too much of these Outer Gods into our material world? To ‘see’ too much?

Curiously, there is a child in the ARG spreadsheet listing the children involved with the ‘gifted kids program’ with the name Connor Dyer, the same lat name as Alice. Many people, including myself, think this IS Alice and her deadname, prior to transitioning.

So, Alice was involved with the program, and her denial of the fact and urging Sam to stop researching the institute raises some big red flags. Where am I going with this? Well, if we go back to MAGP 15: WELL RUN, we see the victim that approached Gwen being compelled to spill out her fear as she is ‘drowning’ on land, trying to grab Alice as she whispers about seeing an endless, dark sea. Alice’s reaction is sooo interesting to me. At first it seems normal, she sees a dying frantic woman, reacts in panic and calls the ambulance. However, once she sees the tape recorder, she becomes utterly terrified. She says, “ I’m sorry, I can’t-.” And runs.

Alice, what about the tape recorder specifically triggered you so much? Is it because perhaps you remember this scene? Using a tape recorder, as a child in the Magnus Institute program, to document your decent into that same vast ocean beyond our world? Is if because if suddenly clicked what this is, what has happened to this woman, that she was compelled? That her thoughts were spoken with far more clarity after death because her corpse is being puppeteer by a power which unlocks the minds and fears of others beyond their mind alone? Why are you working at the OIAR? And why did you invite perhaps the only other person you know who could have the abilities the Magnus Institute searched for in youth?…

[affixjoy]

I did it folks, I watched the one with the whales!

What a delightful movie, I had so much fun watching it. I don’t think it’s as high quality as Wrath of Khan, but its still so well done. There’s so much humor and hijinks! And WHALES!

Some things I loved:

💫 Spock trying to swear to fit in. Hilarious, and they used it the exact perfect amount. Any more would have been too much.

💫 Bones in the hospital. Perfectly grumpy, perfectly smart.

💫 Scotty was just great the whole movie. He’s always fun, but I like that he had a little more to do and got to be so funny. I bet it was a blast to film.

💫 The entire scene where Chekov is asking for the nuclear vessels had my husband and I dying of laugher. Possibly the hardest I’ve ever laughed at TOS stuff.

💫 Old married Spirk touring San Francisco together and visiting the whales. It wasn’t quitttttte the amount of love and heartbreak I wanted, but we did get some of it with Spock not calling him Jim.

💫 And of course, gotta include some Spones/McSpirk feelings! Bones translating Jim to Spock felt very THEM and very funny.

💫 I love that we got a sweet father/son moment with Sarek and Spock. After everything, it’s just so nice that Sarek could finally be proud of Spock. I wish Amanda had been there to see it, I’m always fascinated by her and her relationship with her family.

💫 I just love this crew, and I continue to be so pleased to see them all together having adventures and growing older. The more I watch the more I realize how rare and precious it is that we get to see them age. We get to watch them get older and dealing with it, growing in their careers and friendships. We get to watch how their bodies naturally change. And like, maybe that’s a weird thing to fixate on, but for the last few years I’ve been thinking a lot about how everyone on tv has to be young and beautiful. Even as they get older, they try to look as young as possible. But I feel like here I’m getting to see their wrinkles and their gray hair and their weight gain. They look like people instead of an idealized version of people. And I’m not saying they AREN’T beautiful, just that they look real and interesting and like they’ve lived. I’m sure smarter people than I have written articles and books about this. It’s just so nice to see and makes me happy!

Overall, extremely fun movie. Seems like it will be a great rewatch. If I have to rank them so far it goes:

Wrath of Khan

Voyage Home

Search For Spock (very close to Voyage home but not quite as good!)

And way down at the bottom is TMP.

[bonzos-number-1-fan]

TMAGP 21 Thoughts: Y2K [Error]s

And we're back, again. Albeit I'm back quite late. This one was an interesting one to start act 3 with. On one hand it's a really good recap for what's lead up to this and a great foundation of what we can presume is to come. On the other hand it's an episode I think is deceptively devoid of new information. There is obviously new stuff to dig into here but in general I think it's not a lot of major stuff and mostly reinforcements of stuff we're already well aware of, or confirmation of stuff that I feel was about as good as confirmed anyway. With that said, this will be quite a read because what there is to dig into does go pretty deep.

Spoilers for episode 21 below the cut.

The conversation with Sam and Celia has a couple of interesting bits in it. Some of it's fairly obvious but there is at least one thing I've not really seen people talk about with it. So, Sam is flirting with the idea of of quitting, which is very Sam, and Celia pushes for him not to and tries to get him back "on track" in regards to the Institute, which is very Celia. Celia does care about her co-workers but obviously she's out for herself more than anyone else in the office. Her "complicated immigration status" is another is a long series of alternate-universe references. I think her comment about the OIAR's lax background checks is a more compelling detail there. Presumably there is a TMP version of Celia, who may or may not be called Celia. So you wouldn't necessarily expect there to be an issue there. "Celia" Ripley does likely exist and is likely British and would likely qualify for a position in the OIAR. Yet the way Celia frames it suggests she thought it would be an issue too. Either something that might come up after she got the job or something to be solved in order to get it. What I think is interesting about that is that it suggests to me that her identity isn't the problem but that they'd have some way to tell she's not from this universe.

That's all pretty normal stuff for this show though. The most interesting part of this is Celia's statement that she has to stay because he can't take Jack back to wherever she came from. I've seen a lot of musings on it but nothing that's gotten to what I feel is the heart of the problem there. Jack can't come with her because Jack is a baby and so can't understand and then engage with the mechanism she used. Which basically confirms that however she did it is much close to Darrien's meditation-induced-travel than, say, a portal to walk through. She doesn't rule out that she couldn't go back either so however it works it would have to be something Jack would have to participate in. Although there is the possibility that she's currently sharing her body with the actual TMP Celia and has merely brought her consciousness over and that Jack can't go because there is no body to return to. The problem with that though is the aforementioned background check. If she was physically living as TMP's Celia then there isn't really a concern there at all. Along with Lady M being about to smell that she's different it probably rules that out. Not a strong confirmation but certainly more pointing in the direction that Celia's body is hers which in turns makes the issue with Jack less likely to be that there is no Jack in Celia's home universe to body hop into.

Okay, so on to the incident proper. Honestly, not a huge amount to dig into this one IMO. Obviously a fair bit happened but it's mostly surface level. Which isn't a bad thing but for the sorts of things I tend to talk about it does limit what there is to say. I'd rather not recount things unless I have something to say about them beyond the text itself. There are still a few things to mention here all the same. Firstly, speaking of Darrien the Dr Welling that is mentioned in the episode is very likely the person who gave their name to Welling Mutare Materia where Darrien was incarcerated in episode 17.

Next up, while it's not talked about in explicit detail there is one thing that sums up the point of this ritual, the "Great Work". Anyone into alchemy will be well aware that this refers the creation of the Philosopher's Stone, the Magnum Opus. Immortality, turning lead to gold, spiritual enlightenment, all of the above. Ask 5 alchemists what it's about, get 6 answers. There are some pretty major implications to this that I've not really seen touched upon. Firstly, it's a near direct confirmation that the OIAR and the Magnus Institute are directly adversarial. If the Institute's goal is the completion of the Great Work then the OIAR's purpose is to prevent that and it's something they. mostly, openly broadcast. The symbol of the Magnum Opus is circle housed in a square, housed in a triangle, that is housed in another circle. That symbol is found in the OIAR's insignia but inverted. Which is about as blatant a statement of opposition as you can really get. In turn that also largely confirms that the OIAR are responsible, or at least wanted to, burn the Institute to the ground. The timing of this is very likely not a coincidence either. This letter is dated 04/01/1999, the dome they're referring to in it (the O2, formerly the Millennium Dome) was opened 31/12/1999, as you might expect. The Institute burned down just 7 days prior to that happening.

Secondly, knowing that the Great Work is pretty obviously the goal at this point recontextualises things like catalysts and agents. As well as the general purpose of the Institute as a whole here. The Great Work isn't generally seen as a bad thing in alchemy, like, it's the whole point of the art. It also doesn't seem like the Institute itself is necessarily perverting that idea either. The PoV character is certainly not happy with the idea that this ritual will harness fear and despair is too great of a quantity. So it doesn't seem out and out capital E Evil as a plan. At least as presented. However, there is

Next up, the Millennium Dome itself has a few interesting elements to talk about in this context. The most obvious one is the Millennium Experience which was a kind of its whole thing for its first year. This was an exhibition of all sorts of bits but of relevance is that the exhibition has split into three major themes; Who We Are, What We Do, and Where We Live. 3 is a fairly major number in alchemy thanks to the tria prima. They're divided further still and Who We Are splits into Body, Faith, Mind, and Self-Portrait. These have some loose alignment with the tria prima, the body, the soul, and the spirit. This is something other people have brought up though and it's not actually the thing I think is exciting about the Millennium Dome. Especially not in context to the episode. The dome is important as an architectural work first and foremost. Everyone should go have a look at it because its major feature is incredibly relevant to the Great Work, this episode's details, and the show's explicit references. The feature of the Millennium Dome are its twelve 100 meter support towers. IRL the 12 towers were chosen mostly because of the strong associations with time, both hours and months, but in this episode a lot of weight is given to the astrological and there are 12 signs in the zodiac. But 12 is also incredibly important for the Great Work too. Typically there are 4 stages that you must take to complete the magnum opus but these stages were expanded upon by various scholars. 12 is a number multiple sources land on. 12 is especially relevant for TMP because it's what's laid out in The Compound of Alchemy; or, the Twelve Gates leading to the Discovery of the Philosopher's Stone, written by George Ripley in 1471. Ripley is a very noted alchemist and importantly Celia is his namesake. It really just ticks a whole lots of boxes for "big important thing" in a show like this.

As a final note on the Great Work its presentation as a universal transmutation is quite a shift from more traditional interpretations. As mentioned it's a bit all over the place as for what it means but this incident seems to portray it as something akin to The Change in scale. Universal and far-reaching. It's hard to say too much more than that based on this episode alone but it's worth keeping an ear out for in the future. Even if this version of it is benevolent I can see why something of that scale got them firebombed.

Also, is it just me or does Chester sound much more roboty to start here than in other incidents?

After the incident it's Alice and Lena having a bit of a chat. Alice in this scene is a little peculiar to me, she's very quick to accept that Sam is correct about being lead to a conclusion by Freddy. Although I'm not sure how that reflects on her stance in the last episode. She was obviously trying to protect Sam but it didn't seem like she was lying about not believing his whole conspiracy there either. In this scene though she's pretty sold on the idea. Lena having a heart is nice to see too. I like that she's opening up a little more and is subverting some of the expectations of her assumed archetype.

Gwen and Ink5oul's section is pretty self-explanatory IMO. At least as far as those two characters go. Ink5oul's powers are progressing and she's now able to control mundane tattoos she had no part in producing but beyond that it's pretty expected stuff. Obviously the real standout here is [Error]. Firstly it's a confirmation that they're the one compelling people to spit out statements. Not that I think that confirmation is much of a reveal. There are a few bigger details to pick at here though. They've seemingly marked the whole gang for some reason. If the above is correct, and the OIAR is directly opposed to the Institute, it could just be revenge. Albeit that labours under the assumption [Error] has some sort of allegiance to the Institute. Which I think isn't entirely certain at this stage. The way the transcript describes them is also very perculiar.

A Figure emerges, shrouded in a cloak of whispers. … The Figure continues to emerge, a nightmarish specter of an older world, slowly enveloping Ink5oul’s brash bravado … The Figure breathes deeply, a strange and disconcerting sound, enveloped in pained whispers.

They're three details worth mentioning there. The first is their almost ephemeral description, they emerge and then continue to emerge. Which is a strange phrasing if they were just walking into the scene. The whispers I think are fairly obviously the statements they force on people, not much to say there. "Ink5oul’s brash bravado" speaks to what I was discussing in last episode's post. Ink5oul seems to be fairly inauthentic in a lot of their interactions and are putting on a persona to seem like they're more of a badass than they really are. Outside of that there is just this to mention.

The tape recorder bites Ink5oul before clicking off.

I've seen it brought up a lot and I get why, it is quite funny, but I think it's also speaking to a larger thing. [Error] appears to have much greater control of these than we might be familiar with. I'm not going to get into TMA spoilers but [Error] seems to be conjuring, and commanding, these things themselves which is a very different vibe. I think they might serve a similar purpose overall, the gathering of statements, but more purposeful and I could also see them being [Error]'s physical tether to the world. If they are as ephemeral as the transcript hints at the tape records might serve as their anchor. It's something they can move about but it might be their vulnerability.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Incident/CAT#R#DPHW Master Sheet and Terminology Sheet

DPHW Theory: 4254 seems about right but it's also such a weird one that it's hard to really quantify. It doesn't strike me as wrong in any way but the focus of the incident was not on the, well, incident. So it's hard to say.

CAT# Theory: CAT2 is a 2 and I don't have a huge amount to say on these as of yet.

R# Theory: BC seems right. It's what the last letter about spooky shit was rated and this seems to hit all the same notes I mentioned in the ep 19 post.

Header talk: Architecture (Landmark) -/- Corruption (Entropy) is another of those strange ones. Our third in a row. Which likely means they're here to stay, and while that's generally fine by me it does make me wonder what the diegetic reasoning is here. It's a pretty sudden shift to just do this now and it never come up before this. It's also not something mentioned as new either. Corruption (Entropy) is fairly interesting though. It makes sense for the incident but it feels like you could've just done "time" here for the same effect.

[electronickingdomfox]

"Spock's World" review

Novel from 1988, by Diane Duane. In a similar vein as her previous work, "The Romulan Way", is a combination of novel and historical account, this time about Vulcans instead of Romulans.

The historical chapters present different moments in the life of the planet and its peoples, from the very creation of the rock known as Vulcan out of primordial stardust, to the initial career of Sarek as ambassador and his encounter with Amanda. Many of these chapters have a chilling, somber ending, always presided by the ever-watchful eye of T'Khut (Vulcan's moon, which isn't really a moon). My favorites were the ones dealing with primitive Vulcan, at a time when speech wasn't even invented and everything had a touch of the mythical, and the ruthless story of a family of Vulcan asteroid miners, destroyed by their greed for diamonds (this was before Surak, obviously). Some details about Vulcans seemed a bit weird to me, like their wide array of customized psychic abilities, or the technological advancement in pre-Reformation times. I had this image of pre-Reform Vulcan as some sort of "warrior and monk" society. Though this is probably a silly complaint, since not much is known about Surak's times... Yet I still have difficulty picturing Surak as a corporation accountant, I don't know... I liked more the version of Romulan history from the other book, though these episodes were also beautiful in their own way.

As for the main plot (if you can call it "main"; it doesn't take more pages than the history part), is set in post-TMP times. Vulcan threatens to leave the Federation, in a climate of political discontentment, so Kirk, Spock and McCoy are invited to join the public debate, to defend the pro-Federation position. It's a simple but compelling story, more focused on discussing the different worldviews than in actual plot. Though there's also a conspiracy for the protagonists to uncover, but I won't spoil it here. Despite the cover and the title, Spock doesn't have such a big role. McCoy is actually the one who's doing most of the investigations, having become kind of an expert in Vulcan (including learning the language and speaking it with a Southern accent). The plot also shakes a bit the usual status-quo, by turning a well-known character from the series into villain, and killing another. On the other hand, and as minor nitpicking, some things about Duane's Enterprise still seem strange to me. The wild parties aboard, and the opinion network of the ship (where everyone can freely publish their opinions about anything, including invectives against Vulcans) make the Enterprise seem more like college than a ship at times.

Spirk Meter: 1/10*. I can only think about the encounter between Spock and a vengeful T'Pring, who threatens him with taking away his career and his Captain, the same way that Spock made her lose Stonn (it's a long story). It would seem that, in her mind, Kirk means for Spock the same that Stonn meant for her... Though on the other hand, she could mean it just in a professional way.

For his part, McCoy has a tendency to whisper into Spock's ear, from time to time.

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.