did u know: it was one of the few the bbc deemed it too messed up to show, so it didn’t air in the uk until 1993
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YES omg this stood out to me so hard the last time I watched it
McCoy, in his capacity as Spock’s doctor, pleading for the torture to stop because being forced into emotional expression could be lethal to a Vulcan??
(Which was probably just a line added for increased drama, by authors who weren’t thinking that much about world building– in-universe I guess McCoy might be making it up, in a desperate effort to save Spock from having to endure this ordeal– since the possibility that it could kill him is never mentioned anywhere else in canon I’m pretty sure?)
(Unless the implication is that this is how Vulcans can die of pon farr: from an outright overdose of humiliation)
(#relatable)
Maybe it doesn’t mean literally killing him. Maybe it kills him inside. It’s got to be traumatic as hell for Spock. He’s essentially being violated and forced against his will. Maybe McCoy means the mental trauma will do irreparable harm to him.
Personally, I thought the line may also have been a bit of a taunt or mild insult. An additional bit of torture they don’t need their powers to add in.
Ooh, good point.
I also found it interesting how Spock is especially broken up after the torture session where he’s forced to kiss Nurse Chapel, and yet when he talks about it he does not even mention that part– turns out he’s upset about the other part of that same torture session, where he was forced to abuse Kirk.
Which seems like one of those very cleverly crafted details that could be taken very different ways by different audiences, depending on whether or not they accept the Premise of K/S.
“he wasn’t even upset about kissing Christine! Only about hurting his best friend! Must mean he loves Christine”
vs.
“his thoughts about Kirk were so much more important to him than anything else, there wasn’t even bandwidth for the other part”
