You can only preserve one of these three eps. Which do you pick? "For the world is hollow..." or "Gem" or "The Man Trap"
I COMPLETELY MISSED THIS ASK
I’m sorry, this is a delightful question
Ok we can throw The Man Trap out straight away, he’s not nearly pathetic enough in it.
For the World is Hollow [etc.] is a damn good episode in its own right (putting aside the delightful patheticness of Bones) but it loses points for the terminal illness that lasts a couple of days*. But what it has! This girl sees Bones looking a bit woozy and falls in love. I get it. Spock finds out he’s (temporarily) dying and grabs onto his arm as if he can hold him the right side of death. Kirk watches with a little smile like, my boys. They abandon him to his inevitable death. He has a pain generating machine inserted into his body. Willingly. For the promise of a warm body to snuggle up to whilst he dies. But then he changes his mind and goes back to (not) die with his pals.
The Empath… is not the best episode of TOS. But it has such patheticness. SUCH patheticness. The moment Bones says “I think we should call her Gem” and he sounds drunk. And spends the rest of the episode very nearly calling his new pet Jim. He knocks out Jim and whilst Spock’s congratulating him he stabs him with the hypospray too. He goes bravely to his death. He tells Spock he has a good bedside manner. He tells Spock he has a good bedside manner. He tells Spock he has a good bedside manner. That’s a declaration of love. Spock holds him. Spock doesn’t say it’s ok, I always knew it was your way of showing affection, and I always took it personally.
And Jim and Spock are together, as they’re always together, as they belong, watching over him. Moving together… this episode is about love
