I had a look at Harve Bennett's original outline for what would become TSFS (you can read it here) and I was thinking about how the things regarding Spock couldn't work.
In the outline it's suggested that Spock never died and had instead been in some "trancendental state" and after recovering, he reverted into a Vulcan savage. I object to this premise since Spock's body was dead. Yes it was completely dead and had no hope of being alive after being exposed to the beyond lethal levels of radiation. Spock was covered in radiation burns and seemed to have lost his eyesight (as seen from when he walks facefirst into the engineering door). It doesn't make sense that they would fire his body into space (or burn it up in the Genesis atmosphere if you go by certain versions of the story) if there was even a small chance he was still alive.
I argue that McCoy would be well aware of Spock's anatomy and unique functions by the time of his death. In "By Any Other Name", Kirk is even aware of the Vulcan trance. Since this outline didn't include the "Katra" concept, it's hard to imagine how Spock could have survived had he been in this state as suggested. I'm going to get graphic here, so apologies.
Spock's tube was clearly not full sealed (David opened it with little effort in TSFS), it was able to be opened without any indication of decompression. I imagine because the intention was to fire his body into space that no such modifications were necessary. Now here is where it gets disgusting. As soon as Spock's body was exposed to the vaccum of space, any oxygen left in his body would have rapidly decompressed leaving his body mutilated and void of most fluids. We can assume that whatever was left of Spock was all that was required for the planet to regenerate his cells (after all, the microbes evolved from microbes to...well whatever they were! In the same amount of time). The point is, if Spock wasn't dead after being exposed to lethal levels of radiation, he most certainly would have been following the firing of his body into space.
The final thing is of course what role Spock saying "remember" to McCoy plays in the movie. It's briefly touched upon in the outline, but it doesn't explain what exactly he is supposed to remember. I assume it was meant to explain the reason why they were all seeing apparitions of Spock, perhaps as the result of Spock's mind meld with McCoy. But, this doesn't fit either because why would Spock want them to see apparations of him which cause them to believe that he is still alive if he knew he was going to die? I don't think foresight is a Vulcan ability. So what was "remember" supposed to mean? Maybe it was Spock making sure McCoy remembered "all those arguments he lost"?
Thoughts?
In the outline it's suggested that Spock never died and had instead been in some "trancendental state" and after recovering, he reverted into a Vulcan savage. I object to this premise since Spock's body was dead. Yes it was completely dead and had no hope of being alive after being exposed to the beyond lethal levels of radiation. Spock was covered in radiation burns and seemed to have lost his eyesight (as seen from when he walks facefirst into the engineering door). It doesn't make sense that they would fire his body into space (or burn it up in the Genesis atmosphere if you go by certain versions of the story) if there was even a small chance he was still alive.
I argue that McCoy would be well aware of Spock's anatomy and unique functions by the time of his death. In "By Any Other Name", Kirk is even aware of the Vulcan trance. Since this outline didn't include the "Katra" concept, it's hard to imagine how Spock could have survived had he been in this state as suggested. I'm going to get graphic here, so apologies.
Spock's tube was clearly not full sealed (David opened it with little effort in TSFS), it was able to be opened without any indication of decompression. I imagine because the intention was to fire his body into space that no such modifications were necessary. Now here is where it gets disgusting. As soon as Spock's body was exposed to the vaccum of space, any oxygen left in his body would have rapidly decompressed leaving his body mutilated and void of most fluids. We can assume that whatever was left of Spock was all that was required for the planet to regenerate his cells (after all, the microbes evolved from microbes to...well whatever they were! In the same amount of time). The point is, if Spock wasn't dead after being exposed to lethal levels of radiation, he most certainly would have been following the firing of his body into space.
The final thing is of course what role Spock saying "remember" to McCoy plays in the movie. It's briefly touched upon in the outline, but it doesn't explain what exactly he is supposed to remember. I assume it was meant to explain the reason why they were all seeing apparitions of Spock, perhaps as the result of Spock's mind meld with McCoy. But, this doesn't fit either because why would Spock want them to see apparations of him which cause them to believe that he is still alive if he knew he was going to die? I don't think foresight is a Vulcan ability. So what was "remember" supposed to mean? Maybe it was Spock making sure McCoy remembered "all those arguments he lost"?
Thoughts?
