When Spock was pinned by the boulder, he ordered McCoy and Boma to lift off without him. He was certain that if they came to rescue him that everyone would perish. That was self-sacrifice on his part, the sign of a good officer.
I shake my head when I see that image of the rock on Spock. That picture shows one of the poor decisions that Spock made in "The Galileo Seven".
Notice the position of Spock's right hand on the rock. Apparently, he is pulling on the rock. If Spock is trying to get that rock off of him, wouldn't it be logical for him to be pushing rather than pulling on it. Spock's action is totally illogical. Bad decision.
On the other hand, it is completely logical, as far as the actor Leonard Nimoy is concerned. I assume Nimoy had to hold that prop rock in place to keep it from potentially rolling away.
I've seen the episode a number of times. And every time, that rock on Spock scene looks ridiculously awkward.
It doesn't look convincing at all, that Spock is supposedly struggling to free himself from that rock.
Couldn't the production crew have come up with a way to keep the prop rock in place without Nimoy having to hold it in place. Don't get me wrong. It's not a big deal in the scheme of things, but it looks very awkward.
During this episode the possibility of 3 crew members being left behind on the planet is discussed. This got me to thinking : hypothetically, if it really came down to Spock deciding who would remain, who exactly do you think he would have chosen? Logically, of course…
Spock never let us in on what his criteria was regarding whom to leave behind. Was it the person(s) best able to survive on the planet until a rescue mission was attempted; or was his choice going to be which crewmen Spock determined was a waste of space.
I would like to think that Spock would have made the heroic decision and be the one(s) to stay behind. He was the most capable of the crew.
If Spock's scolding of the crew for coming out to save him from that rock instead of taking off without him was any indication of his thinking, I think Spock would picked himself to stay behind.
But if Spock was a vindictive man, it would have been an easy choice, Boma and/or McCoy would have stayed behind. Those two were the most insubordinate crewmen of the seven. Those two openly and continuously questioned Spock's orders, and they undermined his authority by their flippant remarks about Spock.
Yes, it’s a hypothetical situation that never really developed, although they discussed the possibility of having to leave someone behind.
Spock’s other actual decision to leave Gaetano alone on guard duty was really questionable. Gaetano paid for this error with his life.
Spock's decision to post Latimer and Gaetano on sentry duty far enough away from the shuttlecraft proved to be fatal.
They were sitting ducks out there. Did they even have communicators with them, to call for backup or warn the rest of the crew of a coming attack? How would Spock know which direction the creatures would come from, anyway? The creatures could have come from any direction other than where he posted Latimer and Gaetano.
Maybe Spock could be forgiven for that decision. But after the demise of Latimer, why leave Gaetano out there again, and this time alone? It seemed that Gaetano was needlessly put into the same dangerous situation again.
The end result is that two men are dead because of Spock's decisions. Interestingly, neither of those two crewmen wore a red shirt.
If there had been a Starfleet inquiry about Spock's decisions afterwards, I wonder how it would have assessed Spock's performance.
www.trekbbs.com
