That scene in "Bread and Circuses"...

[Kryton]

the one between Spock and McCoy in the jail cell. I'd like to think it was what led to Spock's choice for McCoy as the vessel for his katra.

Some of these episodes I haven't seen in years...what great stuff a lot of this is, even if "Bread and Circuses" is basically the same as "Patterns of Force" in many, many ways.

 

[sbk1234]

I think it was really just the situation that presented itself. Had he had his choice, I do believe it would have been Kirk with whom he would have joined.
That being said, I've always been of the mind that Bones and Spock have always been very close friends. Comparing them to brothers may be an apt one. They argue, disagree, etc., but push come to shove, they're there for each other.
As was repeatedly shown on the series, Bones was always the first one to defend Spock, if need be. Even before Kirk did, on occasion.
Even early episodes like The Menagerie had Bones defending Spock to Kirk. I think their genuine friendship predates Bread and Circuses by quite a while.

 

[Hambone]

I was just happy this scene wasn't edited out of the syndicated broadcast this time around. It's the best McCoy/Spock exchange of the original series. It seems like McCoy's "logic" really gets to Spock this time around, and the best Spock can come up with is "Really, Doctor?"

 

[Esteban]

Actually, at least on the broadcast version I saw, it WAS partially edited. The first part where McCoy grabs Spock by the shoulder and spins him around was gone along with a line or two, then it cut to "do you know WHY you're not afraid of dying..."

Score another one for the heavy-handed hacks.

 

[A beaker full of death]

Actually, I've always found McCoy's assertions to be contradictory. On the one hand he says Spock is afraid of letting his true emotions slip, on the other hand he says he doesn't have any.

 

[erastus25]

sbk1234 said:
I think it was really just the situation that presented itself. Had he had his choice, I do believe it would have been Kirk with whom he would have joined.

I agree completely. Bones just happened to be in engineering at the time. If Bones hadn't been there he probably would have chosen Scotty.

 

[Doug Otte]

I've always thought McCoy was being unnecessarily cruel to Spock in that scene. He had Spock (literally and figuratively) stuck in a corner, and seemed to enjoy twirling the knife (to mix metaphors). Was it really necessary for him to get his point across in such a vicious way?

doug

 

[cooleddie74]

It's one of the best Spock-McCoy scenes in the entire history of TOS and its associated movies. And, ironically and unfortunately, one that got cut for syndication purposes depending where you lived in the '70s and '80s. It's always a nice scene to watch for the three-dimensional character aspects emanating from both officers.

 

[seigezunt]

Oh, THAT scene. I thought you were going to discuss the scene with Kirk and the blonde slave girl. rowrr...

 

[UnknownSample]

In original Trek, they could go back and forth on a subject, such as Vulcans and emotion, with Spock being right one moment, and McCoy right at another. I love that. In this instance McCoy gets the upper hand, and you actually wonder if he's right.

McCoy has a few moments where he doesn't seem fair or even decent, in his treatment of Spock. That's life. Great drama doesn't require everyone to be likeable all the time.

 

[cooleddie74]

The best moment in that scene is when you can SEE Spock's emotions coming to the surface and he almost betrays his feelings about what McCoy just said...possibly even agreeing with him that he is afraid of showing his repressed emotions...and then Spock recovers and stamps down hard on McCoy with that "Really, Doctor?" line.

Beautiful.

 

[Kryton]

I'm SAYIN'! It shows a connection we seldom see between Kirk and Spock (on a PERSONAL level, anyway). Which leads to my original point!

 

[cooleddie74]

Shame we didn't get more moments like that in, say, ENTERPRISE. An Archer-Trip moment like this would have helped further cement their friendship and mutual background...but after the Xindi attack and the whole Trip/T'Pol thing got underway a lot of the Archer-Trip bond got ignored or underplayed.

 

[RIDAD]

I've always wondered about the scene where Kirk and co. are sitting around Claudius's table and offers the sparrow broiled in "gav"? or the roast kid?

 

[Ssosmcin]

RIDAD said:
I've always wondered about the scene where Kirk and co. are sitting around Claudius's table and offers the sparrow broiled in "gav"? or the roast kid?

"We're giving you a wonderful menu today, Kirk. A bird broiled in a deceased ambassador with an apple in his mouth, or your roasted nephew."

"I'll take Drusilla...."

 

[cooleddie74]

It was a nice touch. Made it sound like Planet 892-IV had alien animals running around that the people made food out of. "Gav"..."kid"...at least it sounded slightly alien.

 

[Hambone]

"Kid" is goat. I thought everyone knew that. "Gav" is arabic for cow. I don't know if that means anything...

 

[Nebusj]

RIDAD said:
I've always wondered about the scene where Kirk and co. are sitting around Claudius's table and offers the sparrow broiled in "gav"? or the roast kid?

Er ... wasn't the sparrow broiled in garum? Garum was a sort of fish sauce popular in Roman times, for which we've got a recipe; it's kind of a mutant form of soy sauce with fish bits.

 

[Kryton]

I just checked the closed captioning..."Garum" was indeed what he said.

Kid is young goat, like lamb is young sheep and veal is young beef.

 

[cooleddie74]

At least they left out the deleted scene where Merrick offers Kirk a bag of Funyuns.