so i was visiting my aunt a few weeks back and we got on the subject of star trek (as it's one of the few commonalities we share anymore).
i asked her about what it was like when twok came out and *that* ending and the look on her face was sheer devastation. then she said,
“you probably don’t remember this, but your uncle and i got married the day ‘search for spock’ came out. we cut the reception short and took the entire wedding party to the theatre- well, MORE than just the wedding party. it became this big group of people that all bailed on the reception because we had to know if spock was going to be okay.”
Has anybody ever thought about the absolute heartache associated with Spock canonically not remembering a lot of his life prior to his death as per the conversation in The Voyage Home "Not lie, just... exaggerate. You've done it before, can't you remember?" "The hell I can't".
The moment is played for laughs, but Spock genuinely cannot remember. He can sense a familiarity with his crew - Kirk and McCoy in particular - and by the end of The Voyage Home has rediscovered a new friendship and familiarity with them.
But all the memories they made beforehand? They're just not there.
How many times did Kirk or McCoy start reminiscing about something that happened during their five year mission, only to be met with a blank, but polite, stare from Spock. When McCoy almost dies of cold on Rura Penthe, does he recall Sarpeidon (All Our Yesterdays), and how gently Spock cared for him then. Even in the midst of everything he was going through, did he wonder if Spock even remembered that shared experience? When Kirk finally tells Spock that he had to sacrifice his own son to get him back, does he think back at how Spock had tried to comfort him when he lost his brother and sister-in-law. Did he realize that every time he's suffered a loss (with the exception of the loss of Spock himself), Spock has been at his side to provide comfort. Did he wonder if Spock even remembers that, or if he even realizes that to Kirk recovery from grief requires his calming presence?
How many times over the rest of the years spent together did they still feel a sense of grief over what they lost, made all the more potent by the ever-present bittersweet reminder in their lives in the form of the newborn Spock. The same comforting, logical, frustrating, loyal, impossible, dependable presence... just with fifteen years of camaraderie lost.
Yes, they have Spock back. And they will take whatever version of Spock the universe has blessed them with without complaint. Even if Spock had walked away after the Fal-tor-pan and never remembered them they would have counted themselves blessed by the knowledge that even if he doesn't know them... at least he's alive. And they got so much more than that. But for the rest of their lives, they are fighting a deep sense of grief at the time that was lost, the memories that were lost, the shared experiences that are now only shared between two... not three.
I made a video edit with the dialogue of the doctor who brainwashes Kirk in Dagger of The Mind (TOS, s1 e9). The other scenes are from The Motion Picture, The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock.
I feel like Eric Martin has studied the most famous ships in the history of the internet to write Loki's and Mobius' dynamic bc aint no way he is now referencing the most famous spirk moment from the Wrath of Khan from the Star Trek franchise