This conversations must definitely needed to happen after Galileo 7
Jim noticed Bones leaving Spock’s quarters and nearly called out to his friend to ask him what was the deal, but something made him hold back and just watch Bones leave.
After McCoy moved out of sight, Jim went to Spock’s door, and after a moment was granted access. He’d been expected and Spock was setting up the chess game when he entered.
“Captain.”
“Jim,” he gently reminded Spock. “What did Bones want?”
Spock stiffened around the shoulders a bit. Then he turned around. “To offer an apology.”
Jim frowned. “For what?”
He took his seat and waited as Spock brought them over beverages.
“Spock? For what?”
“His recent behavior on the mission,” Spock replied after a moment.
“Behavior? What behavior?”
Spock did not answer immediately and seemed reluctant.
“That’s an order, Mister Spock.”
“At times the crew of the Galileo were insubordinate,” Spock said, moving his first chess piece.
Jim narrowed his eyes. “To you?”
Spock nodded. “McCoy among them. The situation was stressful and tense. After Latimer was killed, I hoped to avoid further destruction of the natives on the planet where we were forced to land. The others wished to kill them outright. One of them killed Gaetano and the crew blamed me.”
“You were making decisions based on the available information you had at the time. I read your report.”
“Yes, but they did not see it that way.”
Jim drummed his fingers on the table. “All of them? Bones? Scotty?”
“Mister Scott was not insubordinate directly, no.”
“But the others were, including Bones.” Jim grimaced. “I’ll talk to them.”
“McCoy apologized. I would rather it was dropped.”
“What about Boma?”
Spock shrugged.
“It’ll go on his record,” Jim stated.
“As I said, Captain, I would rather it was dropped.”
“And I would rather the crew respect the first officer of this ship. Spock, you aren’t going to just accept that kind of thing. And I’m not going to either. I’ll have a word with both Bones and Boma. If I don’t get a satisfactory response from Boma, it’s going on his record. What about Mears?”
“Like Mister Scott, she was not directly insubordinate.”
“Okay. I know we’ve discussed this, Spock. I really want you to tell me about this kind of stuff.” He sighed and leaned back. “And I added to it.”
“Captain?”
“Teasing you on the bridge about your emotional response and calling you stubborn.”
“I was not offended, Jim.”
“Still.” Jim shook his head. “I’m sorry, Spock.”
Spock covered the hand that rested on the table with his own. “I accept your apology, Jim. The game?”
Jim smiled, turned over his hand to touch their palms together briefly before moving his hand over to grab his coffee cup.
“Right. I believe from last time we played I was about to checkmate you.”
Spirk (with a small dose of Pinto) 
January 11, 2022 at 5:10 am
Ah man. That got me in the feels. To see Jim backing Spock like that, to see their connection.
Excellent!
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January 11, 2022 at 8:00 am
thank you 🙂
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January 11, 2022 at 7:46 am
Well, you know i have a zillion feelings about that episode. One is that, when we look at it from the POV of the natives, they had every right to attack the Galileo crew. The shuttlecraft was the intruder on the planet, and the natives would be like any civilization that kills invaders. So Spock was the only one who even displayed that sensitivity to want to save his crew, and then save the remainder of his crew, but not just kill every native around.
My other thoughts – well, I’ve pretty much spewed them already all over everyone anywhere near me. The fact that in the face of everything from disloyalty to out and out mutinous behavior, Spock still said ‘please’ 11 times in that episode when giving orders. Which a commander does NOT do. They give orders, the lawful orders are obeyed, and there IS nothing in between. The time for discussion is before orders are given, not after. That’s what they signed up for, especially the red shirts.
So anyway, thank you for writing this. It is spot on what should have happened, in the face of the events of the episode.
But, in the part that breaks my heart, Spock given command would have been written as someone trained in command. They, and rl military, are trained for tense and dangerous missions. That’s why they exist. Every mission they’re ever on lends itself to tension at the least, and death at the worst.
Spock was written as a wimp who had no idea how to be in his position of commander of a crew.
And a 1st officer is only a 1st officer because he DOES know how to command. The best of the best.
So………not the first time I have intense criticism for ST writers. LOL
But praise for you! I wish people like you had been the real writers of TOS.
And Roddenberry, with military and police officer training and experience, knew better. But hey, the shows were written to be like any other show, see it once or twice, and it’s put away in the can for history, never to be seen again, much less parsed as we have the privilege of doing, as the future of broadcasting turned out to be. And eternal reruns!
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January 11, 2022 at 7:59 am
I don’t find Spock portrayed as a wimp but I do agree about the rest of the episode.
But I didn’t want to focus on all that. I wanted to deal with the aftermath and addressing the insubordination of the crew, particularly Bones and Bomo, with Jim. Because I think Jim would and should have found it wrong had he known. I certainly would have written that way so I did 🙂
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