It is fitting that the second episode of The Animated Series is considered to be the best of this Star Trek iteration, as it is an homage to the greatest episode of the Original Series, “The City on the Edge of Forever”. We see the same all-knowing sentient time portal, the Guardian of Forever, which played a prominent role during its first appearance. The same themes of manipulating the past are explored here, but instead of difficult choices concerning causality, this is a simpler story of Spock learning to become a fully mature Vulcan.
Upon returning from their time-traveling research project, Kirk and crew realize they have accidentally changed the past. Spock is no longer the first officer of the Enterprise because he died as a child during the Kahs-wan, a Vulcan test of endurance. Spock remembers that he would have died at the age of seven if he had not been saved from a venomous predator by a visiting family relative, who must have been his time-traveling older self. Upon traveling back to correct his own timeline, Spock mentors his younger self, helping the young Vulcan boy overcome bullies, increase his self-esteem, and prove himself to his family.
The Kahs-wan involves a brutal trek through a desert filled with deadly predators. Although Spock went back to repair the timeline, he immediately notices that things are playing out differently than he remembers. The young Spock’s beloved pet sehlat, a sabre-toothed bear, accompanies him on the journey, and is attacked by the venomous creature instead of Spock. When the healer arrives, it is too late to save him. The young Vulcan must make a choice between keeping his pet alive, and in pain, or giving him a merciful death. In addition to wandering the desert, and battling dangerous creatures, it is this choice which enables Spock to become fully Vulcan. He must make a choice between an emotional attachment to his pet, and a rational detachment which would allow it to die with dignity.
The choice between letting a pet die or to prolong its life in misery is framed as one made between logic and emotion, and by choosing logic, Spock ultimately chooses the Vulcan worldview. However, it can also be seen as a distinction between selfishness and altruism. If Spock had chosen to keep his pet alive, he would be doing it for himself. He is attached to his pet and unable to let go, while the poor animal is left to suffer only for Spock’s benefit. The examples of Vulcan philosophy that we see in the show often evoke a utilitarian approach to ethics and behaviour. In Spock’s famous words, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one,” he demonstrates his commitment to this type of selfless sacrifice. The Vulcan philosophy of logic teaches a detachment from emotions and an empirical acceptance of the way things are as they are. In accepting the death of his pet as dispassionately as he would the setting sun, he embraces a logic which helps him accept reality and truth.
In contrast, the Vulcan bullies from the beginning of the episode are surprisingly illogical. They make fun of Spock for being half human, even though being half human is not necessarily good or bad, it is simply a fact. The children are more likely acting out of an insecurity within themselves, which causes them to feel threatened or afraid of Spock’s difference. There is nothing for Spock to be ashamed of, just as there would be nothing for him to be proud of, he simply exists, just as his pet inevitably dies. By separating himself from an emotional value judgment, Spock is free to act according to the best interests of everyone around him, and in living in harmony with existence as it is, he is free to be Vulcan.
Hopeless Trekkie 