this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2026
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Here's another one for you (I don't know what's up with the story editing this season).
Spock doesn't go for the grav plating controls because the script demands that he be later placed in jeopardy in the ion pod and have a dramatic complication that has to be solved by his mind meld.
But of course it strikes one as a bit odd in-universe why he didn't try for the grav plating controls when Vulcans are hardier - obviously nobody would have known he'd be needed later for the ion pod.
But, if he and Una had swapped, and Spock was the one with the broken foot, not only would have made more sense initially, but also actually lucky. Una may have made it out unscathed, or at least less injured, because she's shown an ability to cure lethal radiation exposure in the past due to her Illyrian heritage (SNW: "Ghosts of Illyria"). Every story beat would be the same except for the mind meld bits.
But then you sacrifice the mind meld scene for story logic.
Maybe my grasp of the lore isn't encyclopedic enough, but is it a given that an augmented Illyrian would be less suited to extremely high gravity than a Vulcan? As I was watching, I just took it that they both silently agreed that Una was the logical choice and didn't need to litigate it.
I do think the mind meld solution was valuable, because without it the entire extremely flimsy neutrino plan to save the day would have gone off without any real wrinkles. Aiming the particles at M'Benga and the deuterium worked exactly as expected, so the real friction was in how many roadblocks they ran into getting the data.
I just took it for granted that she's the ranking officer, and it's her call to make. The fact that it led to a (potentially) unfortunate situation later isn't really relevant in the moment, since they can't predict that.
Yeah, that's a fair point. Time was of the essence, and the commanding officer made a call. We wouldn't normally see anyone question that unless they had a very compelling reason not to.
Not all Ilyrians have the same augmentations, is the impression I get. So no, it's not a given, but unless Spock knows specifically what kinds of augmentations Una has - and I don't see that being a given either - the logical (pardon the expression) person all eyes turn to in the face of a high-gravity problem would be him. Even if it's a, "Commander, let me - I was raised on a high-gravity planet," remark met by a "No, I'm XO and I'm Illyrian," retort, that would have been settled.
And as someone on reddit pointed out, even if Spock hadn't been the one to go in, he could have melded with anyone who had been injured in the pod. Nothing in the story need have changed at all except the person involved.
I guess I wouldn't object to some dialogue like that, but I also don't see it as necessary. I agree that if Una weren't as tough as Spock, or if she'd just never shared this with him, he would have spoken up. Since he didn't say anything we can logically conclude that she is, in fact, known to be that tough. Unless there's some other canon showing that to be untrue, I don't really see the problem with simply accepting that conclusion.
I feel like this is only coming up because Una looks like a normal human. But we know she isn't, so there's no contradiction that I can see.