Think of an awkward comedian, like David O’Doherty. Now spread that out like nails on a chalkboard for an hour. Only then do I think you’ve got Henry Alonso Myers & Robin Wasserman’s “Spock Amok.” Directed by Rachel Leiterman, the mostly second unit or assistant director for things like Lost in Space (reboot), The Man in the High Castle, and Battlestar Galactica (reboot), wouldn’t be instantly recognizable for her own work. Wasserman also isn’t known for her TV work, being a novelist and essayist first with her next project being an adaption of her 2020 book, Mother Daughter Widow Wife. Let’s not joke about Alabama.

There was a point months ago I started a rewatch of the series because season 2 was on the horizon and I knew we’d be moving on to Strange New Worlds after Lower Decks. I had forgotten this was the episode about Spock’s insecurities, having a bad dream, and the point we really start hammering home the flirty Nurse Chapel story. I think all that I’ve written so far shows I don’t like him, and I do mean beyond this single piece. I’ve never gotten along with the lawyer-ish ways of the Vulcans and their pointy-eared ambassador of boredom.

While the relationship between two people that have such exciting conversation that the only thing topping it would be having a lobotomy performed on you with a pickaxe in the A plot, the B story is about Spock and Pike on diplomatic duty. Meanwhile, La’an and Una are on shore-stay, “Where fun goes to die” as M’Benga puts it. Seen as the fuddy-duddies of the ship, we’re on the absolutely (not sarcasm) hilarious adventure of having the two stiffest people playing Enterprise Bingo. Saying that wasn’t part of the sarcasm was actually part of the sarcasm though, as the attempts at humor felt more like “Hey, isn’t this so funny?” as said by a fuddy-duddy.

This is the episode where I think Anson Mount really came into the character of Pike in his own show. Once again he showcases his ability to master a moment for what it actually needs. While the ship is in for repairs and after Spock has had his Vulcan nightmare, T’pring is aboard and of course, criticizing anything that isn’t purely Vulcan. I like T’pring, Gia Sandhu is fantastic for the role and brings that sharp almost serious character to life. However, she is a little bit of a horrible person with her very Vulcan bluntness.

The point comes early that the diplomatic duty that Spock is roped into prematurely conflicts with the plans he had with T’pring. She makes the absolutely valid point that marriage is about sacrifice. This is something that Spock won’t/can’t understand on his own. Whether it is big sacrifices or small ones, a relationship is built on the foundation that two people that make each other happy will give up some things to be there for the other person. We see this with Chapel, as she’s not in the place to have that commitment, she simply seeks intimacy.

I’m getting to the point about Pike, but the parallel between Chapel and Spock is to highlight that while she knows what she wants out of a relationship, Spock is somewhere between marriage and really not wanting or caring for a relationship. Both are completely valid, I’m not trying to criticize either one but there is a sense of immaturity from Spock which is highlighted as possibly his human side. As it turns out, being the more mature out of the two in this field, she gives him advice that goes a little sideways as Spock and T’Pring end up doing a Soul Sharing. One that ends in the absolutely hilarious (sarcasm!) trope of body-swapping.

Now I get to talk about the wonderfully camp moment with Pike! Once Spock and T’pring realize and spend a while twiddling their thumbs on how to get back in their proper bodies, Pike needs to pull “Spock” away for more diplomacy. The thing is Spock is T’pring and T’pring is Spock, so she has to go and have a meeting with the R’ongovian, Vasso L’Gaelia. I’m starting to believe my apostrophe button will be worn down by the time I am done writing this article alone. It gives the two a moment to empathize with each other as T’pring also had work to do being a corrections officer for wayward Vulcans who stray from logic.

It is Mount’s little eyebrow raises and tiny mannerisms that actually make a scene that would be awkward into something funny. Wasserman and Myers fully committed to the attempts to be funny but missed the mark with something that feels off, at least for these characters we’ve gotten/are getting comfortable with. Out of the whole crew, the only one that I think works best at this is Melissa Navia’s Erica Ortegas as the character to puncture the tension of a scene with a joke. Here a lot of jokes don’t feel like they are puncturing so much as they are defusing. La’an’s security piece simply felt wrong.

It also felt wrong that Nurse Chapel said “It must be so weird to be inside your fiancée’s body.” I’m no expert on Vulcan biology, but if you can have half-human-Vulcan people, I can guess how that bedroom stuff works. I think a nurse of a federation ship might also be able to figure that out too. Una and La’an’s plot, for the most part, is similarly “Could we not have had their character developed first before we try and make jokes out of them?” The only point I visibly even smirked was the point when T’pring is punching Alden Adair’s Barjan, who looked a lot like John Carroll Lynch if I’m honest.

“Spock Amok” isn’t a bad story or episode, but I think some of what it tries to achieve is trying too hard to make it known for that very thing, which typically Star Trek isn’t known for. At least not the grown-ups dealing with a conflict section of Star Trek. There are portions of the episode that I enjoy, especially the Solar Sail, and making a variation on what we saw with the Bajoran lightship from Sisko actually look really pretty. I’ll bang this drum every day Paramount, where are the DS9 Blu-Rays?

Truthfully, it is the diplomacy that retains the “grown-ups acting like it” thing that I’m genuinely fond of and is the reason many enjoy Star Trek in the first place. Pike’s role as the straight man in an otherwise odd episode where everyone else (aside from Uhura) is meant to be playing a game of Wacky Races works to his benefit and not everyone else’s. I hate to say it because I adore her so much, but Rebecca Romijn also looks very stiff and uncomfortable when holding a weapon or in those tense scenes. That’s something we’ve seen with the fight between La’an and Una before.

If “Spock Amok” was possibly held back to season 2 or very late in this season, once we’d established everyone and gave them their full presence as characters, I think the comedy would have been more refined and overall better. There are quite a few character beats that could (or do) counter that point, as we have T’pring and Spock understanding each other and we have Chapel shown as someone who would settle down but not with someone she finds boring. Speaking with absolute candor, I honestly don’t care for her having a relationship with Spock. Will-they/won’t-they is tiring.

When “Spock Amok” has its moments, it is great, but when it is trying to make me laugh it is like a fart in a lift, unwelcome. Not the end-all and be-all of “I’m never watching, blah blah blah,” just something I think is worth skipping when it comes to rewatching the series back. It isn’t abhorrent enough to start chanting names in the middle of a pentagram while stabbing tiny dolls with safety pins, but I think Wasserman, Myers, Leiterman, and the cast made the best of an otherwise typical episode for the middle of the season.

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SNW "Spock Amok"

6.5

Score

6.5/10

Pros

• Campy Pike.
• Pike's interesting way of dealing with the R’ongovians.
• Solar Sails! (give me DS9 blu-rays)

Cons

• The delegation of boredom from Vulcan.