KICK YOUR ENTHUSIASM (18)

By: Greg Rowland
March 3, 2022

One in a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of a favorite sidekick — whether real-life or fictional.

SPOCK

Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, never one to do things by half, has two sidekicks, and four regular reserve sub-sidekicks, and about 420 potential who might, just possibly, survive to serve in a sidekick role, if very lucky. Logic might suggest that Kirk’s two sidekicks, Mr Spock and Dr McCoy, would act as demi-sidekicks, and if the line-counting William Shatner had had his way that might well have been the case. A fascinating alternate structure to the traditional sidekick evolved quickly, and something resembling a distinctly Aristotelian-flavoured trinity: Spock (logic) – McCoy (emotion) – Kirk as the considered synthesis.

A radical structure, whereby Spock would often outrank his Captain in viewer popularity polls, announced the simultaneous elevation and redundancy of the sidekick. It was up to Star Trek to navigate the complex cultural potentialities around sidekickism, of usurpation, subjugation and a third, hitherto unexplored, symbolic space. The pivot point comes in an early episode called ‘The Galileo Seven’. It’s a broadly unsatisfactory, even unsettling, first-season Star Trek episode, and Spock, already garnering heavy press and fan attention, was to command the spotlight. Yet, instead of showcasing the glorious Vulcan, the episode flounders, as did Spock and as did Nimoy, later saying that “I experienced it as a failure. Put into the position of being the driving force, the central character, was very tough for me” (Smithsonian magazine, May 2016 issue).

Spock is by turns, anxious, petulant, sarcastic, cruel, vague, reckless and slow as he tries to figure out a way to get the shuttle craft, the titular Galileo, back into space after it had crashed on a planet that seemed relatively hospitable were it not for the 9ft tall hairy spear-throwers in massive culture shock. Scotty pretty much keeps his cool, as launching zero-fuel broken shuttlecraft is an activity which reflects his optimal Scottiness, but McCoy and other senior staff get really cross at Spock and his relentless adherence to logical procedure. And so, Spock acts like a divvy, and receives a torrent of racist abuse. There’s none of the warm interplay of Aristotelian opposites that the show would later feature. It’s just plain nasty.

Lessons from ‘The Galileo Seven’ are still being unpacked today by scholars and humanitarians. It’s proof that the sidekick can supersede the hero, but only in the presence of the hero. Unlike Kirk, Spock cannot sustain an episode, and Nimoy’s body langue, his uncertainty in bodily expression, tells this tale very clearly. Yet, after the necessary disaster represented by ‘The Galileo Seven,’ the holy triumvirate truly takes shape, modelling the joyful triumvirate for all eternity — each cherishing their in and out of universe narrative bonds. Kirk may be in charge, yet his Body (McCoy) and Mind (Spock) are neither above nor below, for they surely be forever at his side, the kindest and most lateral of our three spatial dimensions.

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MORE ENTHUSIASM at HILOBROW

KICK YOUR ENTHUSIASM (18)

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