Star Trek: The Original Series/Heartwarming

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  • S1
    • E00 The Cage
    • E01 The Man Trap
    • E02 Charlie X
    • E04 The Naked Time
    • E14 Balance of Terror
    • E18 Arena
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    • E21 The Return of the Archons
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    • E23 A Taste of Armageddon
    • E26 Errand of Mercy
    • E28 The City on the Edge of Forever
    • E29 Operation: Annihilate!
  • S2
    • E01 Amok Time
    • E02 Who Mourns for Adonais?
    • E03 The Changeling
    • E04 Mirror, Mirror
    • E05 The Apple
    • E06 The Doomsday Machine
    • E07 Catspaw
    • E09 Metamorphosis
    • E11 Friday's Child
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    • E14 Wolf in the Fold
    • E15 The Trouble With Tribbles
    • E16 The Gamesters of Triskelion
    • E21 Patterns of Force
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    • E01 Spock's Brain
    • E08 For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
    • E24 Turnabout Intruder
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• "The Devil in the Dark" when Kirk and Spock resolve the situation by Shaming the Mob with the revelation that the Horta Monster Is a Mommy, and then propose a solution to resolve the situation, which works perfectly with both populations ending the story living and prospering together in peace.
  • The whole episode is a meta-CMOHW when you know that William Shatner received news of his father's death the day before filming, and was scheduled to ship out later that day. Spock's personal space bubble is as small as it ever was in this episode, as Leonard Nimoy lends Shatner his support. Shatner later recounts his gratitude for the support of the other actors, particularly Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley, likening it to the way elephant herds will converge around the bereaved, offering silent comfort.
  • There's also McCoy successfully curing the Horta, despite being a doctor, not a bricklayer.

McCoy: My God Jim, I'm beginning to think I can cure a rainy day!

• In the otherwise clunky "Requiem for Methuselah" after Kirk is emotionally devastated by the events of the episode, Spock and McCoy come to his quarters. McCoy, after delivering his final report, proceeds to upbraid Spock for his lack of "love". As McCoy departs, Spock leans over his captain's sleeping body and performs a mind meld with just one word: "Forget." Truly, this is the moment where we see just how deeply Spock cares for his captain... and his friend.
  • Also, fun with Ho Yay!
  • Spock's unwavering loyalty extends beyond his friendship to Kirk. The entire episode "The Menagerie" dealt with his loyalty to his first CO, Captain Chris Pike. The episode ends on a massive Crowning Moment of Heartwarming when the Talosians give their "gift" to Captain Pike.
    • And when Spock explains his need for deception instead of revealing everything from the beginning.

Kirk: Even though regulations are explicit, you could have come to me and explained. Spock: Ask you to face the death penalty too? No, one of us was enough.

• This troper found the emotional outburst that Spock nearly had in "Amok Time" after learning that he didn't actually kill the captain to be the biggest Crowning Moment of Heartwarming in the entire show. (Watch!)
  • It was the one and only time in the entire series where Spock smiles of his own free will and volition. Of course it was the best...

"Jim!"

• "The Empath," where, being told that one of them will be subjected to torture that will leave them either near-death or insane, McCoy knocks out both Kirk and Spock so that he will be chosen.
  • This episode was just filled with heartwarming. First there's McCoy rasping "You've got a good bedside manner, Spock," as Spock tenderly cradles his face. Then when he regains consciousness to find Gem absorbing his injuries, he tries to push her away, physician to the last:

Bones: Don't let her touch me. She'll die. Jim... I can't destroy life, even if it's to save my own. I can't. You know that. I can't let you do it.

• • Also, earlier in the episode, after McCoy had drugged an injured Jim to sleep, Gem was watching Spock, who was looking worriedly at his sleeping captain. Not quite understanding the emotion, she reached out and touched Spock's shoulder, before finally realizing why. The smile on her face afterwards says it all.
• In "The Ultimate Computer," when Kirk thinks he's been rendered superfluous as a captain, Spock and Bones, each in his own way, rally round him. First Spock tells him firmly that "a starship...runs on loyalty to one man, and nothing can replace it or him;" then McCoy brings him a drink, and when Kirk bitterly toasts to "Captain Dunsel," the doctor puts a hand on his arm and quietly corrects, "To Captain James T. Kirk." What follows is an iconic Kirk speech that's a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming in its own right:

Kirk: Do you know the one: "All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by...?" You could feel the wind at your back in those days, the sounds of the sea beneath you. And even if you take away the wind and the water, it's still the same. The ship is yours, you can feel her...and the stars are still there.

• The City on the Edge of Forever: Kirk and Spock finally find McCoy, who they'd been separated from for the duration of the episode. Jim and Bones shout each other's names and hug - and Spock runs forward at the same moment, shooting his arm out as if to join in the embrace. In the next shot, he's shaking the doctor's hand quite earnestly.
  • But then It Got Worse.
  • Earlier, Edith Keeler, being very perceptive, points out how out of place Kirk and Spock are in the 1930s. Spock asks where she'd say they do belong.

Edith: You? At his side. As if you've always been there and always will be.

• Journey to Babel. That it's played so deadpan makes it even more Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.

Spock: Emotional, isn't she? Sarek: She has always been that way. Spock: Indeed - why did you marry her? Sarek: At the time, it seemed the logical thing to do.

• This scene in The Omega Glory, where Captain Kirk reads out the preamble to the US Constitution. It doesn't matter if you're not American; the scene, Kirk's absolute intensity and honest belief in the words and most of all the music that plays makes it so very heartwarming.
• The exchange between Spock and McCoy in The Immunity Syndrome. May Double as a Crowning Moment of Funny.

McCoy: "Shut up Spock, we're rescuing you!" Spock: "Why, thank you, Captain McCoy."

• There's also the scene in The Tholian Web were, after having rescued Kirk, both Spock and McCoy deny having reviewed Kirk's final taped orders to them.
  • Kirk's taped orders were a pretty Crowning Moment, too. He knows his friends so well he was able to predict their actions and mediate between them even from beyond the grave. Well, sort of.
• In Balance Of Terror, after engaging the Romulan Warbird Kirk calls a staff meeting to discuss what has happened and where to go from here. He calls Mr. Stiles, the acting navigator, to join them and aks Uhura to takes his place at navigation. What is not stated, or even commented upon, is that with Sulu already at his station, this means the Enterprise is now being operated by a black woman and an asian man. Nobody comments on this, nobody wonders about that, they just accept it as perfectly natural. With no dialoge or a heavy handed message, the show features just a natural acceptance across gender and racial lines.
• "I have been, and always shall be, your friend."
• Spock asking Chapel to make him plomeek soup in "Amok Time." Having vehemently (and very publicly) repudiated her for the same gesture earlier in the episode, knowing she has feelings for him that he can't share, he still sees that his illness is upsetting her and is able to accept her mercy and call her by her first name.