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Star Trek: Requiem for Methuselah (1969)
One of the best characterizations of Mr. Spock EVER
This episode would not normally be a favorite if it were not for the exploration of Mr. Spock's character. Seemingly an auxiliary character to the plot in this episode, Spock is, in my opinion, the true focus of the writing.
The episode deals with the self-exiled Methuselah, who lives apparently alone on a planet that contains a substance desperately required by McCoy for the formulation of an antidote to a deadly epidemic on-board the Enterprise. The foreground of the plot deals primarily with the acquisition of this substance, and the necessitated dealings with reluctant Methuselah in order to get it.
While in Methuselah's home (who goes by the name "Flint"), Spock takes an interest in several paintings, which he determines to be original Da Vincis, as well as discovering an original Brahms manuscript. Throughout this process, Spock expresses by implication the emotion of envy, and when offered a brandy by a teasing McCoy, he, to everyone's surprise expresses a desire to have one.
Methuselah's young paramour, an android - although Kirk believes her to be human and begins to get affectionate with her - is barely on the verge of developing emotional capacity. Toward the end of the episode, she dies due to the strain of her newly developed emotions, which are divided between the two men she is determined not to hurt (their fight over her causes her too much emotional duress). Interestingly, it is Spock who gives the reason for her death - the conflict of her newly developed emotions that were too strong for her to understand and reconcile - an insight on the part of his character that shows an experiential understanding of what the struggle is really all about.
The apparent focus of the episode, Methuselah, is a study in loneliness, and to what it has driven him: self-exile and the attempted creation of a perfect mate - which ultimately fails. But the nature of Methuselah's character is very thin in comparison to that of the Vulcan's. Spock, who has chosen quite the opposite of solitude, lives with the loneliness of a man who's emotions are not credited except as the butt of some joke (as when Kirk & McCoy offered him the brandy), and especially so in the final scene of the episode, when McCoy looks Spock dead in the eye and tells him how much he pities him because he will never experience all of the wonderful, courageous, painful, etc., qualities of love.) Yet for Mr. Spock, his devotion is something much subtler and deeper than McCoy (or anyone else during the episode - as he seems to be so overshadowed by the dramatics of Kirk and McCoy and even Methuselah - Spock's forced relegation to the background of the plot for the majority of the episode emphasizes his struggle to be understood - to be accepted and loved as well) can apparently grasp.
As McCoy leaves the room, after expressing his wish that the guilt-worn and dozing Kirk could forget the girl (android girl) who died because of her torn love for him, Spock, in a gesture much more authentic and selflessly full of love (especially because he will never be known for his action - and this in contradistinction to all of the various surface qualities of love expressed and described throughout the episode is in fact the most authentic representation of it!), steps forward and in a quiet voice places his fingertips against the Captain's temple and utters "Forget."