Star Trek: 9 Times Mr. Spock Got A Power-Up
Our favorite Vulcan Mr. Spock was not just non-human, he became superhuman. Here's how!
When Star Trek premiered, Mr. Spock was just the logical guy with pointed ears and green blood. But the opportunity to give this “strange visitor from another planet...powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men” - despite his not being from Krypton - clearly proved irresistible.
So over the course of his screen history, various episodes endowed Spock with an array of power-ups, some logical, some utterly illogical.
In moderation, this emphasized his alienness, but the cumulative effect over three seasons turned him into a Swiss Army Knife. Don’t believe it? Try these out...
9. Spock’s Super Strength
When he first appeared Mr. Spock did not possess superhuman abilities. So, when his “uncanny strength” was written into a fight scene in first season episode “A Taste of Armageddon,” the show’s research firm (de Forest Research) noted that “really extraordinary strength has never before been attributed to Mr. Spock.” The scene was rewritten and the super strength was dropped.
That same season, however, the script for “This Side of Paradise” indicated that “Spock is stronger than most men.” Sensing a pattern, de Forest Research asked again:
In previous scripts, Mr. Spock’s agility has been emphasized. This, and an early version of “A Taste of Armageddon” are the first references to his extraordinary strength, which has never been dramatized. Is this meant to establish a new characteristic for Spock?
This time, the strength attribute stuck. In the aired episode, Kirk notes in his log that “Mister Spock is much stronger than the ordinary human being. Aroused, his great physical strength could kill.”
This is demonstrated when Spock literally punches his fingers through a new there-just-to-be-punctured-then-never-seen-again side piece on the transporter console, followed by a missed punch which damages a food synthesizer on the wall (ensuring no further “Tomorrow is Yesterday” chicken soup gags would occur in this room).
Then in the season two opener, “Amok Time,” Spock is shown to be so strong he can pulverize a computer monitor with his fist.