Spock Smiles

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As a Vulcan, Spock is not supposed to smile. On the rare occasions when he does smile in canon, he is usually under alien influence. Occasionally he does give a small smile if the situation warrants it.

Naturally, some fans can not resist the temptation of portraying this human emotion on his face. Others dislike it. A fan from The K/S Press #89 writes: "There is something extremely disconcerting about watching Spock laughing out loud; doesn't seem quite decent, somehow, like catching him in his underwear."

"I Feel a Smile Coming On," filk by Mary Frey, illo by Kathy Carlson, from IDIC #4 (1976)

A Brief Canon History

In the unaired pilot, "The Cage," Spock discovers chiming flowers on the planet and gives other landing party members a big grin. In fact, his smiling is one of the most remarked upon aspects of the pilot.

He also smiles and laughs in "This Side of Paradise", when he is affected by the alien spores on Omicron Ceti III. The song "Once I Smiled" on Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy describes his experience.

The one time in the regular series that he smiles totally of his own accord and without being influenced by alien spores, time travel, etc., is at the end of "Amok Time", when he thinks he has killed Jim Kirk and then finds him alive. Fans go wild with speculation through slash-colored glasses about this.

When Henoch inhabits Spock's body in "Return to Tomorrow", he does much smiling and laughing. Kollos smiles a lot and quotes poetry when he mind-melds with Spock in "Is There In Truth No Beauty".

Spock is forced to laugh as well as cry by the Platonians in "Plato's Stepchildren". Dr. McCoy warns them that this could actually kill him.

In "All Our Yesterdays", Spock travels back many thousands of years to the ice age of the planet Sarpeidon. Apparently telepathically affected by the barbaric Vulcans of that day, Spock began reacting emotionally to the woman, Zarabeth, whom he found trapped in that time period. He smiled once or twice.

Some Fic Featuring a Smiling Spock

The zine 500 Year Diary promises no smiling Spocks.

Vids with a Smiling Spock

Gallery of Spock Smiles