I want to live!
- EvilKirkās last words
Whatever else you want to say about EvilKirk, itās pretty clear that he didnāt want to be merged back into the single Kirk. Despite this, there is no shortage of reasons why it was a good idea to merge the Kirks: the Enterprise needed its CO back, GoodKirk wanted to do it, and it seems possible that the strain of remaining split would have eventually killed EvilKirk anyways. However, the fact remains that EvilKirk did not consent to the procedure which ended his existence.
Clearly the circumstances here are quite different and thereās basically no argument to be made that allowing EvilKirk to continue to exist would benefit any involved party, EvilKirk included. But for the purposes of this comparison, the only fact that really matters is that EvilKirk was just as passionate about his desire to continue existing as Tuvix was.
Yetāand itās obvious where Iām going with thisāāSpock murdered EvilKirkā is not a meme.
So what gives? Did Spock murder EvilKirk or not? If yes, why does he get a pass while Janeway is condemned?
Iām gonna cheat here a little bit. There are lots of things about the Tuvix debate that really are not about Tuvix; weāve seen Tuvix elicit underlying opinions about everything from abortion to the trolley problem, and weāve often seen thinly-veiled misogyny lurking beneath the surface as certain folks appear interested in finding any flaws in Captain Janeway they can.
So, yes, somewhat trivially, I think that Spock does not get condemned in part because he enjoys the luxury of not being targeted by misogynists. I think itās a small part, but surely a part.
I think the reason there arenāt memes is because, wellā¦ āThe Enemy Withinā is an old episode, it never attracted attention through debate, and also itās a gross episode where EvilKirk straight up attempts to rape Yeoman Rand, and then Spock makes a joke (! Spock! A joke!) about it at the end of the episode. Iām sure itās an episode numerous folks have tried to forget. (I know I have.)
So, in terms of using the episode as a barometer to evaluate our own reactions to the two situations, I think there are overriding contextual factors that drown out any insight we might gain.
As an aside, I also think there is a pretty straightforward argument that EvilKirk (and GoodKirk, for that matter) was not mentally competent. He was, by definition, the remnants of an individual who had had a significant piece of their person torn away from them traumatically.
I think thereās actually an odd but useful comparison to dementia here: dementia does cause some individuals to behave āout-of-characterā, immorally, or just meanly. If there were a ātransporter reintegrationā equivalent to treating dementia, and the patient said, āNo, I want to stay like I amāā¦ then I think probably the patientās wishes would be ignored.
Part of the reason āTuvixā is hard is because, at least superficially, Tuvix appears mentally competent, so itās much harder to justify ignoring his wishes.
(As a second aside, one thing that always surprises me about the Tuvix Discourseā¢ is how little attention is paid to Tuvix beingā¦ well, somewhere between an asshole and a creep. He is incredibly manipulative toward Kes, preying on both her feelings for Neelix as well as her mentoring relationship with Tuvok. Neelix of course always was a bit possessive and jealous, but he at least was written āwith a good heartā; I felt like Tuvix took those same qualities, but added a Tuvok-esque cold calculation to it. In any case, to me thereās a mildly interesting parallel between these two episodes where thereās this tone-deafness to the way the writers treat the behavior of the ātransporter accident individual.ā)
It also helps that both good and evil Kirk were slowly dying due to that traumatic separation, hence their need to be reintegrated before it was too late.
By comparison, Tuvix seemed stable, and there was no pressing need to have them be reintegrated before they both died. It seemed uncharacteristically spiteful to have him be forcefully dragged off to be separated with a risky procedure, whilst still begging for his life, with the only words Captain Janeway having about the situation being āsorry, I need my science officer backā.