Spoilers for “Subspace Rhapsody” (Strange New Worlds season 2 episode 9)
This question is 100% hypothetical. Would the episode have the same plot if Spock at completed kolinahr at this point in his life?
Spoilers for “Subspace Rhapsody” (Strange New Worlds season 2 episode 9)
This question is 100% hypothetical. Would the episode have the same plot if Spock at completed kolinahr at this point in his life?
If Kolinahr works like it says on the tin (purging all emotion), it seems doubtful that the season would have the same plot. Spock probably wouldn’t have been in whatever weird mood compelled him to “steal” the Enterprise and charge off to Cajitar. It’s unclear how he would have been affected if he were again abruptly turned fully human, or if Chapel could have convinced the aliens to change him back, it seems especially unlikely that the two of them would have wound up in a relationship at all. So the emotional cause for his Subspace Rhapsody solo is gone.
As for the more technical side:
If Uhura’s theorizing was correct, an emotionless Spock would have probably been involved in the ensemble songs the same as always, but would by definition be incapable of experiencing “emotions […] so heightened that words won’t suffice”. So it is unlikely that he would have found himself belting out a solo about anything.
At the same time, we see a lot that rather than being the emotionless purely logic-driven creatures that they claim to be, Vulcans are still emotional, often making emotional decisions by pretending that it would be more logical to do one thing than another.
Sarek still wound up with Amanda, and cared for her, even if he went with the emotionless mask.
Although by that logic, even if Spock was emotionless, he just had to reach a point where words were no longer sufficient in conveying the meaning that he wished, and as such, he may still have sung a solo.