Commander Spock is put in command of a shuttle
mission to investigate the galactic phenomena
Murasake 312. Pulled off course and out of the
Enterprise's sensor range, the shuttle crashes on
Taurus II, a planet inhabited by giant, hostile,
"Bigfoot" style aliens.
Spock is a Vulcan, a member of a race which
embraces logic as a way of living. His natural
tendency is to make decisions based on logic and
intellectual reasoning. In this situation, however,
his logical decisions result in two crewmen dying
and the aliens nearly preventing the repaired
shuttlecraft Galileo from getting off the planet.
Once in space, Engineer Scott informs Spock that
the extra energy they expelled in getting off
the planet has left them only the option of
orbit and relanding on the planet. Spock sends
out an SOS to the Enterprise, although he suspects
the Enterprise has already had to leave on its
mission to deliver medical supplies to another
planet.
When there's no response from the Enterprise,
Spock jettisons and ignites the remaining fuel.
Scott says he's destroyed any chance they had of
making another landing on Taurus II, that they will
burn up in the atmosphere when their orbit decays.
But the Enterprise sees the flare made by the
ignited fuel and beams the remaining crewmembers
aboard the ship as the shuttlecraft is destroyed.
On the bridge at the end, Spock tries to explain
how it was logical for him to ignite the fuel.
When asked if he's saying he reasoned it was time
for an emotional outburst, he bristles a bit but
says that those are essentially the facts.
But the fact remains that Spock's act of emotional
desperation is what finally saved them all. Spock
learned in the episode that there is more to
command than just making logical decisions.
Note: This episode of the Star Trek television
series is not what got me into writing fiction.
That was another television series. I can't recall
any particular novel that made me want to write
fiction.
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