WARNING: Spoilers are unmarked.
- Spock facing Half-Breed Discrimination has been hinted at in TOS, but this movie shows he's been faced with it since he was newly born, with even his own father making a disapproving "So human" upon being presented with his newborn son.
- McCoy's hidden pain (making the decision to take his dying father off life support) is truly moving. Especially the fact that a cure was found soon after, compounding his feelings of guilt and loss. This scene is so heartwrenching (and DeForest Kelley performs it so sincerely) that it's considered by most to be the single best thing about the entire movie.
- Kirk outright rejects Sybok's offer, knowing better than anyone that one doesn't magically get over grief or trauma like this. Especially in Kirk's case, where would you start with his pain? His loss of Spock? Of David? The Enterprise? Gary Mitchell? Tom Leighton? Edith Keeler? Miramanee? His brother and sister in law? Captain Garrovick, and half the crew of the Farragut? Or even the numerous redshirts who died on his watch? Nevertheless, he refuses to part with any of it, because then it'd be like those important events never mattered.Kirk: Dammit, Bones, you're a doctor. You know that pain and guilt can't be taken away with a wave of a magic wand. They're the things we carry with us, the things that make us who we are. If we lose them, we lose ourselves. I don't want my pain taken away! I need my pain!
- The book adds more Gut Punch, making his pain about how he feels he’s messed up his life, making the wrong choices, and doesn’t need Sybok to see it all crystal clear.
- Kirk sitting round the campfire with Spock and McCoy, telling them that he expects to die alone. He just sounds so… resigned to it, and it’s both a marked difference from the guy with a self-admitted Blood Knight streak, who wanted to die heroically, and yet it’s the same Death Seeker, just a different flavour.
- Sybok's Heroic Sacrifice. His badass challenge to the God of Sha Ka Ree was a good way to go about it, though.Sybok: [furiously charging towards the entity] I couldn't help but notice your pain!
God: [scoffs at the idea] My pain?
Sybok: It runs deep. SHARE IT WITH ME!- Only a member of Spock's family could make that sound badass and still be a tear-jerker.
- The true tear-jerker is Sybok's utter heartbreak upon learning that the god he sought was an impostor and his realization of It's All My Fault.
Sybok: Why? Why have you done this to my friend?
- Only a member of Spock's family could make that sound badass and still be a tear-jerker.
- The novel confirms that Kirk is acting like a Death Seeker by climbing Yosemite (and not wearing safety equipment while white water kayaking), trying to see how close he can get to death with Bones and Spock still around but also lashing out at them, daring them to leave him alone.
- Scotty’s pain is his nephew dying, how he’d spent the last few days of Peter’s life training him, and thinks the boy only stayed at his post to not let Scotty down.
