I actually kinda disliked the novelisation (I'm a creaky old lady who misses Vonda McIntyre's novelisations cos they were WIN), and felt like Alan Dean Foster put that in because he couldn't get his mind around the Spock/uhura relationship and it only made sense to him if it's established relationship. But the actual scenes in the finished cut of the film are ambiguous as to when and how it started, and I think can go either way.
Plus the 'lift and Transporter Room scenes have a lot more impact for me if the first scene is Uhura making a choice, and the second scene is definitively Spock making a choice. That is where their relationship takes a different path than Spock Prime and uhura Prime, for me, with the Battle of Vulcan as the catalyst for change in how Spock views himself.
In TOS, becasue he can pass for full Vulcan, Spock Prime (at his father's urging, if we take "Yesteryear" as canon) chose to be More Vulcan Than Vulcan, and to the exclusion of his human heritage until he died that one time and finally accepted the whole instead. This Spock coems to that a lot earlier in his life, and it all has to do with his relationships with his parents, and his parents relationships with each other. Reconciling with Sarek 8 years ahead of schedule vastly changes his perspective on both his parents marriage, and his human heritage.
no subject
Plus the 'lift and Transporter Room scenes have a lot more impact for me if the first scene is Uhura making a choice, and the second scene is definitively Spock making a choice. That is where their relationship takes a different path than Spock Prime and uhura Prime, for me, with the Battle of Vulcan as the catalyst for change in how Spock views himself.
In TOS, becasue he can pass for full Vulcan, Spock Prime (at his father's urging, if we take "Yesteryear" as canon) chose to be More Vulcan Than Vulcan, and to the exclusion of his human heritage until he died that one time and finally accepted the whole instead. This Spock coems to that a lot earlier in his life, and it all has to do with his relationships with his parents, and his parents relationships with each other. Reconciling with Sarek 8 years ahead of schedule vastly changes his perspective on both his parents marriage, and his human heritage.