Compared with all this drama, Spock’s report and epiphany is pretty much as in the film, as is the standoff over Earth. The increasingly smooth working relationship between Kirk, Spock, and Decker is what allows them to bluff Ilia-probe/Vger, and the trust that Uhura et al have for Kirk pays off too

There’s kind of a strange beat where V’Ger deactivates all force fields and computers on Earth and the Moon and Kirk thinks “oh no! Now we really don’t have a chance!” When Like Nothing was mentioned before that would have given them a chance!