The unacknowledged irony of the two part episode is that the BigHeads threatened our good Cap’n with fire in his face and eyes, and acid drenching his hands; and then, when he comes home, he endures much that same treatment, bringing us to the time of this tale.
The tale, resolved in the undertaking of Pike’s care by the BigHeads, and the absolution of Spock, tells us where ‘canononical’ gets is meaning.