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'Amok Time' question

What I would really like to know, though, is what on Earth (or Vulcan) did Spock mean when he said to Chapel "It would be illogical for us to protest against our natures".

I'm sure there's a whole bunch of S/C fanfic about this somewhere. :rommie:
 
I can't think of any examples off the top of my head of regular TNG making inter-star system trips.

We could almost always claim that the shuttles were making trips from a star system to a starship that hovered nearby - perhaps because ships don't like having to come into the warp shallows around stars. So even when an episode opened with hero X coming from star system Y to return to his or her ship, we could argue the hop was a relatively short one. Hell, we never saw a TNG shuttle at warp speed, with the associated VFX! The same applies to TOS: shuttles did seem to have at least limited warp capabilities, but they never really flew from one star system to another. There could always have been a rendezvous with a starship as part of their flight plan, even in "Metamorphosis" - or a degree of desperation to the attempted flight, as in "The Menagerie" or "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield".

Only one very explicit exception comes to mind: In "Skin of Evil", a shuttle of unknown type was coming from a star system, was stated to be moving at warp speed, and crashed on a planet in a different system, thus showing clear interstellar warp capabilities. Yet we could argue this was a runabout-sized craft, since all we saw was the squashed rear part sticking out of a cliff... And this is really the only example of a shuttle explicitly stated to be at warp and moving from star system to star system, before runabouts or VOY.

Yet it's perfectly possible to argue that at least some of the TOS and TNG shuttles were capable of independent interstellar transit. There's no strong counterindication there, after all - just absence of evidence.

Timo Saloniemi
There was a TNG episode where Picard and Wesley were taking a shuttle on an interstellar trip while the Enterprise had to go the opposite way. That's all I vaguely remember so it's a bit hard to look up, I'm sure someone will remember the ep lickity split.

Any shuttle could be capable of interstellar transit... eventually. As long as it didn't hit anything to slow it down. The question is, could it do warp? And since warp 1 wouldn't get them anywhere in any kind of reasonable timeframe, why bother? In an emergency it would be better to stay near your last known position than to set off on a multi-year journey.

I'd say that in 'Galileo 7' charging the batteries with the hand phasers kind of indicates there aren't warp engines, but you're right Timo, it's just a hint, there's no absolute statement that they can't.
 
There was a TNG episode where Picard and Wesley were taking a shuttle on an interstellar trip while the Enterprise had to go the opposite way. That's all I vaguely remember so it's a bit hard to look up, I'm sure someone will remember the ep lickity split.


It was the 2nd Season episode "Samaritan Snare", here is a link to it at startrek.com and here is an excerpt of the 1st paragraph:

In order for Wesley Crusher to complete his Starfleet exams, he must travel to Starbase 515 in the Scylla Sector. He is unexpectedly joined on his trip by Captain Picard, who has been ordered by Dr. Pulaski to undergo a cardiac replacement operation.

Here is a picture from this episode of Wes and Capt. Picard in the shuttlecraft courtesy of trekcore.com.


Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
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The idea behind finding a mate was so that there could be, um, mating.
If you notice T'Pring's dress, it looks like it was tailor made for....mating. It is cut high in the front. Do you think that part of the ceremony, had the fight not occurred, would have included "mating" in front of everyone? That would fit with the way they have tried to sterilize all emotions. "This is the Vulcan heart, this is the Vulcan soul".
 
^ They didn't have holodecks during TOS. Or if they did, I've been missing something fairly important all these years.
There was much we didn't see in the series recordings. No bathrooms. No bowling alleys... and yet there they were in the blueprints. Given how close in time TNG was to TOS, there must have been either holodecks or something very similar (maybe holographic cinemascope). But for Spock, all he'd need is a little mental self-hypnosis or meditation...
 
^ Those are some blueprints I'd like to see. I'm hoping for a skating rink. And, of course, a really elaborate HO-scale train set-up.
 
^ They didn't have holodecks during TOS. Or if they did, I've been missing something fairly important all these years.
There was much we didn't see in the series recordings. No bathrooms. No bowling alleys... and yet there they were in the blueprints. Given how close in time TNG was to TOS, there must have been either holodecks or something very similar (maybe holographic cinemascope). But for Spock, all he'd need is a little mental self-hypnosis or meditation...

One of TAS episodes began with Kirk in a holodeck which premiered circa 1973-1974, which is after TOS ended (1966-1969). I don't recall the title of TAS episode, nor what the episode was about. Perhaps a TAS fan will remember and post the info.

Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
/\
 
^ They didn't have holodecks during TOS. Or if they did, I've been missing something fairly important all these years.

And I don't want to think about ANYBODY masturbating. I know it happens but it is, thank God, none of my business. TMI! TMI! TMI!

Especially if it's Sulu. :scream:
 
I've always wondered why there's no fearing for Spock's life after T'Pring refuses him.

I thought the pon-far thing clearly states he must take a mate or DIE!

He doesn't take a mate.

Yet...he doesn't die.

So...what happened here?
 
One of TAS episodes began with Kirk in a holodeck which premiered circa 1973-1974, which is after TOS ended (1966-1969). I don't recall the title of TAS episode, nor what the episode was about. Perhaps a TAS fan will remember and post the info.

Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
/\
The Recreation room was first shown in "The Practical Joker".
 
I've always been annoyed with Kirk for not explaining to Admiral Komack that his First Officer's life depended on getting him to Vulcan. McCoy had told him Spock would die unless taken there, and yet he makes no mention of this when speaking to Komack. Admittedly he had pledged to honor Spock's privacy, but he could have explained that he had a medical emergency on his hands without going into details.
 
...And as for masturbation on the show, I'm certain I recall it happening during several episodes--no, WAIT--that was me!!!
 
The idea behind finding a mate was so that there could be, um, mating.
If you notice T'Pring's dress, it looks like it was tailor made for....mating. It is cut high in the front. Do you think that part of the ceremony, had the fight not occurred, would have included "mating" in front of everyone?

That would fit with the way they have tried to sterilize all emotions. "This is the Vulcan heart, this is the Vulcan soul".

"... this is the Vulcan doggystyle, in front of Grandma."

Joe, sitting with the coworkers
 
The idea behind finding a mate was so that there could be, um, mating.
If you notice T'Pring's dress, it looks like it was tailor made for....mating. It is cut high in the front. Do you think that part of the ceremony, had the fight not occurred, would have included "mating" in front of everyone? That would fit with the way they have tried to sterilize all emotions. "This is the Vulcan heart, this is the Vulcan soul".

No, but if it did, Vulcans just became that much more awesome.:lol:

Rush Limborg said:
I've always wondered why there's no fearing for Spock's life after T'Pring refuses him.

I thought the pon-far thing clearly states he must take a mate or DIE!

He doesn't take a mate.

Yet...he doesn't die.

So...what happened here?

Death is a get out of sex free card. It's almost plausible as a favorable adaptation on the level of the group, if not the individual. A population that cannot provide enough mates to prevent males (or females?) from fighting one another is perhaps less likely to be able to provide for its offspring. The smell of a corpse triggers a hormonal change, resets the clock, and you wait seven years, and if things are better, you try again.
 
^Well, that's all well and good, but the simple fact is: We are all led to believe that Spock Must Mate Or DIE!!!

So why doesn't he die???

Don't get me wrong: I like Spock. I wouldn't want him to die. But this would seem to be a MAJOR plot hole that the writers neglected to explain.
 
During TOS shuttles are treated as short range vessels, not something you can go cruising around the galaxy in.

That's right, and starships are treated generally as having a far greater range and much faster speeds than any other ships. I don't think that this question would have occurred in this way to those of us watching Trek in the 1960s. This is a side-effect of the extraordinarily shrunken and over-populated "Trek Universe" that evolved throughtout the 1980s and particularly the 1990s era of "24th century" Trek.
 
ponn far can be fatal for the males, but female vulcans don't get it do they. I loved the voyager episode where Torres cought it and tried to rip the clothes off tom paris. Plus Tuvoks "we don't talk about it" to the doctor. on a more serious note wouldn't spocks actions have been covered under vulcan law.ie T'Pau's.
 
There was a TNG episode where Picard and Wesley were taking a shuttle on an interstellar trip while the Enterprise had to go the opposite way.

That trip, in "Samaritan Snare", is a good example of what I spoke of: a trip that does not go from star to star, but only from ship to star. The E-D could have dropped the Captain off just outside the star system, much like they waited just outside the system in "The Neutral Zone" or like how Scotty waited for Kirk apparently just beyond an asteroid belt in "Metamorphosis". It seems that starships don't always want to travel all the way to planets, but send a shuttle for the last leg.

Note also that the shuttle never went to warp during that trip, judging by the stars constantly visible through the windows...

There was much we didn't see in the series recordings. No bathrooms. No bowling alleys... and yet there they were in the blueprints.

That's basically three different categories of proof:

* Holodecks (which, thanks to VOY, we know don't help much with pon farr) were not seen nor implied in TOS, but were shown in TAS. And they are really pretty much today's technology, so it would be odd if TOS didn't have them.

* Bowling alleys were not seen but were mentioned in "The Naked Time", were included in some fan blueprints, and definitely are existing tech. However, we have reason to think they didn't exist in TOS, since Lt. Riley who referred to the bowling alley was joking (read: lying) about everything else, and thus probably about the alley, too. Certainly TOS tech would make bowling alleys irrelevant, and simulations thereof a more likely proposition.

* Toilets were not seen nor mentioned, but are existing tech, and would no doubt be needed even in the era of TOS tech.

I thought the pon-far thing clearly states he must take a mate or DIE!

Nope. In the episode, we learned of two possible ways to deal with it: take a mate, or fight for her in a fatal duel. Spock did fight for T'Pring in a fatal duel, which thus should have been enough by definition. And it was - he snapped out of it once successfully killing his opponent.

Later episodes (VOY "Blood Fever") showed that the fight need not always be fatal, and that there are other possible cop-outs as well. But even the basic setup doesn't require choosing between just the two options of taking a mate or dying; even in its most simple form, it offers the three options of taking a mate, dying, or enjoying the great satisfaction of winning a duel.

ponn far can be fatal for the males, but female vulcans don't get it do they.

Until ENT "Bounty", we thought so. But that episode proved that females get it, too, and they, too, must find a mate or die (with a few possible exceptions, of course). We also learn that it manifests as a "biochemical imbalance" and is of cyclic nature (although a seven-year cycle is never mentioned). And when T'Pol tries to "find a mate", she pleads for random males to get intimate with her.

Which may mean that females must have physical sex to get through pon farr. Or that females, too, must merely secure a mate for themselves, and promise of physical sex is how they do it. A preventive/alleviating medication is found in the 22nd century, so TOS Vulcan females might use that medication and avoid the symptoms. Clearly, no comparable medication is available for 24th century Vulcan males.

I loved the voyager episode where Torres cought it and tried to rip the clothes off tom paris.

That was rather an exceptional example, because Torres got the "infection" from a Vulcan male, not female. She thus probably acted in a male-like fashion through most of it, even though there were minor adaptations (urge for opposite sex would now be aimed at males, etc.).

on a more serious note wouldn't spocks actions have been covered under vulcan law.ie T'Pau's.

Probably, at least in part. But Vulcan law would in all likelihood have decreed that Spock had done no wrong in killing Kirk - after all, that's what Vulcans in pon farr do when there's a contest. Yet Spock knew that Starfleet and the Federation wouldn't approve, and he felt remorse and need for punishment, so naturally he'd seek a Starfleet verdict on his deed.

Would there be any other Vulcans who would be under Federation law on this? That is, let's assume that local Vulcan law overrules federal law in this case, out of biological necessity - but not on Vulcans who aren't citizens of Vulcan. And Spock had apparently waived his rights as a Vulcan when eloping to Starfleet. His legal position could well be unique, then.

Timo Saloniemi
 
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