Fal Tor Pan, and Vulcan ethics

[alpha_leonis]

In the conversation on Mount Selaya between Sarek and T'Lar, we discover that Fal Tor Pan is not currently performed in Vulcan ritual. Sarek's request was a violation of what would pass for "taboo" in Vulcan culture. As T'Lar says: it's illogical (and Sarek admits that his logic is faltering at that moment.)

But by the end of the ceremony, they discover that yes, in fact, Fal Tor Pan can work. Which means that, setting aside Vulcan ethics, an individual Vulcan could theoretically be immortal. All they'd need is to occasionally (every couple of centuries, at the end of a natural lifespan) find some other disposable body to deposit their own Katra into. And (as we saw with McCoy) it doesn't even need to be a Vulcan body.

I'm suddenly imagining a race of unethical Vulcans who become Galactic Vampires, taking over unwilling beings as their new katra-holders as their own bodies age out of the genepool. Only their Surak-style ethics prevent them from doing this.

Has this concept ever been explored in any Star Trek story? Sybok was a non-traditional Vulcan, but he was probably too hippie to do anything like this. And the telepathic abilities of Romulans have never really been determined in any way that I can remember (but my sense is that the abilities are not developed as strongly with their lack of logical upbringing.)

Other thoughts on this?

 

[Commishsleer]

I think its explained by the resurrected Spock not having a 'soul' or just an empty mind. Conveniently enough.
Otherwise the ethics are questionable

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

In that sense, katras are to successive Vulcans/other katra hosts like McCoy what symbionts are to Trill, albeit non-corporeal. A Vulcan could even place his katra in a symbiont and its future hosts would enable it to live on as long as the symbiont does.

 

[Ronald Held]

The resurrected Spock had no Katra. No soul is unclear.

 

[The Wormhole]

There are limits to what a katra can do when in someone else's body. Eventually, once everyone realized what was going on with Dr. McCoy, a dose of lexorin prevented Spock from asserting direct control, while not impeding McCoy.

Also, the fal tor pan probably isn't applicable in most circumstances anyway. With Spock, they had access to a regenerated body that they could live again. Had Spock's body not gone to Genesis and been recuperated, it still would have been irradiated and not suitable for the katra. Likewise, if a Vulcan dies of natural causes, the body is still going to be too old to go on even after a fal tor pan, and the ritual isn't going to do anything to change whatever caused a non-natural death. Probably why it is typically considered an illogical request.

 

[fireproof78]

In that sense, katras are to successive Vulcans/other katra hosts like McCoy what symbionts are to Trill, albeit non-corporeal. A Vulcan could even place his katra in a symbiont and its future hosts would enable it to live on as long as the symbiont does.

So, the Trill could potentially be old Vulcans?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

They could potentially host them.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

I've always found it funny that at the outset, they say of Fal Tor Pan: "... What you seek has not been done since ages past, and then, only in legend." So, it's possibly not even a real thing! But right afterward, it's carried out as if there was never any question about it.

 

[Timo]

I'm not sure whether this longevity argument should be connected with Fal Tor Pan, which was a ritual about reintegrating the katra with its previous host body, not all that relevant to the continuing existence of Spock's katra. But anyway:

Supposedly, Sarek's initial plan was to somehow recover Spock's katra from Kirk's head. When he learned it was in McCoy's head instead, he insisted that McCoy be brought to Vulcan. (His ambiguous wording may be suggested to also state he now wanted Spock's bodily component brought to Vulcan, too, for whatever purpose. And we know Kirk's interpretation of Sarek's words worked out fine in the end.)

Perhaps the idea of applying Fal Tor Pan had occurred to him at this stage already, with him being aware (that is, having learned offscreen, through diplomatic channels or from Kirk who was keeping tabs on the Grissom mission) that his son's body was likely to be alive. Perhaps whatever he had planned for the katra inside Kirk was now going to happen to the katra inside McCoy instead. Or perhaps him learning that McCoy was in pain made him decide on emergency procedures that would not have applied in the Kirk case.

But until that point, everything was supposedly just "the Vulcan way", with the katra of a dying Vulcan deposited in somebody else but without any sort of an immortality expectation.

Sarek's three possible motivations for the Vulcan tour paint the katra deposition in three different lights. If McCoy's distress motivates Sarek, then perhaps normally a deposited katra might not manifest in any way, i.e. it would be dead for all practical purposes, incapable of going on enjoying life the usual way. If Sarek was always going to send Kirk to Vulcan for brain vacuuming, then he might have expected Kirk to be aware of the katra's presence, i.e. it might have been alive - or he might merely have expected Spock to have told Kirk that the katra was going in, i.e. it might be dead after all. But if Spock's surprise resurrection motivated Sarek, then we get to the Fal Tor Pan issue...

...Where the "illogic" stems either from everybody (justly?) thinking that katras are no good as substitutes for a living mind, or from everybody (justly!) thinking that a procedure that puts a deposited katra back in its original, since deceased body is silly (except in this one unique case).

Returning Spock's katra worked relatively fine. But was that only because most of his mind had already been resurrected along with his body, and the returning katra just added the spice of some memories and learned personality traits? This would mean katras are no good for longevity, and merely serve as the last page of the late beloved's diary, to be torn out and framed on the wall (or, in legends, glued back to the book once the late beloved springs back to life).

To assume the katra can go on living independently and "represents the whole soul" calls to question McCoy's distress at its manifestation. Kirk was not in distress, and Sarek still assumed the katra was in him. McCoy's distress in turn may have made Sarek tell Kirk to sacrifice his career. It just doesn't sound likely that a manifesting katra would be a routine thing - which in turn means it would be a very poor way to "keep on living" after death.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ronald Held]

If the body were not available,a Katra could be deposited in a Vrekatra.

 

[David cgc]

If the body were not available,a Katra could be deposited in a Vrekatra.

Which, I believe, was the original plan. According to the script and novelization, Spock's Katra would be interred, so to speak, in the Hall of Ancient Thought, along with all the other Vulcans who had the presence of mind to not die alone.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The resurrected Spock had no Katra. No soul is unclear.

Spock always has soul.

 

[Tenacity]

All they'd need is to occasionally (every couple of centuries, at the end of a natural lifespan) find some other disposable body to deposit their own Katra into

That's assuming it would work with another body than your own.