Having met DC Fontana, and having discussed this stuff (briefly) with her, my impression was that the only concocting was in her cleverness to word the scripts so that people could take multiple meanings from her words. Worldbuilding without actually building the world - surely the most intriguing type of storytelling. TOS was rich with this type of stuff. Hence all the "fanon" interpretations of everything over four decades!
And I for one love reading that kind of thing, in any universe. I've been known to laugh out loud and mutter "Oh, you clever s.o.b.!" when I come across something like that in anyone's work. There's another facet to it, and I don't know if other writers experience the same thing, but sometimes the character *won't tell you*. You can cajole, you can threaten, and they stonewall you. You can say "Okay, fine, be that way. I'll just put down the name *I* like." And you put it on the page, and you know it's wrong. So you sigh and delete it and the character gets to keep the secret. Happens with plot points, too. I think a scene is going *this* way, and it veers off at the last minute and goes *that* way. It's particularly challenging when you get to the final scene and your plan was to wrap it up and state unequivocally "...and they all lived happily ever after." Instead, you find yourself typing "...and we can hope that they all lived happily ever after, but once you turn the page, we have no idea, do we?"
Ah yes...the Princess Bride ending (the book, I mean). I think that's one way you know you're being a responsible writer - when you allow the book to be the book it wants to be, rather than necessarily the book you want it to be, if that makes any sense....
Not to mention the address problems. Sarek of Vulcan? Spock of Vulcan? Could you be a tad more specific??
My other DC Fontana anecdote: Her novel "Vulcan's Glory" (Feb 89) was in final revisions at about the same time as the "Spock will have a brother in ST V" rumours, and people in my club were anxious about whether she'd have had time to be able to address the issue in the novel, since the film was due in June of the same year. In media interviews at the time of Director Shatner's announcements for the movie, both Roddenberry and Fontana doubted that Spock ever had siblings (and in memos during the show in the 60s, Fontana would suggest that not having siblings made Spock more unique). I was kinda, sorta, almost expecting a line in the book about Spock having no brothers, but one that left wiggle room for fanon interpretations that wouldn't be undermined by the still-to-come canonical movie, but DC actually went one further and had Amanda say to Spock, "You are the only child of Sarek." DC wasn't breaking canon, since that movie wasn't out yet, but it was a sneaky little line that even ruled out half-brothers, and could have been so easily swept away by an editor's red pencil. Or had she written that line long before the news even broke? When I asked her about it, she gave me a sly grin and said, "I'm thrilled that you noticed."
Works well enough for me. Some cultures, I believe, don't even have family names, correct? So, it's entirely possible that "Spock" is his only name, everything else could just be a Terran interpretation of the Vulcan language.
some Arab folks don't use family names like us in the West. their names translates as: Mohammed son of Hussein, son of Omar, son of Tariq, son of Hussein, from Kirkuk and that's a short one. check out Alexander Siddig's son's full name some time...
But OTOH, since Sybok was ostracized by all Vulcans and therefore by his family, Amanda could be right in that statement strictly from a Vulcan (Sarek's) perspective, even taking STV into account.
ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111 WOO HOO Gigalo Carl Spock Esq. "Puff and pass Baby.. Puff and PAAASSS." - Gigalo Carl Spock, Esq.
Has anyone ever seen the "Super Mario Brothers" movie? There's a scene where Mario and Luigi are arrested by a police officer who asks for their full names. Mario reveals his last name is Mario, and Luigi's last name is Mario, hence the "Mario Brothers." I would be quite happy to have a Spock-Spock.
Ideally, all Sikhs are named Singh and Kaur. Surakism seems at least as radical a break with the Vulcan past. I still like the idea that they have secret, complicated surnames, however.