T'Pau should have been ticked ...

... that McCoy cheated during the koon-ut-kal-if-ee (forgive the spelling) ceremony. The fight was to the death of one of the combatants, yet McCoy only made it look like Kirk was dead. This violated the basic concept of the challenge and, IMO, made a mockery of Vulcan beliefs and traditions. I can imagine T'Pau, arguably the most powerful woman on Vulcan, turning this into a major diplomatic flap. It also could have called into question Stonn's right to T'Pring.

But T'Pau didn't do this, apparently. Any theories?

 

Well, if Kirk is dead then she has to explain why she allowed a human starship captain into a ritual combat which the Vulcans seem to want to keep hush-hush.

Things would seem to have worked out perfectly from her angle.

 

The point is that, as far as anyone actually in the ceremony was concerned (and by that we mean, Spock and T'Pring), Kirk was indeed dead. That is the whole point of it. T'Pring is supposed to notice that one of the combatants killed the other. As far as she knew, that is exactly what happened.

 

Honestly, T'Pau botched the whole situation from the beginning. As in maybe she should have made it clear to the obviously clueless Kirk that it was a challenge to the death before things got too far?

 

^^ Maybe T'Pau had a twisted sense of humor.

"Oh, by the way, Captain Kirk, this combat is to the death. Surprise!"

 

Death doesn't necessarily have to be dealt out, it could just be taken as an allowable outcome. If someone is rendered unconscious or otherwise incapable of fighting there is nothing that says the contest could not be brought to an end. Death is just the likely outcome for one or even both combatants given the state Pon Farr puts the combatants in, not necessarily that one must be executed for the fight to end.

 

We don't know T'Pau's agenda here. But whatever it was, sticking to the letter of ancient ceremony is an unlikely candidate.

T'Pau gets dragged to the ancient fighting grounds of the Sarek estate, to oversee a ceremony involving his radical, estranged son, while Sarek himself refuses to attend. T'Pau then learns that this is all part of a scheme by T'Pring, a perversion of the original ceremony to start with.

Does she approve of T'Pring's logical exploiting of an illogical ritual? Well, she might, if she had been informed of the plan beforehand. As matters stand, she's probably just pissed off and wants to see T'Pring burn. Plus, she apparently has more sympathy for Spock than for the officer's queer father.

All this considered, I just can't see the supposed hardened politician side with the letter of the ritual against the beneficial outcome thereof.

Timo Saloniemi

 

I don't think T'Pau would have made a diplomatic fuss over what McCoy did for the reason that it would have led to a lot of uncomfortable questions about why Kirk was supposed to die in ritual combat on Vulcan in the first place. The Koon-ut-Kalifee ritual isn't exactly supposed to be public knowledge, after all.

Actually, if Kirk had in fact died, I imagine Starfleet would have at least tried to investigate the matter - I'm sure that the Vulcan authorities would have come up with some kind of "regrettable accident" excuse, but I don't know if that would have worked since Spock planned to resign his commission and turn himself in at the nearest Starbase. I also don't really see McCoy keeping silent about the whole thing, he'd doubtless have been fuming. T'Pring may have been technically within her rights to do what she did, but I imagine T'Pau (and Sarek) wasn't happy with her at all. T'Pau may have actually been relieved the way things worked out, although I'm sure she'd never admit it.

I do imagine T'Pau was probably pretty angry at McCoy, though - he did tell a bald-faced lie to her and get away with it, after all. It would have been interesting to see the two of them meet again in another episode...

 

It took me years to realize that Bones was the true hero of this episode. I love how he coldly says, "You're gonna have to kill him, Jim" just as he shoots Kirk up with a substance that guarantees no one will have to die. It makes perfect sense that Bones should be the hero, too, since the villain of the piece is ultimately biology itself.

Oh, and in the novel The Vulcan Academy Murders, T'Pau is miffed that Kirk is alive but not enough to cause an interstellar incident. I prefer to think she places a Vulcan respect for life above a Vulcan devotion to (very unpleasant) tradition.

 

I find it more like than not that T'Pau realized the probability that McCoy was slipping Kirk a mickey. I think she was impressed by the spunkiness of it.

 

Since thing worked out politically and ritually, there is no logical reason for T'Pau to do anything officially

 

What's T'Pau going to do, have the Vulcan's lodge an offical protest?

As others have said it could bring a lot of unwanted attention.

There is also the possibility that Kirk did indeed die, but was brought back onboard the Enterprise. Remember the ceremony was ancient, no doubt preceeding technology that could bring someone back to life.

 

She probably wrote it off as typical human (and half-human) behavior.

 

Yeah, T'Pau probably appreciated a bit of Heart and Soul.

 

Uh-uh. T'Pau made it very clear that "this combat is to the death."

There is a Valjiir-universe fanfic where Spock later meets a woman (another Enterprise science officer) and wants to marry her. Everything seems to be going fine until T'Pring files the Vulcan equivalent of a lawsuit, claiming that she and Spock are still married - since "nobody died." It's a rather interesting take on the Vulcan judicial system.

 

I think she was pretty lucky that Starfleet didn't get a little "ticked" at her for allowing their greatest captain to be killed out of ignorance. She was hardly some victim here. Her handling of the scenario was pretty bad.

 

Oh, she didn't file because she wanted Spock, or because she wasn't satisfied with Stonn. She very logically saw a way to get revenge on Spock and leverage (okay, basically legally blackmail) some concessions out of him and Sarek - or else she wouldn't release him so he could marry Ruth (his fiancee).

 

First - let's keep in mind that we're talking about fanfic, and this particular story was written and published ~25 years ago. Also, keep in mind the way T'Pring was portrayed in Spock's World: greedy, selfish, bigoted, using political means to exact her revenge.

What revenge? Well, consider this: It had been ages since any woman had actually asserted her right to have two men fight to the death during a marriage ceremony. Most civilized Vulcan women who didn't want to go through with the bonding/marriage would have found another way, or just done what Queen Victoria was advised to do ("lie back and think of England").

However, in T'Pring's case, even though she ended up with Stonn, it wasn't the way she expected it to happen, and it didn't have the long-term effect on her life that she anticipated. I'm going by Diane Duane's novel and a whole lot of fanfic here, but basically T'Pring became a social outcast after she Challenged. And Stonn wasn't pleased either, as T'Pring impugned his honor by choosing Kirk as her champion. Yes, she had a logical reason (she didn't want Stonn dead)... but it was still a dishonorable thing to do.

There is one story that spells the situation out quite neatly: T'Pring is networking and negotiating among her female acquaintances to try to arrange marriages for her own children (hers and Stonn's). However, for some reason, nobody is eager to take her up on it. It's not because of any lack of academic credentials or artistic accomplishments or other social/clan traits that Vulcans value... it's because T'Pring challenged. She could have let Spock die because she refused to do her duty. Whatever could T'Pring be influencing her own daughter to do if she decided she didn't want the prospective husband when the Time came?

T'Pring's Challenge forever ended any chance she had of being trusted by her peers - and her children are considered equally untrustworthy, by association.

Logical? Of course not - by human standards. But we know that there is a mean streak of hypocrisy running through Vulcan society anyway.