question re. Tuvok/Vorik

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Voyager' started by Dal Rassak, Apr 23, 2013.

  1. Dal Rassak

    Dal Rassak Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    During the series, both Tuvok and Vorik get into that reproductive state where they either have to find a mate or fight someone. Now the doc suggests to Vorik that he should try and "work it off" with the aid of a holographic substitute. He tries this and it doesn't work. However when Tuvok is in the same situation, a holographic simulation of his wife proves adequate.

    I'm a bit puzzled by this. If the pon-farr state can't be resolved by consorting with a hologram, that would make more sense. Re-balancing the brain chemistry has to involve more than just the basic physical act, otherwise you wouldn't even need a hologram - five minutes of fun in private would do the trick. In Vorik's case it's suggested that some kind of a mind-link with the partner is essential, and that this can be forced if the intended mate is a non-Vulcan. That explains why a hologram is useless since they don't have minds. However for Tuvok it's shown to work.
    Is there any reason or is it just one of those instances of writers-didn't-pay-attention-hoping-the-audience-doesn't-either?
     
  2. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Tuvok has already gone through the pon farr and already linked himself to T'Pel. I think this may have something to do with it, as though the switch of linking has been thrown and his familiarity with pon farr allows him to go through the motions if not the exact reality. Perhaps he has achieved some control of his own brain chemistry which the younger inexperienced Vorik would be unable to do do.

    Of course I thought at first you were going to ask why Tuvok and Vorik couldn't pon farr with each other because of the way you've written the subject.
     
  3. Melakon

    Melakon Admiral In Memoriam

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    I think there could be several possible reasons it worked for Tuvok. He's older and more experienced in Vulcan disciplines. He doesn't need to do the combat ritual, he just needs to get his rocks off. His holodeck partner is a simulation of his own wife, whom he's already bonded with. There's a lot we don't know about Vulcan telepathic abilities. We know they can sense over great distances, as Spock is visibly shaken when the Intrepid is destroyed in "The Immunity Syndrome". Perhaps some sort of bonding link still exists between Tuvok and his wife, even at 70000 lightyears.
     
  4. Dal Rassak

    Dal Rassak Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    haha! I should've written "Tuvok and Vorik"... forgot that the / is commonly used to indicate a pairing... But actually, now I'm thinking, if the prospective partner doesn't absolutely have to be a Vulcan, do they absolutely have to be a female?
     
  5. Sonja

    Sonja Ensign Newbie

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    I always thought the hologram solution didn't work for Vorik because he was too fixated on Torres.
     
  6. R. Star

    R. Star Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Which begs the question... why didn't the EMH just program up a holoTorres.
     
  7. Sonja

    Sonja Ensign Newbie

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    Hm... because realTorres[tm] would disassemble him? :evil:
     
  8. Captain Kathryn

    Captain Kathryn Commodore Commodore

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    She would have deleted the EMH's program out of revenge. :klingon:
     
  9. sonak

    sonak Vice Admiral Admiral

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    the pon farr is a pretty silly concept and has been inconsistenly interpreted
     
  10. Captain Kathryn

    Captain Kathryn Commodore Commodore

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    Tuvok was pretty adamant about not cheating on T'Pel, so I doubt he would have done the deed with Vorik. :ack:
     
  11. R. Star

    R. Star Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Doctor/Patient confidentiality. She never would have to know. ;)
     
  12. Melakon

    Melakon Admiral In Memoriam

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    A gay Vulcan almost sounds like mutually exclusive terms, depending on the definition of gay.
     
  13. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    What about those chicken eating ones? The round one seemed quite a happy chap.
     
  14. Melakon

    Melakon Admiral In Memoriam

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    Yes, he does qualify as a gay Vulcan.
     
  15. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The writers fucked up.

    Ponn far has a telepathic element and holograms are telepathically null.

    Of course Tuvok also said that you can work your way through Pon far with meditation which is code for masturbation surely?

    So the hologram could be seen as masturbation plus, rather than sex minus.

    Although if he could frakk anyone, cheating on his wife with a hologram, fuck it, this would have been an excellent opportunity to bring back Jennifer Lien... because he had been resisting his attraction to her forever... Of course half way through the sex with a Kes lightbulb, it turns out to be another Seska time bomb worm virus, who takes the ball and runs with it... Them?

    "Look, I'm dead and I've lost, you probably killed me, I get it, you're the good guys and I'm the bad guys, you won and I lost and nothing I can ever do is going to be enough to put you assholes in the ground but here's what I'm thinking now, if you're still alive now, then I was wrong and you were right and you're going to make it all the way back to the Alpha quadrant and I should have just kept my mouth shut and kept with the program, so I'm sorry I was such a bitch trying to kill you all the times I tried to kill you, but since I'm dead and you probably did it, and like I said if I try to kill you again you're just going to weasel out of my devious trap, I say fuck it, it's time for a parade, I'm a loser, I should just give up, is spite all I have got going for at this point years after my bones have been... I don't want to even think about Kazon Burial practices, unless you left me behind in the boondocks with those thug savages, but here's my revenge, I'm Cardassian without revenge I might as well be a dead woman, well I am a dead woman but here's my revenge, you Mr Tuvok are going to spend the next two hundred years lusting about the memories of tonight were I took you to the unforetold heights of ecstasy and... You're going to fall in love me Tuvok and it's going to kill you because what i have between my legs and how it's going to grip your lovegun and pull the trigger is going to have so much recoil you'll be flinching for the next 3 months, and frankly right now, in the state you are in, bloodfever crazy fluffed up by the kiddy porn elf you're just going to have sex through my clothes because no force in the universe is going to stop you from treating me like an extremely fertile woman tonight."

    But then he kills her which flips the telepathic switch and Tuvok is normal again.
     
  16. Timewalker

    Timewalker Cat-lovin', Star Trekkin' Time Lady Premium Member

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    Combat is not necessary for pon farr. It only occurred in Spock's case because T'Pring refused him.

    Not according to the thousands of Kirk/Spock fanfic stories. :p

    Some people are so sheltered when it comes to fanfic... :lol:

    I'm not into the K/S subgenre of fanfic per se... I've read stories of varying quality, and I have to say that the absolute most disturbing "Spock goes through pon farr" story I ever read was when Spock was on a scientific expedition with his daughter, his wife was not there, and they were stranded on the planet. Spock ran out of time and his teenage daughter volunteered because it was the "logical" thing to do. :wtf:
     
  17. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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  18. Melakon

    Melakon Admiral In Memoriam

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    I wasn't referring to fanfic, and I saw some of the raunchy early stuff when buying just about anything I saw at my first con in 1974. Or maybe you're misinterpreting my comment.
     
  19. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Peter David had a gay Vulcan in his New Frontier novels.

    He mated out of season, Dr. Selar's brother, but I don't recall them telling me what happened when he hit the seven year itch... Of course I once read in a novel that the only reasons that Romulans don't go through pon far is that they have sex when ever they want and never create any seven year long dry spell.

    of course Vulcans full up a planet and Romulans full up an empire, so it's clear that they breed lots.

    However it's also been sid that the psychic powers are attached to the sexual chastity and logical focus... Which was kinda blown out of the water with al that Kirshara/melders are filthy abominations bunk in Enterprise.

    So any Romulan that chose to go without sex until his body tries to commit suicide with get telepathic powers?

    Then there's the question of life span?

    Does the process of logical focus increase their life span or does pon far which is the equivalence of 15 heart attack in a single week, every seven years dramatically shorten their time in the universe... Romulans couldlive for 4 or five hundred years?
     
  20. Timewalker

    Timewalker Cat-lovin', Star Trekkin' Time Lady Premium Member

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    Ooh, aren't we cranky today!

    Your comment sounded like you couldn't imagine a gay Vulcan. I'm just saying it's not hard to imagine at all.