Is Spock an Augment?

[Agenda]

Consider how some say he was not conceived naturally, but was rather genetically engineered to be the first Vulcan/Human hybrid.

Then consider how badass he is. How superintelligent he is. Maybe while trying to reconcile his two alien halves, they did a little shuffling of some of his other genes to make him a wee bit superior to the rest. Or a lot superior. Maybe he has a little bit of Khan in 'im and he doesn't even know it.

[BillJ]

Good question. But I don't think so. McCoy didn't think he could take Stonn in Amok Time while in the blood fever. If anything I would've thought that would've made Spock much more 'competitive' than under normal circumstances.

[VulcanVixen]

I highly doubt that Spock is genetically engineered considering how segregated he is from his own kind. Like in the latest film, those boys called his mother a "whore", whores have sex, so naturally, his mom would have had to have wonderful WHOREY sex with a vulcan, Spock's father. But I hate having to refer to the film... I don't think it's 'out there' to think he could have been a test tube baby, but I would not like to think so, considering his father and mother are together... ya know?

[Pauln6]

If we're talking 'realistically' the odds of ANY alien species being able to breed naturally are unbelievably remote. It's believed that all life on Earth developed from simple cells so we have common ancestry will all other life on Earth and yet humans cannot breed with our nearest relatives, the chimpanzee, with whom we share something like 99.98 DNA.

To suggest that a human could conceive naturally with an alien whose blood chemistry is based on copper is bonkers, even for Star Trek logic. Most probably compatible genitic material would have had to be inserted into an egg and it would have had to be incubated in surrogate or in Amanda with extreme medical intervention.

[Anwar]

Well, we saw Amanda giving birth to Spock the old fashioned way in the Star Trek V flashback. And there is the progenitor common origin thing to consider too.

But it was mentioned a few times in VOY that people underwent gene engineering so they could breed together. So maybe it was Sarek and Amanda who underwent the gene engineering to conceive Spock to begin with.

[C.E. Evans]

I always just thought Spock was half-Vulcan and simply a brilliant scientist in his own right.


I don't think everyone who has above average abilities is genetically engineered. Spock probably was pushed to excelling in science at an early age by Sarek and is just naturally strong because of his Vulcan half.

[Forbin]

Is Spock an Augment?

No.

Next question.

[DevilEyes]

Pauln6 wrote:

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If we're talking 'realistically' the odds of ANY alien species being able to breed naturally are unbelievably remote. It's believed that all life on Earth developed from simple cells so we have common ancestry will all other life on Earth and yet humans cannot breed with our nearest relatives, the chimpanzee, with whom we share something like 99.98 DNA.

To suggest that a human could conceive naturally with an alien whose blood chemistry is based on copper is bonkers, even for Star Trek logic. Most probably compatible genitic material would have had to be inserted into an egg and it would have had to be incubated in surrogate or in Amanda with extreme medical intervention.

Realism has nothing to do with Star Trek. Neither does real science.

There was never any indication that any of the Trek hybrids were anything but naturally conceived and born and indeed we know that at least some of them certainly were not (Alexander Rozhenko, Tora Ziyal, Dukat's other illegimate child with Mika...).

Next question?

[Misfit Toy]

Anwar wrote:

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Well, we saw Amanda giving birth to Spock the old fashioned way in the Star Trek V flashback. And there is the progenitor common origin thing to consider too.

But it was mentioned a few times in VOY that people underwent gene engineering so they could breed together. So maybe it was Sarek and Amanda who underwent the gene engineering to conceive Spock to begin with.

The 1976 album "Inside Star Trek" featured an interview between Gene Roddenberry and Sarek (Mark Lenard) in which Sarek said the following:

"As you must know, an Earth-Vulcan conception will abort during the end of the first month. The fetus is unable to continue life once it begins to develop its primary organs. The fetus Spock was removed from Amanda's body at this time--first such experiment ever attempted. His tiny form resided in a test tube for the following two Earth months, while our physicians performed delicate chemical engineering, introducing over a hundred subtle changes that we hoped would sustain life. At the end of this time, the fetus was returned to Amanda's womb. At the ninth Earth month, the tiny form was again removed from Amanda, prematurely by Vulcan standards, and spent the following four months Vulcan term pregnancy in a specially designed incubator. The infant Spock proved surprisingly resilient--there seems to be something about the Earth-Vulcan mixture, which created in that.. tiny body.. a fierce determination to survive."

I know it's not canon, but it's as close to an actual answer as you'll come.

[Agenda]

I actually heard about the test tube thing once. Maybe they "spiced up the mix" a bit while they were at it.

[Agenda]

BillJ wrote:

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Good question. But I don't think so. McCoy didn't think he could take Stonn in Amok Time while in the blood fever. If anything I would've thought that would've made Spock much more 'competitive' than under normal circumstances.

To me that comment by McCoy doesn't make much sense in any case. You'd think that, biologically speaking, Pon Farr would only increase the capacity of Vulcans to fight for their mate. Whether genetically enhanced or not, I thought that would give Spock an advantage over Stonn.

[Doran]

Somewhere in TOS they talk of an ancient race that seeded the galaxy and explains so many humaniod races through out. Don't ask me specifics, but this is what i seem to recall. But I think I have to agree with anwar on this one, there had to be a bit of medical tampering to ensure genetic compatability. It's only logical.

[BillJ]

Beyond Antares wrote:

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To me that comment by McCoy doesn't make much sense in any case. You'd think that, biologically speaking, Pon Farr would only increase the capacity of Vulcans to fight for their mate. Whether genetically enhanced or not, I thought that would give Spock an advantage over Stonn.

That and Stonn looked like a grade-A weenie!

[Temis the Vorta]

Good point. Artificial hybrids between two species have got to be genetically engineered in some regards. The Federation's prohibition on augments is so irrational, though, they probably had no problem making an exception for "innocuous" hybrids who were engineered only because that was the only way they could exist at all.

I love it when after all this time, somebody come up with a Trek concept that I hadn't run across before.

[Anwar]

Is Augmentation the same thing as the parents undergoing gene treatments for interbreeding, though?