Wht Spock Can't Turn His Emotions Off

[Starborn Dragon]

When Spock is watching Kirk going into his come, he tells Spock he is afraid and asks how he can turn his emotions off.

Spock says he doesn't know how.

I have a personal hypothesis on that. i see at least two possibilities.

One, I think it's possible that he has his father's disease that affects how he controls his emotions. And i think this is complicated by being mixed with human genetics.

Two, I don't think he's gone through Kohlinar (sp?) yet. I suspectm but can't prove,m that it is only through the training of Kohlinar that Vulcans learn how to turn their emotions off and on, or maybe just a complete immersion in submerging their emotions so much that they are permanently off. And this is something that takes years to do.

Just my two cents anyhoo.

 

[Melakon]

When Spock is watching Kirk going into his come...

What?!

 

[Starborn Dragon]

When Spock is watching Kirk going into his come...

What?!

Sorry, but I can't believe Kirk actually flat out died. I think he was in some sort of coma as his brain was still active, or McCoy wouldn't have put him into the cryo tube.

He kirk had actually flat out died, then i can't really see as how Khan's blood could have revived him. Dead is dead, and no amount of science can resurrect you.

 

[Devon]

Look at how you spelled "coma" and read it out loud... "When Spock is watching Kirk going into his come..." It's in good fun though.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Why should Stock be able to turn his emotions off? He's not Data. Spock's never been emotionless, believing so is misunderstanding the character.

 

[Malaika]

Because vulcans have feelings. If vulcans were unfeeling people by nature or were able to control their emotions by simple choice, they wouldn't need Kolinahr.
You said Spock hasn't gone through Kolinahr yet as if he ever did it in tos when, in fact, tos Spock was never able to do that either. He tried when he was much older but he eventually realized that it was not the right path for him and he accepted himself the way he was. When fans say new Spock should go full Kolinahr it makes me cringe because it's a clear hint for me that they don't get the point of his character and that is, for all the claims he's OOC in the reboot, quite ironical.

I think the last movie developed this part of his character well when he is talking with Uhura and trying to make her understand that he actually cares for her deeply (the parallel also was with the fact that he cared about his mother and her death still affected him more than how it looked from the outside) . He says that in the volcano he chose to not feel because he was feeling too much. He was indeed scared and he didn't really want to die, the fact he made it seems like he was fine and indifferent was just his way to try to protect himself from the despair he was feeling (just like he was also on denial about vulcan because he was still grieving, no matter how he looked from the outside)
But him trying to control his feelings or pretending he is fine when he isn't shouldn't be misurandestood as him not having feelings or him being able to feel nothing when he wants to because, really, he never said that and he further makes it clear when Kirk makes that question and he says he doesn't know how to stop to feel.
Kirk maybe wrongly thought that Spock was really able to do that (stop to feel and turn his emotions off) while Uhura on the other hand (see her smile after his speech) understood that Spock's logic and control is just his comfort zone and a way he deals with grief and feelings when they get too powerful for him (also the whole 'I need everyone to continue performing admirably' in the other movie and her 'okay' when he said that) but it doesn't mean he doesn't care or has no feelings, pretty much the opposite.

 

[Melakon]

Dead is dead, and no amount of science can resurrect you.

So by that interpretation, Scott wasn't killed by Nomad in TOS: The Changeling despite McCoy's expert medical diagnosis, and Spock wasn't really dead in TWOK because we all remembered him.

 

[Starborn Dragon]

Look at how you spelled "coma" and read it out loud... "When Spock is watching Kirk going into his come..." It's in good fun though.

I am dyslexic.

And a poor typist as well. You have no clue how hard typing is for me sinetunes,

 

[Starborn Dragon]

Because vulcans have feelings. If vulcans were unfeeling people by nature or were able to control their emotions by simple choice, they wouldn't need Kolinahr.
You said Spock hasn't gone through Kolinahr yet as if he ever did it in tos when, in fact, tos Spock was never able to do that either. He tried when he was much older but he eventually realized that it was not the right path for him and he accepted himself the way he was. When fans say new Spock should go full Kolinahr it makes me cringe because it's a clear hint for me that they don't get the point of his character and that is, for all the claims he's OOC in the reboot, quite ironical.

I think the last movie developed this part of his character well when he is talking with Uhura and trying to make her understand that he actually cares for her deeply (the parallel also was with the fact that he cared about his mother and her death still affected him more than how it looked from the outside) . He says that in the volcano he chose to not feel because he was feeling too much. He was indeed scared and he didn't really want to die, the fact he made it seems like he was fine and indifferent was just his way to try to protect himself from the despair he was feeling (just like he was also on denial about vulcan because he was still grieving, no matter how he looked from the outside)
But him trying to control his feelings or pretending he is fine when he isn't shouldn't be misurandestood as him not having feelings or him being able to feel nothing when he wants to because, really, he never said that and he further makes it clear when Kirk makes that question and he says he doesn't know how to stop to feel.
Kirk maybe wrongly thought that Spock was really able to do that (stop to feel and turn his emotions off) while Uhura on the other hand (see her smile after his speech) understood that Spock's logic and control is just his comfort zone and a way he deals with grief and feelings when they get too powerful for him (also the whole 'I need everyone to continue performing admirably' in the other movie and her 'okay' when he said that) but it doesn't mean he doesn't care or has no feelings, pretty much the opposite.

Actually Spock did go through Kohlinar almost all the way. He was about to complete it when he heard V'Ger call out to him. In the TMP. That's why he failed in that timeline.

And in Into Darkness when Uhura was really upset at him for not caring, he tells her in no uncertain terms that because of the death of Vulcan, and experiencing Pike's death, he chose not to feel.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Spock tried not to feel, he failed. It's a lot easier to accept your own death than to watch a friend or loved one die.

 

[Malaika]

Actually Spock did go through Kohlinar almost all the way. He was about to complete it when he heard V'Ger call out to him. In the TMP. That's why he failed in that timeline.

no, he didn't. He was already failing and trying to find what he couldn't find (Roddenberry makes it all the more obvious in the novelization). The call, as you call it, was just a pretext for him to finally accept that but chances are that even without that event he still would never fully complete the vulcan ritual because it wasn't his path.

And in Into Darkness when Uhura was really upset at him for not caring, he tells her in no uncertain terms that because of the death of Vulcan, and experiencing Pike's death, he chose not to feel.

yes, but he never said that he was ultimately really able to not feel just because he chose to that's Kirk's take (but not Uhura's, hence her smiling because she gets what he's really saying)
the mere fact he's talking about it and he in no uncertain terms admits he feels so much, is itself proof that he cannot turn his emotions off even if sometimes he'd want to especially when they are painful for him e.g., the death of his mother, vulcan getting destroyed (watch a certain scene from tos and put the whole 'multiplied exponentially the day my planet was destroyed' into perspective of him being a telepath too and what he felt when the planet got destroyed and all those people died. What the vulcans survivors all feel. PTSD probably doesn't even describe it all..), having to face his own death and think that he'd never see his girlfriend again or that she will feel the same grief for his death he knows so well because he had experienced it as well first hand. And then Pike's death reminding him everything all over again, his inability to help the man and his certainty he couldn't.

this makes me remember the whole dichotomy when he said 'vulcans cannot lie' and 'vulcans do not lie'. Subtle difference but a huge one.

Spock tried not to feel, he failed. It's a lot easier to accept your own death than to watch a friend or loved one die.

exactly.

 

[The Wormhole]

Two, I don't think he's gone through Kohlinar (sp?) yet. I suspectm but can't prove,m that it is only through the training of Kohlinar that Vulcans learn how to turn their emotions off and on, or maybe just a complete immersion in submerging their emotions so much that they are permanently off. And this is something that takes years to do.

Kohlinar is supposed to purge Vulcans of their emotions, but they are still able to repress their emotions without Kohlinar. Indeed, very few Vulcans actually attain Kohlinar, Spock abandoned it in the Prime Universe, and Tuvok had to abandon it to deal with his ponn farr. Both were still able to repress their emotions unless under some sort of alien influence.

As much as I don't approve the emotional Spock seen in the Abrams movies, I reluctantly admit there is canon precedent for it. Even in the Prime Universe, Spock didn't reign in his emotions too effectively in his younger days, just look at The Cage where he grins over those plants and shouts when "THE WOMEN" disappear from the transporter room. This coupled with the fact that he has recently lost his homeworld and mother could very well have a negative effect on his ability to repress his emotions.

Although it is kind of ironic that in the Prime Universe Kirk faced Spock's death in a more Vulcan way than Abramsverse Spock faced Kirk's.

 

[Melakon]

Other examples of Spock's level of emotional control in TOS are his famous breakdown in "The Naked Time", and when he nearly strangles McCoy in "All Our Yesterdays". That last one is explained by his being 5000 years in the past, and influenced by the psychic contact with barbarian Vulcans of that period.

 

[The Wormhole]

^^Yeah, but those are the result of some sort of external influence, The Naked Time it's the virus. Although I don't really get the thing in All Our Yesterdays, despite being a good distance away from Vulcan not in direct contact with any Vulcans, Spock is still affected by the mindset of most contemporary Vulcans? Because they are emotional and violent, he automatically becomes so simply by existing in the same era?

 

[Melakon]

^ The entire concept of him being able to sense the deaths of an all-Vulcan crew is a bit of a stretch of external influence as well. It opens the question of whether emotional suppression is a learned trait, or caused by the thoughts of millions of Vulcans throughout the galaxy.

 

[Dales]

for a split second I thought I was on a vampire dairies bored because on the show they use the term. vampires can turn their emotion or humanity off.

But on to your question, spock can’t turn his emotion off because it does not work that way, he can only suppress it as much as he can but emotion is not like a switch you turn on and off

 

[Beguiled]

While I agree Spock has and expresses feeling from time to time in Tos but does anyone else find him to be far too emotional in new Trek? I know he lost his mother and his planet but im talking even before that.

 

[Disco]

While I agree Spock has and expresses feeling from time to time in Tos but does anyone else find him to be far too emotional in new Trek? I know he lost his mother and his planet but im talking even before that.

I thought it was played right. This is a much younger Spock than what we see in TOS who is still getting used to close interaction with humans.

In neither timeline can he turn off his emotions but he can control them, something that improves over time.

 

[Mudd]

Spock's never been able to "turn his emotions off," so this is nothing new.

The character in TOS expressed feelings in every episode, so no I don't find him "too emotional" in nuTrek.

 

[The Wormhole]

While I agree Spock has and expresses feeling from time to time in Tos but does anyone else find him to be far too emotional in new Trek? I know he lost his mother and his planet but im talking even before that.

To be honest, all the other Treks have had problems with writing Vulcans in that we almost always have to see them in emotionally volatile states. TNG had Sarek lose control of his emotions and influencing everyone telepathically to turn violent. DS9 had smug Vulcan baseball players and an emotionally disturbed Vulcan murdering people for smiling. Nearly every Tuvok centred episode of Voyager involved him losing control of his emotions, and the episode they did centred on Vorik was the same. And Enterprise had until its fourth season Vulcans who had strayed from the teachings of Surak and had turned militant under what was revealed to be Romulan influence. And T'Pol's character arc in the third season involved her doing drugs which stripped her of her ability to repress emotions.

So yes, while it is disappointing that the Abrams movies are showing a more emotional side to Spock, it's nothing every other series after TOS hasn't done. Even TOS showed Spock's emotions getting out at times, though it did actually seem to be a minority of the time there anyway.