Just viewed the Voyager episode blood fever.
In this ep, the EMH goes like : 'yes, it's Pon Farr, but I know of no treatment. Starfleet knows actually very little about this condition, there's only a handful of observations ever made by Starfleet doctors. Let's improvise!'. We get statements in the same vein whenever we encounter stuff like mindmelds and such.
Which frankly astounds me.
I would think the Vulcans, as a species valuing logic above all else, and being a founding member of the Federation, would have given Starfleet (and other member species) free access to all their medical texts. Why hold anything back, as one of the goals of the Federation is the promulgation and sharing of knowledge? It seems to be that way for other Federation members, so why not for the Vulcans? Sure, these specific matters are considered intensely private, but there must be a sizable body of (anonymized) observations and treatments that have been thought out by Vulcan doctors over the centuries, right ? Or am I really to believe that no Vulcan has ever done some research in this direction over the millennia because of some taboo?
Speaking of which, why are Vulcans so secretive about Pon Farr and other 'typical Vulcan things' in the first place? Wouldn't a truly logical approach be to simply acknowledge that e.g. Pon Farr is a fact of their biology, hence it's useless to attach shame to it, and deal with it as best as they can without trying to cover it up? The way they actually deal with these matters seem to cause them a lot of unnecessary problems ...
Incidentally, this episode has one of the EMH's better oneliners
(edit: unfortunately spotted spelling error in title only after placing this thread and now I cannot correct it)
In this ep, the EMH goes like : 'yes, it's Pon Farr, but I know of no treatment. Starfleet knows actually very little about this condition, there's only a handful of observations ever made by Starfleet doctors. Let's improvise!'. We get statements in the same vein whenever we encounter stuff like mindmelds and such.
Which frankly astounds me.
I would think the Vulcans, as a species valuing logic above all else, and being a founding member of the Federation, would have given Starfleet (and other member species) free access to all their medical texts. Why hold anything back, as one of the goals of the Federation is the promulgation and sharing of knowledge? It seems to be that way for other Federation members, so why not for the Vulcans? Sure, these specific matters are considered intensely private, but there must be a sizable body of (anonymized) observations and treatments that have been thought out by Vulcan doctors over the centuries, right ? Or am I really to believe that no Vulcan has ever done some research in this direction over the millennia because of some taboo?
Speaking of which, why are Vulcans so secretive about Pon Farr and other 'typical Vulcan things' in the first place? Wouldn't a truly logical approach be to simply acknowledge that e.g. Pon Farr is a fact of their biology, hence it's useless to attach shame to it, and deal with it as best as they can without trying to cover it up? The way they actually deal with these matters seem to cause them a lot of unnecessary problems ...
Incidentally, this episode has one of the EMH's better oneliners

VORIK: I have always had great respect for B'Elanna. I hope she isn't too upset with me.
EMH: With Lieutenant Torres, upset is a relative term.
(edit: unfortunately spotted spelling error in title only after placing this thread and now I cannot correct it)
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