Romulans And Mating...

[Timo]

Tuvok's first pon farr was in 2304 when he was about 40, older than Spock who was 37 in Amok Time.

Umm, how so? We only know Tuvok had a pon farr in 2304, the one in which he took T'Pel as his mate.

We also know Tuvok declares "incorrect" one of the three aspects of Tom Paris' speculation: " If you were married in 2304 and your daughter was conceived in your eleventh pon farr, that would make you 162 years old". We can tell the math isn't off as such, so either the starting facts (year of marriage, conception of daughter on 11th) are wrong, or then there's an underlying error in the speculation.

I doubt Paris would get the facts wrong, but his understanding of how pon farr works can be faulty. Yes, we can speculate the seven-year cycle doesn't work the way we think - but the much easier assumption is that Tuvok wasn't married on his first pon farr. After all, this does away with the apparent contradiction of him starting out late even in comparison with Spock.

As we already know that taking of mate or killing somebody isn't truly madatory in pon farr, T'Pel could still have been Tuvok's first mate. But nothing requires us to think she was.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Guy Gardener]

T'Pring who should have been just as #uckcrazy as Spock, sat there stoically while Kirk, Stonn and Spock fought to the death for her entertainment.

I know that the story was set in the future, but when were (modern/official) Kegels invented?

Wikipedia says 1948.

 

[Tim Thomason]

T'Pring who should have been just as #uckcrazy as Spock, sat there stoically while Kirk, Stonn and Spock fought to the death for her entertainment.

I know that the story was set in the future, but when were (modern/official) Kegels invented?

Wikipedia says 1948.

She may have had a little bit of blood fever prior to us meeting her, but, you know, Stonn was there.

 

[Commishsleer]

Agreed. Though given the specific words and context used it is clear that what is being referred to reproduction.
...
We are specifically told they take a mate (have sex) once every seven years. The only this that can disturb this cycle is "extreme feminine beauty".

Take a mate to what?
Dinner, a show, get flowers, fill up the car with petrol.?
For some of us that only happens every 7 years too.

While I agree its heavily implied and intended that umm reproduction must take place during pon farr its never stated explicitly that that's the only time reproduction happens.
The closest we come to that is in :"Cloud Minders" but when Spock mentions the cycle he could mean only once every 7 years would he go insane enough to take on a pampered spoiled racist princess,

Anyway I think that Spock doesn't know that much about the subject anyway. Can you imagine Sarek ging Spock "the talk"? Spock probably picked up the details in the playground like most of us. Got it wrong like most of us and thats why "Amok Time" happened.

Anyway I agree that pon farr sounds biological so I guess Romulans get it too.
But perhaps their emotional behaviour mitigates it somewhat.

 

[Henoch]

The closest we come to that is in :"Cloud Minders" but when Spock mentions the cycle he could mean only once every 7 years would he go insane enough to take on a pampered spoiled racist princess,

T'Pring; Droxine. Christine Chapel is taking the wrong approach with Spock.

 

[Timo]

To recap on old speculation, pon farr could be given a rationale easily enough.

Vulcan is hostile to the Vulcan species. Spock sees merits to stories suggesting extra-Vulcanian origin to the species. Perhaps Vulcan would have been even more hostile to the transplanted pointy-ears had they not been engineered with extra survival traits? One would be a built-in limiting of procreation in a resources-scarce environment. Another would be biologically/telepathically forced marriage to combat inbreeding, with the forcing done across desert wastes to ensure the boy meets the girl from the other village and not his own. The traits would survive in Romulans, but the latter would find little practical relevance in non-Vulcan environments. Yet it would be the foundation of Vulcanoid telepathy, and could be perverted into a weapon easily enough. Which may have been foreseen by Sargon's people, which is why emotionally intense telepathy is engineered to result in utter incoherence.

But as said, we have no current evidence on the pon farr cycle actually limiting procreation.

Timo Saloniemi