When did the Pon Farr cycle become seven years?

7 Earth years or 7 Vulcan years.
Say there were 420 personnel aboard the Intrepid. That would mean 60 would have to go home to Vulcan every year. More than 1 a week.
OK while I believe that Vulcans can have random relations what is Spock saying to Droxine? Like I have to have wacky sex every 7 years and you're too delicate for it. Or umm there's a rumour that Vulcans can only have sex every 7 years and I'm going to exploit that rumour to get rid of vacuous Droxine avoiding a diplomatic incident.

 

Well, and here's another question -- does the Pon Farr happen to all Vulcans or just ones that have been betrothed? What happens if there's no intended? Are they just horny for anyone? Was Spock setting Christine up to be the fire bucket when he thought they weren't going to Vulcan?

If they don't need to go home to Vulcan, maybe the Intrepid folk just could get busy with each other to put out the fire.

 

I feel like the intent was to make Pon Farr part of the mating ritual between to joined Vulcans. Not just a 7 year itch in general. And say you mated within that 7 years, do you still have to deal with the blood fever and whatnot?

 

Apparently so, per D.C. Fontana. It's a unique biological drive of its own, separate from more 'casual' mating activity that may go on in the interim.

Kor

 

That's annoying. I would hope there would be an off switch between them once they actually fulfilled the obligation.

 

He should be sent to the punitentary.

 

Well, to be "that guy", is it actually canon or just author dicta?

 

The last huge debate about this ended with the conclusion that they do it every morning to relieve a certain morning condition.

 

Well in ENT, T'Pol was able to have "relations" any old time she wanted but she was female so maybe there are different rules for different genders.
In VOY, the two males Vulcans had pon farr every 7 years and didn't have to go home to Vulcan and could ummm didn't have to consummate.
Spock didn't seem to have a partner in the movie years so what happened there?

 

Manopause

 

To be fair there is a lot of undocumented time from TMP to TUC so it’s quite possible for Spock to have had episodes of pon farr we never saw.

In “Amok Time” we are led to understand Spock had not experienced pon farr until that point where he is likely in his early thirties. So what of those preceding years?

 

This is why I hate the 7 year thing which was (imo correctly) omitted by the time they shot the episode. Spock's dialog hinted that it was kinda new to him. "I hoped I would be spared this, but the ancient drives are just too strong." If he knew it was coming, he would have just taken leave ahead of time. It is "a time of betrothal." This was his marriage/honeymoon.

A one-and-done mating drive is workable in order to keep the race going. Doing it every seven years? That's when it starts to crumble under scrutiny.

Having said that, why couldn't Spock just age out of it? Can you see old man Sarek in the Plak Tow?

 

Vividly and pleasantly...

 

My old theory was that, given the line about Spock hoping it wouldn't happen (presumably because he's half human, and not because he's just that cool), he was far overdue and that influenced T'Pring's decision to take a lover.

 

That works, although I find it hard to believe Spock is "half-human" genetically. Although, I guess with Tuvix, anything is possible...

So, did Spock not have pon farr when he was 14? 21? He was probably on Vulcan at least one of those iterations...

 

Spock saying he hoped he would be spared “this” can be interpreted two ways. We can interpret it as he had somehow avoided experiencing pon farr until we saw it in “Amok Time.” Or we can interpret it as him saying he has not been able to avoid it including previous times.

It could be that he avoided it to some extent by getting off Vulcan for extended periods at great distance from the one he was bonded with, also influenced partly by his mixed breeding. Since we never hear of it again we could take it as him finally having it out of his system, or at least as not as intensely as we saw it depicted in “Amok Time.”

 

As I recall, it was established in TrekLit, or maybe on the Inside Star Trek record, that the Pon Farr cycle doesn't begin until sexual maturity.

 

I guess they…blossom late in life.

 

"Late" is a relative thing for a species for whom 102 is barely on the cusp of middle age.