Vulcans, sex and Pon Farr

[F. King Daniel]

Both TV/film Trek and the books have been all over the place concerning Pon Farr and Vulcan sex. We're often told that Vulcans are driven to mate once every seven years, and yet in TV/film Trek (Trip/T'Pol, Spock/Uhura) we see (or have spelled out for us) Vulcans getting some outside of their seven-year cycle.

DC Fontana says in her intro to Vulcan's Glory that the writer of "Amok Time" intended Vulcans to have sex as often as they want outside of Pon Farr. In the novel, a young (Pike-era) Spock gets together with fellow Vulcan officer T'Pris. They decide it's the "logical" thing to do in their spare time.

The V'tosh ka'tur Vulcans in ENT "Fusion" claim that Vulcans mate only once every seven years, and that they're looking for ways to accelerate the mating drive.

There are examples in Treklit of Vulcans who seemingly only having sex during Pon Farr, and a few of them doing it whenever.

Which way to you all prefer your Vulcans?

How much leeway to the writers get with this nowadays?

 

[Christopher]

^Well, naturally, the books are obliged to conform to what's explicitly stated in canon. Canon information always takes priority over claims made only in offscreen sources, as a basic guideline.

On the other hand, canonical information is often ambiguous or conflicting, and many books have been able to find ways to reinterpret it (cf. the death of Trip Tucker). For one thing, "Fusion" only says that "Vulcan males are driven to mate once every seven years," and says nothing about females. And "driven to mate" doesn't mean the same as "able to mate." Kov's subsequent line, that the V'tosh katur have been "developing methods to accelerate the mating cycle," does imply a lack of ability to mate at other times, but that's ambiguous enough to leave some wiggle room. The desire to accelerate the cycle may have had some other reason besides simply making more frequent sex possible. Perhaps the V'tosh katur found the more intense mating experience of Pon farr more desirable than the normal kind of sex they're capable of the rest of the time, and wanted to make it available more often.

That's the great thing about ambiguous dialogue. With a little imagination, you can find ways to reinterpret things without blatantly contradicting or ignoring onscreen information.

 

[UncleRogi]

My opinion, FWIW, is that Vulcans can have sex anytime they want. Did Sarek go through Pon Farr with Amanda?

I think only Vulcans off -planet, without recourse to normal biological imperitives, must endure Pon Farr. GET HOME AND MATE--OR ELSE!!!

The bonding that comes with Vulcan arranged marriages must have something to do with it.

It might be that a mating without Pon Farr would be a logical conclusion, given the propogation of the species, and the need for the next generation without the illogic of killing off potential mates. Not survival oriented, nor logical.

REmember though, Spock was Vulcan nobility, and different rules must apply

 

[Jakks]

Well hell, I thought this thread was going to have pictures.

 

[kkozoriz1]

My rule of thumb for Vulcans is what D.C.Fontana says is how it is.

 

[Therin of Andor]

The V'tosh ka'tur Vulcans in ENT "Fusion" claim that Vulcans mate only once every seven years, and that they're looking for ways to accelerate the mating drive.

Well, there are many ways to have sexual intimacy that don't include a vagina being penetrated by a penis so that mating can occur.

 

[JD]

For a while now, I've been thinking that perhaps Pon Farr is the only time that Vulcan's can reproduce.

 

[David cgc]

That could be a decent way to split the difference. They can be intimate anytime, but they're only fertile for the specific period.

 

[Christopher]

I think UncleRogi's right (if I read him correctly): it's unlikely that a species that only reproduced once every seven years would be able to sustain itself. Evolutionarily speaking, that doesn't make much sense. In prehistory, if there had been, say, a few consecutive years between pon farrs of disease or natural disaster or frequent le-matya attacks or whatever, a given population of proto-Vulcans might die out completely before they got the chance to procreate again. Those populations that reproduced more regularly would thus outcompete them. Therefore, the population that proved viable enough to become the modern Vulcan species would presumably be capable of reproducing on a fairly regular basis.

 

[kkozoriz1]

Perhaps Pon Farr is a fairly recent phenomenon. Imagine it as a side effect of the development of psionics in the Vulcan species. When Suark brought forth the suppression, or mastery, of emotions this psionic effect changed the Vulcans biologically, similarly to how stress can cause physical changes in the body. Pon Farr may have been quite different 5000 years ago, before the time of Surak. The seven year cycle may be only 1000 years old.

 

[JD]

Could it be some kind of mutation from all of the nuclear weapons used during the wars that lead to the Romulan Exodus?

 

[Turtletrekker]

I always figured that the Vulcan reproductive system evolved the way it did in order to keep the Vulcans from greatly over-populating such a barren world.

 

[David cgc]

Perhaps Pon Farr is a fairly recent phenomenon. Imagine it as a side effect of the development of psionics in the Vulcan species. When Suark brought forth the suppression, or mastery, of emotions this psionic effect changed the Vulcans biologically, similarly to how stress can cause physical changes in the body. Pon Farr may have been quite different 5000 years ago, before the time of Surak. The seven year cycle may be only 1000 years old.

Peter David suggested that in one of the New Frontier novels. Selar said that the mating drive existed because otherwise each individual Vulcan would logically conclude their talents would be better spent elsewhere and leave it to others to perpetuate the species who could spare the time and trouble of child-rearing.

 

[Sci]

Given its apparent absence among the Romulans, my inclination is to assume that the training to undergo cthia and suppress emotions triggers a fundamental re-wiring of the Vulcan brain, causing the pon farr drive to be triggered in adults as a result of a repressed reproductive urge.

 

[Therin of Andor]

causing the pon farr drive to be triggered in adults as a result of a repressed reproductive urge.

"Festival! Festival!"

 

[Christopher]

I always figured that the Vulcan reproductive system evolved the way it did in order to keep the Vulcans from greatly over-populating such a barren world.

Evolution doesn't work that way. It doesn't have any global awareness or foresight. It's merely a mechanism by which those traits that increase reproductive success are, tautologically, reproduced more successfully and outcompete other traits by sheer numbers. Evolution has no incentive to avoid overpopulation, as evidenced by the multiple instances in Earth's biological record in which a species without natural predators has multiplied to excess and overrun its habitat.

Now, on the other hand, the limited resources of a barren habitat could impose a check on reproductive proclivity, since reproduction is an energy-intensive process. Animals tend not to procreate if they're undernourished, because it's safer to feed one mouth instead of two. The odds of successful procreation are better if you stay alive long enough for famine to pass so you can breed later than if you and your offspring both starve from having to split insufficient food supplies. Still, it's hard to see how that could result in a "once every seven years" cycle.

Come to think of it, it occurs to me there's a flaw in my earlier argument against the seven-year cycle. I was assuming that the whole population was in synch, that they all entered pon farr at the same time. There's no reason to suspect that would be the case, especially since none of the other Vulcan males seen in "Amok Time" was in pon farr. But if they're not in synch, that wouldn't mean that a Vulcan population as a whole would be unable to replenish losses for seven years; it just means that only 1/7 of the population would be procreating in any given year. That still might be too low to maintain an adequate replacement rate, though, especially given the hardships of life on Vulcan and the constant combat between its peoples in pre-Surakian times.

Given its apparent absence among the Romulans, my inclination is to assume that the training to undergo cthia and suppress emotions triggers a fundamental re-wiring of the Vulcan brain, causing the pon farr drive to be triggered in adults as a result of a repressed reproductive urge.

"Fundamental rewiring" might be overstating it. It is possible for behavioral or lifestyle choices to have an effect on physiology without any fundamental evolutionary change. Reproduction is governed by hormones, and hormones are affected by mental state. It's possible that Vulcans' emotional control could involve a willful repression or sublimation of the libido, and perhaps seven years is the maximum time that the drives can be safely contained without the biochemistry getting too far out of balance. Still, one would expect that the interval would be different for different individuals, with seven years being at best the average.

 

[Cybersnark]

It's possible that Vulcans' emotional control could involve a willful repression or sublimation of the libido, and perhaps seven years is the maximum time that the drives can be safely contained without the biochemistry getting too far out of balance. Still, one would expect that the interval would be different for different individuals, with seven years being at best the average.

Perhaps seven years is considered the maximum safe range (cases who can go longer than seven years are probably rare, but likely not unheard of). Vulcans have been shown to be somewhat prudish (at least to outsiders/viewpoint characters), so it's fully possible there are other details of the Pon Farr that they simply don't mention, despite their evident obsession with precise information.

 

[Greg Cox]

My rule of thumb for Vulcans is what D.C.Fontana says is how it is.

Even though Theodore Sturgeon wrote "Amok Time" . . . ?

 

[Christopher]

^Well, here's the thing... Despite what's often assumed, "Amok Time" didn't say one word about a seven-year cycle for pon farr. Spock's analogies to salmon and Regulan eel-birds imply a periodicity, but Sturgeon's script never states outright that Vulcan mating drives happen on any fixed schedule. The seven-year cycle wasn't introduced until "The Cloud Minders," which was scripted by Margaret Armen.

 

[kkozoriz1]

My rule of thumb for Vulcans is what D.C.Fontana says is how it is.

Even though Theodore Sturgeon wrote "Amok Time" . . . ?

Yes, but Dorothy is still with us and is the expert on things Vulcan.