• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Complaints about humanizing Spock

^If anyone's managed to watch it all the way through without muting the sound or fast-forwarding the hippy jam sessions, they're a stronger Trekkie than I.
 
My biggest gripe with many Trekkers is they fail to notice that Vulcan's aren't logical because of biology but rather its a cultural choice.

I feel the same way. If they didn't HAVE emotions, why would they need to purge them? The Kolinahr would be redundant.

What bugs me even more is when people deny that having not only your mother but MOST OF YOUR ENTIRE SPECIES killed is enough motivation for snapping the way Spock does. Seriously, people? If you failed to catch your mother when she fell off a cliff, how would you feel?

For the record, that's a rhetorical question.
 
^I'm surprised he remained in control as long as he did.

And yet he was as calm and logical as ever after Vulcan's destruction and his mother's death, except when he had to throw Kirk off the ship for plotting reasons of course.

If Vulcans are as racist as we are lead to believe he should have been well used to that gambit and laughed it off as a nice try. Yes, I know, he was "emotionally compromised", but that didn't prevent is mind working fine prior to that and Kirk subspaced his intention to get under Spock's skin. Spock even realised it, but just like a human, he fell for Kirk's little attempt at melodrama which we are supposed to believe was the last straw.

Spock is part Vulcan and has received years of emotion control training. So why do people persist in trying to justify his behaviour as being the sort of thing Joe Human would do? Because they have to, seems to be the short answer.
 
What bugs me even more is when people deny that having not only your mother but MOST OF YOUR ENTIRE SPECIES killed is enough motivation for snapping the way Spock does.

Sorry to run the risk of bugging you further, but when you think about it, since Vulcans are more emotional than humans to start with, Spock's being half human is actually a big advantage. Since he starts from a less emotional base line, the same training should mean he ends up as a kind of "Super Vulcan", er, emotion-wise. Its only logical.

It would also explain why other Vuclans don't seem to compare as well to Spock as we might expect them to. :)
 
...when you think about it, since Vulcans are more emotional than humans to start with, Spock's being half human is actually a big advantage. Since he starts from a less emotional base line, the same training should mean he ends up as a kind of "Super Vulcan", er, emotion-wise. Its only logical.

How ironic!
 
^I'm surprised he remained in control as long as he did.

And yet he was as calm and logical as ever after Vulcan's destruction and his mother's death, except when he had to throw Kirk off the ship for plotting reasons of course.

If Vulcans are as racist as we are lead to believe he should have been well used to that gambit and laughed it off as a nice try. Yes, I know, he was "emotionally compromised", but that didn't prevent is mind working fine prior to that and Kirk subspaced his intention to get under Spock's skin. Spock even realised it, but just like a human, he fell for Kirk's little attempt at melodrama which we are supposed to believe was the last straw.
If his mind were working fine before that, he would have seen the stunningly obvious, that rendezvousing with the fleet in the Laurentian system would have certainly doomed Earth. He appeared composed, but he was very much compromised.

What you brush off on a good day doesn't apply.
 
And yet he was as calm and logical as ever after Vulcan's destruction and his mother's death, except when he had to throw Kirk off the ship for plotting reasons of course.

So you kind of missed the whole point of what Old Spock was talking about and what was going on during that entire part of the movie.
 
^I'm surprised he remained in control as long as he did.

And yet he was as calm and logical as ever after Vulcan's destruction and his mother's death, except when he had to throw Kirk off the ship for plotting reasons of course.
There's no "plotting reason" for that, since the Enterprise has a perfectly good brig. It was a surprisingly irrational decision that doesn't make sense until we consider how incredibly pissed off Spock was in general.

If Vulcans are as racist as we are lead to believe he should have been well used to that gambit and laughed it off as a nice try.
But Vulcans ARE as racist as we are lead to believe, and we've also seen that the one and only thing that can cause Spock to loose emotional control is to insult his mother.

Spock is part Vulcan and has received years of emotion control training. So why do people persist in trying to justify his behaviour as being the sort of thing Joe Human would do?
Because:
1) He's half human, and partly raised by a human mother.
2) The MOVIE justifies his behavior in the bully scene. You can insult Spock 35 times and he'll just shrug it off, but the first time you mention his mother, he'll stomp you like a cockroach.
 
What bugs me even more is when people deny that having not only your mother but MOST OF YOUR ENTIRE SPECIES killed is enough motivation for snapping the way Spock does.

Sorry to run the risk of bugging you further, but when you think about it, since Vulcans are more emotional than humans to start with, Spock's being half human is actually a big advantage. Since he starts from a less emotional base line, the same training should mean he ends up as a kind of "Super Vulcan", er, emotion-wise. Its only logical.

It would also explain why other Vuclans don't seem to compare as well to Spock as we might expect them to. :)

Don't worry, reasonable conversation doesn't bug me. You actually make a good point. But Vulcans are also arguably better at controlling their emotions, meaning Spock wouldn't be as skilled as most Vulcans. But Spock's Berserk Button has always been insulting his mother, which is obviously something he has never even bothered to control. You insult that boy's mama and he will END you.
 
There's no "plotting reason" for that, since the Enterprise has a perfectly good brig.

I'd think it does have one. Which makes you wonder why security went along with ejecting Kirk, especially if a regulation was indeed violated. Also, you'd think they could have landed Kirk much closer to the base.

Man, I wish there had been some exposition in the film on Spock Prime deciding to wait near Scotty for the currents in time to bring Kirk there.
 
How can anyone complain about something "humanizing" Spock? Spock is half-human! We may as well complain that VOY "klingonized" B'Elanna, or that DS9 "bajorized" Ziyal.
 
Thank you, DevilEyes.

It reminds me of a thread here a while back, something about 50 reasons someone didn't like NuTrek. One was 'everyone knows Spock doesn't show emotion.' Made me want to slap the guy through cyberspace. Spock shows emotion often. He is half-human, which is a fundamental part of his character.
 
Isn't the idea more so human culture rather than biology though? Like it doesn't matter if he's even full human, he could be raised under Vulcan culture. I think that's the general idea behind the OP is that they think he's culturally different. I don't really agree with that though.
 
There's no "plotting reason" for that, since the Enterprise has a perfectly good brig.

I'd think it does have one. Which makes you wonder why security went along with ejecting Kirk, especially if a regulation was indeed violated. Also, you'd think they could have landed Kirk much closer to the base.

Man, I wish there had been some exposition in the film on Spock Prime deciding to wait near Scotty for the currents in time to bring Kirk there.
The early script on IMSDB has a few lines where Spock says something like "I'd put you in the brig but I know you'd just escape".

Although launching Kirk to Delta Vega is extreme, it does hint at Spock's close to cracking after the destruction of Vulcan. He wanted Kirk GONE.

A bit ago, I was suprised to read in the first New Frontier novel (published in the late 90's) that ejecting stowaways in escape pods is an acceptable, but rarely practiced, option under Starfleet regulations.
 
Isn't the idea more so human culture rather than biology though? Like it doesn't matter if he's even full human, he could be raised under Vulcan culture. I think that's the general idea behind the OP is that they think he's culturally different. I don't really agree with that though.

True, the point is more about his personality, not his genetics. But it's a misconception that he's entirely logical all the time, even in TOS he shows emotion.

My issue is when someone claims that being emotional in itself is out of character for Spock. He's not supposed to be emotional all the time, but he's not supposed to be emotionless all the time either. I don't think his personality is a lot more human in NuTrek than TOS - especially considering that he's younger - but Your Mileage May Vary.
 
True, the point is more about his personality, not his genetics. But it's a misconception that he's entirely logical all the time, even in TOS he shows emotion.

Yep, and even when they set up the situations like, "Oh, he's so logical" or "He never lies," it's usually just so that they can show the opposite later for dramatic effect. And people latch on to those descriptions like it's gospel.

Although to be fair, it's possible they didn't do enough of the setup though instead just relying on it being established decades ago.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top