I somehow feel unsatisfied with the unhappy ending for this guy. Although he acted weird, it was due to a hormonal imbalance. I feel that after B'Elana beat him up, someone should have helped him. Also, how old was he? I was under the impression (that because Vulcans live a long time) that they reach Pon Farr in their 60-70s? Poor Vorik looks to be in his 20s.
Vorik the Ponfarr Vulcan
- Thread starter Red_Panda
- Start date
Personally I happen to like Vorik, but I fear you'll find little love for him in this forum. He gets picked on unmercifully around these parts.
I agree though; no one seemed to give a fuck about him other than the doctor and maybe Tuvok. Vorik is kind of treated like a villain even though his actions were beyond his control. I think he deserved a little more compassion than what he got.
I could give two shits about B'elanna and Tom honestly. Fuck or don't but they need to make up their minds.
I agree though; no one seemed to give a fuck about him other than the doctor and maybe Tuvok. Vorik is kind of treated like a villain even though his actions were beyond his control. I think he deserved a little more compassion than what he got.
I could give two shits about B'elanna and Tom honestly. Fuck or don't but they need to make up their minds.
When T'Pol was sweating and clawing her way through the corridors in her hormonal imbalance she was all, "fuck me, you know you want to, FUCK ME NOW!!"
Whereas with Vorik we get,
VORIK: I have come to greatly admire not only your impressive technical skills, but also your bravery and sense of moral duty, all excellent qualities in a prospective mate.
VORIK: B'Elanna! You may wish to reconsider. Your choices for a mate are currently limited to seventy three male crew members on this ship, some of whom are already unavailable.
VORIK: I should also remind you that many humanoid species are unable to withstand Klingon mating practices whereas my superior Vulcan strength would make me a very suitable partner.
It's like the Star Trek version of Hot or Not in living colour.
Whereas with Vorik we get,
VORIK: I have come to greatly admire not only your impressive technical skills, but also your bravery and sense of moral duty, all excellent qualities in a prospective mate.
VORIK: B'Elanna! You may wish to reconsider. Your choices for a mate are currently limited to seventy three male crew members on this ship, some of whom are already unavailable.
VORIK: I should also remind you that many humanoid species are unable to withstand Klingon mating practices whereas my superior Vulcan strength would make me a very suitable partner.
It's like the Star Trek version of Hot or Not in living colour.
Vorik was a typical background character for the most part. His one "shining" moment was in Blood Fever... which was an episode so stupid, it made everyone who was in it look bad by association. So naturally Vorik gets the "redshirt" effect and most of the blame for that, and not the main cast.
I think it's my least favorite VOY ep.
Poor Vorik was just such a nonentity. It's hard for me to muster anything but apathy for him, even though his situation sucked.
Maybe I'm being insensitive, but when Tom and B'Elanna were in the "fuck or die" situation, they really should have just done it. All the "I want you, but not like this!" crap is rather stupid when someones life is at stake*. Instead Tom acted like a nervous teenager.
*not to say the "fuck or die" situ isn't incredibly stupid to begin with, cos it is. But hey, grown people are flying through space wearing pyjamas. When in Rome...
Maybe I'm being insensitive, but when Tom and B'Elanna were in the "fuck or die" situation, they really should have just done it. All the "I want you, but not like this!" crap is rather stupid when someones life is at stake*. Instead Tom acted like a nervous teenager.
*not to say the "fuck or die" situ isn't incredibly stupid to begin with, cos it is. But hey, grown people are flying through space wearing pyjamas. When in Rome...
I can't help it, I haven't been able to get the tile of this thread out of my head..
This is how the poor dear would have wanted it to turn out.
Vorik the Pon farr Vulcan
Has a very shiny "nose"
And if you ever saw it..
You would even say it glows
All of the other crewmates
Used to laugh and call him names
B'Elanna never let poor Vorik
Join in any bedtime games
Then one special Blood Fever eve
Klingon Pon farr came to stay..
"Vorik with your "nose" so bright
Won't you glide your "sleigh" tonight?"
Then how B'Elanna loved him
As she shouted out with glee
Vorik the Pon Farr Vulcan
You'll go down.. well you get the picture
This is how the poor dear would have wanted it to turn out.
Vorik the Pon farr Vulcan
Has a very shiny "nose"
And if you ever saw it..
You would even say it glows
All of the other crewmates
Used to laugh and call him names
B'Elanna never let poor Vorik
Join in any bedtime games
Then one special Blood Fever eve
Klingon Pon farr came to stay..
"Vorik with your "nose" so bright
Won't you glide your "sleigh" tonight?"
Then how B'Elanna loved him
As she shouted out with glee
Vorik the Pon Farr Vulcan
You'll go down.. well you get the picture
I have always liked Vorik, particularly in his conversation with Neelix in the episode "Fair Trade".
He seemed quite patient and empathetic with Neelix, characteristics which many Vulcans tend not to have. Perhaps it's his lack of terseness which is the source of a lot of the criticism of Vorik (I'm ignorant of what the criticisms may be).
He seemed quite patient and empathetic with Neelix, characteristics which many Vulcans tend not to have. Perhaps it's his lack of terseness which is the source of a lot of the criticism of Vorik (I'm ignorant of what the criticisms may be).
The criticisms appear to be many and varied (not that I agree with them). They seem to range from he tried to rape Torres in Blood Fever right down to he sucks simply because the actor who played him is the son of Jeri Taylor and everything in between.
I didn't realize a minor character could generate so much vitriol. I'm surprised he doesn't get more hate mail than Andy Robinson does for Dirty Harry. Geez...
I didn't realize a minor character could generate so much vitriol. I'm surprised he doesn't get more hate mail than Andy Robinson does for Dirty Harry. Geez...
Hmm. That very well could be, actually.
We are used to seeing Vulcans as distant and stand offish. When presented with a more compassionate, or "human" alternative, we can get thrown off and confused.
Vorik is an interesting character, worthy of more in depth study, I would think.
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Would you rather chivarly be dead, or B'Elanna?
I think (from what I've read on this forum) is that one's opinion of Vorik is shaped by viewing he handled the situation with respect to (1) he personal needs or (2) how the result appeared to others.
Without the context of Vulcan pon farr and what that really entails, it's true that Vorik looked like he wanted to rape B'Elanna for rejecting his seemingly random proposal. That is going to cause friction with anyone.
However, Vorik's situation was a hormonal imbalance. He was not aware/completely in control of his actions. Obviously he respected and was attracted to B'Elanna (though I personally wished he would've chosen otherwise) and did not even know he melded/put her life in danger until Tuvok came in. Also, among Vulcans, he wasn't acting like a crazy raper-villain. He: (1) carefully chose who he cared about legitimately, (2)got to know her via work and the luau (made reservations for table for 2 mind you), (3) asked for her hand in marriage instead of a casual hook-up. On Vulcan, marriages are somewhat calculated based on compatibility. There isn't really a heavy courting period at all before a marriage (as it is assumed to occur later). The point I'm trying to make here is that with a compromised mindset he acted as honorable towards a delicate situation as he knew how. Just because that grates against human customs doesn't make him a bad guy.
I think accusing Vorik of being a villain is anthropomorphizing an him in an improper way.
Without the context of Vulcan pon farr and what that really entails, it's true that Vorik looked like he wanted to rape B'Elanna for rejecting his seemingly random proposal. That is going to cause friction with anyone.
However, Vorik's situation was a hormonal imbalance. He was not aware/completely in control of his actions. Obviously he respected and was attracted to B'Elanna (though I personally wished he would've chosen otherwise) and did not even know he melded/put her life in danger until Tuvok came in. Also, among Vulcans, he wasn't acting like a crazy raper-villain. He: (1) carefully chose who he cared about legitimately, (2)got to know her via work and the luau (made reservations for table for 2 mind you), (3) asked for her hand in marriage instead of a casual hook-up. On Vulcan, marriages are somewhat calculated based on compatibility. There isn't really a heavy courting period at all before a marriage (as it is assumed to occur later). The point I'm trying to make here is that with a compromised mindset he acted as honorable towards a delicate situation as he knew how. Just because that grates against human customs doesn't make him a bad guy.
I think accusing Vorik of being a villain is anthropomorphizing an him in an improper way.
So you're saying Vorik is an animal?
He most definitively is. He does't look like a plant or a fungus, never mind a protista or a monera.
Pon farr strikes first at puberty. Which could be anything from 7 to 14 years of age, and then flares up like clockwork every 7 years after that. Ipso facto, this was either Vorrik's third or fourth pon farr. Vulcan children/babies are betrothed, psychically locking these infants into biological imperatives which stops ugly virgins from dying out.
Of course does that mean that you can only pair Vulcan children of almost exactly the same age? Or are their pon farr's "synced" by the telepathic betrothal... Or do the girls and both have their own Pon Far where the other party is expected to bite down on a pillow, grin and bare it, aware if they can stomach it through this for the person they are committed to that in a year or two they'll do it for them too no matter how disgusting it gets? According to Memory Alpha, Spock was two years older than T'pring.
Arranged marriages mean dowries. After the smoke settled from Amok Time, can you imagine Sarek kicking the shit out half the planet until he got back whatever land and tithes he had handed over for that little twit T'Pring to submit to his mongrel son? I overstate the racism to explain that Spock must have been a difficult sell, and Sarek might have had to "pay" 3 or 4 times what other father's of pure blooded Vulcan children might have to pony up for a classy betrothal.
(Wait? Who pays? Parents of the bride, or parents of the husband?)
The formality of the arranged marriage we saw might have been just because Spock was practically Vulcan Royalty, which is why his "wife" was forced to commit to a halfblood alien freak she had no care for, when since they were both 30ish in Amok time, and we had seen Spock go through Pon Far as a child in Search for Spock.
Prostitution. Although in Alien Nation, they crouched this sort of thing in religion to make it less seedy. But really can you imagine your parents pushing a 12 year old version of you around your school asking all the other kids if they wanted to go behind the bikesheds with you before your brain explodes and you die? "Please fuck my kid, please." You can't trust tweens to sort this out by themselves, and it's wrong for adults to tell children when and where to become sexually active with whom. The parents probably have a buddy system where they frak each others kids.
Really though if masturbation works, I don't see how this would get anywhere near life threatening for a thirteen year old boy.
But what about the telepathic link? The link that drew Spock from the other side of the universe to get some? The link Vorrik generated within B'Elanna, that only made her super horny and equally as rapey without actually tethering her to any affection with Vorrik?
In cut scenes that were filmed and do exist, Savvik was knocked up by Spock, and we can see her swollen belly as she waves goodbye to the HMS Bounty on it's way back to Earth to face court martial, and then in the Novels Spock and Savvik were married long after the movies finished where young Lieutenant Picard did eventually attend in witness.
One problem is, how communicable is the telepathic link? If B'Elanna, despite being telepathically dormant, could spread it too, or if Vorrik went on to plan B and tried to link with more woman... Military discipline on Voyager could have quickly degenerated into a huge orgy.
This wasn't Vorrik's first rodeo, he's not an innocent, he's an idiot.
There were at least two Vulcan women aboard.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Unnamed_USS_Voyager_personnel#Vulcanoid_nurse
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Unnamed_USS_Voyager_personnel#Vulcan_command_division_officer
But Vorrik saw women for more than how pointy their ears are.
Besides...
What's Vulcaneese for "I joined Starfleet to get away from this shit"?
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Unnamed_USS_Voyager_personnel#Vulcanoid_nurse
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Unnamed_USS_Voyager_personnel#Vulcan_command_division_officer
But Vorrik saw women for more than how pointy their ears are.
Besides...
What's Vulcaneese for "I joined Starfleet to get away from this shit"?
Ah yes, one of Voyager's wonderful inconsistencies. These two were nowhere to be found when Janeway was hiding them from inspections later on. Perhaps they were killed.
I get that Vorik is looking for more than just pointed ears. What I didn't get about he handled his situation is he should have started preparing for it long before his pon farr even showed up. You'd think stranded 70 years from home, he'd realize the logic in adjusting and trying to find a steady girlfriend or something long before his time of the decade. Aside from that, I don't see what else he could have done. He can't just decide not to have pon farr because he's nowhere near Vulcan.
