Amok Time: Nurse Chapel in Spock's Quarters

Spock allowed McCoy to think he was going to die, based on a simple, linear extrapolation of the way his vital signs were trending. But I don't believe Spock was going to die from ponn farr. That's got to be the biggest scam going. The human equivalent is "Come on, Baby, you're killing me!"

 

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Vulcan_system
https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/T'Khut
https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/T'Rukhemai
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Delta_Vega_(Vulcan_system)

 

Well, to be fair, remember Spock is only half-Vulcan, and he was fighting Pon Farr for a long time (by his own admission); so maybe that all resulted in it hitting him harder than your average Vulcan.

Hell, huis father, Sarek either divorced his chosen Vulcan wife (a Vulcan Princess if we believe STV: TFF) - and lived out the remainder of his life with two Human females Amanda and Perrin (and who knows there may have been one or more in between those two who were never mentioned.

Still my point: Like anything biological Pon Farr may affect different Vulcans in different ways. If every 7 years a Vulcan male had to return to Vulcan to mate, or die - the male population of Vulcan would probably be dropping dead on a regular basis.

 

Pon farr may also have led the Vulcans to have equality earlier than some species. If it's mate or die, you have to bring mates with you on any far from home trip. Either that, or plan your spacefaring around your crewmembers' cycles.

 

Or if no women are available for a long spaceflight, at least bring along a few issues of Play-Farr magazine. In case of emergency, break glass.

 

I always assumed that part of Spock's trouble was that he had to touch T'Pring again! not just to mate with her as she was betrothed to him by their parents agreement. His violent altercation with Captain Kirk also probably went far into breaking the blood fever!
JB

 

I wonder whether the USS Intrepid was crewed with a lot of married Vulcan couples...

 

It was a seven year mission, Henoch, take from that what you will!
JB

 

"What is the safe word?"
"You couldn't pronounce it"

 

A bit off topic, but who was the composer for this episode? I know they used several different ones for various episodes. TOS music was always first rate.

 

Gerald Fried. He's 94 now, and the sole surviving composer from TOS. His fight music from "Amok Time" is probably the most famous piece of music from the series, after the show's main title.

 

we must now

duh duh duh duh duh duh Im gonnna killyou
duh duhduh duhduh duh Im am a Vulcan

or so help me
send help

 

You have to come in a little earlier, when the fight music fanfare first kicks off:

Come on!
Let's fight!
Come on, come on!
Let's fight, let's fight!
Because you want my bride and now I'm gonna kill you!
And I'll earn massive cred in my old Vulcan milieu!