Amok Time: Nurse Chapel in Spock's Quarters

There's something very heartfelt and yet also tragic in the moment when Nurse Chapel arrives in Spock's quarters to tell him that they will arrive at Vulcan soon. Before she can tell him that, Spock speaks of the dream he had of her, and then when he says "It would be illogical for us to protest against our natures..." If only Nurse Chapel didn't tell him, he would've chosen her right then and there to mate with him, to satisfy the pon farr that was affecting him. It's touching in how we understand that, perhaps, deep down, Spock always had a certain affection for Nurse Chapel, and appreciated her feelings of attraction for him in an intimate sense. It was not logical, but it was sincere and honest.

 

Attribute this to the perfect trifecta of writer, director and actors. If a 3rd season director/producer would have shot this same scene, it could have ended up on the editing room floor.

 

Her name is Christine! Yes, yes I know, Christine!
JB

 

If Chapel was not being cringe Spock was OK with her.
Trouble was she was mostly cringe acting like an embarrassing lovesick teenager.


I think the scene had the potential to be sweet if Chapel wasn't so ridiculous. I never want Chapel/Spock. I know there's fans of it but No.
Was the point of the scene if Chapel had sort of agreed to a romp in the hay instead of backing out, it would have happened. Spock would have abandoned T'Pring. Uggh then the next 1 1/2 Seasons would have been, can I get you some Plomeek soup darling, Chapel holding hands with Spock in sickbay. No. No. No.

 

Are we sure that Nurse Chapel could have even withstood a roll in the red hay with Mr.Spock?
JB

 

If Lois Lane didn't get ripped apart by Superman then anything's possible! I don't recall the website that actually discussed the laws of physics involving the events in question with Superman II...

(Obviously, this is where trying to think of real life events inside fiction and putting fictional beings into our universe with the same powers and abilities intact becomes just a little bit disturbing... it's seemingly just easier to stick with the romance of fiction... especially given how many times we see Spock smash up something...)

 

I believe this was on a bumper sticker offered by a dealer at Space Con 4, decades ago:

"Pon farr is not for you. Stick with what you can understand."

 

Are we sure that Spock mating with Chapel would "satisfy the pon farr? I always interpreted various statements in the script to mean that Spock had to mate with T-Pring to satisfy the pon farr. Although, we found out that attempting to kill and "thinking" one had killed one's friend also satisfies the pon farr. So, who knows.

 

Have you read Larry Niven's short story "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex"?

 

"It would be illogical for us to protest against our natures" is a horrible line of dialog. What does it even mean? We don't know if "protest against" is supposed to be redundant or not.

Does it mean we shouldn't protest, because protesting is against our natures? Protesting what, exactly?

Does it mean we shouldn't protest our natures? And what the hell would that mean? How do you protest your nature?

 

Well, here Trek other than TOS does a pretty good job at establishing that what Spock believes is just Vulcan sex ed at its most dishonest. You get over pon farr simply by twiddling your thumbs (more or less literally; forefingers may feature in there, too), and no, you don't go blind (unless you do, and in that case, check your second eyelids).

It never kills. It never need lead to copulation. It never need lead to choosing a mate. It's just a dizzy spell before your first date - a supremely logical Vulcan invention, replacing the booze this culture does not indulge in.

Timo Saloniemi

 

I had never thought about that moment, where Spock thought that he had actually killed Kirk, might have ended his blood fever, the shock I guess! I know he says that to McCoy and Chapel in Sick-bay later on but that seemed to be a cop out on Spock's part or so I thought! But then again Vulcan's never bluff or lie!
JB

 

That is listed as an essay, not a short story, in the Internet Speculative Fiction Dtabase.

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?133278

 

I believe it means to stop resisting instinct. In Spock's case, his instinct was to mate, and while he was meant for T'Pring, he had yet to know that he would make it to Vulcan in time to complete the mating process. Consequently, Nurse Chapel was there, and he was by then well-aware of her romantic feelings for him, but she had always suppressed them. Therefore, he believed it was time for them to stop fighting against their instincts and to just let it go...

 

So that was Spock's wildly incompetent attempt at seducing Nurse Chapel. And she didn't even know what he was trying to say, so she missed her opportunity.

I suppose that could be the writer's intent. Does anybody else think that?

 

Yes, it's an article, speculating on what would happen to Lois Lane if she were to have sex with Superman.

It does not end well for Lois, for any number of grisly reasons.

 

It was the first time, and Spock was still unaccustomed to human emotions. He didn't quite know how to react, plus she didn't expect him to be forward with her, as she was intent on telling him that they would arrive at Vulcan soon.

 

It was a good scene, one of her best for sure. They connected. She later shares a mind meld with him. In a modern show, that bond would have increased their understanding of each other and allowed their relationship to mature. In a sixties show they just hit the reset button.

I like to think that Dr Chapel qualified as quickly as she did because of the additional mental discipline she acquired from Spock.

 

Watched Amok Time today and the Spock/Chapel scene.
I'm now thinking that Spock was just saying to her - I'm sorry that I can't love you but if it makes you happy to look after me I'll let you do it just this once. I realise how bad it is to have an attraction to someone you can't help.
I don't think he had any plans for hanky-panky with Chapel.

 

The Larry Niven essay can be found using the Wayback Machine, if anyone wants to read it:

https://web.archive.org/web/2008071...g/stories/Man_of_Steel_Woman_of_Kleenex.shtml