Curious line by McCoy in 'The Conscience of the King'

[RobertScorpio]

McCoy offers Spock a drink. The following dialogue takes place:

McCoy: Would you care for a drink, Mr. Spock?
Spock: My father's race was spared the dubious benefits of alcohol.
McCoy: Oh? Now I know why they were conquered.



Throwaway line never followed up on, or a piece of Trek history I missed somehow?

Maybe they had already been drinking before the scene and McCoy was already hammered..

Rob

 

[Tomalak]

He actually said, "Now I know why they were conkered."

In other words, they weren't any good at the popular autumnal playground game conkers, because they hadn't tried to soak their conkers in beer first.

The fools.

 

[RobertScorpio]

He actually said, "Now I know why they were conkered."

In other words, they weren't any good at the popular autumnal playground game conkers, because they hadn't tried to soak their conkers in beer first.

The fools.

Okay..what is CONKERS..it sounds fun already!!!

Rob

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

History is written by the victors of a war. So the Vulcans, who claim to have turned away from war and embraced the way of logic taught by Surak ("The Savage Curtain"), would appear by McCoy's human standards to have been conquered by the sterility of logic instead. So Spock's comment in "The Immunity Syndrome" of Vulcans never being conquered would appear to be correct from the Vulcan point of view.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I dont think McCoy thinks that deeply.

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

I don't know. McCoy got kind of deep with his "Don't destroy the one named Kirk" speech in "Balance of Terror."

 

[Nerys Myk]

Thats Kirk, With Spock he goes for the obvious and shallow.

 

[Cap'n Caveman]

Wait a second, if alcohol does not affect Vulcans, and the Romulans are descended from Vulcans, then why the hell does Romulan Ale exist?

 

[T'Bonz]

A bit of genetic engineering after the Sundering.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Is Romulan Ale alcohol based? Might have a totaly different chemical make up.

 

[Timo]

Well, McCoy does say it "takes a while to ferment" IIRC... A process that's unlikely to lead to other intoxicating compounds besides methanol or ethanol.

But of course ethanol is just a minor additional flavor in drinks like absinthe, where the intoxicating effect of interest comes from wormwood. Romulan ale might contain similar herbal elements that give it the primary punch.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[The Lensman]

Rather than the Japanese role, there seemed to be a little of the Indian thing going...ala Tonto. Spock is the Indian, traveling with the white man. In alot of old westerns, Indians seemed to have almost a super power with crazy accurate tracking abilities. Spock had his own "powers"....

Indians always seemed to have their own unique fighting skills....hand to hand. Spock had his own unique "fighting skills" in the form of the nerve pinch.

Indians always seemed to be, for the most part, calm and cool. Ditto Spock, for the most part.

The early eps also give off the vibe, to me, that the Vulcans are a somewhat recent, possibly conqured find, as their culture and world seems to be very mysterious and unknown. Whether ENT existed or not, it'd be hard to keep stuff like the Pon Farr secret for a century or two from everyone. Vulcans would not always be in the best position to keep it secret, so logically it would've been more reasonable to let humans know just in case. Ditto for medical knowledge about Vulcans and McCoy's remarkable lack of it. And his inability to find info on what constitutes "normal" for a Vulcan in certain instances.

 

[Timo]

Then again, while TOS might have the Vulcans as the oppressed and defeated Injuns, the TOS movies and newer works suggest the Vulcans are the top dogs who are in a position to dictate what humans may or may not know or do - or at least were, shortly before TOS. ENT confirms that this was indeed the case a hundred years before TOS; perhaps the recent or ongoing reversal of roles is the "conquest" McCoy is referring to?

Really, if Vulcans choose not to tell humans details of their culture and physiology, and refuse human access to their planet or bodies, the secrets might survive for centuries. Rebels like Spock who mingle with humans would be the only element that could jeopardize the secrecy... In this reversed-Injun scenario, what would the Red Man really be able to learn about the White culture if not allowed to mingle?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Dick Whitman]

That is an incredibly prescriptive observation The Lensman. Similar to my thoughts about Spock and the Vulcans early in the show. He is treated as mystery not as a co-member species of some "Federation". This along with all the Earth centric references in early episodes paints a very different universe than was later retconed by TOS itself.

 

[Bounty]

This episode is after Balance of Terror, correct?

That means the Vulcans' dirty little secret is out. Romulans weren't some unknown space invaders, they're Vulcans who took a wrong turn and couldn't be brought back to the flock. With that information now public - or at least known to Starfleet - the Vulcans would probably be expected to fill in the backstory of how the split happened and that information would be too good for Bones not to use for some good-natured ribbing. Perhaps that's what the "conquered" refers to; the Vulcan/Romulan split can't have been easy or bloodless (indeed, Enterprise shows rather violent flashbacks to the era), and if it was a full-on civil war, than one faction, say the proto-Romulans, could have held another faction, say the Vulcans, under its thumb... "they were conquered", at least before the tables turned and the Romulans fled into space.

And it leaves Vulcan as a whole unconquered by any foreign power.

 

[Timo]

This episode is after Balance of Terror, correct?

After a fashion. That is, it was aired just before "Balance of Terror", but in fact produced (and supposedly written) later, and features a much later stardate.

So the argument about the cat being out of the bag could certainly be used here, with a disclaimer for those who want to stick to the airdate order.

Timo Saloniemi