• 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!

TAS Thougths!

Well, I think the behavior of the Vulcan kids in Yesteryear is just what Amanda described in Journey to Babel: "When you were five years old and came home stiff-lipped, anguished, because the other boys tormented you saying that you weren't really Vulcan..."
And before that, T'Pau's disdainful line, "It is said thy Vulcan blood is thin. Are thee Vulcan or are thee human?"

Kor
Yes, it really shows that the Vulcans really aren't alien, just highly emotional humans with pointed ears and a brain full of denial and self deception. Which, really makes them more emotional than humans without the ability to be honest with themselves.

And worse: Spock himself, having grown up among Vulcans, having seen their emotional nature and having been on the pointed end of it, never is able to see that it's wrong. He adopts their bigoted attitude while himself knowing that it's a bigoted attitude.

Very disappointing.
 
So, really the highly emotional Vulcans in Star Trek: Enterprise weren't out of character.

It's just the highly logical Mr. Spock that's out of character, and everything that he said about Vulcans being devoted to logic was a lie.

Right.

Sorry, but this is why I never much cared for Yesteryear, or Journey to Babel.

Spock's role in TOS put him in the position to make wry comments on the illogical foibles of humanity.
After TOS, that was dumped, and Vulcan's simply represent stand-ins for Humans with emotional issues.
 
The uniform is most likely Uhura's from TOS (though there is a TOS like ball gown behind the Valiant probe--that's a werid one!)
Squire Trelane of Gothos probably wouldn't find said Ball dress 'wierd'... ;)

So, really the highly emotional Vulcans in Star Trek: Enterprise weren't out of character.

It's just the highly logical Mr. Spock that's out of character, and everything that he said about Vulcans being devoted to logic was a lie.

Right.

Sorry, but this is why I never much cared for Yesteryear, or Journey to Babel.

Spock's role in TOS put him in the position to make wry comments on the illogical foibles of humanity.
After TOS, that was dumped, and Vulcan's simply represent stand-ins for Humans with emotional issues.

Another thing I really hate about the way Vulcans and Romulans were portrayed post TOS was the single hairstyle they usually all had (like Spock's from TOS.)

My issue - If you go back and WATCH TOS - the Vulcans and Romulans did not have that one single 'Spock' hairstyle. It was fairly unique to Spock himself; but somehow, post TOS EVERY Vulcan and most Romulans sported that formerly unique Spock hairstyle.
 
Last edited:
If you go back and WATCH TOS - the Vulcans and Romulans did have that one single 'Spock' hairstyle. It was for the unique to Spock himself

Pardon me, but I think you've got a rather crucial typo in there: You're missing a "Not" as in:
"Vulcans and Romulans did not have that one single 'Spock' hairstyle."

It's just a small typo, but it changed the meaning of what I believe you meant. My apologies if I've misread your intent.
 
OTOH, TNG didn't really have a uniform style for Vulcans. Females got all sorts of 'dos, the closest to Spock's perhaps being Selar, but even that wasn't all that close. Sarek kept his "generic Roman" style, which his aide from the titular episode copied, but others didn't.

It was the TNG Romulans who went full totalitarian, in hairdressing and all other dressing, up to and including the otherwise negroid Romulan from "The Pegasus". When Trek returned to Vulcans in ENT, all sorts of hair again sprouted this way and that. Although not red and curly, alas.

Timo Saloniemi
 
Pardon me, but I think you've got a rather crucial typo in there: You're missing a "Not" as in:
"Vulcans and Romulans did not have that one single 'Spock' hairstyle."

It's just a small typo, but it changed the meaning of what I believe you meant. My apologies if I've misread your intent.
You are correct sir. I've corrected the post I made, and thanks as I honestly didn't notice it when I posted it
 
Last edited:
TAS was my first Trek, the one that got me into TOS gradually when I was a little too young for TOS and it was a little intense for me. @GeekFilter has/had a great podcast (and book!) about it, and has been able to dig up some great stories about it.

One of my favorites is that the kid portraying young Spock in Yesteryear, all of his performance is apparently his audition tape. He didn't get a chance to re-do it, they just ran with what they had.

interesting about the young actor. I get Vulcans his their emotions, but his line read was sooooo flat. I just attributed it to him being such a young actor.
 
My issue - If you go back and WATCH TOS - the Vulcans and Romulans did not have that one single 'Spock' hairstyle. It was fairly unique to Spock himself; but somehow, post TOS EVERY Vulcan and most Romulans sported that formerly unique Spock hairstyle.

He's the Vulcan Rachel.
 
It's just the highly logical Mr. Spock that's out of character, and everything that he said about Vulcans being devoted to logic was a lie.

He represents an idealized version of himself and his people, much like Worf in TNG. Or many religious people here on Earth, who preach but largely ignore the content of what they are preaching.
 
Across only four episodes, there are sixteen Vulcans seen in all of TOS, and two of them are women. Of the fourteen men, seven have their hairstyles covered with helmets or a weird skull cap thingy. That leaves us with seven Vulcan males with hairstyles seen in TOS:
* Spock
* Stonn
* Sarek
* Surak
* The Guard (Mirror, Mirror)
* The Two Aides (Journey to Babel): Russ Peek and Frank da Vinci

I'd say that Spock, Surak, and da Vinci all have the same hairstyle. And given Surak's use of it (both in TOS and canonically in Enterprise), it's probably something done in imitation of him, and Spock would be especially imitative of the most Vulcan Vulcan ever.

Sarek is a little more loose and human with his hairstyle just like his love life, although he did (per Discovery) follow proper routine in the past. Stonn is a plebe who quickly combed his short hair in imitation of the look for the marriage event. The mirror guard (Russ Peek) might very well be the same guy as the Vulcan aide (Russ Peek), even though the hairstyle differs slightly across universes. It's really affected by Peek's short hair, otherwise it probably would've been shaped more fully. But Vulcans do tend to suffer from baldness, something they logically feel no need to cover up. I like to think that all of Peek's Vulcan characters are the same, and that Sarek brought his personal executioner with him to Babel. Just in case.

As an addendum: TAS features five new Vulcans: the children (Sepek, Sofek, Stark) and the healer from Yesteryear, and the Councilor from Time Trap. All except for the bald healer have Spock-haircuts, solidifying its commonality in Vulcan culture (in the eyes of production in 1973).
 
He represents an idealized version of himself and his people, much like Worf in TNG. Or many religious people here on Earth, who preach but largely ignore the content of what they are preaching.

Very much this. Surak's reform is a kind of religious reformation, one that Vulcans follow with various degrees of success. We see Spock very much a "true believer" as a result of his identity issues about being half-human. As the movies progressed, we see Spock mellow with this.
 
Very much this. Surak's reform is a kind of religious reformation, one that Vulcans follow with various degrees of success. We see Spock very much a "true believer" as a result of his identity issues about being half-human. As the movies progressed, we see Spock mellow with this.
I like that description. I figured the variety of Vulcan behavior we've see over the years and various series shows that there's a spectrum from pure "Surakists" who shed emotion and follow logic, through Vulcans who just do their best to keep their shit together, all the way to the occasional "atheist" who ignores the whole logic thing and lets his freak flag fly.
 
Well, I think the behavior of the Vulcan kids in Yesteryear is just what Amanda described in Journey to Babel: "When you were five years old and came home stiff-lipped, anguished, because the other boys tormented you saying that you weren't really Vulcan..."
And before that, T'Pau's disdainful line, "It is said thy Vulcan blood is thin. Are thee Vulcan or are thee human?"

Kor
Mind you they might just have taken the shortcut of portraying Vulcan brats like human brats. It’s possible Vulcan children could taunt young Spock in a manner just as emotionally cutting without behaving exactly like human bullies.
 
Mind you they might just have taken the shortcut of portraying Vulcan brats like human brats. It’s possible Vulcan children could taunt young Spock in a manner just as emotionally cutting without behaving exactly like human bullies.
Was the bullying scene done more appropriately in Star Trek 09?
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top