^ Vulcan is a member of the Federation, so why would they need separate ships outside of their own planetary system? It's understandable if it's a part of the local Vulcan defense fleet, but the Intrepid was far from Vulcan space when it was destroyed, so that obviously wasn't the case.
Umm, I'd argue the exact opposite. Vulcans would have little interest in operating warships of their own (no expansionist aims, the Federation defends them already), but they would wish to conduct research their own way, they way it ought to be done.
And the presence of the all Vulcan crew on the Intrepid is not fanon.
But the idea that the
Intrepid would be a Starfleet vessel, and/or the same ship mentioned in "Court Martial", is fanon.
As for T'Pol not serving in Starfleet during the time of the Federation. Well she was nearly at the standard forced retirement age of 75. She would be 73 in 2161.
Good point - April in TAS made clear that this was the retirement age for humans, at least in the 2260s. Would Vulcans have any truck with such limits, though?
If you want to support the idea of Spock being the first Vulcan you need to start explaining away things.
I need to do that in any case, as TOS is a jumbled mess to start with. Heck, that's how quite a few Trek novels came to be! Or some later TOS episodes, for that matter.
Like, Vulcan being a member of the Federation. If Starfleet is an arm of the Federation it makes sense that there would be Vulcans in Starfleet. If they are a member in long standing, even more so.
So where
are they? Explain that to me. And while you are at it, explain where the Tellarites are. Not in Starfleet - the possible one in "Lights of Zetar" was a civilian researcher.
"Makes sense" is just fan rationalization at its worst, because Star Trek is fantastic, i.e. most of it runs counter to common sense. "Is allowed by the weirdness established onscreen" is what we should be concerned with, and Spock being The First is part of that category.
Why else would Starfleet assign it to investigate the "disappearance" of a solar system.
Nowhere in the episode is it suggested that Starfleet assigned it to investigate a disappearance. Rather, Starfleet relayed the news that the
Intrepid had reported the disappearance.
Right in Starfleet's wheelhouse, The ship has a Terran origin name.
Hardly. It had a name meaning "fearless". Which might be odd for Vulcans at first sight, but absolutely true in the humorless fashion the Vulcans are famous for. All sorts of aliens get their ship names translated - the Remans famously had one named
Scimitar, remember? Or if you are going to argue it was in fact the
Shi'm'torr, then this baby of course is the
N'tropot...
Then there's the fact Kirk knows the ship is manned by Vulcans.
Well, Spock usually knows everything about everything. Makes sense Kirk would know about things important to Spock, at this late stage of the game - the fact that he didn't know has come to bite him several times already.
All we know is what we see on the show. The rest is less than speculation.
Well, not a tad less. And as established, fan speculation rather often becomes canon fact. So it's just a process, and Spock being The First is an entirely possible outcome at this point.
The themes of the show alone would make such a scenario unlikely.
What themes? As shown, Spock is speeeeeecial. Like all great heroes, he just doesn't make a fuss about it. Moreover, he's the designated speeeeeecial person in TOS, the forte of the other lead being that he triumphs despite being ordinary. It's well established that Vulcans are not trusted or well known, facts speaking in favor of them being rare in Starfleet. It's a trivially small stem from there to saying that Spock is the only one so far, and an even smaller one to say that he was the first even if others have since followed.
Timo Saloniemi
