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Vulcan Breeding Stock

Wasn't Tuvok 212 years old in Voyager when Capt. Janeway gave him the birthday cake? And nowhere near retirement (Or at least 112?)

Probably 112.

After "The Counter-Clock Incident" Starfleet reviewed its mandatory force retirement policy, and allowed Robert April to continue serving if he wanted. This would have been not long after Tuvok was born.
 
Vulcans in the Federation doesn't necessarily mean Vulcans in Starfleet (and the Academy). Perhaps the only way to entice them into Starfleet was to let them have a ship to themselves.

I suppose that could be true. Still, though, it doesn't change the fact that the Intrepid is still a Starfleet vessel. It's not under the control of what remains of Vulcan's local defense force - it's a Starfleet ship that happens to have an all-Vulcan crew. Like the T'Kumbra from DS9.
 
Wasn't Tuvok 212 years old in Voyager when Capt. Janeway gave him the birthday cake? And nowhere near retirement (Or at least 112?)
Somewhere just short of 100, going by dialogue:
JANEWAY: Happy birthday.
TUVOK: Thank you.
JANEWAY: So, it's not long before you hit the big three digits, huh?
TUVOK: Indeed. Have you informed anyone else of your discovery?
JANEWAY: Don't worry, Tuvok, my lips are sealed. Well? You're supposed to blow out the candle.
 
Wasn't Tuvok 212 years old in Voyager when Capt. Janeway gave him the birthday cake? And nowhere near retirement (Or at least 112?)
Somewhere just short of 100, going by dialogue:
JANEWAY: Happy birthday.
TUVOK: Thank you.
JANEWAY: So, it's not long before you hit the big three digits, huh?
TUVOK: Indeed. Have you informed anyone else of your discovery?
JANEWAY: Don't worry, Tuvok, my lips are sealed. Well? You're supposed to blow out the candle.
Ah, now, I know where my confusion came from, I heard 3rd Century, not 3 Digits, was why I always thought it was 200+. Thanks, that's always bothered me, because I thought it was far too old (The extra 12 was just misremembering).

Still, as young as he was at 100 years old, forced retirement at 75 is ridiculous.
 
Vulcans in the Federation doesn't necessarily mean Vulcans in Starfleet (and the Academy). Perhaps the only way to entice them into Starfleet was to let them have a ship to themselves.

I suppose that could be true. Still, though, it doesn't change the fact that the Intrepid is still a Starfleet vessel. It's not under the control of what remains of Vulcan's local defense force - it's a Starfleet ship that happens to have an all-Vulcan crew. Like the T'Kumbra from DS9.

It could go either way, but yeah, a SF vessel but with an all Vulcan crew is probably more likely.

Most Vulcans didn't like how Humans smelled anyway.

Did any TOS novel ever expand on the Intrepid?
 
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.
No, it's a TV show that was developing as it was being made

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.
On Vulcan, various bases and ships like the Intrepid. It's a big fleet.

"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.
No it's the weighing of the options and going with the one that fits best. Trek is pretty grounded, the weirdness comes from the SF setting not the structure of Starfleet or the characters' relationships.

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.
Sure it is. I even quoted it.
The Immunity Syndrome said:
Negative. This is a rescue priority. We've lost all contact with solar system Gamma Seven-A, which the Intrepid was investigating. And we've just lost contact with the Intrepid. Report progress.
That certainly can be read as the Intrepid investigating the loss of contact.

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...
Again, you're looking for the least obvious, least practical, least reasonable explanations.

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.
No it doesn't. Knowing the name of every civilian Vulcan crewed ship is not the same as inner eyelids and mating cycles.

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
. Often is a stretch.

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.
If you're asking what themes, then you've not payed attention the show.

Where in TOS is it established that Vulcans are "not trusted or well known". Sarek is a well known and respected Ambassador. T'Pau was offered a seat on the UFP Council. Vulcans are known for not lying. (Even though that's a lie) Cochrane recognises Spock as a Vulcan. IIRC, others have done the same
 
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No, it's a TV show that was developing as it was being made
So yes, it's a jumbled mess. And it doesn't "work" without the audience explaining it to themselves, because the writers didn't bother.

That certainly can be read as the Intrepid investigating the loss of contact.
There's nothing there about Starfleet. And grammatically, it's clear the Intrepid couldn't have been investigating the loss of contact, because the investigating came before the loss.

So claiming that the Intrepid is a Starfleet asset is a pure guess, an unnecessary oversimplification of the Star Trek universe, and no grounds for arguing that Spock would have species-mates in this otherwise (until TAS) 100% human force that insists on referring to the character with racist epithets in official correspondence.

Again, you're looking for the least obvious, least practical, least reasonable explanations.
That's subjective nonsense. The task of explaining why these Vulcans would agree to operate a ship with an English name when all other Vulcan ships in the show have Vulcan (or at least alien, i.e. made-up and heavily apostrophized) names, is at least as heavy as the assuming that "Intrepid" is a translated name.

Knowing the name of every civilian Vulcan crewed ship is not the same as inner eyelids and mating cycles.
Why "every"? Clearly, the Intrepid is doing important and interesting deep space research stuff - why wouldn't Kirk know about the Vulcan Calypso?

Remember that Kirk does know everything and everybody. He requires no briefing on SS Beagle, a truly random fourth-rate vessel, and indeed personally knows her skipper. There's no basis on claiming that his knowledge would be limited to Starfleet assets - at best, we could claim that he only studies ships assigned to the same sector of space as the Enterprise, and even then he appears to already know most of the relevant information through weird television coincidences.

Where in TOS is it established that Vulcans are "not trusted or well known".
In every episode introducing a new fact about Vulcans. And that's not an exaggeration. "Corbomite" shows a character hating Vulcan emotionlessness. "Dagger of the Mind" shows how scary and unknown Vulcan touch telepathy is. "Amok Time" paints with a heavy brush the fact that humans have little say in Vulcan affairs, consider Vulcan diplomats mighty opponents, know zip about Vulcan biology or cultural mores, and could be randomly killed by Vulcans.

If an episode mentioned that Spock is the first-ever Vulcan to be accepted into Starfleet, and then only thanks to his human blood, it wouldn't even be worth raising an eyebrow. An episode discussing Spock's Starfleet background and failing to make it a surprise and an example of distrust would be inconsistent with all precedent! It's just that we didn't get such an episode, because "Journey to Babel" was heavy with other types of whopper about Spock's exotic nature and background.

Did any TOS novel ever expand on the Intrepid?
Several, as can be guessed. Off the top of my memory: MW Bonnano's Strangers from the Sky refers to "the Vulcanian Expedition", a shameful Starfleet bit of gunboat diplomacy where the organization forced Vulcans to crew at least one starship at gunpoint; it's further mentioned that Vulcans only paid lip service, the Intrepid never ever firing her weapons in anger. Diane Duane's books in contrast mention the Intrepid engaging in war heroics (say, in connection with "Errand of Mercy"), and the Reeves-Stevenses refer to this unseen vessel spearheading the ST:TMP style warp technology and essentially being a Vulcan engineering tour de force. In newer books, the Stricklands in a Starfleet Academy book say the ship was attached to the Vulcan Science Academy rather than Starfleet.

As far as I know, no book has told the story of a purely Vulcan vessel Intrepid, even when several have made a disconnect with the Constitution class, or with Starfleet.

Timo Saloniemi
 
So, in connection with the topic of this thread.... What if they reconnected with old Vulcan colonies? There may have been others besides P'Jem, and maybe other splinter groups besides the Romulans.

There wasn't any direct evidence that Mintakans were descended from Vulcans. The original series had the idea of "parallel planetary development" to explain so many earth-like planets and races. There could have been similar parallel development of Vulcan-like races. The James Blish novelization of "Balance of Terror" presented an idea that Vulcanoid species were common in a certain sector of space.

Kor
 
One wonders... Would Vulcans count almost-Vulcan alien species as viable means of preserving the Vulcan species? Their close cousins Romulans appear racistically paranoid; little in Star Trek suggests the Vulcans themselves would be any more open to ideas of racial diversity.

If there are 10,000 Vulcans from Vulcan left, then the existence of three million Mintakans might be perceived more as a threat than as an opportunity!

Timo Saloniemi
 
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