Dorothy also advised Sturgeon a lot on "Amok Time", so there.
The way I see it is that pon farr is the only time that Vulcan males have to mate. They're perfectly capable, and fertile, any time they bloody well please, but pon farr is the only time they have no choice.
And, I suspect that adapting Surak's teachings probably is a big reason for the development of the cycle, since I think it's safe to assume that pre-Surakian Vulcans mated with whoever they liked, whenever they liked, in whatever combination they liked (IDIC, baby...). And since controlling one's libido is just as much a part of mastering one's emotions and learning to not kill the checkout girl for getting your change wrong, getting your mating habits under control is probably at least a full chapter in that "Teachings of Surak" book that T'Pol gave to Archer. And apparently, seven years is about as far as the typical Vulcan can go before developing the Vulcan equivalent of blue balls, so that's where we landed.
As for when it kicks in, from what I've gathered (mainly from the aforementioned Fontana novel "Vulcan's Glory"), the typical Vulcan male get his first pon farr in his early twenties. Spock, not being the typical Vulcan male, didn't get his first pon farr until his mid thirties ("I'd hoped I would be spared this, but the ancient drives are too strong.").
Further, I think that continuing the pon farr mating drive requires that the male be linked to a mate. If the link is broken, like, say, the female declares the kalifee and picks the male's best friend as her champion and causes all kinds of emotional trauma, then the mating cycle is also broken and his calendar is now free past that seven year point (of course, he now has to figure out his own way to handle those pent up emotions, but that's the price you pay for not following through on that arranged marriage your folks worked out when you were in the second grade). Again, Spock, not being the typical Vulcan male, probably did quite nicely without the pon farr hanging over his head, since by Vulcan standards he was a raving emotionalist anyway, but Tuvok clearly had problems, what with being a full Vulcan and married.
Vorik, on the other hand, was simply an idiot, and everyone was either just humoring him or were just as ignorant regarding pon farr, and were simply biding their time until the urge passed and they could all get on with their lives (at least that's how I'm proposing it be written up in the Concordance
).
The way I see it is that pon farr is the only time that Vulcan males have to mate. They're perfectly capable, and fertile, any time they bloody well please, but pon farr is the only time they have no choice.
And, I suspect that adapting Surak's teachings probably is a big reason for the development of the cycle, since I think it's safe to assume that pre-Surakian Vulcans mated with whoever they liked, whenever they liked, in whatever combination they liked (IDIC, baby...). And since controlling one's libido is just as much a part of mastering one's emotions and learning to not kill the checkout girl for getting your change wrong, getting your mating habits under control is probably at least a full chapter in that "Teachings of Surak" book that T'Pol gave to Archer. And apparently, seven years is about as far as the typical Vulcan can go before developing the Vulcan equivalent of blue balls, so that's where we landed.
As for when it kicks in, from what I've gathered (mainly from the aforementioned Fontana novel "Vulcan's Glory"), the typical Vulcan male get his first pon farr in his early twenties. Spock, not being the typical Vulcan male, didn't get his first pon farr until his mid thirties ("I'd hoped I would be spared this, but the ancient drives are too strong.").
Further, I think that continuing the pon farr mating drive requires that the male be linked to a mate. If the link is broken, like, say, the female declares the kalifee and picks the male's best friend as her champion and causes all kinds of emotional trauma, then the mating cycle is also broken and his calendar is now free past that seven year point (of course, he now has to figure out his own way to handle those pent up emotions, but that's the price you pay for not following through on that arranged marriage your folks worked out when you were in the second grade). Again, Spock, not being the typical Vulcan male, probably did quite nicely without the pon farr hanging over his head, since by Vulcan standards he was a raving emotionalist anyway, but Tuvok clearly had problems, what with being a full Vulcan and married.
Vorik, on the other hand, was simply an idiot, and everyone was either just humoring him or were just as ignorant regarding pon farr, and were simply biding their time until the urge passed and they could all get on with their lives (at least that's how I'm proposing it be written up in the Concordance
).
