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Vulcans, sex and Pon Farr

Managed to dig up that chat with GR and Sarek...

From the 1976 Columbia Records LP "Inside Star Trek":

(Transporter Room background sound effects)

GENE RODDENBERRY: "Set transporter for Vulcan Embassy."

TRANSPORTER TECH: "Coordinates on Vulcan Embassy."

GR: "Lock on to Ambassador Sarek."

TT: "Ambassador Sarek, sir. Engaging."

[transporter effect]

GR: "Welcome, Ambassador Sarek."

AMBASSADOR SAREK: "My old friend Roddenberry, it's been years since we've met."

GR: "And I have many new questions, Ambassador, much more intimate and personal than I have ever had to ask before."

AS: "About my son Spock, I presume."

GR: "Well, yes, if you include the beginnings of Spock. There are some things I must know, Ambassador, in order to continue with my Star Trek journals. Forgive me, but how were you able to overcome the Vulcan pon farr mating drive? I presume you did overcome it, Spock's mother Amanda was human, and somehow she was impregnated by you--"

AS: "Roddenberry, are you asking if we coupled?"

GR: "Ehrr, yes, sir. We know that Vulcans normally mate only once every seven years--"

AS: "And since it is known that we pay for our sexual repression during these years by an almost animal madness, this has aroused a... a prurient curiosity among humans."

GR: "It comes out of our affection for your son Spock, Ambassador. And your son's future. He's half Human, we've seen him reject a Vulcan marriage, is marriage to a Human female possible to him?"

AS: "It was for me."

GR: "But if you take the madness, which happens to your people at the time of pon farr, then add to it the extraordinary strength of a Vulcan--"

AS: "Ordinarily an Earth woman could not enjoy that. If she survived, she might be severely injured, both physically and emotionally."

GR: "Regarding that--"

AS: "Roddenberry, I will not paint a word picture. I will say, that Humans and Vulcans mate in... somewhat similar fashion--um, quite similar fashion. But physical contour, mass, duration and energy do vary. Since we are deprived of our reason during this time, the rest depends upon the woman. Not just her strength, but also her wisdom. Her patience."

GR: "Is it possible to ever completely overcome the pon farr madness?"

AS: "It is probably impossible to a Vulcan in his youthful prime. Fortunately, I was not. And it was no doubt helped by the fact that I spent almost thirty years as Ambassador to other Federation planets."

GR: "And you spent many of those years on Earth itself?"

AS: "Yes. But this gives too much credit to me. Spock's mother Amanda is an extraordinary woman."

GR: "And Spock was the result. The first Human-Vulcan mixture."

AS: "No, not the first. But the first to survive. As you must know, an Earth-Vulcan conception will abort during the end of the first month. The fetus is unable to continue life once it begins to develop its primary organs. The fetus Spock was removed from Amanda's body at this time--first such experiment ever attempted. His tiny form resided in a test tube for the following two Earth months, while our physicians performed delicate chemical engineering, introducing over a hundred subtle changes that we hoped would sustain life. At the end of this time, the fetus was returned to Amanda's womb. At the ninth Earth month, the tiny form was again removed from Amanda, prematurely by Vulcan standards, and spent the following four months Vulcan term pregnancy in a specially designed incubator. The infant Spock proved surprisingly resilient--there seems to be something about the Earth-Vulcan mixture, which created in that.. tiny body.. a fierce determination to survive."

GR: "And, as Spock grew into childhood, Ambassador--"

AS: "Yes, yes. There must have been times when his inner mind wondered, if the fight to survive had been worthwhile. You see, while all Vulcans, including our children, live by the code of IDIC, and believe that diversity is to be admired, and treasured, it must be understood that the display of emotion is considered on our planet to be grossly offensive. No, more than that. Shockingly indecent. I can only explain that our attitude is rooted in Vulcan history, involving events of such... bloody violence that it's left our race forever scarred and sensitive to displays of emotion. Whether or not this Vulcan attitude can be defended, the fact is, it exists."

GR: "Young Spock was allowed no smiles, no tears, no anger..."

AS: "Such emotions, so common among your small children, are shocking, even appalling, to a Vulcan child. Spock's playmates could only assume that the bearer of these emotions was exhibiting hatred for his fellows. Some desire to embarrass, to disgust them. The children were prepared to enjoy Spock's diversity, they were not prepared for my son's demonstrating what seemed to be an obscenity of the grossest kind."

GR: "It must have been a cruel existence for Spock."

AS: "It was."

GR: "Then, what kept your family on Vulcan?"

AS: "We felt Spock's torture, of course. But Amanda and I also had a dream. One that justified even the risk of our precious son's life and sanity. What point is there in any life surviving unless it has meaning? The meaning of Spock's existence is the very meaning of our marriage: Could our two lifeforms combine, and offer something of value to other lifeforms?"

GR: "IDIC."

AS: "Yes. Infinite Diversity from Infinite Combinations. It has given us quite a lovely Universe. I will return to Vulcan now, if I may."

GR: "Thank you, Ambassador. Engage transporter."

[transporter effect]
 
Eagerly looking forward to Playboy's December 2267 special edition, "The Girls Of Vulcan:It's Pon Farr Time, Baby!"
 
It looks like Gene Rodenberry changed his mind about Vulcan kids post-"Yesteryear"

I'm not sure what you're referring to. As far as I know, Roddenberry was not directly responsible for any depiction of Vulcan childhood other than that "interview," including "Yesteryear." D. C. Fontana produced TAS, with Roddenberry as essentially a consultant. The only Trek movie which GR actually produced was TMP, and there was nothing about Vulcan childhood in it; again, he was merely a consultant on the later films. And in the seasons of TNG he produced, he preferred to avoid revisiting TOS species such as Vulcans (he had to be talked into including a Klingon character). Every screen depiction of Vulcan children I'm aware of was the work of someone other than Roddenberry.
 
It looks like Gene Rodenberry changed his mind about Vulcan kids post-"Yesteryear"

Columbia released the "Inside Star Trek" LP in 1976. So that is post-"Yesteryear".

"... the display of emotion is considered on our planet to be grossly offensive. No, more than that. Shockingly indecent. I can only explain that our attitude is rooted in Vulcan history, involving events of such... bloody violence that it's left our race forever scarred and sensitive to displays of emotion."

Sounds exactly like the Vulcan kids scenes in "Yesteryear" (and JJ's ST) to me! ;)
 
^Well, naturally, the books are obliged to conform to what's explicitly stated in canon. Canon information always takes priority over claims made only in offscreen sources, as a basic guideline.

On the other hand, canonical information is often ambiguous or conflicting, and many books have been able to find ways to reinterpret it (cf. the death of Trip Tucker). For one thing, "Fusion" only says that "Vulcan males are driven to mate once every seven years," and says nothing about females. And "driven to mate" doesn't mean the same as "able to mate." Kov's subsequent line, that the V'tosh katur have been "developing methods to accelerate the mating cycle," does imply a lack of ability to mate at other times, but that's ambiguous enough to leave some wiggle room. The desire to accelerate the cycle may have had some other reason besides simply making more frequent sex possible. Perhaps the V'tosh katur found the more intense mating experience of Pon farr more desirable than the normal kind of sex they're capable of the rest of the time, and wanted to make it available more often.

That's the great thing about ambiguous dialogue. With a little imagination, you can find ways to reinterpret things without blatantly contradicting or ignoring onscreen information.

* True:)
 
It was in Sorrows of Empire, that two female Vulcans had sexual relations with one another. As I recall, the intense feelings of sexual attraction between the Vulcan SI operative and the much younger Vulcan female were described only after the former initiated a mind-meld, that would give the SI operative the information that Emperor Spock has requested of her. It was unusual for there to be lesbian Vulcans, but if their genetics and physiology are silimar to ours(need to be very compatible with Humans, in order for hybrids like Spock to have been possible),then it's reasonable to asume that their primal sexual desires can be the same as ours.
 
From upthread...

From the 1976 Columbia Records LP "Inside Star Trek":

GR: "And Spock was the result. The first Human-Vulcan mixture."

AS: "No, not the first. But the first to survive. As you must know, an Earth-Vulcan conception will abort during the end of the first month. The fetus is unable to continue life once it begins to develop its primary organs. The fetus Spock was removed from Amanda's body at this time--first such experiment ever attempted. His tiny form resided in a test tube for the following two Earth months, while our physicians performed delicate chemical engineering, introducing over a hundred subtle changes that we hoped would sustain life. At the end of this time, the fetus was returned to Amanda's womb. At the ninth Earth month, the tiny form was again removed from Amanda, prematurely by Vulcan standards, and spent the following four months Vulcan term pregnancy in a specially designed incubator. The infant Spock proved surprisingly resilient--there seems to be something about the Earth-Vulcan mixture, which created in that.. tiny body.. a fierce determination to survive."
 
Well, of course something Roddenberry or Mark Lenard said on a record album is hardly canonical information, any more than any other tie-in. But Enterprise: "Demons"/"Terra Prime" did canonize the idea that genetic engineering was required for human-Vulcan interbreeding.
 
Spock's World went into some detail about Spock's engineered conception. IIRC, we met a couple of the geneticists responsible in Jean Lorrah's The Vulcan Academy Murders.

I can't recall which, but there have been novels that claimed Spock was born naturally, too - so however you choose to see it, there's a precedent. I prefer the idea that he was engineered, simply because I find the idea of alien species interbreeding somewhat unbelievable.
 
There are more than a few indicators that Phlox had a hand in developing the process by which human and Vulcan DNA can be combined to form a bouncing baby hybrid.
 
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