Vulcans are very intent on the suppression of emotional expressions, and this seems to extend to sexual desires. So, it makes a certain kind of bio-evolutionary sense that once every seven years or so, their hormones would kick into overdrive and they would go into “must get laid or die” mode, even to the point of becoming violent towards anyone who gets in the way of their getting laid. After all, if Vulcans didn’t get laid every now and again, after a while there wouldn’t be any more Vulcans, (assuming the development of their extreme logical bent preceded the invention of in vitro fertilization.)
Romulans, on the other hand, are relatively open in their emotional expressions (although they do seem to be fairly cool customers when stacked up against humans). So, I imagine that this, also would extend to sexuality, and so there would be no need for their biochemistry to periodically demand that they get laid, and get laid damn soon.
But Vulcans and Romulans are basically two different races of the same species, and therefore would be biologically nearly identical.
So, is pon-farr a biological reaction to the Vulcan devotion to logic and the suppression of emotion, or is it something that is inherent in Vulcan/Romulan physiology? And if Romulans go through it, would the fact that they aren’t so repressed as Vulcans lessen the severity? And if Spock managed to get laid more than once a season or so, would his pon-farr hormonal rages be less severe?
And do Vulcan/Romulan women go through an equivalent of pon-far?
There is no canon answer for this but my own personal interpretation is exactly as you outlined… pon farr is an outgrowth of emotional suppression and not biological in nature. And yes, Vulcan women experience pon farr. T’Pol went through it in either S2 or S3 of Enterprise.
In The Cloud Minders, Spock tells the Sex Interest that “certain”…I don’t think he actually says “stimulations” can cause them to be, er, interested.
In The Enterprise Incident Spock and the Romulan Commander are seducing each other for political reasons. She seeks to gain his loyalty, he is stalling for time while Kirk steals the cloaking device. The fact that Kirk is disguised as a Romulan and does not have a sex interest in this episode leads it’s own creedence, but I will not be led into digression. Whether or not he was faking the physical part, Spock tells her that “it was the only choice you would respect”. I deduce that Pon Far is not natural, but a reaction to emotionlessness (if that’s a word) and that Romulans do not experience it. Else she would not have made out with Spock to influence him.
Yet Rabbi Shlomo did respond…sorry.
On the other hand, in Amok Time T’Pau says “As it was from the beginning” implying that Pon Far is a natural state. Surak came after “the beginning”. Therefore, it is a biological imperative like the menstrual cycle, pimples or make me a sandwich and Romluans should experience it, too.
To counter my Incident example, consider The Left Hand of Darkness. The antagonist chemically induces a sexual state to seduce the protagonist.
That’s not really comparable. Kemmer takes place about once every 30 days. We know it is not a natural state, but was engineered by whoever genetically engineered Gethenians in the first place. And you should have phrased it more clearly. The agents spying on Estraven know he will be going into kemmer (a state in which he will have intense sexual desires, and develop into either a male or female). Their boss, Whatsisname, takes a drug to induce kemmer in himself (the male pronouns poorly reflect Gethenian physiology. Except for a few days each month, or when pregnant, Gethenians are neither male nor female. During kemmer, based on environment and the prescence of others in kemmer they develop into a fertile male or female.) hoping to seduce Estraven for his own slimy political/prestige purposes.
All in all, I agree with Aesiron that you’ve had too much Sithish life water.
Yes, but she did not state specifically from the beginning of what.
Time? Vulcan civilization as we know it? Last week?
Or, perhaps the ritual T’Pau is quoting reckons from the period of time when Surak’s teachings of logic and general stoicism became the prevailing philosophy on Vulcan, to which the development of pon-farr as a feature of Vulcan physiology was a reaction.
Personally, I’m kind of leaning toward the theory that pon-farr is a product of evolutionary biology. After Vulcans got all logical ‘n’ stuff, Vulcans were generally having a lot less sex and thus making a lot fewer Vulcans. Those Vulcans who, possibly as a result of a genetic mutation in a smallish population, started experiencing this state of extreme horniness every half-dozen or so years made more Vulcans than those who didn’t, thus passing the pon-farr gene on to their offspring, until after some tens of thousands of years, it spread through the entire population of the planet.
I’ve always considered pon-farr to be proof that there is no logical time to have children. Left to logic, yes it needs to be done, but it would be better to do it later.
I always assumed pon-farr was a result of repressing Vulcan sexuality and a way of providing an acceptable outlet both for sex and the Vulcan propensity for violence. Remember, this propensity for violence was so great that Vulcans who followed Surak apparently considered it a threat to their civilization; those who didn’t became Romulan. Now, this could have become exaggerated over the years as a way of saying “See how superior compared to those barbarians over there,” but it made sense to me. Then again, when I watched Star Trek most, I was a horny, repressed teenager who was trying desperately to retreat into logic. The Vulcan mindset had a certain appeal, as did the Vulcan nerve pinch, especially given pesky little brothers. Now, I’m most definately Romulan!
Considering that all Vulcan’s talk about it as an ancient ritual makes me think that it is a thing that existed before the logical lifestyle was taken on.
Spock refers to the earlier Vulcans as creatures of strong passions which nearly destroyed them. He states that the Romulans are likely an off shoot of the violent colonial period of Vulcan. The Awakening occured only a few thousand years earlier meaning that there seems little time for this “evolution” to occur due to their lifestyle change.
I think the rituals and ceremony were developed or atleast retooled after their Awakening to basically give them leave to carry on in a very emotional undignified manner while in heat. After all they are completely out of control during it and need a means to excuse such behaviour.
Though the Romulan’s may be more emotional than Vulcans they seem to have altered their savagry through their own philisophical awakening. After all if Vulcan nearly destroyed itself it is likely their colonial brothers would come close to sharing the same fate.
Also in true early Trek form it seems all advanced spacefaring races had to come from the brink of total destruction to change into a unified culture. There are no countries in Star Trek, just worlds. The same would be likely for the Romulans.
Instead of logic and supressed emotions they seemed to have adapted by instituting a rigid heirarchical society with codes of loyalty to the state and a strong sense of duty beyond anything else. They survived by putting the state’s interest above all other personal considerations.
I’m guessing the Romulan’s use those codes to keep their version of pon farr in check so that they are not slaughtering each other during their mating time.
I think that the adaptation of Logic and supressed emotions would not create ponn farr I think it was always part of their biology they just adapted a means to excuse it. So yes, I believe Romulans and Vulcans both have the 7 year salmon itch.
We know Pon-farr is a biological reaction. Mindless Spock experiences it in ST3, so we know it is not a psychological manifestion of surpressed emotions.
As to whether or not Pon-farr evolved before or after Surak (and the subsequent Romulan split) is a matter best left to the experts…
The original race probably experienced something similar, but wilder and more disorganized in its expression; fighting for mates was the normal rule.
The Vulcans controlled violence through suppression of individual emotions to the point of pretending to have extripated them and narrowly locking those they cannot do without into specific ritual, so it looks like there’s nothing for 7 years and then BAM! must mate or die or kill someone in the process or a combination thereof. The Romulans controlled violence by replacing it with a system of social/political controls and discipline with rules you play by (or play around, but to them that’s understood; hence their reputation for sneakiness) to get your way; they may have wound up with still a general cycle, but that on the average looks less bipolarly extreme.
