Spock
S'chn T'gai Spock was the son of Vulcan Ambassdor Sarek of the House of Surak and the Human, Terra-born teacher Amanda Greyson. He spent his life exceptional in ways he could not choose, and then becoming so in ways he could. He was the first Vulcan to become a Starfleet officer, and became the first officer of the exploration ship USS Enterprise. There, he met lifelong friends such as Nyota Uhura, and his t'hy'la, James T. Kirk. Spock lived by the principle of IDIC,
He fostered a child, Saavik, whom nobody else would agree to take in. He never punished her and was never angry with her, loving and accepting her for who she was. She became a Starfleet officer, and remembered him as kind and respectful, treating everyone with dignity. Like Spock, she had one Vulcan parent and one non-Vulcan parent. Her non-Vulcan parent was Romulan.
Spock spent some time as a professor at Starfleet Academy, and mentored several young Vulcan cadets. He dedicated the latter part of his life to restoring peace between Vulcans and Romulans, despite the ancient and bloody history between the two groups and their separation. His legacy includes the restablishment of ties between the two species who were once one, and who are now once more brothers.
Spock was the first Human-Vulcan hybrid to survive to adulthood. As well as his irregular physiology and neurotype among both Vulcans and Humans, he had a learning disbility. The Vuhlkansu term for this disability is "L'tak Terai". In English, it is "dyslexia." The first documented instance since ancient legends of the ritual procedure of fal-tor-pan was successfully carried out on Spock.
As well as his relationship with Kirk, Spock also counted Leonard "Bones" McCoy as a close friend, and enjoyed playing music with Nyota Uhura, to whom he sometimes lent his ka'athyra.
Quotes
- "No, nor am I a man. I'm a Vulcan."
- "I've noticed that about your people, doctor. You find it easier to understand the death of one than the death of a million. You speak about the objective hardness of the Vulcan heart, but how little room there seems to be in yours."
- "I object to you. I object to intellect without discipline. I object to power without constructive purpose."
- "I do not approve. I understand."
- "We say we value diversity in its infinite combinations. Are we to abandon that principle simply because it becomes inconvenient?"
- "I seek no Truth that cannot be taught, no Peace that cannot be shared. I am what I am. And some things-I choose-not to leave behind."
Greatest Hits
- going by his personal name at work
- never mentioning that he's related to somebody until they're standing right there
- breaking Federation law with other Vulcans, and using this to blackmail them
- swimming with humpback whales the moment Jim's back is turned
- Sarek & Spock | the crooked kind [offsite link; YT]
Meta
Intersex Spock:
There is a false binary [Human/Vulcan] that Spock does not fit into. He is raised as one [Vulcan] and chooses to live his life that way. His latent [Human] traits cause him a lot of distress. Among [Humans] he cannot pass as a Human. Aspects of his biology are unknown even to his primary care physician. He'd finished tertiary education and was employed when he discovered unexpectedly that he could reach sexual maturity [pon farr]. He ends up with a third option that isn't meant to be possible IRT to his sexual maturity. Eventually he comes to accept who and what he is and even to take pride in his fullness and existence beyond a binary.
Others' Meta:
@spockstims on tumblr: He loves playing music and he wears eyeshadow every day and he has a hard time staying out of trouble and he reads classic literature and he cries because he wants his mom to know he loves her and he finds the sound of his friends’ voices pleasurable and he doesn’t like taking medicine and he’s always fascinated and he gets cold easily and he likes cats and he has as much faith in his best friend as in gravity and he doesn’t like Italian food and he wants to belong and he gets excited when he infodumps and he talks to animals and he’s so so full of feelings and when his workplace is overrun by traveling, singing anarchist hippies he honestly considers joining them
@spatscolombo on tumblr: There’s kind of a prevailing notion that Spock is a tougher cookie than the rest of the crew, because he’s physically stronger and always so composed and because of quirks of Vulcan biology (including healing trances) that occasionally save him from things a human wouldn’t have survived.
But it strikes me that outside of muscular strength, lucky breaks, and a refusal to admit it, he’s actually kind of delicate. It’s in a chronic, almost autoimmune way. Most of his “advanced healing abilities” have to do with being able to either ignore injuries or function despite them, not being able to avoid them. He’s the first Vulcan-Human hybrid to ever survive; he’s had to spend time in test tubes and incubators since literally before he was born. At least some of his medical concerns will always be unprecedented and unpredictable, even to the most experienced doctors. (Think about the fact that nobody knew he was going to experience pon farr until he did.)
He mentions several times in TOS that hyposprays and other medical procedures make him nauseous–actually that might be where a lot of his early animosity toward Bones comes from. He’s a vegetarian who regularly gets stranded in uncharted space; even much less ambitious travel is not generally kind to people with dietary restrictions. (Is copper deficiency a thing?) We rarely (if ever?) meet other Vulcans as thin as he is.
No matter where you fall in the controversial Vulcan Body Temperature Debate, he’s a person who grew up in one climate and environment who now has to live full-time in an extremely different one, one that’s been engineered to be “ideal” for a different species. And as a touch telepath he has an entire extra psycho-physical system that can be attacked or disrupted, one that nobody else on the Enterprise has to worry about–or can help him with.
I don’t really have a point here except the one I always have, which is that Spock is more delicate and vulnerable than he lets on.
