In "Amok Time", Spock falls victim to the Pon Farr mating period and must return to Vulcan and betrothe his arranged mate or risk death via the equivalent of an adrenaline overdose. The Enterprise heads for Vulcan and Spock invites Kirk & Bones to watch his ceremony.
Many confusing Vulcan traditions stun the Earthlings and T'Pring ends up forcing a battle to the death between Spock and the perplexed Kirk. Spock has a full on fever of blood and is no longer himself. The stately T'Pau presides over the entire process. After a long and exciting battle sequence, it appears that Spock has won, Kirk appears dead. Bones transports up the body and Spock asks to turn himself in, no longer under the spell of Pon Farr and now uninterested in T'Pring after learning that this entire gimmick was because she wants to marry a third man. It's revealed that Bones drugged Kirk to make him appear dead, everyone's now fine. The Enterprise heads off again for the stars.
Thus episode really captures the essence of Vulcan and the customs of its people. I love all the traditions, weapons, and backdrop. Nimoy does a fantastic job in this episode showing off a wide range of emotion, something normally not asked of him.
It's a bit odd that both McCoy and Kirk are unaware of the concept of Pon Farr. The humans has been interacting with Vulcans for a very long time by now so the fact that this is a heavily guarded secret is strange. Heck, we even see it occur aboard the Enterprise with T'Pol over 100 years before! Vulcans and humans have married. How has this not come up?
Regardless of this giant plothole, I still really like this episode. It's very Spock-focused which is always a plus in my book. I also like how Kirk accepted the dual before learning all the rules. That's a classic headstrong Kirk move. I enjoyed seeing the old sage, TPau. We haven't seen her in over 100 years but she is still a very big deal in the Vulcan community. That's great!
Many confusing Vulcan traditions stun the Earthlings and T'Pring ends up forcing a battle to the death between Spock and the perplexed Kirk. Spock has a full on fever of blood and is no longer himself. The stately T'Pau presides over the entire process. After a long and exciting battle sequence, it appears that Spock has won, Kirk appears dead. Bones transports up the body and Spock asks to turn himself in, no longer under the spell of Pon Farr and now uninterested in T'Pring after learning that this entire gimmick was because she wants to marry a third man. It's revealed that Bones drugged Kirk to make him appear dead, everyone's now fine. The Enterprise heads off again for the stars.
Thus episode really captures the essence of Vulcan and the customs of its people. I love all the traditions, weapons, and backdrop. Nimoy does a fantastic job in this episode showing off a wide range of emotion, something normally not asked of him.
It's a bit odd that both McCoy and Kirk are unaware of the concept of Pon Farr. The humans has been interacting with Vulcans for a very long time by now so the fact that this is a heavily guarded secret is strange. Heck, we even see it occur aboard the Enterprise with T'Pol over 100 years before! Vulcans and humans have married. How has this not come up?
Regardless of this giant plothole, I still really like this episode. It's very Spock-focused which is always a plus in my book. I also like how Kirk accepted the dual before learning all the rules. That's a classic headstrong Kirk move. I enjoyed seeing the old sage, TPau. We haven't seen her in over 100 years but she is still a very big deal in the Vulcan community. That's great!