Question about Vulcans and Sex

[threeb_1973]

I apologize if this has been discussed before, but I am trying to separate canon from fanon when it comes to Vulcan mating habits.
My first question is whether Vulcans are capable of having sex outside of the seven-year pon farr cycle. The Original Series seems to contradict itself on the subject: in This Side of Paradise it is implied that

Comments

[traveller]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall that on Enterprise, T'Pol was in her 60s in human years and hadn't yet experienced pon farr.

[skywaterblue]

My opinion is that they can have sex any time, but they're only fertile during pon farr.

[sunfell]

That was my thought, too- it's the fertility that drives them nuts during their Pon Farr cycles.

The rest of the time, the men shoot blanks.

[gmonkey42]

OK, stupid question: is Spock's onset of Pon Farr being delayed due to his human ancestry actually canon? If he'd already gone through the cycle a few times before Amok Time then why did T'Pring wait until that one to contact him? Why not have the wedding sooner? And why was it not delayed when he was reborn on the Genesis planet?

I guess the bottom line is what spocksgal said, it doesn't make sense so we each just pick the version we like best.

[naomiphoenix]

Spock had sex with Zarabeth in 'All our Yesterdays' and he was fertile becase he gave birth to their son.

Also in the movie, because of his acclerated growth it brought on his on Pon Farr early.

Vulcan males are fertile all the time and females are fertile 10-12 days a month, once they reach maturity, roughly about the same times as humans. The Pon Farr is an evolutionary throwback brought on by the low radition there sun emits every 7 years.

[cleojones]

Not an expert, but I think of it as being similar to the way the moon effects many animals here on earth.

A simple escalation of hormones and the like. That combined with their constant emotional suppression makes for Pon Farr, he mating urge.

I don't think is has anything to do with insuring they make babies or have sex. It is a simple biological and environmental function.

[bana05]

The novels aren't considered canon, however, so some people handwave this son (I haven't decided if I do or not). But I do agree Vulcans can get their mates (or nonmates) pregnant without needing to be in pon farr to do so.

[threeb_1973]

I had totally forgotten about Zarabeth, but wasn't he supposed to have regressed like 5,000 years to start behaving like pre-reform Vulcans or something?

[feanna]

In TOS there's nothing really definitive

[threeb_1973]

I don't think that Spock was older than normal when he experienced pon farr in Amok Time only because I'm sure T'Pring would have complained long before then. I like your reasoning that pon farr is a separate event from sexual maturity because it makes biological sense AND there are examples in nature (as you pointed out.)

[tigress35]

I like to think it makes more sense that Spock's pon farr in Amok Time was normal because it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for two teenagers, even bonded, to go through the whole ceremony when they're not at an age when they'd have finished school and etc, in my opinion, someone could certainly argue against it.

However, that being said, although it is quite ambiguous, I've always interpreted the line of Spock in Amok Time as indicating that he was overdue... otherwise why would he think his human physiology might be interfering? But it really could go either way.

Plus, I always wondered if T'Pring wouldn't have found the other dude and want to get rid of Spock if they he had gone through pon farr and whatever the normal age would have been, maybe early twenties??

[threeb_1973]

These are all good points. T'Pring most likely thought she could have her cake and eat it too.