History Fridge / StarTrekS2E1AmokTime

** It's probable that this is the point in the ceremony at which the bride is allowed to object, like the "speak now or forever hold your peace" at human weddings. Given the arranged marriages, and they they're apparently done deals when the betrothed are very young children, the cultural and ceremonial expectation is that things will just go according to plan, but there is an avenue for either party to object if necessary. Basically, by Vulcan law and custom, T'Pring herself couldn't call off the wedding until that one moment. Her family may have been able to annul the betrothal, and she may have tried to convince them to do just that, but failed.

** Then again, Spock was not exactly quite all there at the time. T'Pau and the other Vulcans present may have known though, considering the complete lack of surprise when T'Pring issues a challenge.

* T'Pring's FreudianExcuse of wanting to marry Stonn instead of Spock falls apart a bit when one considers that she never intended to stop the affair in any case.

* Kirk gets ridiculed for jumping from "biology" to "reproduction", but Spock is obviously embarrassed and what part of biology is half so embarrassing to talk about as reproduction?

* In Spock's final exchange with T'Pau, he responds to the traditional "Live Long and Prosper" with "I shall do neither." Did Spock mean that the civilian courts would execute him, was he contemplating suicide, or did he mean he would die of grief and guilt?
** The Federation doesn't have a death penalty for murder - especially since Spock was not in his right mind at the time. It's either suicide or death by grief, the latter being quite possible given what is known of Vulcan MindOverMatter powers.

* Also, the fact that the most logical, [[StrawVulcan (theoretically)]] sensible and smart people in the Federation only allow people to back out of arranged marriages via fights to the death, and that the woman in such cases becomes the property of the victor - WhatTheHellHero barely covers this! Admittedly, this May have been left in due to the existence of the “blood fever” that afflicts Vulcans during Pon Farr. Someone whose blood is literally boiling due to a need to engage in either sexual intercourse or mortal combat or ''both'', and has his Logic “ripped from him” isn’t going to be sensible enough to amicably back out of an arranged marriage. The only way to deal with him is to either [[MateOrDie satiate his need or put him down]].
** Fanon has attempted to amend this, usually having someone explain that divorce is forbidden only during the time one of the parties is in Pon Farr. While this would add further FridgeHorror as T'Pring would no longer be a girl trying to get out of an undesired marriage, but an actual cold blooded murderess, it does make a certain amount of sense. After all, if Vulcans are generally married at eighteen during their first Pon Farr (Spock's half-human biology messed up the timing) and Stonn is clearly no teenager, he must have gotten a divorce for him to marry T'Pring.

* Also, T'Pring explains that she could do whatever she liked because Spock would be "gone". Did she mean "away on a mission" or "[[DrivenToSuicide dead]]"?

* Also, T'Pring explains that she could do whatever she liked because Spock would be "gone". Did she mean "[[YourCheatingHeart away on a mission]]" or "[[DrivenToSuicide dead]]"?

* Spock also has zero problems talking about all other aspects of his biology, from extra eyelids to misplaced hearts to "green ice water" for blood (usually in response to some jab by [=McCoy=]). So reproduction is probably the only aspect of Vulcan biology Kirk hasn't heard Spock casually reference, and he's suddenly loathe to talk about his problem. . . Kirk applied some simple logic.

* Also, T'Pring explains that she could do whatever she liked because Spock would be "gone". Did she mean "[[YourCheatingHeart away on a mission]]" or "[[MurderTheHypotenuse dead]]"?

* Rather than divert the ship to Vulcan, couldn't a shuttlecraft, well-established by then, be lent to Spock instead? Then again, since Kirk swore to keep it under wraps, that would still require a ''very'' volatile Spock to be trusted, alone, with a shuttlecraft.

** This May have been left in due to the existence of the “blood fever” that afflicts Vulcans during Pon Farr. Someone whose blood is literally boiling due to a need to engage in sexual intercourse, and has his Logic “ripped from him” isn’t going to be sensible enough to amicably back out of an arranged marriage. The only way to deal with him is to either [[MateOrDie satiate his need or put him down]].

* T'Pring's AlternateCharacterInterpretation of either a vicious manipulator or trapped by society and tradition is well established by this point, and, obviously, without her actions, there wouldn't be a central conflict to the episode, but really, what is the logic in her not speaking up sooner? Why wait until the ceremony itself - after the blood fever has begun and Spock is well and truly in the 'mate, fight, or die' state - to object to becoming Spock's wife? Logically, the thing to do is to speak up before, to allow Spock the opportunity to find an alternative to mating with her, rather than condemn him to death or a fight to the death with someone else. Bare minimum, even if he'd not contacted her, she had the ability to contact him as well and express her concerns, discuss this before it reached the point where Spock entered the blood fever and lost control.

* What the hell was Stonn doing coming in with the wedding party in the first place? And he's wearing one of those knitted sashes, so he does have some official role. It might be assumed that he is there as T'Pring's friend, as Kirk and [=McCoy=] are there as Spock's friends, or that he's a relative, there to do the equivalent of giving the bride away. Still, his presence must have alerted Spock, at least, that ''something'' was going on, before T'Pring issued the challenge.

* Also, T'Pring explains that she could do whatever she liked because Spock would be "gone". Did she mean "away on a mission" or "dead"?

* At first the "marriage party" that arrives on Spock's land looks nothing like what you would expect from Vulcans. There appear to be armed guards escorting the party and one big tough masked guy who looks like an executioner. Spock mentioned before that Vulcans were a warlike people before they found logic, so why would they still stick to those bellicose traditions when getting married? Also, during the ceremony, just before the fight, the big masked guy seems awfully eager to use his weapon to enforce T'Pau's intentions. Why would a supposedly pacifist logical people behave this way? Listen to Spock talk about the Pon Farr and their behavior makes sense. Vulcan weddings involve one and probably more people undergoing a "blood fever" that literally rips their logic away from them. Those logical people behave like mindless animals until they either MateOrDie. The big burly armed guard is there to make sure that these crazed Vulcans don't step out of line and hurt people.

* What the hell was Stonn doing coming in with the wedding party in the first place? And he's wearing one of those knitted sashes, so he does have some official role. It might be assumed that he is there as T'Pring's friend, as Kirk and McCoy are there as Spock's friends, or that he's a relative, there to do the equivalent of giving the bride away. Still, his presence must have alerted Spock, at least, that ''something'' was going on, before T'Pring issued the challenge.