Captain Kirk always had a reputation as a ladies’ man. Throughout the Enterprise’s famous five-year mission, he frequently set phasers to love, punctuating the important business of boldly going with a healthy dose of romance.
Based on the evidence of “Strange New Worlds“, however, James T wasn’t the only lothario on the bridge. In fact, we now know that Mr Spock — a man famous for his emotion-lite approach to life — used to have a love life every bit as tangled as his future commanding officer’s.
SPOILER ALERT! AVERT YOUR EYES IF YOU’RE YET TO WATCH “A SPACE ADVENTURE HOUR”, THE LATEST EPISODE OF “STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS”
Spock’s engagement to Vulcan fiancée T’Pring has been public knowledge since the Original Series, but the prequel show has revealed he also had relationships with Nurse Chapel and — following their kiss in the new episode “A Space Adventure Hour” — security officer La’An Noonien Singh. Turns out it’s always the quiet, logical ones you have to watch…
Contrary to his public image, Spock wasn’t always celibate during his five-year jaunt at Kirk’s side. Inhibition-suppressing spores (“This Side of Paradise”) and trips back to the ice age (“All Our Yesterdays”) were both sufficiently powerful aphrodisiacs to bring out Spock’s romantic side, while there’s little doubt he flirted (in his own wry way) with Droxine on the planet of Ardana (“The Cloud Minders”).
It’s also conceivable that no officer in the history of Starfleet has ever been quite so at the mercy of his hormones as Spock was when pon farr kicked in during the classic “Amok Time”. This biological urge sends Vulcans into a mad sexual frenzy every seven years, giving them an insatiable urge to mate — or die — and is presumably the price you pay for suppressing your desires every other day of your life.
While under the pon farr’s influence, Spock sneakily redirected the Enterprise to his homeworld, and — following a spot of canny manipulation from his betrothed, T’Pring — ended up scrapping with his captain in a fight to the death. After Kirk faked his own demise (hat tip to Dr McCoy on that one), Spock won the duel. But T’Pring had already fallen for another man, Stonn, leaving Spock free to resume his duties without romantic entanglements.
These examples make it clear that the Original Series Spock only got involved with women in extraordinary circumstances. “Strange New Worlds” serves as a reminder, however, that Vulcans do have emotions (they’re just adept at burying them deep, deep down), and that — in common with one of the most controversial/conveniently forgotten elements of “Doctor Who” lore — Spock is half human on his mother’s side.
That human DNA certainly seems to be winning out on board Pike’s Enterprise. The first episode of “Strange New Worlds” portrays the start of Spock and T’Pring’s formal (if ultimately doomed) engagement on Vulcan. They go much further than small talk about P’Sal’s new lute recordings, too, and their evening would have gotten even steamier had a call from Captain Pike not interrupted Spock when he was “about to be [naked]”. Thanks, Chris…
Despite Spock’s insecurities over his human heritage, he and T’Pring get to know each other a little better via the tried-and-tested medium of the body-swap comedy (season 1’s “Spock Amok“). But, by the time he’s temporarily rendered fully human on the day T’Pring’s parents come to visit (season 2’s “Charades“), both are having serious doubts about the relationship.
Of course, when T’Pring suggests they take a break, Spock adheres to the “Ross from ‘Friends'” definition of the word. Within minutes of her departure, he’s kissing Nurse Chapel as the couple succumb to a mutual attraction that’s been brewing for… well, a long time.
The relationship puts a whole new perspective on Chapel’s unreciprocated yearning for Spock in the Original Series, where there was never any suggestion they’d been together in the past. That said, “SNW” Spock soon finds himself on the Rachel side of the “on a break” equation, when Chapel calls a time-out and returns from a three-month secondment with a brand new boyfriend, Roger Korby, in tow. Love triangles ahoy!
But Spock once again proves he’s not the kind of guy who embraces the single life, as his sexually charged dance lessons with security chief La’An reach their only logical conclusion in “A Space Adventure Hour”. Lips are locked as if they were phasers.
This particular liaison raises some fascinating questions. First, when Khan Noonien Singh made a nuisance of himself in “The Wrath of Khan”, did it ever occur to Spock that he’d once had a fling with one of his enemy’s descendants? Second — and rather more pertinently — will La’An come between Spock and his future captain, James T Kirk? After all, the chemistry between La’An and Kirk is undeniable, and were it not for Kirk’s pregnant girlfriend Carol Marcus (the one from “The Wrath of Khan”), there’s a strong chance they’d have gotten together in season 2’s “Subspace Rhapsody“. Again, love triangles are like tractor beams to Mr Spock.
So why is the ladies’ man Spock of “Strange New Worlds” so different to the more abstinent scientist we knew and loved in the Original Series? There’s an outside chance that Kirk realized his first officer was a threat to his own infamously prolific love life, and ordered him to stand aside.
It’s more likely, however, that the younger Spock will gradually come to learn that his tendency to fall in love with colleagues — see also his alternative self’s relationship with Uhura in the Kelvin timeline — is bad news for crew cohesion. This will presumably prompt him to purge his emotions, allowing him to govern his passions before they become his undoing.
In the meantime, Spock’s love life is sure to be a major talking point as the show warps towards its last two seasons. And, if gossip websites still exist in the more enlightened 23rd century, they’re going to have an absolute field day.
New episodes of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” debut on Paramount+ on Thursdays. The Original Series is available on Paramount+ in the US, and Paramount+ and Netflix in the UK.
