Spock Wrestles With His Emotions

Marvel Comics' Star Trek Vol. 1, Issue 1

At the beginning of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” we find Spock on Vulcan.  There, by spending years alone in the desert, he has striven to cast aside all emotion and achieve Kolinahr.  But then he senses a strange consciousness from space, and he cannot resist its call.  When he stands before the Vulcan elders, they judge him incapable of achieving pure logic, and tell him that his destiny lies elsewhere.  Thus he travels to rendezvous with the U.S.S. Enterprise, which is traveling to meet the entity known as V’ger.  There, his well-meaning human friends cannot resist telling him how happy they are to see him.  When she notices how much their enthusiasm shakes him, Uhura cannot help but explain, “It’s how we all feel, Mr. Spock.”

Summoned to the Officers’ Lounge, Kirk must plead with Spock to even sit down.  Spock clearly doesn’t want to be there; he is a man on a mission.  He must make contact with V’ger, and attempt to reason with the entity before it destroys Earth.  Dr. McCoy, whose role involves as much psychologist as physician, tells him, “Mr. Spock, you haven’t changed.  You’re just as warm and sociable as ever.”  Mr. Spock responds, “Nor have you, Doctor, as your predilection for irrelevancy demonstrates.”

Marvel Comics' Star Trek Vol. 1 Issue 2

In Marvel Comics’ “Star Trek” Issue 1, writer Marv Wolfman makes a slight change to the scene on Vulcan, with the elder telling Spock that they have also sensed V’ger’s messages.  But he makes wholesale changes to the exchange in the Enterprise Officers’ Lounge.  Particularly startling is Dr. McCoy’s statement that their dedication to logic has cost the Vulcan culture all art, music, and poetry.  This prompts me to ask two questions: 1) Did Wolfman miss all the times Mr. Spock played the Vulcan lute in the TV series? and 2) When did Dr. McCoy become a great lover of poetry?

“Oh nurse Christine,

you are my dream...”

or

"Scalpels are red, 

vials are blue..."

Um, right.  Back to the blog.  

Have you ever knelt in prayer, sat down to meditate, or attempted to concentrate on a problem or task, and found yourself unable to block out distractions?  Even if you were completely alone, with no sounds or sights intruding on your privacy, did you have trouble concentrating?  This is what I believe Spock sought in Kolinahr: not to divorce himself from everything that gives life meaning and reduce himself to the level of a machine, but the ability to focus on his priorities, to fix his mind on the task he decided was most important, and do so without being distracted by those around him, swayed by how he felt, or lured away by the other thoughts and tasks that compete for his attention.

To me, Kolinahr seems like something all of us should strive to achieve.  But before you head out into the desert, be sure to pack some sunscreen.  I’m told the light from Vulcan’s twin suns can be quite intense. 

Dragon Dave