As I pointed out in the last part Tuvok was badly handled, miss managed to the point that he wasn't really Vulcan. He was more a generic alien, the sort you saw passing in the corridor of Next Generation and wondered if they were going to have an impact later or just be wallpaper.
Tuvok himself wasn't really explored either. We're told things about him, but other than a few episodes he doesn't do much. When he does get a chance to shine it turns out he is in Janeway's pocket. He doesn't have his own opinions and views, simply carrying out the captain's wishes. When some of his background was (eventually) fleshed out we learnt that he wasn't a perfect Vulcan, favouring emotions over logic as a child and finding the process of suppressing them difficult. The only result of this seemed to be a tendency to be the first in the crew to succumb to telepathic attacks and a case of shyness about his age.
Early on there was some hope, when he was helping Kes develop her mental powers, it offered some interesting moments. Vulcan physic abilities didn't come with any explanation or background, watching him train someone would have given some insight into the process. Were some stronger than others? Was it simply genetic instinct or was there specific training required? What was the limits, was physical contact necessary or was it just one level? Were there such a thing as Vulcan's with telekinetic powers? Just how important was the logical order of a Vulcan's intellect to the process, could emotional outbursts interfere or even block a mind meld?
Exploring this aspect of Vulcan society would have been thought provoking and fun. Instead most of Kes's training happend off screen. When we did see something it was often provoked by outside influence and was stopped, not by training, but by intervention. Tuvok was at one time burnt due to his own incompetence and the monster of the week.
This lack of understanding in Voyager wasn't restricted to the Vulcans. It was a lack of understanding about Star Trek as a whole that scuppered Voyager and outright sunk Enterprise. But let's take a step back and look at Deep Space Nine.
I jumped over the third trek series because there was only one episode that dealt with Vulcans, and it was perhaps the first nail in their coffin.
The episode was "Take me out To the Holosuite", from DS9's last season. In it a Vulcan captain, of a ship crewed entirely of Vulcans, re-lights a bitter rivalry with Sisko. The Vulcan Captain goes out of his way to antagonise Sisko for no reason other than profesional jealousy.
Read that again, and remember that Vulcan's have supposedly repressed all their emotions. Now I'm not suggesting that a Vulcan can't have difficulties suppressing pride, in point of fact it is in itself an interesting development. The problem is that an entire crew, more than five hundred of them, would go along with it. One or two egotistical Vulcans is natural, especially with the existence of the Kolinahr ritual, a Vulcan religious ritual to finally purge all emotions rather than simply surpress them, but to have a whole ship's full of them is stupid.
Here's why:- if I was going to prove my superiority over someone I'd do so by proving my way was better. Not by beating them at their own game. It's logical to prove that you are better because of who you are, not because you can play baseball better than someone you don't like. The Vulcan Captain, Solok, not only goes out of his way to learn the game, and train crew to play it, but out right seeks Sisko out to challenge him. We're told that he has spent years on this petty rivalry, writing several papers analysing a drunken bar fight the two of them got in to after he insulted Sisko.
Thats not all, when the DS9 team lose they celebrate a good game (and that Rom scored a run) by invading the pitch and having a grand old knees up in the bar afterwards. And this infuriates Solok.
This isn't the actions of an enlightened race, there is nothing Vulcan about this captain. Not one thing. In contrast in one of the early episodes of the original series the script originally called for Spock to punch the evil copy of Kirk, knocking him out with a right cross. Leonard Nimoy, the actor playing Spock, pointed out that a punch was too crude and primitive for the logical Vulcan and invented the infamous Neck Pinch on the spot.
By the end of of their appearance on Deep Space Nine Vulcans had been ruined. They had, in one spectacular episode, been reduced to petty, vindictive and bordering on racist parodies of everything a Vulcan wasn't. but it gets worse...
to be continued
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