Various theories concerning my three favorite fictional cultures [from Doctor Who and Star Trek]. Will probably delve into the weird before too long.
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My Headcanon on Andorian Sexes and Their Roles
(TW lots of talk about body parts and reproductive sex)
(Leave your thoughts below)
So, in the TNG episode Data’s Day, Data briefly mentions that Andorian marriage usually requires 4 members, and the eight years since I first watched that episode I haven’t really thought about it much. At most I just thought Andorians think a larger parental group is better to raise children.
Then I watched Lower Decks and fell in love with the character Jennifer Sh'reyan. I read her page on the wikia Memory Alpha and in the Apocrypha section it mentioned her surname was a reference to the 4 Andorian sexes. This sent me through a rabbithole and I love it. So, based on the line from the aforementioned TNG episode, the book Star Trek: DS9 - Avatar took the route that all 4 members in the Andorian marriage are actually required to make a baby. It explained that the Zhen sex roughly corresponds to female and carry the zygote to term. Shen sex also roughly corresponds to female and they create the egg with 1/3 the DNA and later transfer the zygote to the Zhen. Chan sex roughly corresponds to male and produce sperm and 1/3 the DNA, are have less masculine features. Thaan sex also roughly corresponds to male and produce sperm and 1/3 the DNA and have more masculine features. Now the book is technically non canon, but with canon Jennifer having a Shen name, and nothing in canon strictly disagreeing with this, I’d like to think some version of the 4 sexes is true in canon.
So that was all fun to learn, but it left a couple thoughts in my mind, the physiology of the Shen and Zhen, and Andorian chromosomes. For a while I tried to devise different chromosome combinations of three individuals that would result in four different sexes, and while maybe possible, I think I found a more logical explanation. Shen are XXX, Chan are XXY, and Thaan are XYY, each gamete only contains one chromosomes and so when combined that only leaves the three possibilities. How could that be, you might ask, where does the fourth sex come from. Well, I looked to another antennae creature, the earth wasp. Wasps can lay eggs that have been fertilized with sperm that’ll become females, or unfertilized eggs that will become males. For Andorian Zhen, I think if they are not fertilized by a Shen’s zygote I think somehow an egg containing just her dna attaches to the uterus and starts a pregnancy containing another Zhen.
So this leads to the reproductive system of Zhen and Shen. I think Chan and Thaan are roughly identical reproductive wise to human males, but I don’t think the same can be said for the other two. I’ll start with Shen, they must have ovaries to produce an ovum, and fallopian tubes where the ovum and two sperms combine, but I don’t think they have a uterus. Instead I think the tube more or less goes straight to the vaginal canal that probably resembles a flexible but muscular pseudophallus. Hormones probably let the Shen know the fertilization worked, and uses her pseudophallus to transfer the zygote to the Zhen.
For Zhen I have given this a lot of thought. They defiantly have a uterus as they are the ones to carry the baby to term. So I think they have a monthly cycle where they can get pregnant by a Shen but if they don’t then their uterus cleans itself out. However, I think if a pregnancy is not taking place, then one cycle each year an adult Zhen develops an egg with only her DNA (I���m thinking a differently shaped XXX chromosomes) and it’ll develop into a near identical Zhen offspring. I think that since they only produce one egg per year and only have around 30 years of reproductive capability that they would have much smaller ovaries, maybe even a single one, and I don’t think they would have fallopian tubes exactly but have the ovaries connected more directly to the uterus as it doesn’t need to wait to fertilize. It is also possible that to keep the Zhen population up that when a Zhen self impregnates they have a chance for multiple zygotes, ie twins and triplets. Of course I think modern Andorian Zhen probably developed some form of birth control so they aren’t constantly pregnant.
So final notes, we know that in modern times some Andorian’s only choose a single partner, so likely depending on their sex if they want a child they use some combination of doners and or surrogates. Also, while species like Humans, Klingons, Vulcan/Romulans, and Cardassians each have decent lists of other species they can mate with to have a child, in canon Andorians can only mate with their twin species the Aenar. Something all those other species have in common is that they only have two sexes, so this is further hinting that in canon Andorians have more than two sexes. Though they probably could mate with a species with similar sex structures, or with a duel sex species if serious medical intervention helped in the process.
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I like how one of the themes in DS9 is "identity". What makes me who I am? Can I change it? Can I advocate for myself? Can I adapt to new circumstances?
Up until now (I just saw Nog insisting to enter Starfleet), it had been explored mainly with Odo and also with Jadzia a bit. In fact, it is Odo's whole plot, so to say, because he is the only one of his species and up until the establishment of the Federation in DS9, he was first a rarity (with Doctor Mora) and then a tool (with the Cardassians).
It has been very interesting to see him change his own perception about himself to be a person of his own right. Him asking to have his own quarters where he can change into different shapes that he has chosen himself is a master stroke. He has been making his own way since he arrived and he keeps doing so as firmly as he does anything else. Finding his own people helped him heal some wounds and also reassured him into his next decisions.
Jadzia has had her moments of showing that she is Jadzia, despite all the other people who inhabit her. They say it's memories of the past hosts but some memories are so powerful for her that she feels the need to comply with someone else's wishes. She not only remembers things as facts, as stories other people told you. She remembers the emotions, the feelings, the whole situation. And they insist that you have to be ready to change when you get the simbiont because the simbiont also has a character, on top of all the memories. And people respect Jadzia and Dax as separate entities, they sometimes even speak to Dax through Jadzia. So it all is a hard one to balance and she fights to be who she was before and who she is now. Jadzia likes playing tongo with the Ferengi and so she will. That is a new experience and a new memory for Dax. I will have to look up if someone has made a DID reading with Jadzia, because I think it is there.
And now we have Nog who is choosing to not be a Ferengi if being a Ferengi means he has to chase after profit. He tried his best, with Jake and Jake was actually smarter for business than he was. He has seen his father lose all his personality and power of decision because of it. He has tried himself to behave like a Ferengi when he went with Jake in a double date and it only led to more confusion. He does what is expected of a Ferengi man but he has been amongst other aliens for so long that it is weird already. But because he is friends with Jake, because he lives in a Federation station, he knows there are other options. He won't have profit anyways, but he will be happy with himself. And because he is so young and enthusiastic, he can't see yet what it may cost him with fellow Ferengis in Ferenginar, but he didn't really grow up there anyways. The child of migrants experience.
There is also Sisko with the emissary plot. It had been forgotten for a couple of seasons but they are reopening it now so we'll see where it leads but it adds to the identity changes, to the evolution of identity over the years, when new things happen to us, when we discover new things about ourselves.
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What do you think nakedness means to Timelords? They don’t seem to be sexual at all and I think they have some sort of touch telepathy, so I assume it would be a way of showing vulnerability? To show they’re trustworthy? Maybe there’s some diplomacy level nakedness? Idk
oh my god, this question is both hilarious and fascinating, thank you for asking -
so: what do we know about time lords? let's list it out.
reproduction through sex isn't really a thing. looming/genetic cloning is the primary method of reproduction because of pythia's curse and a presidential decree that forbids natural births. it states that only the loom-born could "inherit the legacy of Rassilon" - this was to stabilize the population after the curse and force the public to accept looms; it was not because sex was considered amoral (which, as far as I can tell, it wasn't. they seem pretty indifferent about sex/the body and care more about telepathy/the mind.)
they have casual relationships with their corporeal forms. bodies are basically just objects or vessels for them, and these vessels come and go. that creates detachment between bodies and their occupants, making the time lords less likely to have any sort of... deep, meaningful attachment to them. embarrassment, shame, vanity, etc.
touch telepathy. like vulcans from star trek, time lords can read the thoughts of other life forms by touching them or initiating "contact." however, as we saw with madame de pompadour, the telepathy can go both ways. this leaves them vulnerable.
they're fancy bitches. basically every time lord we've seen on-screen is dressed from neck to wrists to ankles in nice, quality clothing. they value their appearances.
by comparison, this is slutty:
wrists showing? ankles showing?? collar bones showing??? normal cotton fabrics without shiny bits or brocade patterns or a vest or anything¿??¿? complete scandal
seemingly, this would suggest that the time lords had reservations/cultural taboos about nudity, like the regency-era english - but they were heavily-clothed for different reasons.
i'll explain, but first, let me lay down this foundational point:
for the time lords, sex isn't reproduction. they're more likely to have kinks about looms and cloning vats than body parts, if any kinks at all. in time lord society, the body isn't inherently sexual. it has no sexual purpose.
okay. so, the time lords arrived at the same conclusion as the victorian english: wear lots of nice fabric and don't you dare ever show skin, you dirty FREAK. but, since:
sex isn't considered amoral (or even considered at all),
nudity isn't considered sexual,
bodies lack deep emotional attachments,
why are they so... clothed?
because, for the time lords, nakedness is:
primitive. it's the mark of a "lesser species," and we know how they feel about those. the nice fabrics, jewels, decorations, collars and robes - they're symbols of superiority and mental acuity. plus, they look good, and the time lords are extra as fuck.
vulnerable. it's a strategic weakness. for a species whose sole purpose is micromanaging the universe, being perceived as "inferior" or "defenseless" is the equivalent to our "whorish" or "godless." nudity itself isn't amoral, but it is revealing, much like touch telepathy.
TLDR: i'd absolutely say that nudity is diplomatic for time lords. much like a handshake, it signals that you don't have any weapons (unless you're captain jack 👀). however, the associations with nudity are far more convoluted than just that, making it inappropriate for different reasons. unlike humans, it's less about sexuality and more about civility. "naked" also means: uncivilized, unintelligent, childlike, etc., all things that the time lords HATE.
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Nothing more than mechanisms and algorithmic responses.
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i love the message behind making time lord society deeply, dysfunctionally bureaucratic and authoritarian.
whether it's the meaningless ceremonial behaviors or the systematic oppression of "inferior" groups, gallifrey has almost every single marker of a fascist government, and it's exquisitely blatant.
our champion of creativity and freedom, the doctor, is constantly at odds with them
the social order resembles a military structure in which every individual has superiors and inferiors, and this assignment tends to be based on family/house history - power attracts more power
the government is (more than) willing to sacrifice lives for military victory and scientific advancement
facts are routinely altered to raise confidence in the government and eliminate criticism of people in power (ex. borusa in The Deadly Assassin)
gallifreyan society is essentially "nationalist" and always strives to expand its power and influence over "lesser" groups
and So Many More examples, i could write a thesis paper on this single idea
high-level officials (namely borusa, rassilon, morbius, niroc, etc.) are able to play the system to their advantage, both revealing its:
tendency towards corrupting leaders by giving them power, which is nearly without limitation - "the president need apologize to no one, the president need thank no one," as a direct quote
inability to protect its own people from the will of its powerful elite
when the doctor operates from within the government as lord high president (mainly in "The Invasion of Time"), he's able to bring the whole system to its knees because of its inefficiency, linear mindset, and rigidity. not only is the government too strong to be controlled by its own people, but it's also too weak to prevent routine corruption, and it's also too rigid to combat a threat that thinks outside the box and uses the box's limitations to its advantage - in this case, the doctor. basically, gallifrey's government universally sucks.
this type of society is deeply unstable because it's transparent, inflexible, and artificial, like glass. it's extremely delicate. all it takes is some clever free-thinkers, and the whole thing breaks... it's no wonder that gallifrey keeps getting in trouble, even with such advanced technology!
and it's no wonder that the doctor, our clever free-thinker, saves their asses every time.
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My kitten tried to kill my stuffed tribble. My roommate remarked that my tribble killing cat would make a great Klingon pet… and she’s right.
Imagine a Klingon ship having a cat that protects them from tribbles & vermin. They have to get the cat from a shelter run by humans and they’re like “This is the honorable Mr. Chonks”.
“Yes, our ship also has an earth feline. Her name is Carrot and she fights like a warrior.”
There’s absolutely a Klingon out there who lost an eye to a feral cat that he then adopted.
Klingons who go “pspspspsps” to get the Ship Cat to come hang out during break.
Orange Ship Cat that gets lost in the jeffires tubes and Klingon whose sole job is to go fetch the orange cat. He acts like he hates his job but he actually really adores his feline co-worker so much.
Klingon that always hands things to the Ship Cat so it can sniff it.
Klingon that intentionally grabs boxes to enrich Ship Cat’s little life. Sometimes they get multiple boxes and the crew bets on which box will be deemed “best box” by their fluffy little warrior.
Klingon that starts his work shift saying “Qapla'!” to Ship Cat who meows in return.
Newly Minted Ship Kitten climbing up to a Klingon Captain’s shoulder with her tiny needle claws while said Captain is attempting to be intimidating on the viewscreen.
Klingon who gets a head bunt from Ship Cat and gives it a head bunt back.
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I really love this!
More alien aliens headcanon, no. 298:
With their advanced sense of smell Tellarites can identify mycelial toxins, spores and their effects on organic beings with even better accuracy than Human can identify rain.
Since mushrooms are such a staple of Tellarite cuisine, the way in which a mushroom meal is metabolised can help to diagnose other diseases. For example, especially sour smelling pheromones are a sign of the early stages of many kidney diseases. For a long time a traditionally trained Tellarite doctor could more reliably diagnose poisons and diseases than medical tricorders.
Once medical technology caught up with Tellarite noses, the art of sniffing out ailments was almost lost because of the long training period - a Tellarite doctor with a tricorder could be fully trained in 8 years as opposed to the traditional 21. The change went hand in hand with a spike of serious or late stage physical ailments on Tellar: This is because you have to aim tricorders with intent, whereas 'sniffer training' will passively identify sick individuals in the same room within half a minute - provided they live mostly on mushrooms.
The art was saved from oblivion by of the Dominion War. Tellarite soldiers quickly learned that Jem'hadar could be detected by their smell even when using personal cloaking devices. This method could not pinpoint the precise location of cloaked enemies, but the alert itself was 100% reliable and prevented many ambushes from turning into all-out massacres. After the war, veterans took a renewed interest in traditional medicine and started nothing less than a planet-wide hype, comparable to the post-WWII success of t-shirts on Earth.
Since then, researchers on Tellar have begun exploring other applications for this technique. From cooking to archiving to meteorology and terraforming, the fusion of this Tellarite art form with newer, off-world fields of study has been a great boon to intergalactic society.
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What the heck is up with Vulcan Clans? Here's my take on it:
To make things easier on myself I'm going to say clans are the vulcan version of human extended families. I'm sure there are more creative approaches to this idea and I'd welcome contributing/alternative ideas.
Anyway, your immediate family is usually made up of everyone with your surname. Sidenote: Vulcan surnames look a lot like two first names but I haven't figured out what to do with this information yet.
Extended family cover any family not living with you and certain families by marriage.
Humans don't make distinctions between small and large family groups through naming conventions and both types are just referred to by 'The [Last Name] Family'. This system is multi-purpose for families in which everybody with the last name is part of the family, and families in which many are part of different families.
Vulcans use clans to designate alliances. (There have been several human societies with a similar family arrangement but this is usually limited to the upper class. Vulcans with their longer lifespans are able to actually keep track of their genetic history. Even with things like Ancestry.com to make it easier, this is still not a human cultural norm.) Similarly to humans, individuals can be born into or marry into the clan. Adoption may also get you a spot in the clan although if the clan matriarch or someone close to her is stingy enough, they can be left out. Although the matriarch is usually at the top, there is no designated family role that always gets second place. It tends to be whoever the matriarch likes or is impressed enough by to trust to make decisions for/alongside her. Similarly with her successor. She can just name whoever to be the next matriarch. Well, not exactly. There's a lot of cultural rules that need to be followed which differ by location and status. Many clans will have an informal "council" of elders who are just all the most respected members of a clans. They don't all need to agree on something before action is taken and may even do things over one another, but because of their status, age and experience in the clan they have a lot of power over the younger members. Marriages were (and in some cases, still are) a common way to facilitate unions and alliances. These marriages would often come with stipulations or requirements to their arrangements. For example, how many children they had to have. Or even, how to raise them. Clans can also decide to merge. Which may not have happened as often if they cared more about maintaining familial integrity. But they might be more inclined to if the other clan was smaller. Although in that case it's less of a merger and more of an absorption.
Here are some visual aids I made to get this across better.
This is a sample human family with several different common dynamics. Some cultures make it way bigger but it generally doesn't span much larger than 3 or 4 living generations.
And here is a sample vulcan family with some dynamics I imagine would be more common to vulcan families. As you can see it's a lot larger and I'll have to go into more detail. They can have anywhere from 5 to 8 living generations. (Up to 10 if they're pushing it) First off, Clans 1 and 2 are merged through the earlier marriage. The second was arranged as a result of their merger. Family 2 is about the same thing as a human family. They all have the same surnames while others in their clan might have different surnames because they belong to different families. Vulcans can belong to multiple families but it's rare for them to belong to multiple clans. The one at the bottom of family 2 was kicked out of clan 1. They still belong to their family, but not their clan. Clans are for political alliances, families are for personal relationships. Clan 3 has an alliance with clan 1 through marriage via the sisters from family 1. This fulfills a requirement that alliances have to be based in blood relations. There are other types of alliances that don't require direct relations but this was used as a security measure. AKA you cant betray us because we have your wife's sister. In this example, the sisters parents and rest of their family are not part of either clan because they denounced them. If not, then they would either have to facilitate a 3-way alliance (difficult) or choose one over the other. If clans 1 and 3 were at odds, family 1 would have to denounce one of the sisters in order to ally/merge with their favored clan. An honorary sister/brother is kinda like the honorary adoption except with clan rights. Whether or not they get full clan rights or even included at all is up to the matriarch. Although marrying for love can result in a clan alliance, it usually doesn't. When I say marrying for love I just mean they married without considering clan dynamics of either clan. If their clans have tension, are at odds, full blown enemies, or don't even know each other it doesn't matter to this lovey-dovey couple. In these cases either one of them has to denounce their own clan or both their clans denounce the two of them individually. This can lead to a situation where they have kids and their parents suddenly want to meet their grandkids and may invite them back into the clan. Or even just invite their grandkid.
It's important to note that much of the above analysis is interpreted from things about Sarek's family with bits and pieces from various other parts of Vulcan culture. Sarek comes from a prestigious family which implies a certain kind of higher social status. Thus, everything I've just said about vulcan clans may only be applicable to large and venerated clans.
In smaller clans, the difference between clan and family is more semantics. Although most of Vulcan society pays attention to clan dynamics and acts accordingly (although not quite as fervently as pre-surak days): the lower classes cannot always afford to engage in the kind of vicious social warfare of upper classes (even if they do have a sense of clan politics within their status). Indeed, their ruthlessness and devotion to clan dynamics have lessened since the adoption of logic but has not gone away completely. In fact, in many circles it has only adapted, becoming a game of 'who is logical/not logical enough'.
Outsiders may get confused here because Vulcans are so quiet about their affairs that you might not notice the invisible lines that designate clan distinctions. Thus they assume that Vulcans just don't have problems such as classism.
This goes doubly so because older clans are more relevant in invisible society. For example, the entire government used to be run by several of these ancient clans before T'Pau reformed it. Certain economic industries like food distribution and shipbuilding are also run by clans. One reason for this is the pressure put on clan members to follow in the footsteps of their parents. Another is because clans with monopolies on an industry are friends with the other clans involved with that industry and they end up controlling whoever is in that industry. Should also be noted though that vulcans arent very capitalistic and are more reliant on trade stores for everyday items.
Before I end this I should probably expand on the clan rights thing. The biggest thing is just public support from their family for anything from having a rough time financially to trying to get a promotion at work. The other thing is because they're so tight knit they can ask favors from other members even ones they've never met either directly or by going through the chain of members they do know. But that's all just benefits. I haven't thought too much on what their rights would actually entail but one idea I've seen that I like is that the money they get from their job goes into a clan treasury where their clan distributes it to members based on necessity. I mean, they can probably go ask their clan's treasurer to give their full salary to them directly but then they risk their clan elders deciding they're trying to denounce their clan. Or not. Depends on what kind of clan they're in.
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Exactly how many spocks are there i feel like every time i consume star trek media theres another one sjsnsj
completely understandable! there’s so many spocks!
so like. this is a difficult question. so there’s three main spocks:
tos (nimoy)
aos (quinto)
dsc (peck)
but. there’s still more.
so in disco we see spock have two main looks:
depressed bastard
functional science officer
i’m not gonna Officially count these as seperate spocks but he is in (or will be in) 3 different star trek series: discovery, short treks, and strange new worlds
in aos we see 4 different spocks (although there might be more but i refuse to watch aos again):
literal baby
baby but not literally
aos spock
spock prime (aka tos spock)
in tas we see 3* spocks:
normal spock (in both pictures)
spock 2 (the big spock)
kid spock
*theres an episode where everyone on the enterprise ages backwards (including spock) so we get a bunch more spocks:
in tos tv show we see 2* spocks:
normal spock (he also shows up in aos [which we already covered] and tng, where he’s an ambassador)
mirror spock
*and in the deadly years where he gets old but he doesn’t change that much because vulcans live long (and prosper, i guess):
in the tos movies, there’s also a lot.
in tff (st v) we see baby spock:
in sfs (st iii), spock’s body rapidly ages so there’s many spocks:
and also spock lives in mccoy’s head rent-free so we have a mccoy spock:
and i’m only including the canon (or disputed canon in tas’ case), there’s still more if you want to include the comics/books
and none of this includes the stunt doubles so there’s even more spocks (and tbh i probably forgot some so 🤷🏻♂️)
TLDR: there’s a fuckton of spocks
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Vulcan vs. Earth Cultural Difference Thoughts
Taken from the wiki: "First and foremost, Vulcan is a hot planet. Daytime temperatures routinely range from 43.3ºC (110ºF) to 51.6ºC (125ºF), and in the peak of summer can reach or exceed 65.5ºC (150ºF). The rays of Vulcan's orange sun, 40 Eridani A, usually shine down through the red sky unbroken by clouds from dawn to dusk, as rainfall throughout the planet typically averages less than 635mm (25in) per year and is heavily concentrated in the six-week period immediately following summer's end.
In addition, winds tend to be mild except along the coasts, providing little relief. (The exceptions, the continent-spanning sandstorms, provide no relief at all.) Only nightfall brings a break to the incessant heat, dropping the thermometer to 7ºC (45ºF) or below. In Vulcan's winter months, the mid-latitude deserts often experience freezing temperatures at night...
...The planet Vulcan has no axial tilt, so that there is no natural progression of the seasons from north to south and back again as on Earth. Instead, seasonal changes occur planet wide as the result of Vulcan's elliptical orbit around its sun."
It is a desert planet with wild temperature ranges of scorching hot in the day, and frigid in the night. It also...doesn't rain much there. And I think that's really important to remember when it comes to cultural differences. For example: the area I live in has an average yearly rainfall of 42-43 inches a year--with an additional average of 21-22 inches of snow on top of that. That is roughly 2.5 times MORE annual precipitation than Vulcan. I also live in an area where temperature changes often...but not to the degree of a desert. I looked up average desert temperature at night...and it's around 25F or -4C. No fuckin' thanks. My area is (aside from a few large cities spread pretty far apart) also a pretty heavy agricultural area. It's near Bloomington, Indiana--the hometown of Captain Janeway. The area is known for producing Corn, Soybeans, Poultry, Swine, Mint (for candy companies) and Watermelons. Note, it isn't uncommon to see big sales of 25 lbs watermelons for $3 in my area. My Japanese friends hate me for it. We're also no slouch when it comes to producing wood for furniture.
My point is, it's a green fuckin' area. I can only imagine someone from Vulcan getting lost and (ten minutes after leaving campus) finding themselves in front of a corn field that stretches hundreds and hundreds of acres. It would be a mind-boggling scene of agricultural plenty. Or, perhaps, they'd come across one of the fish farms the Bald Eagles like to chill at. Just THOUSANDS of gallons of water, just sitting there. Enough to raise FISH. Enough for WILD WATERFOWL to just CHILL THERE.
Meat requires a TON of water. A quick google tells me your average pound of beef costs 1847 GALLONS of water to produce. That's so much fucking water. That's why humans can AFFORD to eat meat all the damn time. The vast herds of cattle would seem ABSURD to a Vulcan. (Note, one time my neighbor's cows broke through their fence and the roads were FUQUED until he rounded all 300+ of them up).
The Vulcan Science Academy has an agricultural department. You don't see agricultural departments that often in the United States. It's considered kind of...a sign that you're a 'hick school' in some circles. But the ILLUSTRIOUS VULCAN SCIENCE ACADEMY has a whole-ass department for it. They greatly respect the agricultural sciences. In comparison, on Earth we are SPOILED with an overabundance of water (when our governments don't fuck it up.) Humans often learn how to swim. Hell, my area has flooding problems in the early spring. Drownings are a very real and not uncommon threat over here.
I can only imagine Vulcan visitors just staring at Earth Food and internally counting out how much water was required to make that. And the planet's surface is covered 70% by water. 70 PERCENT. No wonder humans can afford to eat meat, dairy, and sweetened products. They have water to SPARE--so much that their cultures developed cuisines entirely based on the ENJOYMENT of food. My friends and I often go hunting for Morels and foraging for other wild goodies. The planet is so FULL OF LIFE that you can just FIND STUFF TO EAT wandering around. Farmers in my area are worried about the aging hunter population because there are so many god damn deer out here they are an agricultural menace. I have gotten calls at 9pm asking my partner and I to come over for some Surprise Venison. It would seem so...decadent.
I've read a number of fanfics where Vulcans comment on how much humans seem to love useless, decorative plants. When you get as much rain as we do, you can go WILD with plants that only exist for aesthetic purposes. They wouldn't be used to the concept. Someone might have a breakdown at the concept of Flower Farming--because that space should be used for FOOD except we HAVE ENOUGH ALREADY.
I just imagine some Vulcan wandering (because you CAN accidentally end up in a farm field 10 minutes from Bloomington's campus) into a famer's market and BALKING at how cheap everything is. In this part of the country, people like to grow their own veg. So it isn't a surprise when someone throws a party/bbq and 3 people EACH show up with a watermelon and corn from their own garden and another 2 show up with 4 dozen eggs each because they got too many chickens and the eggs DO NOT STOP. I myself discovered a few years ago that Chinese Eggplants do EXCELLENT here, and I have more than once ding-dong-ditched my neighbors with bags of eggplants--only for them to leave a dozen zucchini on my porch when I'm doing errands and cannot defend myself from this vegetable violence.
And this is where the cultural differences come in. As mentioned in Plomeek Soup for the Soul, giving an unmarried man water or food directly can be interpreted as a MARRIAGE REQUEST. Y'all out here that is just being polite. Hospitality is Serious Business. I keep water and gatorade bottles in a chest on my porch for USPS employees and anyone who wants one.
It would be SO EASY for someone who did the idiotic move (a friend did this) of planting a DOZEN ZUCCHINI PLANTS accidentally ending up Vulcan Married because they had to End the Torment of the Plague of Zucchinis in their home before it expands and destroys the house from the inside from the sheer volume of vegetables within.
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Introducing version 2.0 of my fantasy-style map of Central Gallifrey!
This is my attempt to create as close to a ‘true’ map of the Capitol and its surroundings as possible, using every source available ranging from The Timeless Children to Find Your Fate, DWM’s Gallifrey: A Rough Guide to Lungbarrow, Seasons of War to Iris Wildthyme, plus a bit of conjecture where necessary. This current version is more or less complete until more information arises, though I may add some more scene illustrations in the future.
I’m hoping to make this available as a print sometime soon, in case anyone's interested in getting it as a poster. Stay tuned for an update on that front.
In the meantime, feel free to let me know if you have any suggestions / questions, or have spotted something I’ve missed!
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A while back, I reached the conclusion that the majority of canon evidence points to the Doctor having been a Gallifreyan lawyer. Every time I remember this it unsettles me again.
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So, ive been thinking over the timeless child. While I'm still in the camp that can understand it and doesn't absolutely despise it, I've been thinking over ideas for how to incorporate the concept without the most divisive element- having the doctor be the child. And one idea that I've landed on that keeps ruth, keeps the division, explains some 'plot holes' and also pretty much keeps the episode in tact-
The doctor themself isnt the child, but a DESCENDANT of them.
let me explain:
The original child was found by tecteun, experemented upon and gave the timelord race the ability to regenerate. As the child grows up under the view of tecteun as their parental figure, they remain as part of gallifrey high society. However when the child wishes to produce a liniage, something allowed by the high founders, they realize this line of dna would still hold the power of the original child- endless regenerations.
And so, to take advantage of these abilities, the descendants of the timeless child are indoctrinated into the division.
These children of the high family bloodline are rinsed of their regenerations in secret, taken from their parents before they're known to the public and employed by the division. Once they've served their purpose, the division wipes their memory and arteficially caps their regenerative capabilities- they become like normal timelords, returned to an infant with 12 regenerations allowed. Due to time manipulation the child is returned to the parents practically as soon as they were taken, as to not raise suspicion.
However, they have no recollection of the division. And since the child is returned to them almost instantaneously, the parents are non the wiser.
This continues down the liniage until we reach the doctor, who experiences the division and gets returned to a child. The doctor then meets the master as a child, and continues life as normal. From susan we can infer the doctor themselves had children, and subsequently grandchildren. This is why the timelords are so angry at the doctor for leaving gallifrey: they're taking the divisions best operatives with them as they vow to not return.
This change would explain so much- the doctors rebellious need against the timelords, why hes so despised by them, why 11 needed more regenerations on Trenzalore, and also exactly why this realisation would hurt the master the way it did. Probably even more so.
The master interprets the matrix to mean the doctor is the child directly, but the details are lost in the redacted section, which explains that the doctor merely extends from the child instead of being it. To the master, the doctor was practically a brother through childhood. Their own family werent the best so he found closure in knowing the doctors family would care for them, treat them as their own. Finding out later on that the people you saw as your family were better than you in every way and never truly were your equals would hurt the master unquestionably, and the doctors declaration that they truly were better than them would dig even deeper, because it pulls the one equal they had away from them and truly makes them alone.
It also adds more weight to the timelords allowing the doctor more regenerations- this renagade that they've despised for centuries, they now have to bite the bullet and admit that the doctor deserves to live more lives due to their positive actions across the universe. It makes them realize the doctor and by extension the doctors family truly are something different to a usual timelord, arguably better.
It gives reason for the master to feel betrayed, the timelords to feel shamed, but reframes the doctors pain to them realizing their entire family have been used and abused by the timelords without them knowing. In a way, the destruction of gallifrey in the original time war timeline could be seen as revenge: but the fact that they still decided to help, and in light of the revelation would STILL stand by their decision to save gallifrey both from the daleks and the master, proves the doctors hearts are good.
They aren't acting from some god given power that means they're above everyone else, they do what they do because they can't see children cry. They really are just a mad person with a box, picking up humans along the way because having two hearts but no one to share them with hurts too much, doing what's good and right because its the nice thing to do.
We still don't know the doctors real name, who they really are, but it develops the mystery behind their family and them in turn- is the doctor a name they chose themselves? Is it the code name given to the division operatives from the family, and the doctor was simply the only one to recall the memory and embody it while at the academy?
It changes us knowing what the doctor is and replaces it with more questions about who they are.
It also makes the name of the episode make sense- the timeless child was the catalyst, the timeless children are what came after.
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Musings for loomy Timeless canon-welding
What is Tecteun’s connection with Karn? If regeneration science is elevated on Karn it has to be like that for a reason. Maybe Tecteun’s experiments were conducted on Karn with the followers of the Pythia and Tecteun (wisely) kept some secrets there?
The looms were not necessary because of infertility. The Pythia's curse was not a curse, but more of a warning.
"By Presidential decree, only the Loom-born shall inherit the legacy of Rassilon. There shall be no more children born of woman." - Cold Fusion, by Lance Parkin.
The looms were used to “mass-produce” Time Lords; they accelerated the process of giving a subject a regeneration cycle, which couldn’t be obtained through birth. The highest Houses started to see being born as something for the lesser classes and all of their members (cousins) were loomed from scratch.
During this time Rassilon became Lord President for all of “his” accomplishments. The Timeless Child, after working for the Division for a time and trying to escape from their clutches, and with the help of Omega’s wife, Patience, planned to make Rassilon pay for what he had done to their loved ones (Tecteun and Omega). After setting their plans in motion, they tried to take Patience to safety with Omega’s prototype TT Machine. The TC, left the Capitol and found one of the High Houses, Lungbarrow, where they threw themselves into a loom to be unraveled.
However this practice fell out of vogue eventually and only the most backwards-ly Houses, like Lungbarrow, stayed loom dependent. The rest of Time Lord Society eventually fell back to birthing children and looming in a regeneration cycle after exposure to the Schism or the Academy (with less sophisticated, or at least less powerful, machines, of course), one of the two.
Time later, the Time Lord explorer Ulysses of the House of Lungbarrow returned to his family with an unstable half-human son, asking for him to be loomed in order to stabilise him. The TC’s biodata was intertwined with the child’s, and so they became one, who would later become known as the Doctor. Although he was allowed to live with his father and half-brother Braxiatel in the House, his mother had to live with the Shobogans. He spent time with her in a barn next to the settlement. When she died, she was covered in veils, but being a very hot summer day, the body started to decompose fast. This horrendous sight marked the Doctor for life. He spent some time living in the Barn with the Shobogans, but eventually returned to the House ready to move on and become a Time Lord.
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Collating my evidence for Adhd Bashir
"I was trying to read but i kept reading the same page over and over"
Speaks at the speed of light
"I'm aware that i have a tendency to run off at the mouth sometimes"
Infodumps about his interests at any given moment
Speaks with his hands
Paces around sick bay constantly. He hardly stands still in there
Fidgets with whatever is in his hands
He doesnt always think things through - he's impulsive
Just this entire video actually
youtube
He rambles
He likes to tell the same story over and over again
I like him and i say so
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Hiya! Perhaps do you have any in-depth information on Vulcan fauna? I have read the page on Memory Beta but there aren't many info on various species, so I was wondering if there was some more material I was unaware of. Thank you!
Na'Shaya! There isn't much additional information on the animals that do appear on Memory Beta, however it seems to be missing some creatures that are mentioned in the VLI and other sources. I've compiled all the info I could find here for reference. I apologise because this is not really what you were hoping for, but perhaps it will be useful to the fanfic writers (and xenobiologists! 😛) out there:
A'lazb: a kind of very small, transparent spiders who, like their Terran counterparts, have the ability to weave near-invisible webs.
Askor: an animal with the ability to change color, much like Earth chameleons do.
Aylak: small scavenger animals that are palm-sized, dark brown in color, and have six clawed legs and two whiplike tails. They tend to live in the driest parts of Vulcan, and often perish for lack of water. Dead aylakim serve as a primary part of the diet of the le-matya. Though not domesticated, they seem to enjoy the attention of observers when in captivity.
Ch'kariya: a small mammal resembling a Terran weasel, with pale skin, sparse hair, and two large forepaws with six razor-sharp claws which it used to climb and dig. These burrowing animals are active during the day, often foraging for food to maintain a high metabolic rate. Chkariya relied largely on plant roots for nourishment, but also ate fruit, carrion, and the occasional small animal. They are extremely friendly and bold enough to be fed by hand, and to venture into the cities and destroy carefully-tended gardens, much to the dismay of the Vulcan population.
Dokai: a large domesticated fowl that is used for keeping weeds and insects out of the crop fields in the circumpolar region of Vulcan.
D'rachanya: an extinct breed of flying reptile, similar to the dragons from Terran legends.
Dzharel: also spelled jarel, this creature is a pony-like horned animal with clawed feet and a distant relative of the kenel.
Fnell: an extinct wildebeest-like animal which used to be raised for meat and milk.
Haurok: a kind of bird.
Hayalit: a small burrowing animal, their flesh is edible and said to taste like chicken.
Huum: an extinct bison-like animal, with clawed feet instead of hooves, which once roamed the desert in vast herds.
Kaashk: an extinct bobcat-like animal; widely domesticated as a pet in pre-Surak times.
Kenel: an extinct animal, somewhat like a cross between a horse, camel and gazelle, with rhino-like skin. It used to be widely domesticated for riding.
K'karee: a species of poisonous snake with mottled blue-gray skin. When the k'karee coils to strike, two sacs located below its throat expand outward, creating the appearance of a small pair of silvery fins and giving it the ability to project its venom in a concentrated spray with an effective range of up to 5 meters. The k'karee poison is not in itself fatal to humanoids, but it can temporarily paralyze a limb (for 24-48 hours) or cause blindness if it hits its target in the eyes. Either can leave a victim an inviting target to further attacks by the snake or by other predators in the area, unless proper antitoxins can be promptly applied.
K'nurt: a rabbit-like rodent.
Kriil: an alligator-like reptile of northern waterholes and lakes; it is very ancient and used to be a lot more common before Vulcan underwent desertification.
Krin-tu: also known as krinti, an extinct wolf-like animal.
Krovill: an animal that despite not having any teeth, can eat anything from an artichoke to a xylophone.
Lanka-gar: a predatory night flier, known for their wheeling shape and the downward swoop it used to catch prey.
Lara: the lara bird is bright blue in color, and resides in desert areas such as Vulcan's Forge.
Le-matya: a predator, similar in size and shape to a Terran mountain lion, equipped with poisonous claws and fangs. Their fur is green, grey, yellow or orange and sometimes has diamond patterns. Their hide is almost impenetrable. Known for its lightning-fast reflexes, they attack anything they saw or smelled, and drinking the blood of their victims even if they have recently fed. They will also feed on carrion, such as dead aylakim. The deadly nerve toxins in their claws were capable of killing a small animal within minutes, or paralyzing and even killing a humanoid. There is no known cure for le-matya poison. Due to their aggressive nature, no le-matya are allowed on any of Vulcan's nature preserves: if one enters a preserve it is removed as quickly as possible. Le-matya live in the deserts near ShiKahr, the Valley of the Seven Winds, and the volcanic plains; and tend to stay as close as possible to the desert waterholes. Specimens as large as 90 kilograms had been reported in the vicinity of the Cheleb-khor desert. Le-matya typically live in the hills but do emerge in times of drought when native prey was sparse, and have even been known to wander into the cities and attack pets.
Mah-tor-pahlah: a type of bird that mates for life.
Masu-sark: also known as the Vulcan water-beetle. A type of insect native to the coastal regions of Vulcan.
Mazhiv-oluhk: also known as sand viper. A common blue-green serpent-like animal native to Vulcan.
Mazhiv-ukram: also known as sand worm. This large, mysterious animal is so rare that many believe it to be merely a legend. It is said to have large eyes, fleshy-looking mandibles, a mouth with no visible teeth, two long antenna-like or tentacle-like projections above its eyes, and a tough segmented body. It burrows underground but emerges to the surface to hunt for prey.
Melshk: a very rare, snake-like reptile that lives deep underground.
Mor-gril: a wolverine-like animal.
Muuk: a skunk-like animal. Extremely rare, and not related to any other living species.
Mu-yor-spahk: called Nightclaw in Federation Standard, a mysterious animal on the prohibited list within the United Federation of Planets and thus protected from hunters.
Myrmidex: a type of multilegged animal that roams Vulcan's desert wastes.
Pandree: a python-like animal, noted for the ability to lure prey into traps dug into the desert sands.
Plakrala: also called Bloodwing, a majestic, heavy carrion-eater known to require a long takeoff distance. They were also introduced to Romulus by the migrants from Vulcan during the Sundering.
Quattil: leaping herbivorous creatures that travel in herds. In the distant past, these animals were often preyed upon by flying predators. In spite of their main predators going extinct, the quattil retained an ancient deeply driven instrinct to flee whenever they saw a shadow over them.
Ran-tu: also called a "ranti". An extinct dog-like animal; widely domesticated as a pet in pre-Surak times.
Rikrusal-fo-aushfa: molusks that live in the modest seas of Vulcan. They are edible, but most Vulcans do not eat them due to their strictly vegan diet.
Salan-faufa: also known as wind-rider, these are flying creatures with delicate, translucent bodies that live in the highest areas of the deserts of Vulcan, such as the L-langon Mountains. They are too frail to ever touch the ground, and have hollow bones, tissue-thin skin and transparent fur, and glow faintly in the night like fireflies. They spend their entire lives in the air, hunting, mating, giving birth and dying without ever touching the ground. No one understands how wind-riders are able to survive Vulcan's harsh environment. They are very rare, so seeing one is considered very fortunate for those interested in the fauna of Vulcan.
Sa-te kru: a type of large, cat-like creature. Like the le-matya, the sa-te kru is a formidable and dangerous predator.
Sehlat: Probably the most beloved Vulcan animal, the sehlat is a large bear-like creature with six-inch fangs and fur that covers their bodies completely. In spite of their fierce appearance, they have a friendly temperament and some breeds of sehlat have been domesticated in Vulcan since the Time of Antiquity, being used as transportation, beasts of burden and household pets. These domesticated breeds are far smaller than the wild sehlats that prowl the harsh deserts of their homeworld, and they are thought to be excellent pets for Vulcan children to learn discipline and responsibility (though domesticated, nobody wants to get in the way of a hungry sehlat!). Sehlats are thought to have originated in the temperate forest areas of the southern hemisphere of Vulcan, but they spread and adapted well across the entire planet. Their fur protects them from desert heat and they have excellent hearing. They did not like to climb and prefer to remain close to the ground, which provides a way for travelers to escape any potential attacks if they encounter a sehlat in the wild. They are omnivorous, and wild sehlats feed on grubs, roots, and small burrowing animals. Some of the many breeds of sehlat include the nesh-sehlat, the khav-sehlat, the vai-sehlat (used by the ancient warriors to travel across the desert, and said to slumber in large groups in their lairs) and the wild norsehlat. An Vulcan proverb states that the norsehlat has no conception of right or wrong, yet the Vulcans do not allow them to eat their citizens.
Sha'amii: also spelled sha'mi and sham'amii, this animal is halfway between a Terran sheep and a goat. They are domesticated and live in the Sas-a-shar desert surviving on the native browse. They yield edible milk, and their long, silken wool is a staple of the Vulcan fashion industry.
Shatarr: a poisonous breed of lizards that live under rocks or in small caves and burrows. They are known for striking out at prey or intruders who pass near the entrance to their homes. Specimens can grow as large as two meters, and the larger ones have been known to attack human-sized prey. Shatarr poison is a neurotoxin that quickly attacks the victim's nervous system, causing massive muscle spasms. For the small animals that are usually its prey, death occurs within minutes. If a larger animal or humanoid is bitten, the poison requires more time to take effect, which gives the victim an hour at most to seek treatment.
Shavokh: a graceful hunting bird with gold and brown feathers, a 2.5 meter wingspan, and a powerful musculature that allows it to propel itself along the mild wind currents of Vulcan's atmosphere. This carnivorous bird possessed two pairs of sharp golden talons, and its prey consisted of small rodents and reptiles. The legends say that encountering a shavokh when travelling through the desert brings good luck, for where it descended to ground, one would find ground water or a soak not too deeply buried nearby. The shavokh does, however, also eat carrion, occassionally making them an unwelcome sight to desert travellers.
Shkral: a rat-like rodent, very common.
Starok: a nocturnal mouselike mammal with forelimbs modified to form membranous wings and anatomical adaptations for echolocation by which they navigate, much like a Terran bat.
Tcha'besheh: also known as a'kweth or Underlier, it is a large silicon-based lifeform that live on Vulcan, similar to the Hortas of Janus VI. They are large beasts that were the size of a great house and possessed several tentacles. Very little is known about the Tcha'besheh's biology or their evolution. They do not apparently need to respire, require oxygen or feed and were one of the first recorded species that lived on a planet alongside carbon-based lifeforms. As a series of intense solar flares started to shape Vulcan into the desert world it would become, in order to avoid extinction, the Tcha'besheh moved underground and continued a secluded life far beneath Vulcan's surface, being extremely difficult to detect by scans. They are highly intelligent and are considered to be the Vulcan equivalent of whales, however they are not aquatic, but travel beneath the sands of their homeworld. Legends say that in the ancient days, before the proto-Vulcans developed language, one such Vulcan known as The Wanderer learnt his first word through an encounter with a Tcha'beseh.
Tchakarya: also called "chkariya", it is a small, ferret-like predator.
Tchorka: also called "chorka", it is an extinct camel-like animal that was occasionally domesticated as a beast of burden.
Teresh-kah: also known as silver birds, they have chromium-coloured feathers. They are falcon-sized and have an eerie cry; they are said to sing only at dawn in order to greet the sun. They nest furtner north in the L-langon mountain range and usually come over the Sas-a-shar desert at dawn.
Tugno't: a sheep-like animal native to Vulcan. Its soft, curly woool is used for making heavy robes.
Valit: a small rust-colored burrowing rodent with powerful claws capable of digging through the hardest soils or even volcanic rock. It lives in large family units in vast underground complexes and emerges onto the surface world only at night. The creatures are highly intelligent, and xenobiologists at the Vulcan Science Academy have recently begun experimenting with domesticating the creatures.
Vralt: an animal similar to a wild mountain goat.
Vulcan ant fish: foraging aquatic creatures that live in colonies and work for the benefit of their community, in the same way that the honeybees of Earth do.
Wihlb: an extinct peccary-like animal that was occasionally kept in captivity as a pet.
Wuhrf: a mildly venomous, chameleon-like reptile.
Yel-hafa: also known as the Sundweller. These large flying peaceful beasts spent their entire lives gliding through the desert winds of the Vulcan homeworld. It is said that they mated in the skies and never touched the ground. Not even the predatory Shavokh were known to hunt them. Despite this, they were known to be fragile animals and were believed extinct by the age of Surak. It was believed that the wars that were destroying the planet, as well as the pollution released into the atmosphere, had killed the Sundweller populations, however, a few were still known to be seen at the time. Due to the rarity in seeing these animals, it was believed that should one be seen then it should be considered an omen of bad things to come.
Yon-kushel: also known as the Firebird. A very rare species of bird, said to live for only a few moments after hatching. However, the Firebird's short life is filled with more joy than what a hundred beings could experience in their lifetimes added together. Beings from the farthest reaches of space have fought and killed for the chance to see a Vulcan Firebird. Typically, it took anywhere between three hundred to a thousand Earth years for Firebird eggs to hatch. The reason for the difference in hatching times was due to a need for another being to nurture the Firebirds to life, resulting from an inability to exit their eggs independently.
Zhekenel: an extinct zebra-like animal with clawed feet; a distant relative of the kenel.
Sources: Memory Alpha, Memory Beta, Hidden Universe Travel Guide: Star Trek: Vulcan, The Way of Kolinahr: The Vulcans, VLI glossaries, VLD.
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So since I am incapable of thinking of anything other than fake science, I'm wondering what other biological adaptations vulcans have besides their extra eyelid (which many desert creatures often have)
First of all, let's talk about that extra eyelid. This is called the nictitating membrane, also known as a haw, and is primarily used to blink away debris. Camels, who live in the desert, use these to ward off sand from sandstorms along with their thick double eyelashes. Usually this layer is semi-transparent so when they walk through a storm they can still see where they're going. This seems pretty straightforward- usually this layer would be hidden in Vulcans due to the fact that we don't usually see Vulcans in a setting where they would need to use it, but it might appear when they are asleep or falling asleep (like in cats and dogs!) Vulcans might also have thicker eyelashes, sealable nostrils, and thick hair to keep sand out.
The pointed ears of Vulcans could come from another adaptation used by desert animals to cool their blood. Think rabbits and mice: they have large ears that they circulate blood through to cool it in the air. So if a Vulcan seems to be blushing at the ears, they might actually just be cooling themselves off.
It is also mentioned that Vulcans can go a long time without eating or sleeping, which leads me to believe they have a naturally slow metabolism or at least control of how fast their metabolism is. This is also common in desert animals. (Speaking of delays, animals can put off reproductive functions until they feel safe, which might have been why Spock didn't experience pon farr until he felt safe with the crew of the enterprise, but thats another post.)
Some miscellaneous facts include: Vulcans might have a tough digestive system, similar to desert pigs who literally just eat cacti, spines and all; larger feet to prevent sinking into the sand; and sleep in a crepuscular cycle to avoid extreme heat in the middle of the day and cold in the middle of the night.
And to settle the Spock runs hot/spock runs cold argument, unless you headcanon Vulcans as cold blooded they would run hot. It takes more energy to remain cold in a desert than it does to remain hot in a desert, and lucky for you spirk fans, running hot would mean that Spock was probably cold all the time and would ask for Jim cuddles anyway.
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