mcdaniel (01/27/83)
#R:burl:-4800:uiucdcs:24900004:000:265
uiucdcs!mcdaniel Jan 26 21:15:00 1983
In re question 3 (another Vulcan in the next movie):
What about the Romulan/Vulcan Mr. Saavik? Certainly she will be in the
new movie -- won't she?
Tim McDaniel
(. . . pur-ee!uiucdcs!mcdaniel)jonab@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Jonathan Biggar) (06/06/84)
Here are my views on the Vulcan Katra:
I will not try to define the philisophical/theological purpose for
the Katra transferal and the ceremony on the Vulcan mountan (whatever
it is named), but on the practicalities of the thing.
A vulcan who knows or believes that he is about to die will transfer
his Katra (soul) to another Vulcan to be carried back to the mountain
for the ceremony. Apparently the soul is still alive in a sense until
it is released to the hereafter by the ceremony performed by a high
vulcan priestess (if you want to call her that.) The normal state
of affairs when the ceremony is performed is that the body is
dead, so the soul is released (allowed to die?). However, in rare
circumstances, the body is not dead, and re-fusion can be attempted
to restore the soul to the body. This is what happened to Spock.
An interesting idea that I had comes from the series episode The
Immunity Syndrome. (If you don't remember, this is the one
with the giant space amoeba). In the episode the ship Intrepid
is destroyed with several hundred Vulcans aboard. Spock heard
their "dead screams" and was very distressed. Is it possible
that Spock was reacting to the fact that several hundred Vulcans
were dying with no one to give their Katras to? Is is possible
that Spock was the closest Vulcan and that all of the others tried
to use him as the recepticle of their Katras? Maybe that is the
only reason why Spock "heard" them die at all.
Jon Biggar
{allegra,burdvax,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,sdccsu3}!sdcrdcf!jonab