So episode five has come and gone. Podcast listeners might have noticed I was not present for this review. Sorry, I was too busy rending my garments and crying into a pillow, my Spuhura shipper heart utterly broken.
Naw, I actually had tickets to see Hamilton. But I see you there. I know more than a few of you actually believed that.
I do have my thoughts and feelings on this episode, and most of them I want to keep inside and let fester in my cold, black heart. But there is something I wanted to talk about. That is one of the most interesting developments that has come out of Strange New Worlds: the portrayal of T’Pring. It seems fitting to address now when it seems like– with her break-up with Spock– we might not be seeing much more of her.
Gia Sandhu as T'Pring and Ethan Peck as Spock - Photo Cr: Michael Gibson/Paramount+
It will probably come as no galloping shock to anyone that T’Pring has been a villainized character within the fandom. After all, her sole appearance in The Original Series had her pitting Kirk and Spock against each other in a battle to the death. Fans couldn’t understand just why this woman didn’t want to be with their beloved Spock. I am not immune to this. When I portrayed T’Pring in my Kelvinverse fanfiction, she is a Logic Extremist who despises Spock. Still, she challenges Uhura for his hand in marriage, as Stonn was killed in Vulcan’s destruction and she needs a mate. I am far from the only writer to take an unflattering view of T’Pring. So many fic writers have portrayed as cold, manipulative, and unfaithful, constantly cuckolding Spock. Worst of all, she’s portrayed as disdainful of his human heritage.
Fan fiction is not the only written media in which this view of T’Pring was taken. The Vulcan Academy Murders has T’Pring willfully trying to break the bond between her and Spock. In Spock’s World, she attempts to get Vulcan to secede from the Federation, feeling Spock and Kirk are responsible for Stonn dying during his Pon Farr. In the Kelvin novel More Beautiful Than Death, after Stonn dies in the destruction of Vulcan, she attempts to place his katra in Spock.
So yeah… The girl had a reputation she needed to shake when she was reintroduced into Strange New Worlds. And they did it because I am 1000% Team T’Pring.
Gia Sandhu as T'Pring - Photo Cr: John Medland/Paramount+
As we see T’Pring in Strange New Worlds, she is a supportive fiancee to Spock, but she is someone who also knows her limits. She has things she wants in her life, that Spock is not willing to give her and she is not shy about expressing that displeasure. She is not unreasonable in these demands. She knows that Spock is dedicated to his job and she is willing to work around it, but only up to a point. In the episode that just aired, we meet her parents, with an overbearing, critical mother and a henpecked father. It is clear that T’Pring does not want to have that sort of relationship but a true partnership.
The problem is that Spock is really very selfish in his wants. He is dedicated to Starfleet, which is admirable, but that doesn’t mean that he can ignore T’Pring. He can go off to save the galaxy but still has to come home sometimes. But mostly, he needs to be willing to share himself with T’Pring, which is something he is unable to do. Spock, for all of his talk of following a Vulcan path, is more comfortable in human culture. He might not fit in perfectly, but he enjoys just being around other humans.
Sadly, it is something that T’Pring would have accepted about him. The biggest tragedy of the previous fan view of T’Pring is the idea she despised the human part of Spock’s heritage. In a way, Spock is the one who is biased. He is biased against Vulcans. Yes, this comes from a very real place of trauma. We know he was bullied at school and that Sarek always had difficulty with his human nature. But this was not all-encompassing. In “Charades”, Amanda shares a memory of Spock playing with other Vulcan children. Was T’Pring one of these children? I’m willing to bet that she was.
Spock uses his duty to Starfleet as an excuse to cut T’Pring off from an important part of who he is, and she has every right to say that’s not the kind of life that she wants. She wants someone who will share everything with her, and she’s realized she’s not going to get that from him.
I have no idea where Strange New Worlds is going to go with her character, but if this is the last time we see her before Amok Time, then Spock comes off as absolutely terrible. He comes back to Vulcan, just assuming that she’ll be willing to complete their marriage ceremony, heedless of what she’s been doing in the past six years.
But T’Pring’s not someone who is going to sit around while Spock boffs Chapel, Leila Kalomi, Kirk, and who knows who else. Looking at Amok Time, I think she was never expecting to see Spock again. She’d already moved on, gaining a more worthy partner to her in Stonn. This is someone she works with, someone who appreciates who T’Pring is as a person and doesn’t want to just use her as a vessel for Blood Fever.
Leonard Nimoy as Spock and Arlene Martel as T'Pring
Not only that but T’Pring and Stonn had a life together. Arlene Martel, who played T’Pring in “Amok Time”, felt the dress looked like maternity wear, so intentionally played T’Pring as if she was concealing her pregnancy by Stonn. Spock had no right to ruin that, except for ancient (and let’s face it, really misogynistic) ritual. She took the absolutely only option that was provided to her.
Gia Sandhu had tremendous weight when it came to portraying this character. T’Pring is an iconic role with a lot of baggage from her controversial decisions within her sole appearance in The Original Series. She has done this with absolute aplomb. She is logical but subtly emotional. She is supportive but independent.
I would like to say that I hope to see T’Pring again, but at this point, I’m kind of sick of episodes about Spock’s romantic life. If she does appear again, I would like it to be in the context of her working in the Vulcan rehabilitation colony. She is a wonderful character, and I would like to get to know her more outside of her relationship with Spock. This is a sentiment I feel about a lot of characters in Strange New Worlds, but don’t even get me started on that…
So I’m all for T’Pring to go and live her best life. She knows what she wants in her life, and she’s going to get it. As someone who did not have good feelings about T’Pring after watching “Amok Time,” I’m so happy to be proven wrong about her. We stan a logical legend.
