10 Of The Best Star Trek Fan Theories About Spock (That Were Confirmed)

Star Trek is considered to have had the first real modern “fandom” as the term is used today. With the first zines, the first fanfiction, the first ships, and the first fan theories of the modern era, Star Trekand the women running the fandom truly launched a movement.

In all this hubbub, Spock was almost certainly the fan-favorite and so countless crazy theories about him have persisted throughout the years. The craziest part, though? Some of these theories have since been confirmed!

10 Spock’s Vulcan Biology

Spock’s anatomy is a little bit different than it would appear to be just by looking at him and it’s even more different from the original concept Gene Roddenberry had for Spock. Instead of being half-human, half-Vulcan, Roddenberry intended to make Spock a reddish half-Martian who absorbs all nutrients through a plate in his stomach.

In the end, luckily, none of this happened. Instead, Spock’s anatomy and biology follow the humanoid Vulcan anatomy and biology: he has green blood, inner eyelids, pointed ears, angled eyebrows, and most importantly, his heart is on his lower right side. “Where his liver should be,” according to Bones!

9 His Name Is Pronounceable, If You Try

For years, Spock insists that his full name is unpronounceable — or, at the very least, unpronounceable to humans. He states this directly in the episode “This Side of Paradise.” It’s unclear to viewers if his first name is Spock or his last name -- perhaps Spock was just a title? Or a Vulcan word?

Nope, in the end, audiences theorized and figured it out: Spock is his given name, but his family name comes first: S’chn T’gai. So, his full name (according to the Star Trek novel, Ishmael) is S’chn T’gai Spock. Easy enough!

8 He’s A Pacifist (Sometimes)

The Vulcan nerve pinch, sometimes called the Vulcan “neck pinch” in canon, is an interesting maneuver that Spock is able to pull off as a member of the Vulcan species. By pinching the space between a person’s neck and shoulder, right at the base of their throat, Vulcans can render people completely unconscious within seconds.

Many fans speculated as to why this is Spock's favorite move and some even came up with the right answer: he just doesn’t want to hit people. Though he’s been shown to throw a punch when necessary, Leonard Nimoy thought Spock wouldn’t go around hitting people if he could help it. Because of this, in the episode “The Enemy Within,” when Spock has to knock an evil clone of Jim Kirk unconscious, he pinches him instead of clobbering him over the head, like the script originally had him do.

7 Spock’s Rank

Spock’s rank throughout the run of Star Trek is up in the air a lot of the time. The most frequent problem seems to be figuring out whether Spock is a lieutenant commander or a full commander. In the episode “Court Martial,” Spock is referred to as a lieutenant commander -- the same is true in “The Menagerie, Part I,” where Jim Kirk’s captain’s log states that Spock is a lieutenant commander, as well as in the episode “Tomorrow is Yesterday.”

However, by the episode “Amok Time,” he’s referred to as a full commander. Audiences then theorized, correctly, that Spock was promoted to full commander between those two episodes.

6 Spock Hates Italian Food

Believe it or not, a weird fan theory that has persisted throughout the years has to do with the preferences Spock would have for human food. Having a human mother and being half-human as he is, Spock is, of course, occasionally in touch with his human side and was introduced to human culture by his mother. In spite of this, however, he was raised on Vulcan, by Vulcans, with other Vulcans.

In the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, when Dr. Gillian Taylor asks if Jim and Spock like Italian food, Spock adamantly denies liking it. Jim pointedly says, “Yes, I love Italian, and so do you,” which makes Spock give in, implying the reason for him not liking Italian food may lie in his alien history. Audiences’ best guess? Spock’s a vegetarian and most Italian dishes contain meat!

5 Spock Has A Soulmate

Many have speculated on the exact parameters and participants of Spock’s love life (or lack thereof) since the show first ran. Countless viewers were in love with him or wanted to see him in love (or both!) and so fan speculation ran rampant on who Spock would end up with. In the end, of course, the people rooting for one specific person were right: Jim Kirk! In “The City on the Edge of Forever,” Edith Keeler tells Spock that he belongs at Jim’s side, “as if you’ve always been there and always will.”

When Jim’s son dies after Jim saves Spock, he still insists that, had he just let Spock go instead, “... the cost would have been my soul.” In fact, Spock and Jim are so deeply bound to one another that Gene Roddenberry created a word for it in the Vulcan language: “t’hy’la,” which translates, in English, to: “friend, brother, lover.”

4 Whose Future Is It Anyway?

Despite being the sixth movie in the original series of Star Trek movies, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is both universally loved and actually really good. Bringing together all the emotions and themes of the series, the movie gives a wonderful send-off to characters audiences had loved for many, many years.

This movie also gave fans lots of wonderful little tidbits of information, including validating one of the most bonkers fan theories out there: Spock is related to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. While fans would usually speculate that Spock was related to Sherlock Holmes himself, since Star Trek is meant to take place in our future, he’s gotta be related to the real guy. Unless ... Star Trek doesn't actually take place in our future, but in the timeline of an alternate reality!

3 Spock Really Does Feel

Throughout not only the original Star Trek series, but the entire Star Trek franchise, it is constantly shown and stated that the Vulcan species is relatively unfeeling. They do have emotions, but many Vulcans choose to purge them. Others, like Spock, simply figure out how to control them. Because of Spock’s half-human side, however, as well as his personality and his upbringing, he really does feel emotions.

Though the show insists time and time again that he doesn’t, fans insisted he did and they’re right. In the episode “The Naked Time,” Spock verbally tells Jim that he regrets not being able to express the love he feels for his mother and for Jim before saying, “Jim, when I feel friendship for you, I’m ashamed.” They then, of course, clobber each other -- this is still Star Trek.

2 Spock Has An Immortal Soul

So, as it turns out, souls exist. Or, at least, katras do, according to Star Trek. After Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan came out, devastated fans insisted there had to be a way for Spock to live. The movie simply couldn’t end the way it did and Spock couldn’t be dead forever. People came up with many crazy theories, but the one that ended up confirmed? Spock’s soul is still alive! In The Wrath of Khan, before Spock’s body died, he transferred his immortal soul, his katra (or his “living spirit”) into Bones McCoy, effectively saving himself and giving his friends the chance to save his body and restore his katra to it.

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In Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Jim says that it’s his responsibility to take even the smallest chance of saving Spock’s soul, “as surely as if it were my very own.” When he’s denied permission to retrieve Spock’s body and soul and save him, he tells his loyal crew, “the word is no. I am therefore going anyway.” Not only do Jim and the crew save both Bones and Spock, but he’s the first person Spock recognizes when revived, saying, “Jim. Your name is Jim.”

1 Spock Is Not An Only Child

Lonely no more! Since his first appearance on Star Trek, Spock has gained two siblings that, apparently, he always had! Maybe we’ll even find more along the way! The first of these siblings is Spock’s half-brother, Sybok, the villain of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, the worst of the original Star Trek movies. He apparently grew up with Spock, then rejected the Vulcan way and became an exile in the desert, and Spock just … never mentioned this, I guess.

Even Jim points out how absurd this is. And yet Spock still has another sibling: a sister! In Star Trek: Discovery, Spock’s foster sister, Michael Burnham, is introduced. Michael is an orphan taken in and raised by Spock’s father. Fan theory? Crazy retcon? Who’s to say! All we know is, we love Michael, so, it’s fine!

Source: screenrant.com