T'Pol's Un-Vulcan Like Behavior

[Silverbullet]

Warpgirl. Please let us know what you think of Stigma inlight of what Tolaris did to T-Pol.

[WarpGirl]

What did you believe I am capable of keeping silent? I assure you I am not.

[WarpGirl]

OK! Sorry for the double but I just finished Stigma and I have 55 minutes to get some writing done and watch the mini-marathon. Stigma was interesting and well acted, I LOVE Fezzel. I think Phlox told her all about Trip knowing she'd like him so he set that up. Poor Trip but he was oh-so-adorable, and I love the buddy scene with Malcolm. Fezzel is the kind of woman I'd be friends with and who would take great delight in shocking me to the core. Now that, that is out of the way T'Pol and pa'nar, OK I would not have minded Trellium so much if they had integrated this into the story. From what I just saw this syndrome attacks the brain, hormone production, AND the immune system. With all of that screwed up she should have been addicted to the stuff the second she set foot on the Seleya. I thought she behaved in a very Vulcan manner in this episode and I was proud.

One thing I didn't like it's common knowledge that pa'nar is equivilant to AIDS and melders were supposedly based on people who are gay. I object the idea that AIDS is a "gay" disease is offensive and WRONG. When I was a little girl my mother's best friend got AIDS because her husband shared a needle and a bed with every prostitute in town. Because of that she and her daughter died. The whole thing about this minority garbage annoyed me and I was very upset that such a view can still be endorsed 20 years later. OK done ranting.

[Silverbullet]

Warpgirl. Since tolaris never was stopped but simply boarded his ship and departed Enterprise he was free to Mind Rape and infect others.

The attitude of the vulcan doctors that it was t-Pol's fault that she had the syndrome and they would do nothing about it upset me a great deal.

I know that the episode was to parallel AIDS but I have never gone along with a Scifi TV show getting into social issues of our day.

Anyway, Tolaris is still nerrrily going around infecting other Vulcan females witout retribution. That is why I wanted Archer to Burn him to a cinder or at least put him into restraints and turn him over to the Viulcans.

The other stuff with the female and Trip was just fluff and the Episode could have done without it and concentated on t-Pol and her problem and the refusal of the Vulcans to help except the one who came out of the closet and gave her the potions that Phlox said he could replicate to keep T-Pol going until he could work out a cure.

[Aikiweezie]

Yes, there is an AIDS parallel, no doubt. AIDS is the disease most associated with a stigma these days. Not too long ago, like the 1950s and 60 there was a stigma associated with cancer. My grandmother thought anyone who got cancer was bad somehow.

[WarpGirl]

Silverbullet I did mention that Archer was terribly wrong in the previous page. I'm wating for BnB to write a fic where he and Trip meet up again! I swear it's the Klingon in me!

[pdsldl]

I'm confused. You all keep talking like Tolaris had a disease he was running around infecting people with. My understanding was that Pa'nar Syndrome was caused by an improperly preformed mind meld and I don't remember any mention of it being contagious. We never knew if it was because Tolaris didn't know what he was doing or because T'Pol ended the meld so abruptly without completing it properly. So he could have mind melded with others and not caused them to have Pa'nar.

[WarpGirl]

He was feeding off of her emotions in the meld. Something tells me that isn't ethical melding behavior. The guy is evil.

[Silverbullet]

Pdsil, It is my belief that Tolaris gave T-Pol that syndrome through that illegal mind meld that he tricked her into agreeing to the mind meld and when she realized what was happening she fought him off but the damage had been done and she was infected.

He got away scot free and as a result was free to Mind rape others and infect them.

The olnly way t-Pol could have got that Syndrome was through a mind meld and the only mind meld she had up until that time was with him. tolaris lied to t-Pol and tricked her into agreeing to a mind meld by telling her he would stop if she wanted him to but when she wanted to stop he would not and she had to fight him off.

The snydrome was passed to t-Pol through that mind meld that is why the Vulcan Doctors would not treat T-Pol because they believed she had mind melded illegally and deserved what she got.

I believe that there was some of that in the modern day. People who said that Aids was god's punishment for Gays doing what they do.

[WarpGirl]

And it is people like that who make me crazy because God is not wicked! ANYWAY Tolaris EVIL! And he deserves punishment.

[pdsldl]

Silverbullet - I have no problem calling what Tolaris did rape or the stigma involved afterwards. Yes it was set up so the Vulcans attitude was similar to what happens to those with AIDS.

What I'm questioning is what appears to be a belief that Tolaris was himself infected with Pa'nar and was infecting others but that's not what I got from what was presented. The mind meld was what caused it but only because it was done improperly. That doesn't necessarily say that Tolaris would have given the disease to others because we don't know if he did all mind melds wrong or was T'Pol infected when this one ended wrong because she felt violated and forced an end to it.

What punishment would Archer have been able to give him? What punishment would his own captain have been able to give him short of dropping him off on a planet somewhere. Sticking him in the Brig would only force them to care for him at the expense of all others on their ship and being seen as deviants on Vulcan it was not possible to return him there for punishment.

[Elessar]

And it is people like that who make me crazy because God is not wicked! ANYWAY Tolaris EVIL! And he deserves punishment.

I feel a really dark story idea coming on

[WarpGirl]

Ooooh Please please. Wait you're the awful TEASE! Why should I believe you?

[Silverbullet]

Pdsil, it was the direct link between the two minds however brief that allowed the syndrome to pass from tolaris to T-Pol. It was not that it was ended wrong but that it existed at all.

Like Human infections some can be passed in an instant and others take a prolonged exposure.

It may have taken a while for the snydrome to incubate in T-Pol's mind I am not sure.

But for sure she got it from his mind through the meld.

I often wondered tha if he had physically raped her too if he had a STD also. He sounds just like the sort of creep who would enjoy transmitting those kinds of things to others The syndrome and anything else he may have carried.

[WarpGirl]

I think I might be sick at that idea.