T'Pring

Species:	Vulcan
Status:	Active (2267)
Born:	2230, Vulcan
Spouse(s):	Stonn
Played by:	Arlene Martel (age 37), Mary Rice (age 7, uncredited)

"She's lovely, Mr. Spock. Who is she?"
"She is T'Pring. My wife."

– Nyota Uhura and Spock, 2267 ("Amok Time")

T'Pring, born in 2230, was a Vulcan female who was bonded to Spock as a child.

In 2267, when Spock began suffering from pon farr, he returned to Vulcan to mate with T'Pring.

T'Pring, however, preferred Stonn instead, and executed her right to claim kal-if-fee at the koon-ut-kal-if-fee ceremony (a Vulcan wedding). She picked James Kirk as her champion, and he accepted while being unaware that the fight was to be to the death.

T'Pring reasoned that if Spock won, he would reject her for having chosen another, and she would have Stonn. If Kirk won and killed Spock, he would not want her, and she would still have Stonn. However, should Spock still accept her, he would likely be gone for several extended periods of time following his career in Starfleet, thus allowing her to be with Stonn.

Spock complimented her on her "flawlessly logical" reasoning, yet found a way to express his true opinion of her: he "congratulated" Stonn on winning T'Pring, but cautioned him that "having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting." T'Pring for her part was "honored" at the compliment that Spock had thought her logic was flawless (TOS: "Amok Time")

Appendices

Background information

The adult T'Pring was played by Arlene Martel. Although no reference work notes the name of the girl depicted as the young T'Pring, she was played by Mary Rice. [1]

Upon describing the girlhood photograph of T'Pring, the revised final draft script of "Amok Time" stated, "There is a sweetness about her features that promises a loveliness when grown." The same script described the adult T'Pring as "graceful, lithe, beautiful."

T'Pring (as depicted in the photograph of her) was the first female Vulcan seen in Star Trek.

Apocrypha

T'Pring appears in a story line in Star Trek (DC volume 2) issues 66-68, in which it is revealed that she and Stonn have a daughter, T'Ariis. The characters recollect that T'Pring entered religious study six years after her marriage. She refused to return home to Stonn and T'Ariis, choosing instead to become a Matriarch at the Temple of Kolinahr.

In the novel The Vulcan Academy Murders, Spock confesses to Sarek that he was unable to feel more than the barest connection with T'Pring in his mind. He ascribed this "failure" to his mixed heritage, and regarded her photo in his quarters as a way of trying to find the connection again. Sarek, inwardly appalled, realizes that T'Pring had ejected Spock from her mind as much as possible, even before his arrival on Vulcan.

In the novel Spock's World, T'Pring plots revenge on Kirk and Spock. T'Pring is vengeful because after marrying Stonn, Stonn died trying to induce pon farr. T'Pring's plot to have Vulcan secede from the United Federation of Planets is foiled by the Enterprise crew. Similar events apparently occur in the novel The Lost Years. She is also shown extorting Spock for "the bride price" in D.C. Fontana's novel Vulcan's Glory, which takes place during the Christopher Pike era.

T'Pring also appears in the third issue of the Star Trek: Spock: Reflections comic series. Unlike earlier non-canon portrayals, the character is shown in a much more positive light; she has a friendly meeting with Spock soon after his return to Vulcan to begin his Kolinahr training, accurately predicting that he would not find peace, or any of his answers, on Vulcan, which he never would have left if what he sought was there (responding to Spock's statement that she barely knows him by saying that she always has, and always will), and that whatever he came back to the planet for, he should find it quickly, since space is where he truly belongs.

An alternate version of T'Pring from a world on which the Human race died out before First Contact occurred was featured in the novel Forgotten History – resulting in the Vulcan High Command never abandoning their more militaristic ways as Captain Jonathan Archer never discovered the lost Kir'Shara – when her ship accidentally switches places with the Enterprise during a survey of a dimension-shifting planet. During this time she briefly works with Spock – who was on a different ship when the transfer took place – even helping him deal with his latest pon farr as his body responds to her due to his engagement to his world's version of her, this T'Pring expressing greater sympathy and understanding of Spock. In return, Spock advises her on where she might find her world's version of Surak's lost writings, helping her world's Vulcans return to the vision that Surak had of their culture rather than what it has become in that world.

In flashbacks in the novel Sarek by A.C. Crispin, Amanda strongly disapproves of Sarek's choice to affiance Spock to T'Pring, remarking that, even for such a young child, she seems very cold and calculating.

T'Pring in the alternate reality

In the Star Trek: Ongoing comic After Darkness, it is revealed that an alternate reality T'Pring survived the destruction of Vulcan. She greeted Spock when he returned to New Vulcan to deal with the onset of pon farr, much to Nyota Uhura's surprise. Later, when he joined a group of rebel Vulcans called the Sasaud, she informed the crew of the USS Enterprise about his whereabouts.

External link

• T'Pring at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works