Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site tilt.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!ulysses!allegra!princeton!down!tilt!smw From: smw@tilt.UUCP (Stewart Wiener) Newsgroups: net.startrek Subject: Saavik's background Message-ID: <15@tilt.UUCP> Date: Tue, 20-Mar-84 02:15:54 EST Article-I.D.: tilt.15 Posted: Tue Mar 20 02:15:54 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 21-Mar-84 03:06:01 EST Organization: Princeton Univ. EECS Lines: 26 Saavik's ancestry (as several have pointed out) is half-Romulan and half-Vulcan. Her Vulcan parent was raped. She doesn't know who her parents are, or even which sex the Vulcan one was. Doesn't want to know, either. This is all revealed in the book. NO WAY could she be a daughter of Spock; in the book, she nearly punches out David for inadvertently implying that Spock was so dishonored. Satisfied? (Well, it IS a remote possibility, but a really CHEAP one. I say it couldn't be.) The book goes on to tell us that she grew up in the streets of a MEAN Romulan colony called Hellguard. The colony was declared a failure, the Romulan government evacuated the colonists... but left the old and the sick and the half-caste embarrassments. Spock came along with a Vulcan science team to rescue them, and spotted the potential in this grimy waif. And now she's a fine Starfleet officer. This might be fabrication on Vonda McIntyre's part -- she's done PLENTY else- where in the novel -- since it leaves unexplained just where this fits into Spock's life. After the original 5-year mission, certainly; probably after ST:TMP. Anybody know how many years (in the ST universe) between ST:TMP and ST2:TWOK? The bare minimum for Saavik's background to be plausible is five years, assuming she's an amazingly fast learner (from illiterate to Starfleet Academy graduate...) -- Stewart Wiener :-) "Read and weep as did Princeton Univ. EECS :-) Alexander when he beheld {allegra,ihnp4!mhuxi}!princeton!tilt!smw :-) the glories of Egypt."