MovieChat Forums > Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) Discussion > Spock's Katra *spoilers*

Spock's Katra spoilers

posted 8 years ago by danmax67
4 replies | jump to latest

Spoiler tag is probably unnecessary at this point, but better safe than sorry I suppose.

Anyway, at the end, Spock transfers is Katra (sp?) into McCoy as is explained more fully in the next movie. It got me to thinking, were there times in the original series that Spock was in a life threatening situation and it might have been a good idea for him to have done so?

I'm not recalling any off the top of my head, but I'm sure there were times Spock faced almost certain death and maybe should have thought to do so.

[–] BrianRaess_Is_FinallyGone 7 years ago

He had never been in a life or death situation with enough time to do so, or he was with other people who he would've suspected would also end up dead.

[–] persen1 7 years ago

In TOS they had not come up with the idea of Vulcan's having a living spirit they call Katra. So if they died there, they where dead for good.
For Star Trek II it was just invented as a hope of a return of Spock, so people would not leave the theater as if they where leaving a funeral.
Explained by Harve Bennett in the extras on the Blu-ray, why they had Spock do this quick mind meld with McCoy and say: "Remember".

[–] BrianRaess_Is_FinallyGone 7 years ago

That's a very good description of what happened behind the scenes but has nothing to do with this topic or what I said.

[–] ErgonomicSpliff 7 years ago

In TOS, Spock temporarily transferred his katra into Nurse Chapel in the episode "Return to Tomorrow." However, the films contradict this sort of temporary transferrence by the introduction of the overly dramatic Fal-tor-pan ritual. Fal-tor-pan was the only way in which a Vulcan's katra may be re-fused with his/her physical body, according to "Trek III."