One Of Spock's Most Memorable Hobbies Gets An Origin Story In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2
This post contains mild spoilers for the season 2 premiere of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."
On "Star Trek," there has always been a strange disconnect between what we're told about Vulcans and what we see. Vulcans, as any Trekkie can tell you, are a species devoted to logic and emotionlessness. They endeavor constantly to reject emotional responses, preferring to approach the universe from a scientific and objective standpoint. As a result, when they interact with humans, Vulcans come across as cold and aloof. They don't joke around. At best, they might get a little annoyed by the emotional being around them and feel insulted when they are accused of showing their feelings. When a Vulcan breaks out in a belly laugh, it's one of the most disturbing things imaginable.
At the same time, Vulcans regularly engage in activities that seem constructed to nourish the heart and enrich emotional experiences. They regularly engage in liturgical rituals that enhance their logical mindset. They marry one another and keep spouses for life. They write poetry. In one of the franchise's more notable examples, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is often seen playing a ka'athyra, or a Vulcan lute. One would think that music wouldn't exist on a scientific world devoted to logic. It seems, however, that it is logical to advance civilization through the arts.
A new episode of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" deliberately addresses the Vulcan disconnect, and explains clearly why Spock (Ethan Peck) plays the ka'athyra as a hobby. It seems that Dr. M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) prescribed music to Spock as an emotional "evening-out" therapy. In order to control emotional outbursts, Spock now channels his unwanted feelings into calming music. He plays music not to enrich his feelings, but to channel them and eradicate them.
The ka'athyra
Spock's ka'athyra first showed up in the original series episode "Charlie X" (September 15, 1966), where, in a moment of downtime, Spock played the instrument while Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) sang along. The ka'athyra is a 12-stringed instrument, usually made of wood, and possessed of several knobs, presumably for tuning. In an episode of "Star Trek: Voyager," it is noted that it operates on a seven-note scale, a scale common to Earth music in the 19th century. The ka'athyra was designed by a Desilu prop-maker named Wah Chang who also helped with the designs of "Star Trek" communicators, tricorders, and Romulan warbirds.
Expanded universe lore explains that the ka'athyra is capable of playing a range from 60 cycles-per-second up to 3,180 cycles-per-second.
Spock, the Enterprise's science officer, doesn't seem like he should be a musician, but in light of what is said on "Strange New Worlds," it now makes perfect sense. In the first season episode, "All Those Who Wander" (June 30, 2022), Spock and several other crew members find themselves on a crashed Starfleet vessel confronting the Gorn — a species of angry, lizard-like aliens that incubate inside humanoid bodies like in Ridley Scott's "Alien." The situation becomes increasingly desperate as more and more of the monstrous reptile babies infiltrate and attack the crew. Spock has an emotional outburst, screaming with rage. This outburst, it seems, broke something in his brain, and made Spock unable to control his feelings as well as he has in the past. While Dr. M'Benga might have been able to treat Spock with medicine, the ka'athyra was the best solution. Spock taught himself how to play the instrument, and lo, we are connected to extant canon.
Classical music in Star Trek
As has been previously written about in the pages of /Film, music has a particular flavor in "Star Trek." It has always felt a little ... off ... when "Star Trek" employs pop music, as pop music — to the modern ear — will always have a commercial dimension. A modern audience will hear, say, the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" in "Star Trek," and begin wondering about the song's rights and the deals that had to be made to license the song for Captain Kirk to listen to. These thoughts are obtrusive to "Star Trek," which takes place in a post-capitalist world. As such, it's always felt more "correct" to hear characters listening to music in the public domain. This meant a lot of old jazz and classical records were in regular rotation on Federation starships.
By extension, it seemed that's where most people's taste will lie in the 23rd century. In the future, people will not listen to 20th-century bubblegum pop. It's either gauche to do so, or 20th-century music will have been lost in one of the many wars "Star Trek" had to survive in order to reach its utopia. Instead, older classical and jazz music will have survived, and that's seemingly what people most enjoy. That and Klingon opera.
It stands to reason, then, that Spock would be an expert in playing a lute-like instrument. By "Star Trek: The Original Series," jamming on a ka'athyra will be a natural sight in a ship's commissary. In future episodes of "Strange New Worlds," perhaps we'll get to hear more songs in Spock's repertoire. Can he play "Night Bird?"