If Spock is unemotional, why is he so insulting?

[charlemagne]

Tim Russ played an unnamed human extra on the Enterprise-B in Generations. A few years later, the Voyager staff wanted to do a flashback episode to that era (appropriately titled "Flashback"), with Tim Russ as Tuvok on the Excelsior itself. It's confusing because it's the same actor on the same model of ship on pretty much the same set in the same era and uniform playing a different character.

Exactly. Too bad they didn't have Tuvok as "unnamed Vulcan officer" in ST6, it would've made his character on Voyager slightly cooler. (Adding more confusion, Tim Russ also played a bad guy trying to steal the E-D on TNG who got taken out by Jean-Luc McLane)

As for his behaviour: I've watched a lot of Voyager, and if I'm remembering him right, he didn't express contempt for humans as Spock or the Vulcan baseball asses on DS9 did, at least not on a regular basis. Overall, he was in control all the time, and didn't have to struggle with his emotions. As a character, Tuvok was kind of refreshing in that way, since he was a "proper Vulcan", unemotional and stoic. He even endured Tom Paris without having to resort to insults. At least that's how I remember the character.

He didn't really like Neelix, though

[Bounty]

Russ perfected a look of perfectly stoic boiling rage. There's one episode where Neelix trashes Tuvok's bedroom; Tuvok just tells him to get out with a look that speaks a thousand words. The actor really did understand what makes Vulcans tick.

[General Zod]

Russ perfected a look of perfectly stoic boiling rage. There's one episode where Neelix trashes Tuvok's bedroom; Tuvok just tells him to get out with a look that speaks a thousand words. The actor really did understand what makes Vulcans tick.

In the original series Kirk actually managed to get Spock enraged to the point he was throwing punches. Its been established for awhile that you can get a Vulcan to blow their lid; it just requires a great deal of effort.

[Bounty]

Russ perfected a look of perfectly stoic boiling rage. There's one episode where Neelix trashes Tuvok's bedroom; Tuvok just tells him to get out with a look that speaks a thousand words. The actor really did understand what makes Vulcans tick.

In the original series Kirk actually managed to get Spock enraged to the point he was throwing punches. Its been established for awhile that you can get a Vulcan to blow their lid; it just requires a great deal of effort.

Well... exactly. Russ did that very well; he could easily have played Tuvok as the stock might-as-well-be-a-robot, but the way he showed Tuvok always on the brink of blowing a fuse was what made the character work.

EDIT: damn, the Trekcore pictures don't work... blegh.

[Junghalli]

In the original series Kirk actually managed to get Spock enraged to the point he was throwing punches. Its been established for awhile that you can get a Vulcan to blow their lid; it just requires a great deal of effort.

Wasn't he under the influence of those plants that caused him to lose his emotional control at the time? Or are you thinking of a different episode?

[General Zod]

Wasn't he under the influence of those plants that caused him to lose his emotional control at the time? Or are you thinking of a different episode?

He was under their influence, but it still required a massive effort to get him angry.

[Swindle1984]

Tim Russ played an unnamed human extra on the Enterprise-B in Generations. A few years later, the Voyager staff wanted to do a flashback episode to that era (appropriately titled "Flashback"), with Tim Russ as Tuvok on the Excelsior itself. It's confusing because it's the same actor on the same model of ship on pretty much the same set in the same era and uniform playing a different character.

Exactly. Too bad they didn't have Tuvok as "unnamed Vulcan officer" in ST6, it would've made his character on Voyager slightly cooler. (Adding more confusion, Tim Russ also played a bad guy trying to steal the E-D on TNG who got taken out by Jean-Luc McLane)

As for his behaviour: I've watched a lot of Voyager, and if I'm remembering him right, he didn't express contempt for humans as Spock or the Vulcan baseball asses on DS9 did, at least not on a regular basis. Overall, he was in control all the time, and didn't have to struggle with his emotions. As a character, Tuvok was kind of refreshing in that way, since he was a "proper Vulcan", unemotional and stoic. He even endured Tom Paris without having to resort to insults. At least that's how I remember the character.

He didn't really like Neelix, though

I believe Russ also played a Vulcan rebel in the DS9 mirror universe episodes. That wasn't supposed to be mirror Tuvok, was it?

[Samuel]

According to the CCG, yes, that is a mirror Tuvok. I haven't seen the episode though.

[Darth Onasi]

Wasn't he under the influence of those plants that caused him to lose his emotional control at the time? Or are you thinking of a different episode?

He was under their influence, but it still required a massive effort to get him angry.

IIRC those plants made people happy and docile, so it would actually be harder to piss Spock off and in fact took a great deal of insults and racial slurs to bring Spock's anger to the surface.
Probably relying on the fact that Spock's emotions are so much stronger when they're actually released, to break the hold the plants had over him.

[Gandalf]

According to the CCG, yes, that is a mirror Tuvok. I haven't seen the episode though.

Through The Looking Glass. He's basically an extra in the episode, which is weird.

[AMT]

According to the CCG, yes, that is a mirror Tuvok. I haven't seen the episode though.

Through The Looking Glass. He's basically an extra in the episode, which is weird.

The two shows were both filming at the time. He was probably already in make-up for Voyager and the DS9 crew went "Hey, wanna come be the mirror you for a day?"

IIRC, Ron Moore was still on both series at the time.

[JME2]

Ron Moore was still on both series at the time.

Moore didn't start on VGR until after DS9 had ended; he had been given the choice of joining either series after TNG wrapped and chose DS9.

[jimthegray]

I always thought Spock was struggling with being half human and therefore didn't have as much control over his emotions as other Vulcans may have had. Take the TOS episode "Amok Time" Spock showed emotion when he realized that he hadn't killed Kirk.

vulcans have emotions, they tend to keep a tight leash on them , paticularly the students of kolinar like spoke but they do have them.