T'Pring was a Vulcan female who lived during the 23rd century. At the age of seven, as was traditional on Vulcan, the parents of T'Pring and Spock arranged for the two to be bonded to each other, with the intention that they would marry upon reaching adulthood.
After being bonded, the two did not maintain regular contact, and knew very little of each other as they grew up. Spock left Vulcan for a number of years, first to attend Starfleet Academy, then on a variety of assignments for Starfleet. In 2253, Spock was ordered to return to Vulcan to finalize his marriage arrangements, but Spock would not name a wedding date, stating that he would wait for pon farr. Shortly afterwards, Spock fell in love with a Vulcan woman named T'Pris during his first mission on the USS Enterprise, and intended to dissolve his bond to T'Pring. However, T'Pris was murdered by Lieutenant Daniel Reed before he could do so. (TOS novel: Vulcan's Glory)
While Spock was away from Vulcan, T'Pring began a relationship with the Vulcan Stonn; as she later explained to Spock, by that time Spock's name had become nigh-legendary, and she realized she did not wish to be the consort to such fame, driving her to accept Stonn's advances.
In 2267, when Spock went into pon farr and returned to Vulcan to take her as his wife, T'Pring immediately invoked her right to challenge, but instead of risking Stonn (despite his protests), she chose Spock's friend James T. Kirk as her champion. Spock eventually won the challenge (mistakenly believing to have killed Kirk when in actuality McCoy had drugged him with a sedative that mimicked death), and demanded to know her motives behind choosing his best friend to fight him; in addition to the above, T'Pring explained that she anticipated Kirk would not want to take her hand in marriage should he win, and if Spock won, there were two likely scenarios: either he would release her from the marriage for daring to challenge it, or he would go through with the marriage, but would be gone for years at a time pursuing his Starfleet career, leaving her alone. In any case, she would be free to engage in a relationship with Stonn. Noting and complimenting her flawless logic, Spock released her to Stonn, warning him that, despite the illogic behind it, he might not be as satisfied with having T'Pring than as he was with wanting her. (TOS episode: "Amok Time")
Alternate universes
In one alternate timeline in which Spock was never born, T'Pring served as an aide to Councillor Sarek of the Grand Council of the Interstellar Coalition. She was bonded to Stonn, who was killed when his ship, the ICV Kuvak was destroyed, supposedly by the UESS Enterprise. Knowing there was in fact Romulan involvement, T'Pring revealed her status as a V'Shar agent in order to save the life of human Captain Christopher Pike. (Star Trek: Myriad Universes novel: A Less Perfect Union)
Trivia
- Her photo was briefly seen on the viewer in TOS episode: "The Naked Time", when Spock attempts to distract himself from the effects of Psi 2000 virus. According to the reference book The Making of Star Trek.
See Also
- T'Pring article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- T'Pring article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.