Zar - Son of Spock and Zarabeth - Life Before the Enterprise

Appearance/Capabilities
Zar was born in the Sarpeidon Ice Age, and was the son of Zarabeth and Spock - making him one-quarter Vulcan. Despite being one a quarter Vulcan, his appearance was distinctly Vulcanoid, with a marked resemblance to Spock. His eyes were grey, and he had dark hair. His hearing was exceptional, but although he had the Vulcan inner eyelid, his vision was barely outside human range. His blood type was different than anything the Doctor had ever seen before - a greenish-grey mix. He had spectacular muscle tone from living and hunting in the wilderness, with wide shoulders. McCoy made an observation while Zar was in the Enterprise that at a proper weight, Zar would easily mass more than Spock. Zar also had large keloid scars from an attack by a Vitha - one running along the right forearm from his wrist to his elbow, and another from the outside of his right thigh running nearly to his knee. The only noticable features that belonged to his mother were his jaw and mouth.

Zar was highly intelligent and had amazing telepathic abilities, being able to project strong emotions such as hunger or fear onto other beings. Doctor McCoy also found that when pinching a nerve on Zar's arm, they could both feel the pain. Zar also experienced premonitions, and could pick up on the feelings of those around him.

From the cover of "Yesterday's Son" - click to enlarge

Early Life on Sarpeidon
Zar lived with his mother Zarabeth until she died after falling into a crevasse when he was 19 summers old. Unable to properly bury the body, he placed it underneath an ice sheet in a cave. From that time until he was 25 summers old he lived in complete solitude. To fend off the cold when in the wilderness, he wore a face shield, hood, and furs. Underneath this he wore a leather tunic, under which his emaciation was severe (despite his muscle tone, strength, and endurance). When Zar had 15 summers, he had studied himself in a mirror that his mother had, and then he painted his face on the cave wall along with hunting pictures. After his mother's death, he would sometimes talk to to this face.

He would hunt animals for food, the only real nourishment being meat in the ice age. Because of his ability to mentally project intense feelings, he was able to stop an animal for long enough to capture and kill it.

When Zarabeth was living, Zar found that he could tell what his mother was thinking - but was told that it was not polite to do so without permission. Zarabeth also taught him to read, and would often correct his grammar - before she was exiled to Sarpeidon, she was a teacher. Zarabeth also spoke fondly of Spock to Zar, telling him that he was always loving and caring.


There will be a post about Zar's life on the Enterprise, and afterwards.

Yesterday's Son and Time for Yesterday

Y is for Yesterday!

Remember the TOS episode "All Our Yesterdays"? In this episode, Spock and Doctor McCoy get trapped in the Sarpeidon Ice Age, and Spock starts reverting to the ways of his ancestors five thousand years before he was born. He eats meat, acts aggressively towards McCoy, and falls in love with Zarabeth (an exile). Oh, and then this happens between them:

Gee, I wonder what happened next, after the camera stopped shooting? Don't worry, you'll find out if you keep reading...

There are actually two books that are a follow-up to this episode - "Yesterday's Son", and "Time for Yesterday" by A.C. Crispin. It is in these books that we meet Spock and Zarabeth's son - Zar. I won't go much into the plot, because these are two of my favorite books and I would hate to spoil anybody's experience.

I had always wondered what kind of father Spock would make (although Spock was certainly Saavik's father figure for some time - see "The Pandora Principle"), and things certainly get interesting between Spock and Zar. I recall reading about Zar at mealtime, expressing his angst by eating a meat sandwich deliberately in front of his father.

There are a few strange details, such as Spock being unable to reveal that Zar is his son because of his age. When Spock goes back through the Guardian of Forever to find Zar, he expected to find a baby. Instead he finds a 25 year old man. I find it strange that a man as old as Spock would not be able to have a 25 year old son, seeing as Vulcans live about twice as long as humans, and Spock looks to be quite old enough in the illustrations on the covers. In fact, he looks to be close to the same age as Sarek was in Journey to Babel, and Spock was certainly older than 25 in that episode.

Despite some oddities, however, these are absolutely amazing books. I would highly recommend finding them in any way you can, and reading them at least ten times each.

Yesterday's Son (from the back cover):

The Romulans attack the planet Gateway, where Federation scientists are studying the Guardian of Forever - the mysterious portal to the past. The Enterprise must protect the Guardian - or destroy it. But Spock has already used the portal to journey to the past. On the planet Sarpeidon, 5000 years ago, Spock knew a beautiful, primitive woman. Now he has gone to meet his son!

Time for Yesterday (from the back cover):

Time in the galaxy has stopped running in its normal course. That can mean only one thing - the Guardian of Forever is malfunctioning. To save the universe, Starfleet Command reunites three of its most legendary figures - Admiral James T. Kirk, Spock of Vulcan, and Dr. Leonard McCoy - and sends them on a desperate mission to contact the Guardian, a journey that ultimately takes them 5,000 years into the past. They must find Spock's son Zar once again - and bring him back to their time to telepathically communicate with the Guardian.

But Zar is enmeshed in troubles of his own, and soon Kirk, Spock, and McCoy find themselves in a desperate struggle to save both their world - and his!