Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Tuvok

Just how old does a Vulcan have to be before they get any damn respect around here anyway? 

Tuvok was born in 2264, which puts him a little above the average age of the crew on Voyager. His Starfleet career began decades before even his oldest colleague attended Starfleet Academy, though a quick fifty-year sabbatical delayed his progress through the ranks.

His age remained a matter of debate while he served aboard Voyager, as he preferred to keep his private life, well, private. Paris and Kim attempted to figure out how old he was, though neither were particularly close. 

Captain Janeway came the closest, correctly identifying his date of birth - although somewhere along the way, records must have scrambled, as the year of birth seemed up for debate. She congratulated him on nearing 'the big three digits' in 2376 - despite the man having already achieved said milestone twelve years prior.

This is particularly egregious when one considers Tuvok and Janeway's shared experience, via a mind-meld, that deposited them on the Excelsior in 2293 - during which experience Tuvok explicitly states he was 29 years old. 

Still, what's a little temporal drift between friends?

Though much of Tuvok's younger years are shrouded in mystery (or privacy, as he might better put it), he does share similarities with other Vulcans the audience has encountered. As a young man, he underwent the Rite of Tal'oth.

This was an endurance test that adolescent Vulcans often challenged themselves with, similar in many ways to the Kahs-wan. The main difference between the two challenges is the time frame. Both require young Vulcans to survive with next to no additional resources in the Vulcan desert. The Kahs-wan is a ten-day trial, whereas the Rite of Tal'oth is a four-month ordeal.

As a teenager, Tuvok, armed only with a ritual blade, engaged in the Tal'oth. With this behind him, Tuvok would later tell Chakotay that he found Starfleet Academy far less of a challenge. 

Tuvok's journey mirrors that of another famous Vulcan - Spock. Like Spock, Tuvok took on a challenge accompanied, according to Mike and Denise Okuda on the text commentary for Yesteryear, by his very own sehlat pet. 

We'll just hope that Tuvok's sehlat had a happier fate. 

Tim Russ was no stranger to the final frontier when he was cast as Tuvok. He had previously appeared in the Mel Brooks comedy film Spaceballs, combing the desert and coming up trumps. He had also appeared in Star Trek before, though he almost nabbed a recurring role around the time he wasn't finding shit.

Russ auditioned for the role of Geordi LaForge while The Next Generation was still in pre-production, though lost the role to LeVar Burton. Though he got as far as screen testing, it wasn't his time. He did however appear in the sixth season episode Starship Mine as Devor, one of the terrorists attempting to steal trilithium resin, though he became the ironic victim of a Vulcan neck pinch.

He also appeared in Deep Space Nine before donning the ears, instead sporting a Klingon headpiece in Invasive Procedures. He then popped up on the bridge of the Enterprise-B in Star Trek: Generations, making him one of the few actors to appear beside several captains of the Enterprise -  Kirk, Harriman, Picard and, thanks to her promotion in Star Trek: Picard, Seven Of Nine.

Tim Russ was one of the first people cast on Star Trek: Voyager. He recalled the immense pressure that everyone felt as they tried their hardest to make the show work. He had been cast alongside Roxann Dawson, though Kate Mulgrew was yet to audition.

This meant that he and Dawson were present for the screen test of another Janeway hopeful - Susan Gibney. She, like Russ, had appeared in Star Trek before, most notably as Dr Leah Brahms. At this event, Russ recalled feeling extreme anxiety when preparing his performance.

As it was the earliest part of production on Caretaker, Russ feared that getting any part of his performance wrong would lead to an immediate replacement, rather than any consideration or time to change. He needn't have worried as not only was his casting almost immediate but he spent much of the next seven years stood on the bridge, even as several other actors came and went. 

As fans of Star Trek: Voyager will know, Tuvok and Janeway have a relationship that pre-dates the mission to the Badlands, though this was not the initial focus of the character. According to the series bible, Tuvok - described as much older than he ended up becoming - was planned to become a mentor to B'Elanna Torres.

This version of Tuvok was going to be around 160 years old, a widower, and the father of four children, three of whom were in Starfleet. Though he would have a strong relationship with Janeway, his paternal - or grandfatherly - presence would serve as a source of comfort for Torres.

Though some aspects of this version changed, the bible notes that:

His calm, logical demeanour is comforting to her - and reassuring that one's volatile instincts can be contained.

There are examples of Tuvok and Torres exploring her temper through the series - Barge Of The Dead being one such example - but this seems to have been adapted for another Tuvok-centric story.

Meld was one of the first big Tuvok episodes of Voyager, featuring Tim Russ playing almost a two-hander with guest star Brad Douriff as the murderous Betazoid Lon Suder. Suder's Betazoid nature was in fact at Russ's suggestion, which was a small part of a long, arduous writing journey.

Michael Piller bought Mike Sussman's idea of Tuvok encountering an alien serial killer, then expanded it into the episode as seen, though with a lot of help. Piller recalled beginning the script with the question: how would Tuvok, a Vulcan, react to random acts of violence? Though he hired a consultant to help him better understand criminal minds, he found the last act a true test.

Jeri Taylor and Rick Berman helped Piller focus the ending on capital punishment, asking the audience to consider whether it was the search for justice, or their violent impulses, that drove the need for capital punishment. 

Suggesting that Suder be a Betazoid was Russ's explanation of why Tuvok felt the meld so severely. He had melded with Humans before and been shown capable of handling those emotions. Betazoids, passionate and empathic by their nature, offered - to Russ - a greater potential to challenge a stoic Vulcan.

The first season episode Prime Factors saw Tuvok betray Janeway, covertly acquiring Sikarian technology, before coming clean to his captain. The original scripted ending for the episode was a straightforward, angry dressing-down. Janeway would reprimand Tuvok and life would continue apace.

Tim Russ felt that this ending didn't give enough weight to Tuvok's actions. The pair had a preexisting relationship before becoming stranded in Delta Quadrant, including years of built-up trust. Janeway had to feel truly shocked and betrayed - but Tuvok had to explain himself as well.

The script, Russ recalled in Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorised Guide To The New Trek Voyages, was changed 'around thirty per cent' to accommodate his input, though he regretted not being able to add more context. He felt that Tuvok's choice - that this course of action was the only logical one available to him - stemmed from his attempt to protect the captain from a full-scale mutiny on the ship. 

He, and the writers, were quite close in how they viewed Tuvok's motives, even if those motives didn't make it into the final shooting script. 

Star Trek: Voyager got in on the celebrations for the franchise's 30th birthday with Flashback, the third season episode that saw Tuvok serving aboard the USS Excelsior. George Takei and Grace Lee Whitney, along with a host of familiar faces, reprise their roles from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, though the script for the episode initially came up short.

While much of the production focused on recreating scenes and sets from the earlier film, Tim Russ concentrated on his character. More specifically, the scene in which Tuvok explains to Janeway why he left, and then returned, to Starfleet was rewritten at Russ's behest.

In Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, Russ recalled being delighted with Brannon Braga's edits to the script. He called attention to the explanation as written, which Russ felt simply didn't work. He was then surprised that Braga wrote a page-and-a-half of dialogue for the scene, fully explaining Tuvok's thinking, thus fleshing out the character a little more.

Russ, extremely pleased, was surprised, believing that changes like that rarely happened in the industry. Flashback may be best remembered for bringing Sulu, Janice Rand, and the crew of the Excelsior (and Kang!) back to Trek, but it is also a critical episode in understanding how Tuvok's mind works.

Tim Russ directed the fan-made film Star Trek: Of Gods And Men in 2007. This non-profit story was a celebration of 40 years of Star Trek, while also bringing back many actors and characters from all then-existing iterations of the franchise.

Russ pulled double duty, switching from the director's chair to appearing on-screen as Tuvok again after a gap of six years. He brought with him not just his deep knowledge of Trek lore, and Vulcan lore, but also years of experience behind the camera.

The film was captured on digital cameras, with Russ employing hand-held techniques that were quite different from the standard three-cam set-up of The Original Series. This, according to producer Sky Conway, helped Russ 'break the mould' of standard television shooting.

The film proved to be a success, is currently available for free on YouTube, and did a lot of heavy lifting when it came to rehabilitating Alan Ruck's Captain John Harriman. It is, however, not the most recent appearance of Tuvok on-screen.

Tuvok returned to our screens, albeit in a rather chilling manner, in Star Trek: Picard's third season episode Dominion. Here, audiences were unsettled by the wide grin that stretched across his face - owing to the Changeling interloper's enjoyment of their duplicity. 

Thankfully, Tuvok himself returned in The Last Generation. Both versions, however, were of course played again by Tim Russ. He spoke to Wil Wheaton on The Ready Room about the process of re-finding the character, though he joked to the former ensign that he was never really far from Tuvok to begin with.

Though Star Trek: Legacy seems to be as far as it ever has been from being green-lit, Russ was keen to reprise his role in Picard, so one hopes that if (and when) the call comes in for an appearance again, he will don the ears, arch an eyebrow, and bring that cool, friendly logic back to our screens once more.