Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series)

Alter Ego (1997)

Tim Russ: Lt. Tuvok

Photos 

Quotes 

• Marayna : Are you two friends?

  Lieutenant Tuvok : [simultaneously]  No.

  Ensign Harry Kim : [simultaneously]  Yes.

• [at the luau] 

  Marayna : You're the only one here not wearing a garland.

  Lieutenant Tuvok : Given the decor, it seems somehow excessive.

  Marayna : I don't believe you.

  Lieutenant Tuvok : I beg your pardon?

  Marayna : I think you're trying to isolate yourself and make a public protest at the same time.

  Lieutenant Tuvok : Explain.

  Marayna : You didn't want to be here in the first place. Being the only one without a lei sets you apart from the others, allowing you to symbolically maintain your solitude; and, since everybody can see that you're the only one without a lei, you're letting them know that you'd rather be somewhere else.

  Lieutenant Tuvok : [impressed]  Your logic is impeccable.

• Marayna : There's a luau tonight. You're coming, aren't you? Both of you?

  Lieutenant Tuvok : No.

  Ensign Harry Kim : Yes.

  Marayna : You've got to stop doing that.

• Ensign Harry Kim : That's kal-toh, isn't it? Vulcan chess?

  Lieutenant Tuvok : Kal-toh is to chess as chess is to tic-tac-toe.

• Marayna : Imagine this: that you - with your logic and your reason - are skimming atop endless waves of emotion. You believe you're in control, but you know that control is an illusion. You believe that you understand the depths beneath you, but that, too, is an illusion.

  Lieutenant Tuvok : I can see why Ensign Kim finds you... compelling.

• [Kim has fallen in love with a holodeck character] 

  Lieutenant Tuvok : You are experiencing shon-ha'lock, the engulfment. It is the most intense and psychologically perilous form of eros. I believe humans call it "love at first sight."

• Lieutenant Tuvok : I am fully capable of appreciating this phenomenon without the extraneous sentimentality humans find so necessary.

  Commander Chakotay : Being moved by an emotion isn't always extraneous. Sometimes it's the whole point.

• Lieutenant Tuvok : Kal-toh is not about striving for balance. It is about finding the seeds of order, even in the midst of profound chaos.

• Lieutenant Tuvok : To the trained Vulcan intellect, intense romantic love is nothing more than a set of stereotypical behaviors. Not having our discipline, typically humans are swept along by the process until it ends.

  Ensign Harry Kim : How does it end?

  Lieutenant Tuvok : Either in conversion to a more balanced, stable relationship, or in tragic circumstances.

• [last lines] 

  [Tuvok and Kim are playing kal-toh on the holodeck] 

  Holodeck Woman : May I join you?

  Lieutenant Tuvok : No.

  Ensign Harry Kim : No.

  Lieutenant Tuvok : But... thank you.

• Lieutenant Tuvok : To see through an emotional complex is to rob it of its power. The first step is to identify the complex in which you have been caught.

  Ensign Harry Kim : I told you, I'm in love.

  Lieutenant Tuvok : There are many different kinds of love, Ensign. You must learn to differentiate. For example, you told me that you met this individual only days ago, yet you feel overwhelmed.

  Ensign Harry Kim : I can't get her out of my mind, not for a second.

  Lieutenant Tuvok : Have you been able to sleep?

  Ensign Harry Kim : No.

  Lieutenant Tuvok : Have you eaten?

  Ensign Harry Kim : No.

  Lieutenant Tuvok : Does your daily routine seem somehow empty? Perhaps even ludicrous?

  Ensign Harry Kim : Yes!

  Lieutenant Tuvok : You are experiencing shon-ha'lock, the engulfment. It is the most intense and psychologically perilous form of Eros. I believe humans call it "love at first sight."

  Ensign Harry Kim : But we're talking about a holodeck character.

  Lieutenant Tuvok : Irrelevant. The emotional complex in which you are trapped is the same - and so is the cure: Logical deconstruction followed by a regimen of meditative suppression, as I shall demonstrate.

• Marayna : Ready to get your ears wet?

  Lieutenant Tuvok : Vulcans do not hydro-sail.