Pon farr is a phenomenon in the Star Trek universe. A part of the reproductive cycle of Vulcans, pon farr features in the canonical television series as well as in various spin-offs and fan fiction. An extreme physical and psychological imbalance every seven years requires a mating ritual or death can ensue. Description Every seven years, Vulcan males and females become aroused. If the normally calm and rational Vulcans do not mate with someone with whom they are empathically bonded they eventually enter plak tow, the blood fever, become violent, and finally die unless they mate with someone or engage in a ritual battle known as kal-if-fee. A common misconception associated with the series (and Spock in particular) is that Vulcans only have sex once every seven years. However, pon farr is not coincident with the sex lives of Vulcans, and they are able to have intercourse without the affliction, and thus more than once every seven years. Star Trek: The Original Series writer and continuity story editor D. C. Fontana explains that pon farr is not the only time that Vulcans feel sexual desire or engage in sexual activity: Vulcans mate normally any time they want to. However, every seven years you do the ritual, the ceremony, the whole thing. The biological urge. You must, but any other time is any other emotion –humanoid emotion– when you're in love. When you want to, you know when the urge is there, you do it. This every-seven-years business was taken too literally by too many people who don't stop and understand. We didn't mean it only every seven years. I mean, every seven years would be a little bad, and it would not explain the Vulcans of many different ages which are not seven years apart. Vulcans not only are able to mate outside pon farr, they are also able to mate with species other than Vulcan: e.g., in Star Trek: The Original Series, Spock's parents are human/vulcan couple; in Star Trek: Enterprise, T'Pol, a Vulcan, has a romantic and sexual relationship with Trip, a human; and, in the Star Trek reboot, Spock is in a relationship with Lt. Uhura. Vulcans consider pon farr to be a deeply private matter, and the mere mention of it to other species is almost taboo. Even discussing pon farr with other Vulcans is discouraged, to the point where physicians (Vulcan or otherwise) would falsify