Voyager's Fives
"We often fear what we don't understand. Our best defense is knowledge."
-- Tuvok in Innocence
In the Star Trek world, you often find that alien cultures have strong enneagram flavors to them. And your average alien-of-the-week's enneagram type is often identical to the culture he or she represents. A good example is in the Voyager episode Prime Factors, in which the ship meets a planet seemingly full of 7s, all -- and their leader in particular -- insatiable for new stories and the next new pleasures.
When it comes to characters we get to know better, you have to take more care to distinguish the enneagram type of the character from the enneagram cast of the cultural mores he or she follows. For example, Klingon culture is decidedly 8-ish, but neither of the two most prominent Klingons are 8s -- Worf is a 1, while B'Elanna Torres is a 6. Likewise, Ferengi culture is 3-ish (and a critique of 3-ish American culture), but of the Ferengi we know best, only Nog -- who chose not to participate in the Ferengi way of life -- is a 3.
Vulcan culture is less clear-cut than those examples. On the one hand, it can seem very 1-ish: There are strict standards that Vulcans are expected to live by. But those standards involve suppression of emotion and living by the intellect, a very Five-ish approach.
Because of the restrictions on what Vulcans are expected to be, it's hard to imagine them being anything other than a 1 or a 5. Well, maybe I could see a 9 Vulcan. (In The Enneagram Movie & Video Guide, Thomas Condon says that the emotional Vulcan of Star Trek V is a 2, but that character is obviously not the Vulcan norm.)
The first Star Trek Vulcan, Spock, was a 1. His basic conflict was in struggling to live up to the Vulcan ideal, against the pull of his human side. But within the confines of Vulcan non-emotionalism, he did not withdraw from companionship and social interaction, as a Five would. That side of Vulcan culture is taken up by Tuvok.
Fives are part of the fear-based trio (along with 6s and 7s). Fives fear being invaded and engulfed by other people, and so withdraw to the position of detached observer. People see them as independent, but in fact it's a defense against a feeling of powerlessness -- they feel they will not be able to withstand the intrusions of others if they let them in.
Of course, no one on the ship is more intrusive upon Tuvok than Neelix. You can see Tuvok's intense discomfort whenever Neelix tries to get him to open up and show some emotion. In Hunters, for example, Neelix brings Tuvok a letter from home, and wants Tuvok to share the moment with him. As if this weren't bad enough, Neelix has read part of the letter, invading the Five Tuvok's privacy even more.
His need for privacy has been played for humor with others. Tom and Harry tried to speculate about Tuvok's age in Alice, but they couldn't drag it out of him. Harry questions if Vulcans are embarrassed about their age.
"On the contrary," Tuvok says, "we value the wisdom that comes with advancing age."
"In that case, how wise are you?" Tom asks.
"Wise enough to end this inquiry," Tuvok replies.
In Year of Hell, even so simple of matter of shaving becomes a point of privacy for him when he is blinded and needs assistance.
Another defense of Fives is collecting and analyzing information. Having enough knowledge is another way for them to keep fears at bay. Like Odo, his Five counterpart on Deep Space Nine, Tuvok's position as security officer on Voyager gives this predilection a professional outlet. Tuvok is in his element when investigating, as in Ex Post Facto and Meld.
Tuvok is a self-preservation subtype, the most prone to isolation of all Fives. Self-preservation Fives especially like to study esoteric, obscure subjects to keep the world out. When healthy, this subtype learns to share their knowledge with others. Tuvok has shown this as a teacher to Kes, helping her expand her telepathic abilities, and as a meditation counselor to B'Elanna. He has demonstrated the Five's gifts of remaining objective, patient and calm in order to help people through their problems.
Tuvok has also shown the low side of this detachment, which can result in an insensitivity to others' feelings. In Resolutions, he made a rather poor captain because of this insensitivity. It took some prodding from Kes for him to realize the crew's emotional well-being was as important as their physical well-being.
In the episode Meld, we get a look at the very low side of Five. Tuvok's encounter with the Five killer Lon Suder takes him on a trip to the dark side of their shared personality style. Enneagram writer Clarence Thomson says that many serial killers are Fives (a good real-life example would be the Unibomber). Lon Suder fits the pattern. Chakotay's description of Suder paints a Five-ish picture: "He was the quietest, most unassuming guy you'll ever meet. ... Kept to himself -- I never knew much about him." Except that he believed Suder enjoyed killing a bit too much.
When Suder confesses to killing a crewman on Voyager, his account is calm and methodical -- almost as a detached observer. His motive, the one that so perplexes Tuvok, is "I didn't like the way he looked at me."
Suder is deeply disassociated from his emotions, and he hasn't got the Vulcan excuse. "I don't seem to feel anything at all," he says. "Most Betazoids can sense other people's emotions. I can't even sense my own."
His reserved demeanor contrasts with upsurges of violence. The sporadic nature of his violent acts, taken for strange, off-the-cuff reasons, are related to the low side of Five's connection to 7. The violence and hostility are also from the low side of Fives other connecting point to 8.
Unsatisfied with Suder's confessed motive, Tuvok performs a mind meld on him, hoping to get a true motive and also to impart some control in Suder over his violent impulses. To some degree, Suder does get self-control, however temporarily, and Tuvok discovers Suder's motive was exactly as he said it. But the meld has two interesting effects in enneagram terms.
For Suder, it brings out the behavior of an intimate subtype Five. Intimate Fives make connections with others -- usually only one or two other people -- based on the sharing of secrets. They can be very withdrawn and contained, then one-on-one with someone they trust, they will open up completely, and want the other to open up as well. The meld -- a complete sharing of every secret -- charges Suder. He wants to do it again, and short of that, he tries to press Tuvok into sharing his reactions to the meld.
He wants to know how Tuvok feels about the violent impulses, which for both of them can be a catalyst to draw them out of the world of thought. "Maybe because it doesn't require logic -- perhaps that's why it's so liberating," Suder says. "Ironic isn't it? That I can share with you of all people what I have hidden from everyone all my life."
Tuvok cannot overcome the violent feelings the meld has given him, and it sends him to the low side of 8. He tries to release the feelings by strangling a holographic Neelix trying to get him to smile, but it doesn't work. He relieves himself of duty.
Janeway is normally allowed further into Tuvok's boundaries than almost anyone else on board. But when she comes to his quarters to help him, there's an eerie parallel scene to the one with the holographic Neelix, as Tuvok tells Janeway with mounting anger, "Do not come any closer" -- as Janeway persists. He had been sitting alone in his room, cataloging some of his knowledge -- all the ways he knows how to kill people.
In the course of his treatment, his emotional controls are temporarily removed, and he goes completely to 8. "I feel very strong, very powerful -- quite euphoric," he declares. The 8 connection getting a Five out of his head and into his body can be a good thing, but this time it's accompanied by threatening, angry behavior. He is openly contemptuous of Janeway's decision not to execute Suder, calling it "a sign of weakness. You disgust me -- all you humans do." He offers to kill Suder himself.
Tuvok is back to his old controlled self by the end of the episode, but Suder has a ways to go. We next see him in Basics. This time his variation on the Five theme is a strong 4-wing. In contrast to the more analytical and logical Five with a 6-wing (as Tuvok is), the Five with a 4-wing is more hypersensitive and artistic. Alone in his room (Tuvok was right in a way -- this is not punishment to a Five), Suder has been cultivating orchids. But when he is not immediately granted permission to help with the ship's food production, he sinks into a bleak, withdrawn depression that is the low side of a 4-wing. He also has developed a sense of melancholy defective specialness, as we see when he tells the Doctor that violence is sometimes a necessary tool -- for everyone but him, because once he starts, he will not be able to stop. But circumstances compel him to use violence in defense of the ship in Basics, and Suder becomes a truly tragic figure by the end.
--Teresa Malcolm