Emotion Vulcans are known as logical beings who have removed emotions from their daily lives. The Vulcan character, Spock, struggles with this throughout the original series as he is half-human.
T'Pol states that
paranoia and homicidal rage were common on
Vulcan before the adoption of
Surak's code of emotional control. Surak's ideas were that all Vulcans should suppress emotions, for the safety of the species. Before him, Vulcans were dangerously raging, emotional, war-like and religiously fanatical, to the point that
it could have threatened the continuation of their society and species. Then, around the 4th century BC, he created a system revolving around these ideas, intended to create a peaceful society. Some Vulcans disagreed, causing a war to break out. The two sides separated, causing the emotional ones to become Romulans and the logical ones to become what is referred to as modern-day Vulcans. Vulcans still possess and experience emotions, but make great efforts to keep them from being expressed or controlling their behavior. They occasionally have mental breakdowns. Only those who follow the discipline of
kolinahr have completely purged all emotions from their minds. Spock, in
Star Trek: The Motion Picture, attempts to achieve
kolinahr, but ultimately fails to do so. Other Vulcans who did not believe in war but still wanted to embrace emotions made different choices. A group of renegade Vulcans who believed in this was encountered in the
Star Trek: Enterprise episode "
Fusion", while Spock's half-brother
Sybok, seen in the film
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, was also fully emotional. An episode of
Enterprise titled "
E²" featured an elderly T'Pol in an alternative timeline who had embraced emotion and allowed her half-human son, Lorian, to do likewise. In the 1st pilot episode, "
The Cage", Spock showed much more emotion. For the second pilot, "
Where No Man Has Gone Before",
Number OneSpock's superior officer, who showed little emotionwas removed, and it was decided that Spock would take on those traits. Vulcan emotions are seemingly more intense than those of humans. In the TNG episode
Sarek, Ambassador
Sarek warns
Captain Picard that "Vulcan emotions are extremely intense; we have learned to suppress them", and that Picard would be overwhelmed by Sarek's unrestrained emotions due to the effects of Bendii syndrome while the two are linked during a Vulcan mind-meld. Picard does, in fact, have tremendous difficulty controlling himself while experiencing Sarek's emotions during the meld, including the ambassador's suppressed loves and hidden regrets.
Telepathy Vulcans are
telepaths. Beginning in the original series, the character Spock was able to "mind meld" (see below) by touching another being and to share thoughts. Vulcans have also displayed telepathy at great distance and through walls.
Mind melds A mind meld is a technique for sharing thoughts, experiences, memories, and knowledge with another individual, essentially a limited form of
telepathy. It usually requires physical contact with a subject, though instances of mind melds without contact have been seen. When first depicted in the
TOS episode "
Dagger of the Mind", the procedure was said to require several moments of intense concentration and preparation. However, subsequent episodes show contact between minds occurring almost immediately. Although most often seen done with humanoids, mind melds can be performed with members of other species. Spock even once successfully mind melded with a machine and was able to establish telepathic contact with the space probe V'ger, with a silicon-based lifeform, the Horta, and, in another instance, with a
humpback whale. Mind melds can be used both to erase and restore memories; Spock performs each of these on
Captain Kirk during
TOSs third season. A mind meld was even used to rejoin Spock's
katra (see below) with his physical body in
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Mind melds can also allow more than one mind to experience memories and sensations, and sometimes even interact with the memories. Some species are able to resist mind melds. The quad-lobed brain structure of Ferengi make them unable to be telepathically read by other species, and with sufficient training and mental discipline, high-level Cardassian military personnel and/or agents of the Obsidian Order are able to resist mind melds used to extract information. For example, when Gul Dukat was captured by the Maquis, he successfully resisted a prolonged mind meld attempt from a female Vulcan Maquis member, much to the latter's frustration.
Katra Vulcans are able to implant their "katra" into another person via a mind meld just before death.
Sarek explained to
Kirk that Spock's katra was "his essence, everything that was not of the body, his katra, his living spirit...everything that he was, everything that he knew". He further explained that this transference was "the Vulcan way, when the body's end is near." Dr
Julian Bashir in the
DS9 episode "
The Passenger" referred to this phenomenon as "synaptic pattern displacement". The
Star Trek: Enterprise Season 4 trilogy of episodes ("
The Forge", "
Awakening", and "
Kir'Shara") reveal some of the history of mind-melding and the journey of the katra of
Surak to modern times. Katra can also be used to transfer a Vulcan's healing ability to another to aid in regeneration for serious injury.
Sarek transferred some of his katra to
Michael Burnham (
DIS Season 1, Episode 6, "Lethe") in order to save her life as a child, which connected Michael to Sarek, and she refers to it as a "soul graft". Katras can be returned to the body. Such was the case with
Spock, who, near the end of
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, implanted his katra into the mind of
Dr. McCoy before sacrificing his life. In
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, a mind meld ritual, the "fal tor pan" ("re-fusion"), removed the katra from McCoy and implanted it into Spock's regenerated body. The ritual was successful, though it carried risks for both. ==Culture==
Language Vulcans have their own language in the
Star Trek universe. Several words are heard throughout the various television series starting with the
Star Trek: The Original Series episode "
Amok Time". Words and dialogue are heard in the feature films
Star Trek: The Motion Picture,
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Linguist
Marc Okrand is credited for creating the Vulcan spoken language for
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. As in most of the films, the actors filmed their lines in English which was later dubbed with the Vulcan translation.
Names The treatment of Vulcan names has been erratic throughout
Star Treks production history. Early on, female Vulcans were typically given names beginning with "T" followed by an
apostrophe then a "p". The earliest reference to Vulcan names following a set pattern dates back to a May 3, 1966 memo from
TOS producer
Robert H. Justman to
Gene Roddenberry (later reprinted in the book
The Making of Star Trek) in which Justman recommended that all Vulcan names begin with "SP" and end with "K", and have exactly five letters. (It is clear from the context of the book, however, that the memo was intended as a joke, as the series of memos ends up discussing the pronunciation of such names as "Spook", "Spilk" and "Spork".) Only non-canonical sources have provided any Vulcans with family names, which are usually spoken of as defying attempts at both human pronunciation, especially with English-language phonemes, and human typesetting, especially with the characters of the modern Latin alphabet used for the English language. Hence, no canonical source has given any family names to any Vulcan characters, and, indeed, every one of the personal names previously mentioned is officially described as being only Latin-alphabetical and English-phonetic approximations of the real ones. In the
TOS episode "
This Side of Paradise", Spock is asked if he has another name, to which he replies "You couldn't pronounce it."
Marriage Vulcans practice
arranged marriage, in which a male and a female are bonded as children, with consummation at a later date.
Spock explains that this childhood pairing has no one-for-one human analogue, as it is considered less than a full "marriage", but more than simply a "betrothal". This is why Spock first described T'Pring as his "wife", before later explaining that this was an incorrect approximation. Following adult union, it is customary for the couple to remain on
Vulcan for at least one Vulcan year before conducting off-world travel, though it is possible to defer this requirement until a later date, upon negotiation with the male's family. The state of pon farr is not required for marriage to occur. A Vulcan female can challenge the proposed bonding by calling for "koon-ut-kal-if-fee", meaning "marriage or challenge", in which a challenger for marriage engages the bonded male in a fight to the death. Alternatively, the bonded male has the option of rejecting his intended bride and choosing another. It is acceptable for a male to "release" his mate from marriage (effectively the same as a
divorce). It is not established whether females have the same option, and T'Pring stated in "
Amok Time" that a koon-ut-kal-if-fee challenge was the only way she could legally divorce Spock.) was created by Leonard Nimoy, who objected to a scene in "
The Enemy Within", in which a transporter malfunction had divided Kirk between his good and evil selves, that required Spock to render the "evil" Kirk unconscious and subduing him by hitting him over the head with the butt of a phaser. Nimoy was convinced that such overt violence, in addition to being too similar to that found in many crime dramas of the time, was uncharacteristic of the strictly-logical Spock, and suggested the neck pinch as a less-emotional alternative.
IDIC In
Star Trek, the IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations) has become a symbol of Vulcan equality philosophy. It is symbolized by the "Kol-Ut-Shan", a
pendant of yellow and
white gold with a circle and triangle resting upon each other, and adorned with a white jewel in the center. The Vulcan IDIC pendant was designed by
Gene Roddenberry as a marketing premium to be sold through
mail order to
Star Trek fans. As early as the end of the first season, fans of the show had begun writing to the studio asking for copies of the scripts, film clip frames, etc., and these were soon sold through Roddenberry's mail order company,
Lincoln Enterprises. As evidenced in some of his letters and memos, Roddenberry was fond of circle-and-triangle designs and had wanted to use them as early as the first season's "
The Return of the Archons". As reported by
Inside Star Trek editor Ruth Berman, "ardent
rock hound and amateur
lapidary" Roddenberry came up with the Vulcan philosophy after he presented Leonard Nimoy with a unique hand-crafted piece of jewelry, a pendant of a polished yellow gold circle and a florentined white gold triangle with a stone of brilliant white
fabulite—an artificial gem "developed by the laser industry and used in space mechanisms for its optical qualities", and thus well-suited as a gift for an actor in a science fiction show. Readers were encouraged to submit their interest in such a product to Lincoln Enterprises mail order firm. It was noted that less expensive materials would keep costs down. According to
William Shatner in
Star Trek Memories, IDIC was only worked into the episode "
Is There in Truth No Beauty?" as an afterthought. The actors all knew it was a mere advertising toy. Reportedly, Leonard Nimoy was asked to wear it and refused, so it was passed on to Shatner; when he also refused, Nimoy reluctantly agreed to wear it. At the last minute, Roddenberry sent down several pages of new script for the dinner scene, in which Spock was to give a long-winded explanation of the philosophy. The actors refused to film it until Roddenberry cut it down. In an issue of
The Humanist,
Majel Barrett claimed that the philosophy of "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations" was based on the teachings of Rabbi
Maimonides. Although its origins are rooted in marketing and sales, the IDIC became a theme writers and set designers have used in most of the
Star Trek franchise. Spock wore the symbol during important gatherings and ceremonies as part of his
dress uniform. After appearing for the first time in the
TOS episode, "
Is There in Truth No Beauty?", it appeared in Spock's quarters in
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. In the series
Star Trek: Enterprise, T'Pol is given an IDIC pendant from her mother T'Les, she holds an IDIC pendant in "
Terra Prime" while she is in mourning for her dying child, and in the episode "
The Andorian Incident" the IDIC symbol appears on small playing pieces that are being used to construct a map of the P'Jem catacombs. In the
DS9 episode "
The Jem'Hadar", Quark mentions selling Vulcan IDIC pins, and in the
DS9 episode "
Take Me Out to the Holosuite", Captain Solok and his Vulcan team, the Logicians, wear ball caps featuring the IDIC symbol. ==Homeworld==