Star Trek and History (41 page)

25.
Philip Seddon, Doug Armstrong, and Richard Maloney, “Developing the Science of Reintroduction Biology,”
Conservation Biology
21 (2007): 303–312.

26.
IUCN, Position Statement on Translocation of Living Organisms (Gland, Switzerland: IUCN, 1987).

27.
See
http://www.iucnsscrsg.org
for information about the organization.

28.
IUCN,
Guidelines for Re-introductions
(Gland, Switzerland: IUCN, 1998).

“What thee are about to see comes down from the time of the beginning, without change. This is the Vulcan heart. This is the Vulcan soul. This is our way.”

—
T'Pau,
TOS,
“Amok Time”

Kira:
I suppose your gods are less vague?

Worf:
Our gods are dead. Ancient Klingon warriors slew them a millenium ago.

—DS9,
“Homefront”

Alex Robles

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a Vulcan? Besides pointed ears, green blood, the Vulcan hand salute, and Leonard Nimoy's inimitable raised eyebrow, you probably think of logic. The Vulcans are a race of beings who played a key role in the formation of the United Federation of Planets. We know them as a people who suppressed their emotions in favor of logic, believing that emotion was the way to self-destruction and logic was the way to self-awareness and peace. Their customs, society, and politics are based on their reverence for logic. This influenced the development of the Federation and was crucial in helping many different races to work together for a greater good.

At the same time, Vulcans' profound glorification of logic sometimes makes them seem illogical. Other races, including humans, can find Vulcan logic tedious and occasionally downright absurd. These cultural clashes have made it difficult for Vulcans to integrate themselves into the galactic community. In spite of how Vulcans have diverged from humans and other species, Vulcan history tells us that they were not much different from humans at one time. Vulcans believe their culture was brought to the brink of destruction by unfettered emotions, until the Time of Awakening, when a great Vulcan named Surak advocated for purging emotion and embracing logic.

The Vulcan understanding of history makes them more than just a fictional society to fans, but rather a living model of the real struggle between reason and emotion. Vulcan history presents the development of a cult of rationality as a replacement for traditional religions, which some fans have adopted as their real-life philosophy. Gene Rodenberry, the original creator of
Star Trek
, considered himself a humanist. In fashioning the Vulcans, he and the other creators of
Star Trek
developed a culture whose philosophy is based on reason and whose history borrowed heavily from the rituals, beliefs, and mythology of many of Earth's cultures. By examining Vulcans' contradictory views of what makes them Vulcan, we confront our own contradictions about what makes us human.

The fundamental reality of any civilization must be its geographical cradle. Geography dictates its vegetational growth and lays down often impassable frontiers. Civilizations are regions, zones not merely as anthropologists understand them when they talk about the zone of the two-headed ax or the feathered arrow; they are areas which both confine man and undergo constant change through its efforts.

—Fernand Braudel
1

According to the Federation's classification of planetoid bodies, Vulcan is a class M or Minshara-class planet, capable of sustaining humanoid life. Unlike Earth, which contains a range of different environments, Vulcan is in essence a vast desert with small pockets of water and some polar ice caps in the northern hemisphere. Mountains, valleys, and bizarre rock formations resembling spears jetting out of the ground are everywhere. Vulcan has an atmosphere with breathable air, but the atmosphere is very thin. As a planet with greater mass than Earth, Vulcan exerts a stronger gravitational force. Humans weigh more on Vulcan than on Earth and have difficulty breathing, especially with the newly added weight that Vulcan's higher gravity entails. During Spock's pon farr, Captain Kirk had difficulty breathing while dueling Spock in the koon-ut-kal-if-fee, which gave Spock the upper hand (
TOS
, “Amok Time”). Captain Archer also had difficulty withstanding the heat on his journey with T'Pol through the Forge to find the Syrrannites (
ENT
, “The Forge”). If all of that isn't enough to deter humans from visiting this planet, the deserts are also scoured by harsh sand fire storms, high-speed storms that discharge sand and lightning. These storms are deadly and can last for days. The Syrrannite leader Syrran, who contained the katra of Surak, was killed by an electrical discharge from a sand fire storm (
ENT
, “The Forge”).

Although Vulcan's climate and atmosphere make it sound like a harsh, desolate place, it also has a number of landmarks and cities. The most notable is Vulcan's Forge, a large desert that has the most electrical sand storms and inhibits any technological devices from functioning. What makes this miserable-sounding place a landmark? It was supposedly the site of Surak's pilgrimage where he began his teachings and the site of many devastating battles during the great wars of ancient Vulcan. Later it became the hiding place of the Syrrannite movement during the Reformation, discussed below. The Forge is also home to one of the most important historical sites in all of Vulcan, Mount Seleya, home to the great T'Karath Sanctuary, a fort at the base of Mount Seleya where Surak lived with and trained his followers. Mount Seleya and T'Karath are the landmarks where Surak created his philosophy and eventually died, as well as the sites for many sacred Vulcan rituals such as kahs-wan, during which Vulcan children are forced to survive for ten days without food or water, and the Kolinahr, the Vulcan ritual of purging the emotions (
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
;
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
;
ENT
, “The Catwalk”).

Vulcans share common physical traits: pointed ears, dark hair, and arched eyebrows.
2
Some Vulcans' hair and eyebrows are curly or scruffier than others: Tuvok has short, curly hair, and Vorik has unkempt eyebrows. Some Vulcans, such as T'Pring and T'Pau, have long hair. The harsh environment of Vulcan has affected other, less visible Vulcan biological traits. Vulcans have an inner eyelid to shield their eyes from intense desert conditions such as heat, light, and sand storms. The higher gravity of their planet has also made the Vulcans naturally physically stronger than most humanoid species.

There is also some connection between the planet's environment and their green, copper-based blood, since it is possible that Vulcan blood is copper based because of the planet's high temperatures and thin atmosphere. Copper hardens in low temperatures, so it is logical to assume that the intense heat enables the blood to flow easily through the arteries. The thinner atmosphere could also have had affected the green pigmentation of deoxygenated Vulcan blood. It is important to note that Vulcan blood, much like ours, is also a different color when deoxygenated (that is, in the veins). Because Vulcan blood is mainly copper and uses little to no sodium chloride (salt), the deoxygenated blood is a rusty color; but when oxygenated, the blood is green. Vulcan skin has a greenish tinge, probably the result of oxygen making its way into the bloodstream (
TOS
, “The Naked Time”).

Vulcan organs have the same basic functions as human organs, but they are distributed differently. The Vulcan circulatory system is similar to ours except that the Vulcan heart is located where the human liver would be and the liver is where the human heart would be. Vulcans have a very well-developed respiratory system that enables them to withstand the low oxygen levels of their planet. Vulcan metabolism enables Vulcans to digest many “alien” foods and to go without food or water for several days. During a camping trip with Dr. McCoy and Captain Kirk, Spock was forced to try McCoy's bourbon and beans. Dr. McCoy commented on Spock's inability to feel the “explosive” effect, stating, “With that Vulcan metabolism, he could eat a bowl of termites and it wouldn't bother him” (
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
).

The Vulcan brain is vital to the Vulcan psychology as it is highly evolved, allowing Vulcans to suppress their emotional responses and to develop telepathic abilities. Unlike many other species, especially humans, Vulcans are able to regulate consciously many of their biological functions and mental states, which leads
Voyager
's holographic Doctor to comment that the Vulcan brain is “a puzzle wrapped inside an enigma housed inside a cranium” (
VOY
, “Riddles”). The Vulcans possess so much control over their bodily functions that they can shut down their own motor systems to heal themselves after being injured. There have been several occasions in which a Vulcan was thought to be dead while in this self-induced trance. Vulcans can literally stop themselves from thinking or feeling anything. Because they have so much conscious control of their bodies, and because of cultural practices like intense meditation, they are able to achieve telekinesis, mind melds, and the transference of the katra.

Vulcans' physical and psychological strength may play a role in their longevity. Spock's father, Sarek, lived to be 202 years old, and in one of several parallel realities, Spock lives to be at least 197 years old. With all this talk about how physically and mentally strong the Vulcans are, and considering their long life span, it is hard to imagine that Vulcans could be susceptible to any disease, but in fact there are several ailments that can severely impair and even kill a Vulcan.

Many Vulcan diseases directly affect the brain. Tuvan syndrome, Pa'nar syndrome, and, worst of all, the dreadful Bendii syndrome are deadly to Vulcans. Bendii syndrome is a degenerative neurological disease that is often seen in elderly Vulcans. Its symptoms include lethargy, fever, and the loss of emotional control. Sarek had suffered with this illness for many years before succumbing to it in 2368 (
TNG
, “Sarek,” “Unification 1”).

Adult Vulcan males experience a mating drive, called pon farr, every seven years. They experience what is called plak tow or blood fever, an unrelenting urge for sex or violence. It is one of the few times in a Vulcan's life when he does not have any control over his emotions. It is considered a taboo among Vulcans and is kept as a closely guarded secret, leading the Doctor to comment, “For such an intellectually enlightened race, Vulcans have a remarkably Victorian attitude about sex!” (
VOY
, “Blood Fever”)

There are three known ways for a Vulcan to quell these urges: return to Vulcan for the koon-ut-kal-if-fee to take a mate, or take a suitable mate nearby; meditate, which seldom remedies the urge; or participate in the kal-if-fee, a ritual where two males fight to the death over a female. Once the fight is over, the effects of pon farr will dissipate in the surviving combatant. During Spock's pon farr, the woman to whom he was betrothed in childhood, T'Pring, opted for this challenge in order to avoid marrying Spock. To protect the man she preferred to marry, Stonn, from harm, T'Pring cleverly chooses Captain Kirk as Spock's opponent, since Kirk would not be able to remain on Vulcan with her. Spock overpowers Kirk and is led to believe that he was killed, and he almost immediately returns to his senses (
TOS
, “Amok Time”;
VOY
, “Blood Fever”).

At the young age of seven, Vulcan children are paired with their future mates and must undergo a special ceremony that telepathically links them until they come of age. Although it has never been openly stated, the logical reason for arranged marriages is to lessen the possible side effects of pon farr on male Vulcans. If Spock had gotten married when he first felt mating urges, he might not have had to experience irrational anger or lust. It is only because Spock's arranged marriage goes wrong that the audience has a chance to see the reason for the typically early Vulcan betrothal.

A special feature of Vulcan physiology is the mind meld, a telepathic link that enables the sharing of thoughts. Vulcans initiate mind melds usually through physical contact, by touching nerves and blood vessels on the head (although there have been several instances where mind melds can be accomplished without any physical contact), to share personal experiences, to probe or interrogate, and to transfer an individual's katra to another person. Vulcans condemn the use of mind melds on alien species as it can result in emotional transference, and it can damage the brain if not done properly. Forced mind melds can cause severe damage to those who are probed. Over the course of
Star Trek
history, Vulcans have nevertheless melded with many alien species.

Examples of forced or improperly performed mind melds abound in
Star Trek
as object lessons. T'Pal was forced to participate in a mind meld with an inexperienced Vulcan and contracted Pa'nar syndrome, the Vulcan equivalent of a sexually transmitted disease. During the events of the Khitomer Conspiracy, Spock performed a forced meld with Valeris to discover the identity of those responsible for the assassination of counselor Gorkon. Valeris resisted Spock's probing but was overcome and experienced a severe emotional breakdown (
ENT
, “Fusion”;
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
). Mind melds have also been used to help Vulcans and other species hone skills and assist in emotional control during times of stress and trauma. Ambassador Sarek, during an important mission, performed a mind meld with Captain Picard to help suppress his erratic emotions as a result of Sarek's Bendii syndrome.