Volcan

Physical characteristics

Vulcans are depicted as similar in appearance to humans, as budget constraints in The Original Series did not allow for elaborate make-up.[3] All Vulcans have arched and upswept eyebrows and pointy ears. White actors portraying Vulcans are given a greenish hue to their skin.[4] A Vulcan's on-screen blood is green due to copper-based hemocyanin. Vulcans are said to possess an inner eyelid, or nictitating membrane, which protects their vision from bright light.[5][6] In addition, their heart is located on the right side of the torso, between the ribs and pelvis; as Dr. McCoy once says about Spock after the Vulcan has been shot through the chest: "Lucky his heart's where his liver should be, or he'd be dead now.
Mating drive - Pon farr#
Every seven years, Vulcan males and females experience an overpowering hormone imbalance known as pon farr. Once triggered, a Vulcan must have sexual intercourse with someone or the chemical imbalance may cause insanity, loss of self-control, and death.[12]
Despite popular opinion, TOS writer and story editor, D. C. Fontana, insists 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 that are not seven years apart.[13]
If a mate is not available, there are other ways to relieve the effects of the pon farr, including meditation, violence,[14] "shock",[15] and simulation.
Vulcans are typically depicted as stronger, faster, and longer-lived than humans.[17] There are instances of them living over 220 years.[18] Having evolved on a desert world, Vulcans can survive without water for longer periods than humans.[6] Vulcans can also go without sleep for as long as two weeks

Psychology

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.
Not all Vulcan characters follow the path of pure logic; some instead choose to embrace emotions. 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.
While most Vulcans do not express emotions, they still have them. Only those who follow the discipline of kolinahr have completely purged all emotions from their minds; most Vulcans still have emotions, yet do not express or release them. Spock, in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, attempts to achieve kolinahr, but ultimately fails to do so.
In the 1st pilot episode, "The Cage", Spock showed much more emotion. For the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", Number One – Spock's superior officer, who showed little emotion – was removed, and it was decided that Spock would take on those traits.[20]
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 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.[18]
Telepathy
Vulcans are telepaths. Beginning in the original series, the character Spock was able to "mind meld" (see below) by touching another being and share thoughts.[21] Vulcans have also displayed telepathy at great distance and through walls.[22]
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 mechanical probe V'ger.
Mind melds can be used both to erase and restore memories; Spock performs each of these on Captain Kirk during TOS's 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."[23] Dr Julian Bashir in the DS9 episode "The Passenger" referred to this phenomenon as "synaptic pattern displacement". The ENT 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.

Homeworld

The fictional Vulcan homeworld, also named Vulcan, was visited several times in the Star Trek series and feature films. The inhabitants are known as "Vulcans" or "Vulcanians". First seen in the TOS episode, "Amok Time", Vulcan, a Class M planet, is an arid world with a thinner atmosphere than Earth. McCoy states upon beaming down, "Hot as Vulcan, now I understand what that phrase means." In the TOS episode, "The Man Trap", while Uhura is attempting to make conversation with Spock, he informs her that Vulcan has no moon.
According to Star Trek canon, the planet orbits 40 Eridani A. The authorized Star Trek book Star Trek: Star Charts[36] and Roddenberry himself[37] give this location. In addition, Commander Tucker's statement in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Home", that Vulcan is "a little over" 16 light years from Earth supports this location, as 40 Eridani A is 16.39 light-years from our own Solar System.[38] The planet's location is confirmed by a map shown in the Star Trek: Discovery episode "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad".
In several non-canon works, Vulcan is also claimed to be located in the triple star system 40 Eridani, less than 17 light-years from Earth.[36][39]
The Star Trek: Discovery episode "Unification III" reveals that after the Vulcans reunified with their ancient cousins, the Romulans, the Vulcan homeworld was renamed Ni'Var. Ni'Var had seceded from the Federation (due to the apocalyptic event known as The Burn in the later episode "All Is Possible", Ni'Var rejoins the Federation.
In the 2009 film Star Trek, an alternate timeline is created in which Vulcan is destroyed by a Romulan ship. By the time of Star Trek Into Darkness a Vulcan colony had been established named "New Vulcan".

History

Vulcans once practiced a form of polytheism; this can be seen in gods of war, peace, and death depicted on the Stone of Gol relic in the TNG episode, "Gambit". The DVD commentary for "Amok Time" says that TOS writer D. C. Fontana named the Vulcan god of death "Shariel", a bust of whom is seen in Spock's quarters.
Vulcan civilization is ancient. In "Amok Time", Spock says that the place of "Koon-ut-kal-if-fee" has been held by his family for 2,000 years. In the TOS episode, "The Savage Curtain" the image of Surak speaks of a time when Vulcan war nearly destroyed them, before logic was embraced as a way of life.
In 1957, the launch of Sputnik I, Earth's first artificial satellite, was observed by a Vulcan vessel that subsequently crashed on the planet, marooning several crew members for a number of months in Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania; the humans were unaware of the alien nature of their guests.[40]
On April 5, 2063, Vulcans and humans made official first contact near the town of Bozeman, Montana, following the successful test of Earth scientist Zefram Cochrane's first warp-capable starship.
In 2097, the Vulcans annexed the Andorian planetoid Weytahn and renamed it Pan Mokar.
In 2105, the Vulcans and the Andorians agreed to a compromise over Weytahn/Pan Mokar. Still, tensions continued due to the threat of mutual annihilation.
By the 22nd century, the Vulcan High Command is a form of military government that controls both the Vulcan space fleet and most of the planet itself. Most Vulcans, including T'Pol, from Star Trek: Enterprise obey the High Command. It is dissolved in the early fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise.
In 2151, Sub-Commander T'Pol joined the crew of the Earth Starfleet vessel Enterprise (NX-01), within a couple of weeks setting a Vulcan endurance record for serving aboard a human vessel. In 2154, T'Pol became a commissioned officer with Starfleet.
Throughout the period of Star Trek: Enterprise, the High Command's actions were the themes of several episodes. Vulcan starships were sent to spy on the Enterprise and report on the ship's activities.[41] They appeared to participate in open acts of persecution towards other Vulcans, such as isolating and quarantining victims of Pa'nar Syndrome rather than treating them; prejudicial acts against any Vulcan proven to have committed a mind meld; and hunting down and capturing, sometimes killing, members of the underground dissident group, the Syrranites.
In 2154, V'Las, the head of the High Command and undercover agent for the Romulans, bombed the United Earth embassy on Vulcan in an attempt to frame and eliminate all Syrranites while simultaneously attempting an invasion of Andoria. He was foiled by the crew of the Enterprise. During these events, the Kir'Shara, a device containing the original writings of Surak, was discovered by Jonathan Archer. This led to the prompt dissolution of the High Command and a reevaluation of Vulcan traditional values. It also resulted in Vulcan agreeing to stop "looking over Earth's shoulder" in space exploration matters.
It was revealed to viewers that the High Command's illogical and often emotionally based actions were, in reality, the result of covert Romulan influence. The Romulans had secretly made contact with V'Las and attempted to reunify their long-lost peoples. After the invasion of Andoria was foiled, the High Command was disbanded and V'Las was dismissed from his post. Subsequently, the altered political climate on Vulcan caused the undercover Romulan operative Talok to leave Vulcan, apparently ending the infiltration.
On August 12, 2161, Vulcan became one of the founding members of the United Federation of Planets.
In the time of Star Trek: Enterprise, Vulcans are seen to be arrogant and cold in their behavior towards humans. Soval, Vulcan's ambassador to Earth, appeared particularly distrustful of humans, and was often at odds with Archer and his crew. Soval later justified this behavior in the fourth season episode "The Forge":
'We don't know what to do about humans. Of all the species we've made contact with, yours is the only one we can't define. You have the arrogance of Andorians, the stubborn pride of Tellarites. One moment you're as driven by your emotions as Klingons, and the next, you confound us by suddenly embracing logic"
Soval also explained that, since Earth recovered from World War III far more quickly than Vulcan did from its equivalent (in "The Forge" and its sequel episodes, it is said that Vulcans took almost a thousand years to fully rebuild their society after their last catastrophic war), it alarmed many Vulcans, who were confused as to how to deal with a rapidly growing and emotional society such as Earth's.
After the overthrow of the corrupt Vulcan High Command and the death of Admiral Maxwell Forrest, who sacrificed his life to save Soval from a terrorist attack, the attitudes of Soval, and Vulcan society in general, became more cordial and accepting towards humanity.
By the 32nd century, Ambassador Spock's dream of Vulcan/Romulan reunification has been achieved. Following the destruction of Romulus, the surviving Romulans have returned to their ancestral homeworld, now called Ni'Var.