Highlights
- Vulcans, known for logic, have a violent past involving powerful weapons, civil wars, and exiled rebels.
- Pre-Surak Vulcans created a devastating weapon powered by fierce emotions.
- Vulcans, while guiding humanity, also spied on Andorians, held back human space exploration, and almost destroyed their own planet in civil wars.
For most of Star Trek‘s history, Vulcans have been the benevolent aliens helping humanity on their way through the cosmos. They were famously the first extra-terrestrials that humans met, officially making their presence known after Zefram Cochrane’s first successful warp test flight in the year 2063, and helped Earth’s government form the United Federation of Planets.
Vulcans make diplomacy and technological development look easy, but their history has a few bumps in it, just like everyone else in the galaxy. While it’s true that they have a better track record than most, the Vulcans have still done some pretty bad things, and their pre-Surak history showcases a pattern of savagery that would make a Klingon blush.
5 Creating The Stone Of Gol
A Weapon So Powerful It Was Broken Into Pieces And Hidden
- Appeared In:Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season 7, Episode 5: “Gambit, Part 2”
The legacy of Vulcan’s bloody history was revisited in The Next Generation episodes about the lost Stone of Gol, a fearsome weapon that Vulcans developed when they were still ruled by strong emotions. It was so dangerous that the ancients broke it into two separate pieces and hid each one somewhere in the galaxy.
It was the fierce emotions of the pre-Surak Vulcans that powered the Stone of Gol. The stronger the emotions of the target and wielder, the more devastating the weapon’s power. When Picard discovered the secret of the weapon, he realized it hadn’t been hidden because of its power. Because of the adoption of Surak’s teachings about repressing emotions, it was simply rendered obsolete.
4 The Civil Wars
A Time Of Atomic Weapons In Which Vulcan Was Nearly Destroyed
- Appeared In:Star Trek: The Original Series – Season 1, Episode 8: “Balance Of Terror”
The civil wars that consumed Vulcan’s pre-Surak civilization were fought with a variety of brutal weapons, but the use of atomic forces is what almost doomed Vulcan. Although this period in history hasn’t appeared on film as of yet, it’s referenced many times by Spock in The Original Series and T’Pol of Enterprise.
Surak, the prophet who stepped forward to advocate for peace by purging all emotion, died of radiation poisoning after being caught in an atomic blast. However, it wasn’t just the loss of life and infrastructure on a planetary scale that was devastating. Vulcans were capable of space travel as early as the 4th century, but decades of atomic wars regressed their whole society. Much of this knowledge was destroyed or lost, not to be regained for almost 1,500 years.
3 The Exile Of The Rebels
Led To The Creation Of The Romulan Empire
- Appeared In: Star Trek: Enterprise – Season 4, Episode 8: “Awakening”
The wars that determined the end to the old ways and the adoption of the teachings of Surak also had the side-effect of sending part of the Vulcan population into permanent exile. It could be a matter of opinion as to how bad this was, or perhaps it was just an unfortunate consequence of history, but the repercussions lasted well into the 24th century.
Not every Vulcan agreed to adopt Surak’s teachings, and when it became clear that some would rather die or kill than change their ways, they were exiled into the far reaches of space. The result was the Romulan Empire, and they were a destructive and aggressive intergalactic force that had a vice grip on the neutral zone for decades.
2 Spying On The Andorians
And Using The Sanctity Of A Monastery To Do It
- Appeared In: Star Trek: Enterprise – Season 1, Episode 7: “The Andorian Incident”
The Monastery of P’Jem was one of the Vulcan culture’s holiest places, which is why they thought a spy op could safely hide underneath it without getting caught. It didn’t seem like the long-term residents of the monastery knew this secret, but there were a few in-residence spies who did, and they secretly plotted against both the Andorians and the Enterprise crew.
Even though the Vulcans were in the wrong in this case when they built a complex spy center underneath an ancient monastery, they maintained that Archer and his crew had committed a sacrilege against their holy sites. They refused to admit any wrongdoing and used the incident to try and ground the Enterprise and recall T’Pol more than once in the course of the series.
1 Holding Humanity Back
The Vulcans Thought The Human Race Wasn’t Ready
- Appeared In: Star Trek: Enterprise – Season 1, Episode 1: “Broken Bow”
Up until Star Trek: Enterprise, the Vulcans had been mostly friendly and helpful, but one of the main premises of Star Trek: Enterprise was their meddling when it came to using the warp drive that humans invented. The Vulcans weren’t sure that such an emotive and impulsive race should be running around in space, especially when Vulcans already had Andorians to worry about.
The Vulcans intended to hinder the development of human space exploration technology as much as help, and Jonathan Archer in particular was vocal about how much he resented Vulcan’s involvement in human politics. There were some important advancements during this period, mostly thanks to Captain Archer and his Enterprise, but the fact remains that the Vulcans held humanity back for almost a century.