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Changes in Vulcan Beliefs (startrek.website)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Did Syrran’s teachings change the accepted spiritual and philosophical ideology of mainstream Vulcan society? ENT had the unique position of being a prequel to TOS. It at first presented mind-melds as a deviant act that was socially unacceptable. Moving into the 23rd century of TOS and the movies (I’m going on recall right now), the deviance seemed to have gone away. However the dangers of mind-melds held true even by the time of VOY. When ENT reached the three parter of “The Forge”, “Awakening” and “Kir’Shara”, the story specifically focused on katras.

It feels like the direction ENT was pointed, the people in charge of the big lore wanted to flip what we knew about Vulcan society. One of the major conflicts over the course of the series was the Earth-Vulcan relationship. Of course this was rooted in the Federation arch.

To clarify my question: did the rebellious teachings of a cult (T’Pol specifically calls the Syrrannites a “violent cult”), become the accepted beliefs over a century?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I'd argue to some degree, but at least in TOS, the only contact we have with Vulcan culture is through Spock, who isn't that traditional a Vulcan.

At the very least, he mind melds a lot more than Vulcan cultural tradition would suggest, with all kinds of beings that aren't other Vulcans. It is entirely plausible that Spock is simply more liberal when it comes to mind-melds than other Vulcans.

Enterprise might well have gone the other way, where T'Pol represented a more conservative faction of Vulcan society, that prefered to avoid mind-melds due to the risk.