5 Fascinating Facts About Star Trek's Vulcans

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Though there were no Vulcans on the main cast of either "Star Trek: The Next Generation" or "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," Vulcans are among the most popular aliens in the whole of the "Star Trek" universe. And though franchise creator Gene Roddenberry didn't care about creating new civilizations for "Star Trek," Vulcans gradually became just as layered and fleshed out as the human race is in real life. They have rituals, holidays, favored diets, allergies, a detailed anatomy that differs from the human race, and a long history that extends far back before fans met them in the original "Star Trek" in 1966.

Most of what audiences know about Vulcans can be learned from context clues or direct explanations from characters on one of the many TV shows or movies, including the "Star Trek" film that Rotten Tomatoes ranks as the best. Here's some stuff you probably wouldn't know unless you're a hardcore Trekkie with an inclination to pick up a novel or encyclopedia about the "Star Trek" universe.

One of the more memorable scenes in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" is when Spock swims with a pair of humpback whales at the Cetacean Institute, and when he's confronted for an explanation, he says he was merely trying to communicate with them. In the novelization of the film, however, his justification for acting oddly is that he ingested mint wafers.

Before taking a bus to the institute, Admiral James T. Kirk and Spock needed exact change. To get that, Kirk bought some mint wafers. He gave one to Spock, and the Vulcan placed it in his mouth and allowed it to melt as they rode the bus. At one point, Spock says, "I believe this confection you have given me contains sucrose." Sucrose, for the uninitiated, is simple table sugar. The book goes on to describe the strange feelings and thoughts the Vulcan was experiencing. Afterward, he's swimming with the whales.

Like a game of telephone, the lore gradually evolved among Trekkies to mean that Vulcans get drunk from chocolate. Even the cartoon series, "Lower Decks," nodded at this in Season 4, Episode 5, "Empathological Fallacies," when Ensign Beckett Mariner pokes her head into T'Lyn's room to say: "I know you don't drink, but there's gonna be a chocolate fountain if you want to get wild." Sure, the joke works even if the fan theory doesn't hold up, but we're going to let the Trekkies have this one.

Long before the Vulcans became what fans know of them today, they were an emotional and warlike species. That's far from "Star Trek's" depiction of a race devoted to logic and seemingly devoid of emotion. That earlier, more emotional period, helped Vulcans conquer and colonized numerous planets throughout the galaxy, but it also led to devastating infighting and civil war. Eventually, the Vulcans learned to harness their emotions and control them so much that most people don't believe they even have any.

Not all ancient Vulcans agreed with the race's new cold, emotionless direction. Instead, they broke off at some point and established their own civilization that would retain their warlike nature. That group came to be known as the Romulans. Despite the disagreements between Vulcans and Romulans, there was a reunification effort led by none other than Ambassador Spock, during a two-part "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode in Season 5, titled, "Unification." The fence-mending didn't happen in Spock's lifetime, but the two races did eventually find a path to reunification and both came to call the planet Vulcan home, albeit with a new name, Ni'Var.

It's not just those pointy ears that set Vulcans apart from humans. In fact, physiologically, there's much more difference than you'd likely think. The first hint is in action-packed "Star Trek" scene with a Vulcan in it, where they are bruised or bleed, and their blood is green. This is because copper is a primary component of their blood, as opposed to iron for humans. Gene Roddenberry reportedly wasn't too fond of the green blood, but "The Original Series" director Marc Daniels.

In the book "Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages," Daniels wrote, "The green blood was my idea, because if Spock was going to have a yellow complexion, he ought to have green blood." He added, "I think Gene thought that idea was going too far, but they kept it in later episodes." Perhaps that's also why the Xenomorph fighting Predators bleed green. Regardless, that's far from the only anatomical difference between Vulcans and Humans.

The pointy-eared logic lovers don't have their heart in their chest. Instead, that organ is around where the human liver would be. They also have inner eyelids, which makes sense since they evolved on an arid planet and inner eyelids would add an extra layer of protection against dust and sand. Those ears also aren't just to look different; they give Vulcans better hearing than many others throughout the galaxy. 

Anecdotally, those pointy ears may have seemed like a simple effect, but they were tough on the actors because they had to be glued on. Roddenberry had to fight to keep the popular characters onboard because television executives at the time were worried the pointy ears looked too devilish.

Vulcans might have been a cruel, violent alien species at one point, but by the time audiences meet them in the original "Star Trek" series, they're a peaceful and refined race who try to avoid violence whenever logic dictates. For that reason, they don't consume meat of any kind. According to the book "The Making of the TV Series Star Trek," by Stephen E. Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry, Spock and Vulcans in general have a plant-based diet, which is increasingly linked to improved health in real-life studies outside "Star Trek."

The book says, "A basic tenet of the Vulcan philosophy is nonviolence. Vulcans do not believe in killing in any form. They may hunt for the skill involved in tracking but eons ago ceased to kill the animal they are tracking. As a vegetarian, the mere idea of eating animal carcasses, cooked or not, is revolting to Spock. Even his vegetable diet is limited to the simplest of vegetable life forms."

There was an instance where Spock consumed meat and was unhappy with himself, specifically because he enjoyed it. It does make one wonder if Vulcans would eat a meat dish if it was generated by a replicator, since it would not have been alive to begin with. There isn't any reason to think Vulcans would be opposed to living a vegan lifestyle, but since the Delta Quadrant alien crew member Neelix was seen preparing Porakan eggs for Tuvok's breakfast once in "Star Trek: Voyager," it seems somewhat flexible.

As cool and collected as most Vulcans come across as on the surface, they are a whirlwind of emotions underneath. Sure, it might be easy sailing to keep those emotions under control most of the time, but once every seven years it gets so tumultuous that every Vulcan has to partake in the pon farr ritual. To say that this is a culmination of emotions is really an oversimplification. What's really going on is a neurochemical imbalance that can be deadly if left untreated. The primary treatment is a release, so to speak, as part of a Vulcan mating ritual.

However, taking a mate isn't always necessary. The chemical imbalance can also be satiated by fighting someone else in a ritual fight known as a kal-if-fee, or "passion fight." It can be a fight to the death, but the death part isn't mandatory. The other method for dealing with pon farr is with intense meditation, the method Tuvok attempted while trapped on Voyager in the Delta Quadrant, about 70,000 light years from his wife.