Vulcan Philosophy

Modern Vulcan philosophy revolves around the concept of logic. A Vulcans life objective is to suppress and control all emotion to render a purely logical being. This difficult task is attained through meditation and discipline. As Vulcans reach maturity, it is customary to train under the tutelage of a Vulcan master in the Kolinahr ritual, to purge themselves of remaining emotions. The father of Vulcan philosophy is Surak, who helped lead the Vulcan people out of a time of destruction and violence into their new era of peace. His introduction of logic and emotional discipline ushered in the Time of Awakening. 

Though committed to the concept of total logic Vulcan philosophy after the Time of Awakening did not totally abandon its past. Vulcans continued to maintain ceremonies dedicated to ancient religious beliefs and physical training. The Vulcans reasoned that complete dedication to logic could allow for weakness and frailty to arise and endanger them, thus ancient practices such as the kahs-wan were preserved and many Vulcans continued some form of dedication to their ancient gods, including ritual pilgrimages.

These ideals were forgotten by many Vulcans around the 22nd century, leading to a corrupt governmental system. Unknown at the time, their government had been infiltrated at the highest levels by Romulan operatives, misleading the population with a distorted version of Surak's teachings. A small faction called Syrrannites, founding their philosophy on what was believed to be his true works, discovered Surak's original texts, restoring the society he had built. Other works related to this philosophy are Kiri-kin-tha's First Law of Metaphysics ("Nothing unreal exists") and T'Plana-Hath's statement that "Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." 

Vulcans embrace cultural and racial diversity, as again evidenced through the IDIC. Vulcans also embrace a pacifist philosophy, going so far as to follow strict vegetarian diets to avoid killing even non-sentient animals. Vulcans believe that the needs of a very large group should go before the needs of a very small group or any individual. 

Vulcan Philosophy was a topic of study at Starfleet Academy by the 24th century. 

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one" is a fundamental element of Vulcan philosophy. It's also a quote from John Stuart Mill.

Trivia for

"Star Trek" (1966)

• James Doohan (Scotty) lost his right middle finger during World War II. Most of his scenes are shot to hide it. However, it is very noticeable in "Catspaw". When Scotty is holding a phaser pistol on Kirk & Spock, only two fingers are holding the butt of the phaser.
• "Shore Leave" is the only episode in which the U.S.S. Enterprise is seen orbiting a planet from right to left. The I.S.S. Enterprise also does this briefly in the parallel universe, in the teaser to "Mirror, Mirror", but by the beginning of Act I, it is again orbiting from left to right.
• Due to budget constraints, the element of "parallel" or "mirror" Earth planets was used on several occasions to keep set and make-up costs down. (i.e. "Miri", "Bread and Circuses", "A Piece of the Action", "Patterns of Force" and more.)
• Despite widespread belief, Martin Landau was not originally offered the role of Commander Spock. Leonard Nimoy had appeared on an earlier series produced by Roddenberry, "The Lieutenant" (1963), who at the time thought that the actor would be well cast as an alien. Nimoy inspired the creation of the character. Shortly after "Trek"'s cancellation, he took over the role of disguise-expert on "Mission: Impossible" (1966) when Landau left that show. Mission: Impossible was also filmed on the same lot, therefore when "Star Trek" ended, Nimoy merely went next door to go to his new job.
• Shortly after the cancellation of the series, the staff of the marketing department of the NBC TV network confronted the network executives and berated them for canceling Star Trek, the most profitable show on the network in terms of demographic profiling of the ratings. They explained that although the show was never higher than #52 in the general ratings, its audience profile had the largest concentration of viewers of ages 16 to 39, the most sought after television audience for advertisers to reach. In other words, the show, despite the low ratings, had the precise audience advertisers hungered for, which was more than ample justification to consider the show a big success.
• In 2000, the show was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having the largest number of spin-off productions, including the feature film series and the numerous TV series.
• Many elements of the Spock character were improvised by Leonard Nimoy during production. For instance, the "Vulcan neck pinch" was his suggestion during filming of "The Enemy Within" for how Spock could subdue an opponent. The "Vulcan salute" was created during the production of "Amok Time" using a version of a traditional Jewish religious hand gesture as a distinctive Vulcan greeting.
• Lloyd Bridges was approached to play Capt. Pike in the original pilot but turned it down believing that a science-fiction show would hurt his career. Jeffrey Hunter, who played Capt. Pike, was replaced after his salary demands were deemed to be too high.
• Gene Roddenberry originally conceived the Klingons as looking more alien than they do in the series, but budget restriction prevented this, although a very metallic cast to the skin was added to the make-up design in the third season. When the show moved to the big screen, he was finally able to make Klingons look more alien. The resulting continuity break between TOS and the movies and later series was addressed in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"'s "Trials and Tribble-ations," in which the character of Worf confirms that something did happen to make the Klingons appear human, but he says that they "do not discuss it with outsiders." Miles O'Brien asks if it was some kind of genetic engineering while Julian Bashir suggests a viral mutation. In the fourth and final season of the fifth "Star Trek" series "Enterprise" (2001) a two-parter dealt with the exact nature of why some Klingons (that would be the Klingons from the original series) did not have the "knotted" forehead that visually characterized all Klingons portrayed starting with Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). The premise was that a group of Klingons on a Klingon-populated world separate from their home world are exposed to a virus that modifies their appearance to that of the way they looked in TOS (and the crew, especially the ship's doctor in "Enterprise" (2001) manage to discover and generate a medical fix for the malady, of course). In short, both O'Brien's and Bashir's inquiries are proved correct.
• Gene Roddenberry once hypothesized that the Enterprise carried a platoon of Starfleet Marines, but they never appeared onscreen in the original series. The Starfleet Marines would eventually make an appearance, but not until Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993). The idea was revived with the addition of a group of "space marines" beginning in the 2003-2004 season of "Enterprise" (2001).
• One of the writers, D.C. Fontana, was told to use the initials "D.C." by Gene Roddenberry because networks at the time generally wouldn't hire women writers. Her first name is Dorothy.
• Contrary to popular belief, neither Captain Kirk nor anyone else ever said, "Beam me up, Scotty," in any episode.
• Grace Lee Whitney was supposed to be the lead female character, hence her prominent role as Yeoman Janice Rand in the first season. However, the producers let go of the character after the first season, much to the fans' regret. Whitney, however was asked back for most of the Star Trek movies, reprising her role as Janice.
• There are contradictory indicators as to just how far into the future the series is set. A calendar year for the adventures of the Enterprise crew is never given in any episode, and Gene Roddenberry said the series could have taken place anywhere from the 21st to the 31st Centuries. However, in "Assignment: Earth," the second season finale which involves a time-trip to Earth in the 1960s, Kirk is arrested by Kennedy Space Center security. When an officer threatens to lock him up for two hundred years if he does not explain who he is and why he is there, Kirk mutters, "That ought to be just about right." Stronger is the first season's "Space Seed," where a ship filled with people in suspended animation capsules is dated to the 1990s. When the first person revived asks "How long?" a few minutes later, the response is, "We estimate two centuries." An advance print ad for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) had a blurb across the top that began, "In the 23rd Century...," leading fans to protest on the basis of those two original series statements. The ad was soon changed to bear a non-time specific blurb, but "Trekkies" refused to acknowledge the fact that "23rd century" was an error. By the time of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987), calendar years for Trek adventures had been established and the official Star Trek Chronology now indicates that the original "Star Trek" TV series takes place between the years 2266 and 2269. (Later in "Star Trek: Voyager: Q2 (#7.19)" (2001) it was said that Kirk's five-year mission ended in 2270.) It wasn't until Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), that the 23rd century time line is internally established, in a conversation between Kirk and Dr. Gillian Taylor (Catherine Hicks).
• This is the only "Star Trek" series not to feature regulars from any other. However, Diana Muldaur who appeared in "Return to Tomorrow" and "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" later played the character of Dr. Katharine Pulaski during Season Two of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987). Although she appeared in almost every episode of the season, she was never considered a regular.
• Malachi Throne provided the voice of the Talosian Keeper in the first pilot "The Cage", which was also Leonard Nimoy's first "Star Trek" appearance. Throne was also with Nimoy for his final "Star Trek" appearance, the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987) Season Five episode "Unification Part II".
• Both pilots for "Star Trek" (1966) - "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before" - were the only episodes not filmed at the current-day Paramount Studio lot in Hollywood. They were filmed at the present-day Sony Pictures Culver Studios in Culver City, California.
• Jerry Goldsmith was Gene Roddenberry's first choice to write the theme for this series. Years later, Goldsmith wrote the theme to Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), which later was used for "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987).
• In the first season of "Star Trek" (1966), only William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy had their names appear in the opening credits. It wasn't until the start of the second season that the opening credits were slightly extended to include DeForest Kelley as well. The names for James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, and George Takei have all appeared in the closing credits for all 3 seasons of the show, since they didn't always appear together in every episode.
• In the hallways of the Enterprise there are tubes marked "GNDN", these initials stand for "goes nowhere does nothing".
• The series' opening credits has lyrics that were never used (although they were published in the book "The Making of Star Trek", by Stephen J. Whitfield). They were written by Gene Roddenberry so that he would receive a residual for the theme's use alongside the theme's composer, Alexander Courage.
• Actor Mark Lenard, best known for his role as Sarek, Spock's father, was the first actor to play a member of all three of the major alien races: Romulan, Vulcan, and Klingon (he is the commander of the Klingon attack group at the beginning of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).
• The slanting crawlway that leads up to the warp-drive nacelles is referred to as a "Jefferies tube." This is a reference to art director Walter M. Jefferies.
• When NBC was promoting "Star Trek" (1966) in magazines, all shots of Spock's pointed eyebrows and ears where airbrushed out of the pictures because NBC thought that no one would watch the show due to Spock's resemblance to the Devil. However, this concern was quickly invalided upon the series' airing with Spock becoming not only one of the most popular characters, but also a sex symbol with young female viewers, an audience reaction no one in the cast or crew anticipated.
• On at least two occasions ("Miri" & "City on the Edge of Forever") the exterior Mayberry set from "The Andy Griffith Show" (1960) was used. In "City," as Kirk walks Edith home, they pass by the easily recognizable courthouse, Floyd's barbershop, Emmett's repair shop, and the grocery.
• In several episodes, prop beverage bottles were modified from existing alcohol bottles. Aldeberan Whiskey bottles were Cuervo Gold 1800 Tequila bottles. Bottles used for Saurian Brandy were George Dickel Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey carafes.
• According to official blueprints of the Enterprise, published in 1975, among features on the ship that were never mentioned on the TV series were two auxiliary bridges, a second sickbay area, a swimming pool, a garden, and a six-lane bowling alley. This last item, no doubt included in the blueprints as a joke, is the earliest known case of humor creeping into the background of the show's designs; this would become commonplace in the other "Star Trek" TV series of the '80s and '90s. However, a bowling alley aboard the USS Enterprise was actually mentioned in the episode "The Naked Time." On that occasion, Lt. Kevin Riley (Bruce Hyde) declares that "a formal dance will be held in the bowling alley at 1900 hours tonight." However, he was also quite delusional (believing himself to be the ship's captain, an Irishman named O'Reilly), so it's not certain that the bowling alley he spoke of actually existed. Another contradiction to the blueprints is the indication reiterated at several points that the only alternate ship's controls are in the engineering section, rather than the two auxiliary bridges.
• According to the Hollywood Entertainment Museum, as of fall 2003 only a few pieces of the original 1960s bridge survive. The museum, on Hollywood Blvd., incorporates two original turboshaft doors into its Star Trek display, while a Los Angeles bookstore reportedly owns the original captain's chair.
• Mr. Spock was played as much more emotional and "human" in the original rejected pilot, "The Cage". This is very noticeable during the flashback sequences of the two-part episode, "The Menagerie". The flashbacks were simply scenes from the original pilot, re-edited into the new episodes.
• Ranked #1 in TV Guide's list of the "30 Top Cult Shows Ever!" (29 June 2007 issue).
• The Star Trek Crews from all the "Star Trek" series were ranked #2 in TV Guide's list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends" (1 August 2004 issue).
• Spock's farewell remark "Live long and prosper" was ranked #5 in TV Guide's list of "TV's 20 Top Catchphrases" (21-27 August 2005 issue).
• Scotty's full name is Montgomery Scott. The name was improvised on the spot by James Doohan and Gene Roddenberry: 'Scott' because Roddenberry liked Doohan's Scottish brogue, and 'Montgomery' because it's Doohan's middle name.
• Leonard Nimoy (Spock) is the only actor to appear in all 80 episodes (counting the original pilot) of the series.
• Even though they played father and son. Mark Lenard (Sarek) was only six years older then Leonard Nimoy (Spock).
• Leonard Nimoy and Majel Barrett are the only actors to appear in both the first ("The Cage") and last ("Turnabout Intruder") episodes of the series.
• The uniforms were color coded to show what division of the ship that the crew member was assigned to. The colors were: gold - command (including navigation and weaponry); red - operations (including engineering, security, and ship's services); and blue - sciences (including medicine). It was a few shows into regular series production before red shirts appeared, however, with Uhura and Scott being seen in command gold. In practice, the gold uniforms often appeared apple green, which some have attributed to local interference with television signals. However, the command tunic was actually green, but under most lighting conditions on the set it appeared gold. The true color can be seen in Kirk's special "wrap-around" tunic and to some extent in the special occasion "dress" uniforms, both of which were made out of other materials which reflected the light differently. The uniforms were dry-cleaned, but the velour tended to shrink, so they had to constantly be altered which is why they often looked short on the actors.
• Each starship and starbase had its own insignia, which was worn on the left breast of the uniform. The Enterprise's insignia was the now well known arrowhead shape. The boomerang shape from the side of the ship was the starfleet command insignia.
• Gene Roddenberry originally conceived Spock's skin color to be red, which would have meant extra hours in make-up for Leonard Nimoy. Fortunately for him, an early make-up test showed that the red color merely appeared as black on black-and-white televisions. Since most televisions in the '60s were still black-and-white, the idea was dropped.
• According to William Shatner's Star Trek TV memoirs, DeForest Kelley was the first one considered for the role of Spock. Kelley's own claims contradict this, however. He preferred working in Westerns, but Roddenberry talked him into playing a lawyer in a pilot that did not sell, and subsequently approached Kelley for the role of a doctor, in what turned out to be a science-fiction setting. Noting that Hollywood was making fewer and fewer Westerns, the actor accepted.
• Two models of the Enterprise were used on the show. One is 3 feet long and the other is 11 feet long.
• Leonard Nimoy's makeup had a faint greenish hue to it, because of his green Vulcan blood. Because the makeup was hand-mixed, the amount of green varied slightly, and in many shots (even close-ups) it's not really visible.
• Many "guest" voices were actually supplied by James Doohan, including those of Sargon (Return to Tomorrow), the M-5 and Commodore Enwright (The Ultimate Computer), Providers 2 and 3 (The Gamesters of Triskelion), a NASA technician (Assignment: Earth) and a radio announcer (A Piece of the Action).
• In many episodes, alien art work and wall hangings were in reality discarded protective Styrofoam shipping box liners from tape recorders used by fellow Desilu/Paramount show "Mission: Impossible", spray painted various colors and arranged into various combined forms.
• The series' running "I'm a doctor, not a..." gag originated in the comedy The Kennel Murder Case (1933). The coroner in that film, played by Etienne Girardot, repeatedly claims to be a doctor not a reporter, detective, etc.
• Leonard Nimoy's father was a barber, who was still operating a barbershop at the time the series became popular. In a mid-1960s interview with 16 Magazine, Nimoy revealed that youngsters often came into the shop asking for a "Mr. Spock" haircut, never realizing that "Mr. Spock's dad" was cutting their hair.
• At the time of NASA's first space shuttle launches, Nichelle Nichols was an official spokeswoman for the administration.
• Both Gene Roddenberry and James Doohan (Lt. Commander Scott) arranged to have vials containing small amounts of their ashes launched into orbit via satellites. This last request was successfully accomplished in both cases.
• Recently, James Doohan's son attempted to purchase a life-sized wax replica of his father at a Hollywood wax museum auction, but was outbid by an unidentified fan.
• The shimmer of the transporter beam was actually a film of aluminum powder being blown into the air by an industrial fan, under a bright spotlight.
• Jack Lord was approached for the role of Capt. Kirk, but Lord demanded 50% ownership of the show and was turned down.
• The 11-foot studio model of the USS Enterprise is on display in the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
• In the original series, the 'arrowhead' badge worn by the crew of the Enterprise was meant to be an insignia for the Enterprise only. If you'll notice on any 'guest' Starfleet character, they all wear different symbols on their uniforms. And Commadores wore a 'starburst' or 'sun' insignia. By the time Star Trek hit the big screen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), the Arrowhead insignia was adopted as the official Starfleet symbol and has remained so throughout the films and spin-off series, with the exception of "Enterprise" (2001) which pre-dates the original series.
• Leonard Nimoy modeled Spock after George Burns and his cigar. George's amused and unflustered acceptances of Gracie Allen's ramblings influenced Spock's interactions with Dr. McCoy.
• Sulu and Uhura didn't have first names in this series. Sulu did get a first name (Hikaru) but not until Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). In Season 2 DVD Special Features, Nichelle Nichols reveals that she and Gene Roddenberry accepted the first name "Niota" for her character, which is a Swahili word meaning "Star". Uhura is a variant of "Uhuru", Swahili for "freedom". However, the 1968 book, "The Making of 'Star Trek'" by Stephen Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry, gave her the first name of Penda. Trek fandom's insistence on ignoring this remains a mystery, as they cite this work on many other points.
• Captain Kirk's birthplace was established to be the state of Iowa, according to Gene Roddenberry in his book "The Making of Star Trek". Although an exact city was never established throughout the series, in 1985 the town of Riverside, Iowa officially proclaimed itself to be the "Future Birthplace of James T. Kirk". Steve Miller, a member of the Riverside City Council who had read Roddenberry's book, suggested to the council that Riverside should proclaim itself to be the future birthplace of Kirk. Miller's motion passed unanimously and the council later wrote to Roddenberry for his permission to be designated as the official birthplace of Kirk, to which Roddenberry agreed. The town is home to many Star Trek-related attractions, events and displays, including a replica of the USS Enterprise (named the USS Riverside), as well as plays host to the annual Riverside Trek Festival.
• Stagehands would pull the turbolift doors on cue with ropes and cables. They would also slide panels by to give the illusion of decks being passed inside the turbolift cars. Some of the more familiar bloopers are that of main actors nonchalantly running into sliding doors that hadn't opened as their characters needed to show full faith in the technology of the Enterprise while stagehands often missed their cues. One of the show's "blooper reels", often shown at Star Trek conventions, includes a full minute of shots of William Shatner walking into various doors and reacting with his favorite profanity (which is not spelled S-H-A-T).
• William Shatner requested that his name in the opening credits be 10% larger in size than that of his co-stars, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley.
• Television shows of the era that filmed at the same studios often shared minor cast members. It is common to see familiar faces in episodes of "Star Trek" (1966), "Batman" (1966), "Mission: Impossible" (1966) and "The Wild Wild West" (1965).
• Stardates are used throughout the series to give the audience an unrealistic look at the time-frame in which the series occurred. However, NBC paid no attention to the producers' intents when deciding on airing order, so the dates were not heard in numerical sequence.

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