ST - Vulcans and their ships

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I was looking at a new issue of PC Gamer and they had a thing about the ST online game and they showed a design for a modern Vulcan ship. I always say I'm a casual Trek fan because I watch the shows, but nothing beyond that so I have no idea if books or anything else explains this. Anyway I was wondering in the series TNG forward, where the Vulcans are. Aren't they part of the Federation? Other than the obvious that the writers didn't put them in the stories. You see shuttles in some episodes, but you never see the Vulcans participating in battles. I'd think they would help against the Borg. Also are Federation ships at the same tech level as the Vulcan ships or are the Vulcan ships still way more advanced?

 

[Wes R]

As far as I know they are part of the Federation still but they rarely showed up after TNG other than the one guy on Voyager.

 

[darthgordon]

Vulcans are members of the Federation. As a race, they are also somewhat pacifists... thus their weapons and defenses are not very advanced.

Vulcan ships are mentioned a few times in TNG and can be seen in Unification.

Now that's an in universe explanation for the lack of other ships other than Starfleet vessels during certain key moments in Star Trek. The big reason is money. Each model is expensive to create. It's cheaper to just re-use existing models and replicate them on-screen. Plus, they are more recognizable.

 

[SmilingOtter]

The USS Intrepid (TOS era) had an entirely Vulcan crew, so perhaps the races all use standard Starfleet vessels. They could still have native-produced ships for defending their own territories.

 

[defstartrooper]

........

 

[darthgordon]

Judging by Sarek's reaction to Spock entering Starfleet, one can assume that Starfleet is not a revered career path on Vulcan... or at least, not as much as the Vulcan Science Academy.

As already mentioned, the Intrepid was entirely manned by Vulcans. Also the USS T'Kumbra (a Starfleet vessel), was seen in DS9 with an all or mostly Vulcan crew.

So, though not seen as much as humans, it would seem that there are quite a few involved.

 

[E Williams]

My thought is that in the pre-Federation time period, the Vulcans are one of the more dominant/advanced races in the alpha quadrant. As humans and the Federation develop, and the Federation becomes more and more a major player, Vulcans take a less individual role in things, and draw down their own separate military/intelligence operations.

Since they are a founding member of the Federation, it makes sense that they would contribute more and more to its technological development, and become more invested in and reliant on Starfleet for defense/research/etc. In TOS you see that they're still around, and still an important diplomatic player. But even by this point there is no reason for them to be building their own capital ships (see the Intrepid mentioned above) as there is a co-dependence present, and Vulcans and humans (and the rest of the Federation) are on an even technological level.

 

[0neiros]

Well a vulcan on DS9 did go crazy because of all the crewmates he lost in the Dominion war, and was using a transporter tech based sniper rifle to kill people who were smiling in their personal photos.

Vulcans are around, there are quite a few of them in Starfleet, including a couple that are/were instructors, and the headmaster at SF Academy. The Captain of Sisko's Ship that gets destroyed at Wolf 359 was Vulcan. I'm sure that Vulcan Science academy has their own ships for their particular missions, while Federation ships such as the Oberth, Excelsior, and Nebula classes are Modular in design, that is that certain whole sections can be altered or swapped out to fit mission parameters, so They are standard use, even by Non SF science teams.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Thanks. That would make more sense if they were just contributing manpower to Starfleet vs. ships.

Now if they can just make a new show and not remind everyone with every word that they are Vulcans. "As you know Captain, I'm a Vulcan, and..."

 

[daltman1967]

Just my two credit's worth: You see Vulcan ships all the time in the Enterprise series, and of course, we see Spock's ship in the 2009 Star Trek movie. We don't see very many Vulcans as crew; Dr. Selar in TNG; Lt. Tuvok and Ens. Vorik in Voyager; I think that it is established that Vulcans, as a general rule, don't serve in Starfleet - viewing Starfleet as a "militaristic" rather than an "explorative" endeavor. Since Vulcans have renounced violence, it would be illogical to serve on a ship of war.

This is clearly a change in philosophy brought on by T'Pau, evidence by the Enterprise episode Kir'Shara. The Vulcans had been at war with Andoria for quite a long time when Captain Archer came along and helped them find peace. After T'Pau took power on Vulcan, Vulcan phiolosophy changed radically.