The Vulcans/The English
- Thread starter cbs7lb
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The English? In colonial times? Logical?
Seriously no, I don't think so. Why? In U.S. colonial times the English were still interested in expanding and maintaining an Empire. If anything, the Vulcans in ENT (and later in TOS); were rather insular. They weren't interested in expansion, or even exploration - they just wanted to see that balance was maintained; and only ever interfered if/when the balance was upset - and further, only when that 'upset' was percieved as a threat to Vulcan as well.
Or the Chinese (in a different timeframe), with their selfless philosophy. Or the French, with their superiority complex. Or the Germans, with their flawless organization. Or any other stereotype of the day.
While playing "find the similarities" is funny, these comparisons are ultimately meaningless, as no Star Trek race was supposed to reflect any single real-life nation or people.
While playing "find the similarities" is funny, these comparisons are ultimately meaningless, as no Star Trek race was supposed to reflect any single real-life nation or people.
Implying UFP wasn't USA.
Hmph...I kinda likened the Earth-Vulcan relationship as being similar to the one between the U.S. and France--longtime allies with a mild love-hate relationship underneath the surface...
I think Vulcan in the ENT era is based in part on the post-WW2 U.S., actually. It's a hegemony. They don't actively annex other worlds or declare formal empire, but they use their superior economic and military power to make sure that a lot of smaller, less powerful worlds' governments are in their pockets. Especially as they fight off a major rival (Andor) using proxy wars on other planets rather than openly fighting, the same way the U.S. and U.S.S.R. would prop up two opposing sides in smaller countries' civil wars. And they certainly didn't like the idea of treating Earth as an equal -- at least, not until after the Syrannite revolution, anyway.
What willingness to teach without being too involved? The Vulcans weren't willing to teach any damn thing -- they were withholding warp technology from Humans. And they were damn well getting involved -- they deliberately tried to suppress Human research and development into warp technology, and used their political influence with the United Earth government numerous times to inhibit the growth of Earth's space program and keep Earth dependent on Vulcan.
And that's to say nothing of their propping up the Coridanite government in the middle of a civil war because Coridan was giving them access to dilithium and their numerous acts of aggression against the Andorians, including their illegal spying station that they placed beneath their own ancient monastery in violation of treaty. Or, for that matter, their repression against their own civilians and religious minorities.
There was nothing particularly admirable about the Vulcan government pre-Syrannite Revolution in the ENT era. They were nothing more than neo-imperialists.
Actually, the episode "Home" indicates that V'Las had only seized power on Vulcan after the spy station at P'Jem was exposed during ENT's first season, leading to the dismissal of the First Minister. So I'm afraid that those decades of Vulcan neo-imperialism can only be blamed on the Vulcans themselves, even if the Romulans later used one of their agents to take advantage of that neo-imperialism to seize control of their government covertly.
I don't know about that. Weren't the Klingons largely based on feudal Japan, and weren't the Romulans and Remans based on the ancient Romans, even down to the names Romulus and Remus reflecting those of the city's apocryphal founders? I suppose that if the Romulans are ancient Romans then the Vulcans may have been developed to resemble the best of ancient Greek philosophy and culture.
The Klingons became a mishmash of various warrior cultures. Though in the begining they were generic bad guys that were stand ins for the Soviets.
The Romulans were also rather genric. The plot of BOT is lifted from a movie set in WWII. The Roman stuff is just a substitute for the Nazis references. After all we can't have Nazis in Space!!!!
When they returned a second time (third if you count Deadly Years) they filled in for the North Koreans.
The Vulcans are:
-Jewish (cultural aspects added by Nimoy; also the whole desert-dwelling thing)
-Ancient Greek (in contrast to the Romulans' Rome)
-"Our" China (Taiwan, in contrast to the Romulans' Commie China)
But I've never seen "English" or "Japanese" in the mix. Maybe a little Japanese in the clothing...?
-Jewish (cultural aspects added by Nimoy; also the whole desert-dwelling thing)
-Ancient Greek (in contrast to the Romulans' Rome)
-"Our" China (Taiwan, in contrast to the Romulans' Commie China)
But I've never seen "English" or "Japanese" in the mix. Maybe a little Japanese in the clothing...?
The UFP is the UN, and Earth is America. The Cold War parallels are obvious:
20th C Cold War - 23rd C Star Trek
America - Earth
UN - UFP
Communist China - Romulus
Taiwan - Vulcan
USSR - Klingons
This scheme is important because the UN/UFP was founded at the end of a devastating war, WWII/Earth-Romulan War, so that the good-guy allies in that war could form a common defense. And that tells you exactly how ENT should have been written, as the Birth of the Federation, instead of the garbage we ended up getting.
Yeah, if you look at them, Klingons were part Mogol horde, part Soviet army, part Japanese samurai, part Viking raiders, and I'm sure a whole lotta other examples.
Same with the Romulans: a lot of names/trappings were from the Roman Republic/Empire, but the social settings was very different. Balance of Terror seemed to imply a Kriegsmarine/Nazi government parallel with the Romulan Navy/Romulan government. In following encounters, there were other references to Cold War two Germanies situation, with the whole Stasi/Tal Shiar parallel and the Reunification stuff. As other posters' suggested, another parallel could be China/Taiwan.
This is why I think perfect comparisons are impossible to draw.
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