How Are There Only 10,000 Vulcans Left?

[sonak]

From what we've seen in Trek, Vulcans were a spacefaring people long before Humans were. They're an important part of the Federation. So how is it that the destruction of their homeworld reduces their numbers so drastically? They're obviously not isolationists, they should've been spread throughout the Quadrant on ships, on colonies, on other planets, etc. I get that they were upping the tragedy factor, but the destruction of the planet Vulcan was enough of a shock itself, they didn't need to make it so there's only a tiny amount of Vulcans left.

Spock would still have lost his mother and gone through the same emotional arc whether there was 10,000 Vulcans left or 10 billion.

 

[Satyrquaze]

They've repeatedly said throughout ENT and the other shows that Vulcans rarely travel far from Vulcan.

That's what makes the Earth Starfleet so important. Why would human exploration be important at all if Vulcans had already visited all those planets centuries before?

 

[FarStrider]

They've repeatedly said throughout ENT and the other shows that Vulcans rarely travel far from Vulcan.

That's what makes the Earth Starfleet so important. Why would human exploration be important at all if Vulcans had already visited all those planets centuries before?

Yeah, a little thing called Pon Farr makes it almost impossible for there to be that many Vulcans off-world at a time. . .

~FS

 

[Merky]

They've repeatedly said throughout ENT and the other shows that Vulcans rarely travel far from Vulcan.

That's what makes the Earth Starfleet so important. Why would human exploration be important at all if Vulcans had already visited all those planets centuries before?

Yeah, a little thing called Pon Farr makes it almost impossible for there to be that many Vulcans off-world at a time. . .

~FS

I don't think it's the Pon Farr that keeps them unable to go far, its more of the bonding aspect of it that keeps them close. When they say that urge to " go back home " its more like " my waifu/hubby is waiting for me ". Being too far or unable to get back home will just drive them to take another mate.

 

[Timo]

...Really, are there ever more than 10,000 humans out there, either? Outside Earth and its colony worlds (which Vulcan apparently doesn't have), that is.

There are only so many business opportunities in outer space, and most of the slots are already filled by locals. Few interstellar ships other than Starfleet exploration and combat ships seem to have crews numbering in hundreds. And if Vulcan doesn't have colonial holdings, that will probably reduce their interest in maintaining commercial shipping assets of their own, too.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[sonak]

...Really, are there ever more than 10,000 humans out there, either? Outside Earth and its colony worlds (which Vulcan apparently doesn't have), that is.

There are only so many business opportunities in outer space, and most of the slots are already filled by locals. Few interstellar ships other than Starfleet exploration and combat ships seem to have crews numbering in hundreds. And if Vulcan doesn't have colonial holdings, that will probably reduce their interest in maintaining commercial shipping assets of their own, too.

Timo Saloniemi

Um, well if you consider a galaxy-class starship is 1,000, more than 50% of which is human, and there are a lot of ships in Starfleet, then yeah, I'd say there are a lot more than 10,000 humans away from Earth


Why would there not be Vulcans on other colonies? As said, they've been out in space for a while. Plus, they're very interested in science as a culture. How do you do scientific explanation while staying in one star system?

 

[Merky]

How do you do scientific explanation while staying in one star system?

Well, that's obviously not the case with the Vulcans stumbling over Cochrane's experiment.

Spock probably was making a wild guess (under extreme emotional strain) -- taking into consideration the amount of people that survived the planet. I'm sure there's a couple of thousand beyond the wild guess of 10k he stated in his acting captain's log.

And while Vulcans can procreate outside of the pon farr cycle, I doubt many do when on missions of science and the what not. So /shrug

 

[F. King Daniel]

Unlike humans (Deneva, Alpha Centauri etc), we've never seen any heavily populated Vulcan planets beyond Vulcan itself. We've seen P'Jem (a few hundred monks and a listening post), that heavily-contested world that was an Andorian/Vulcan war zone, and we know Tuvok's from "Vulcanis Lunar Colony" and we've been told "Vulcans don't explore"

So 10,000 is just about plausible based on what we've seen. In the fantasy world of Trek, at least.

That said, there are several billion Romulans still around (in this timeline, at least), who are just a stirring speech or two away from conversion to Vulcanism!

 

[Timo]

Um, well if you consider a galaxy-class starship is 1,000, more than 50% of which is human, and there are a lot of ships in Starfleet, then yeah, I'd say there are a lot more than 10,000 humans away from Earth

Not necessarily in 2258, though.

Why would there not be Vulcans on other colonies?

Why should there be any? Spock did successfully masquerade as a Vulcan trader in "Errand of Mercy", so apparently some Vulcans do trade, and this appears to require "personal touch" rather than just interstellar emails. But Vulcan traders might number no more than 209 at the best of times, and assorted other, less commercial emissaries might amount to a thousand more.

How do you do scientific explanation while staying in one star system?

What could an outsystem location possibly offer for science? Most Trek systems seem straightforward repeats of our own star system, featuring few if any alien phenomena. And even the study of something truly alien might best be conducted back on Vulcan, with proper facilities, rather than in a sorry excuse for a field lab.

Well, that's obviously not the case with the Vulcans stumbling over Cochrane's experiment.

We have no idea what those Vulcans were doing at Sol. "Just Passing Through" doesn't pass muster, as there's no reason to go through a star system unless one is specifically interested in that system. Did Troi simply flat out lie to Cochrane, knowing fully well the Vulcans were there to spy humanity? Or did Troi speak the truth, and the Vulcans were interested in our system but not in us? Were they here to study the Martians, perhaps?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Merky]

We have no idea what those Vulcans were doing at Sol. "Just Passing Through" doesn't pass muster, as there's no reason to go through a star system unless one is specifically interested in that system. Did Troi simply flat out lie to Cochrane, knowing fully well the Vulcans were there to spy humanity? Or did Troi speak the truth, and the Vulcans were interested in our system but not in us? Were they here to study the Martians, perhaps?

I thought it was pretty clear cut that they were surveying the system and happened to stumble over Cochrane's experience.

RIKER: Simple. Conduct your warp flight tomorrow morning just as you planned.
COCHRANE: Why tomorrow morning?
RIKER: Because at eleven o'clock an alien ship will begin passing through this solar system.
COCHRANE: Alien? You mean extra-terrestrials. More bad guys?
TROI: Good guys. They're on a survey mission. They have no interest in Earth. ...Too primitive.
COCHRANE: Oh!

Don't give Star Trek too much credit for ingenuity and cleverness. Everything is delivered at face value.... It is a TV/Movie franchise after all. If the writer's aren't giving it much thought, neither should we tbqh.

 

[Ryan8bit]

I always just assumed that 10,000 was the number that survived the assault on Vulcan itself.

 

[Cake]

I always just assumed that 10,000 was the number that survived the assault on Vulcan itself.

Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman stated this, too.

http://trekmovie.com/2009/05/22/orci-and-kurtzman-reveal-star-trek-details-in-trekmovie-fan-qa/

TREKKIE369 : Have you guys ever considered bringing Vulcan and Romulus back? And if not, how many survivors are there from both planets?

BobOrci: Recall that in this new Universe, Romulus is still out there, as Captain Pike indicates. As for Vulcan, Spock, in his Captain’s Log, estimates that there are approximately 10,000 survivors.

That Nutty Fanboy: What happened to off-world Vulcans? The lines in the movie indicate 10.000 survivors overall, which seems rather low for a space-faring species – especially that very likely have off-world colonies.. or was the 10.000-line pointed towards survivors escaping Vulcan itself?

BobOrci: True. Let’s just say then that the 10,000 does not count off worlders!

They probably simply didn't think about off worlders, when they made the movie.

 

[Timo]

How could 10,000 Vulcans be saved from Vulcan itself?

The only starship available was the Enterprise, and we saw her transporters working at a snail's pace; it would be a miracle if they got 100 people up in that fashion. Shuttles might rescue a thousand if every one of them had time for two sorties. But that's discounting Nero's apparently complete "space supremacy" and his keen interest in shooting down all small craft (because any one of them could destroy his drill, just like happens later in the movie).

It seems that Nero only stopped blockading the planet once his drill was damaged and his killing shot delivered - mere minutes before the planet was lost. Did a thousand small Vulcan craft see their window of opportunity and launch at that moment?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[F. King Daniel]

If you watch closely when Spock beams down, you can see a small ship or two leaving vapour trails in the sky. They call attention to it in the commentary, IIRC.

Whether those ships reached minimum safe distance or not is another matter, but it would appear an evacuation akin to the one seen in Of Gods and Men is underway, if not the centre of attention.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Vulcans have a very acute sense of smell. This drastically limits the number of worlds they can comfortably live on. Most places with humans, and anyplace with Klingons, is definitely out. And let's not even mention the Skreeans.

 

[creek_chub]

I don't know if it matters, but in the novelized version of the movie, Spock's line is modified to read:

"Of its six billion inhabitants, I estimate no more than ten thousand survived. An additional number yet to be determined are safely scattered elsewhere throughout the Federation and its allied systems."

 

[sonak]

I don't know if it matters, but in the novelized version of the movie, Spock's line is modified to read:

"Of its six billion inhabitants, I estimate no more than ten thousand survived. An additional number yet to be determined are safely scattered elsewhere throughout the Federation and its allied systems."

OK, that would've made a lot more sense and been a good addition. Even allowing for stuff mentioned here like the necessities related to pon farr, it's ludicrous to think that practically all of the Vulcans in the galaxy were still only in their home system at the time of Nero's attack that long after achieving space flight and being a part of the UFP.

 

[Worf]

I don't know if it matters, but in the novelized version of the movie, Spock's line is modified to read:

"Of its six billion inhabitants, I estimate no more than ten thousand survived. An additional number yet to be determined are safely scattered elsewhere throughout the Federation and its allied systems."

OK, that would've made a lot more sense and been a good addition. Even allowing for stuff mentioned here like the necessities related to pon farr, it's ludicrous to think that practically all of the Vulcans in the galaxy were still only in their home system at the time of Nero's attack that long after achieving space flight and being a part of the UFP.

Yes I would imagine there would be more than 10000 Vulcans remaining. Line from book should have been included. So what is up with next Star Trek Movie??????

 

[Merky]

Two Words: Writer's Strike

 

[137th Gebirg]

Another one?? Jesus Christ, these people are worse than the damn Teamsters...