Malurian Reparations

[Timo]

Vulcan in ENT had starships that were more advanced than the Federation's by two or three millennia. This had no bearing on what Vulcan had in TOS. In fact, all evidence in TOS suggests Vulcan is a pre-warp society that doesn't even necessarily know how to build a subspace radio.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tim Thomason]

Disregarding all the craziness here that suggests Malurians are pre-warp for some reason, even though they're clearly not, they are referenced quite a bit in the Rise of the Federation novels where Garos (the Malurian from the Enterprise episode) is an ongoing villain across three novels having been exiled from Maluria. Maluria (the system) is even referenced in star charts as recently as Picard, although, of course, this doesn't tell us anything about Malurians.

One 2007 TokyoPop comic deals with the aftermath of The Changeling, and is our only real look at a Malurian who was apparently the lone survivor of the attack:

We've never seen Malurians since that TokyoPop comic, even though Maluria itself apparently has the Malurian System Medical Station (in a TNG Okudagram).

The Malurians of "Alpha Maluria VI" feature heavily in the 1992 novel Faces of Fire, which may be set before or after The Changeling during the five-year mission. If before, it's possible that Alpha Maluria VI is one of the four inhabited planets of the Maluria system. If after, it's possible that this is confirmation of multiple colony worlds by the warp-capable Malurians. Memory Beta lists the species as "Alpha Malurians", presumably to differentiate, but a glance through the novel confirms that they are only addressed as Malurians throughout, and it's unlikely they were intended to be a different species.

 

[Dukhat]

They’re “clearly not” only because ENT made them so. But we’re not talking about ENT, or novels, or comic books. We’re talking about what we knew of them from TOS.

In fact, all evidence in TOS suggests Vulcan is a pre-warp society that doesn't even necessarily know how to build a subspace radio.

Yeah, no it doesn't.

 

[Tim Thomason]

They’re “clearly not” only because ENT made them so. But we’re not talking about ENT, or novels, or comic books. We’re talking about what we knew of them from TOS.

You're not, because you specifically said you were limiting your discussion to TOS, but the OP talked about Enterprise's portrayal and was asking about novels and other sources.

Disregarding Enterprise and post-Enterprise sources, I brought up a 1992 novel that seems to treat the Malurians as a spacefaring species. It doesn't seem like something Sussman pulled out of thin air.

 

[Timo]

TOS in general works on the assumption that only the brave humans and a select few of their arch-enemies roam space at warp speeds, while allies and other sidekicks just bow to human excellence. There's no indication of Vulcans traveling, say (they have even forgotten they had colonies!). Presumably Cochrane was the first creature in either the entire universe or at least the White Hat side of it to invent FTL...

Spinoffs do a good job at softening that blow, without contradicting TOS. Vulcans still look like homebodies in the sequels, but the prequel establishes them as cosmopolitan bullies who just toned it down when allying with Earth. The same could easily be argued to have happened to everybody else, including the Malurians. Conversely, it's difficult to argue for a contradiction there: joining the UFP bandwagon would mean losing one's warp-speed warships, but OTOH would entail gaining access to the secret of warp, and to warp services if one didn't feel like kicking up a redundant industry.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[valkyrie013]

So in Tos, the federation was more like NATO, and Tng more like the UN? In that it seemed the Humans were the ones warping around protecting everybody, while other federation forces do token forces?

 

[Dukhat]

You're not, because you specifically said you were limiting your discussion to TOS, but the OP talked about Enterprise's portrayal and was asking about novels and other sources.

Disregarding Enterprise and post-Enterprise sources, I brought up a 1992 novel that seems to treat the Malurians as a spacefaring species. It doesn't seem like something Sussman pulled out of thin air.

Yes, the OP did ask about non-canon sources so you’re correct to point them out. I was referring to the conversation between myself and Nerys Myk. I should have made that more clear.

 

[XCV330]

Disregarding all the craziness here that suggests Malurians are pre-warp for some reason, even though they're clearly not, they are referenced quite a bit in the Rise of the Federation novels where Garos (the Malurian from the Enterprise episode) is an ongoing villain across three novels having been exiled from Maluria. Maluria (the system) is even referenced in star charts as recently as Picard, although, of course, this doesn't tell us anything about Malurians.

One 2007 TokyoPop comic deals with the aftermath of The Changeling, and is our only real look at a Malurian who was apparently the lone survivor of the attack:

We've never seen Malurians since that TokyoPop comic, even though Maluria itself apparently has the Malurian System Medical Station (in a TNG Okudagram).

The Malurians of "Alpha Maluria VI" feature heavily in the 1992 novel Faces of Fire, which may be set before or after The Changeling during the five-year mission. If before, it's possible that Alpha Maluria VI is one of the four inhabited planets of the Maluria system. If after, it's possible that this is confirmation of multiple colony worlds by the warp-capable Malurians. Memory Beta lists the species as "Alpha Malurians", presumably to differentiate, but a glance through the novel confirms that they are only addressed as Malurians throughout, and it's unlikely they were intended to be a different species.

This was really interesting. I forgot about the Star Trek manga, and I even think I gave my ex one, once.
Anyway, would be cool to see one in Lower Decks.

 

[MAGolding]

TOS in general works on the assumption that only the brave humans and a select few of their arch-enemies roam space at warp speeds, while allies and other sidekicks just bow to human excellence. There's no indication of Vulcans traveling, say (they have even forgotten they had colonies!). Presumably Cochrane was the first creature in either the entire universe or at least the White Hat side of it to invent FTL...

Spinoffs do a good job at softening that blow, without contradicting TOS. Vulcans still look like homebodies in the sequels, but the prequel establishes them as cosmopolitan bullies who just toned it down when allying with Earth. The same could easily be argued to have happened to everybody else, including the Malurians. Conversely, it's difficult to argue for a contradiction there: joining the UFP bandwagon would mean losing one's warp-speed warships, but OTOH would entail gaining access to the secret of warp, and to warp services if one didn't feel like kicking up a redundant industry.

Timo Saloniemi

Vulcan didn't exactly forget they had colonies. They certainly forgot where some or all of them were. The Vulcans didn't know, or at least didn't tell anyone, that Romulus was at the coordinates of one of their old colonies. But Spock didn't seem at all surprised that Vulcan once had colonies in interstellar space.

So I tend to believe the "The Fall of the Vulcan Space Empire" was very drastic, and civilization fell on Vulcan and all of the colonies, and was slowly rebuilt after millennia or tens of millennia. Discovery of abandoned Vulcan space craft, space stations, and space conlonies in the Vulcan and/or other systems by Vulcan and/or human explorers showed that Vulcan once had interstellar travel, if Vulcans had forgotten about that past age.

"In Balance of terror":

SPOCK: Yes, indeed we do, Mister Stiles. And if Romulans are an offshoot of my Vulcan blood, and I think this likely, then attack becomes even more imperative.
MCCOY: War is never imperative, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: It is for them, Doctor. Vulcan, like Earth, had its aggressive colonising period. Savage, even by Earth standards. And if Romulans retain this martial philosophy, then weakness is something we dare not show.

Spock may think, without knowing for certain that since pre Reformation Vulcans were violent the earlier Vulcans of the the lost Vulcan space travelling civilization were also v8888888888887iolent. Or there may be surviving recrods from the time when Vulcans colonized the stars which prove they were violant, even though the coordinates of some colonies are not among those surviving records.

In "The Paradise Syndrome":

SPOCK: You prescribed rest, Doctor. The symbols on the obelisk are not words. They are musical notes.
MCCOY: Musical notes? You mean it's nothing but a song?
SPOCK: In a way, yes. Other cultures, among them certain Vulcan offshoots, use musical notes as words. The tones correspond roughly to an alphabet.

So Spock knows of a number of Vulcan offshoots, presuably descended from various lost Vulcan colonies, and at least two of those Vulcan offshoot cultures use musical notes as words - as well as cultures which are not Vulcan offshoots.

Of course various later programs changed matters. Any fictional universe including both TOS and the later productions will have to a Vulcan history somewhat modified from the TOS version.

 

[Timo]

What's curious about those utterances of Spock's is that Spock draws a parallel with the savage colonization period of Earth, when we know Earth's colonization of space was not savage at all (that is, none of it really happened until Earth and Vulcan were joined at the hip).

Then again, we didn't know this back in the 1960s yet. And Spock's parallels have always been iffy. Does he obfuscate (that is, outright lie) when claiming that pon farr is similar to what the salmon do - that is, a once-in-a-lifetime, terminal event?

But even in light of later findings, we could say that Spock is speaking of the age of the conquistadors on both planets - and considering the possibility that these mysterious Space Vulcans are directly related to planet Vulcan's very own Pizarros, who just persisted till the onset of starflight on Vulcan. That is, Vulcan discovered starflight while still having conquistadors, and this not at all incidentally meant that the discovery was contemporary to the near-total destruction of planet Vulcan, in the hands of now technologically advanced Cortezes. With the planet in chaos, a de Alvarado or two perhaps managed to slip into deep space, rather than get tangled up in endless orbital bombardment contests.

While Trek is infamous for its monocultures, Vulcan by its very nature would have been fragmented into warring desert communities. "Romulans" could have existed as a group millennia before any space exodus, and "Vulcans" could have been another ancient group with offshoots all across the planet. Eventually, Vulcans triumphed and took over the entire planet - but the idea of Vulcanoids outside the control of the central government would always be connected to the bad old days of savagery.

Timo Saloniemi