I'm not sure that the Vulcans were portrayed as all that benevolent on TOS. The very first time we ever saw Vulcans other than Spock, and full-blooded Vulcans at that, T'Pring was plotting to get Kirk or Spock killed to escape an arranged marriage. And the second time we saw other Vulcans, in "Journey to Babel," Sarek wasn't speaking to his son, was concealing a serious heart condition from his wife, and ended up suspected of murder, with even Spock conceding that his father was perfectly capable of killing in cold blood if he had a "logical" reason to do so.
Those were first two Vulcan-themed episodes ever aired, so It's not as though they started out being portrayed in positive manner. They were shady as hell the first few times we met them, back in the sixties.
(And I'm not sure, but I believe the idea that the Vulcans helped found the Federation is a relatively modern notion -- that wasn't established onscreen until the nineties or so? I don't recall it ever being mentioned on TOS.)
Doing a quick search, it says that it wasn't mentioned until "These are the Voyages", but I swear it got a mention in TNG.
How do full Vulcans deal with each other, as opposed to with Humans and half-Vulcans?
Logically. Of course, logic is probably as fluid as religious beliefs are here on Earth.
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Definitely. When done right, as by Nimoy or Mark Lenard, you can see the powerful emotions beneath the stoic facade, but it can be too easy to portray Vulcans as flat, robotic mannequins with no personality.
(Anthony Hopkins also brilliantly pulls this off in The Remains of the Day, to heartbreaking effect.)
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The one thing that Enterprise got absolutely right, was that Vulcans are assholes.
The first canonical reference to Vulcan being a founding member of the Federation was Enterprise's Zero Hour. Even tie-in materials didn't mention it until the 80s, IIRC. It certainly was never mentioned on TOS at all.
I somehow missed that. Regardless, it still wasn't something mentioned in TOS.
And yet fans routinely excoriated it for "character assassinating" the Vulcans. Drove me nuts, considering how they were actually portrayed on TOS . . . compared to the idealized, rose-colored conception that much of fandom seemed to embrace later on.
Just because Spock is admirable doesn't mean that Vulcans in general should be seen as role models.
The TOS Vulcans hostility could be chalked up to their distaste for anything (too) Human.
I think it's like a purity culture for the Vulcans.
As one of those people I apologize.
I used to be that way, way back when, then someone reminded me of the TOS Vulcans.
Vulcans do seem to either be dicks or comedy gold. There's very little middle ground.
Even though we can perfectly wake up on own without corporal punishment.
And, I believe, they enjoyed having us under their thumb.
