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Surak
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Surak is a fictional character in the backstory of the Star Trek television series and franchises. He is portrayed as the most important philosopher in the pre-history of the fictional planet Vulcan. Living in an Earth-like "modern age" when the Vulcans are technological but violent, Surak founds a movement which reforms the Vulcan way of thinking and lifestyle and leads to the world of logically-reasoning and emotion-mastering Vulcans known from the TV series.
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Surak is a fictional character in the backstory of the Star Trek television series and franchises. He is portrayed as the most important philosopher in the pre-history of the fictional planet Vulcan. Living in an Earth-like "modern age" when the Vulcans are technological but violent, Surak founds a movement which reforms the Vulcan way of thinking and lifestyle and leads to the world of logically-reasoning and emotion-mastering Vulcans known from the TV series. This period in fictional Vulcan pre-history is referred to as the "Time of Awakening".
Ironically, the "Time of Awakening" is accompanied by violence unmatched in Vulcan history, according to the canonical Star Trek: Enterprise screenplay, "Awakening" (wherein Surak's mind is resurrected 1,800 years after his death to restore to modern Vulcans an uncorrupted version of his original philosophy.) During the "Time of Awakening" a Vulcan schism of those who "sought a return to savage ways" and "marched beneath the raptor's wings" (later the symbol of the Romulan people) perpetrate a cataclysmic nuclear attack upon Surak and his enlightened society. Soon after Surak's death, these Vulcan recidivists abandon their homeworld to colonize the planets Romulus and Remus—where Surak's philosophy of peace and logic survives only as an underground movement within their emotional, warlike society for the next 2,000 years, while flourishing to become the predominant philosophy on Vulcan. The fate of Surak's resurrected mind is not discussed in Star Trek series canon, but Surak's latter-day successor, shepherding the long-delayed emergence of Romulan rationalism, is the aged Spock.
The fictional "Time of Awakening" and its "ironic violence" noted by Surak, which ends in nuclear holocaust but philosophical maturity, was written by Star Trek creators with intentional parallels to modern human society—particularly its historical progression toward cultural enlightenment, reason and tolerance interrupted by extreme bouts of cultural regression, irrationalism and fanatical violence.
Backstory of Surak
The character of Surak in the Star Trek television series backstory, after up-ending the Vulcan people's violent tribalism with a philosophy of communal commitment to reason and logic, dies in the 4th century AD (based upon Earth's calendar, approximately 1,800 years before the events of the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Awakening"), apparently of radiation poisoning caused by a nuclear attack that devastates Vulcan. His spirit, or katra, is transferred into a crystalline urn which remains entombed and undisturbed until its rediscovery after two millennia by a Vulcan character, Syrran, in the 22nd century. Syrran places Surak's katra within his own mind, which leads Syrran to create a group called Syrranites dedicated to returning Vulcan civilization to the true teachings of Surak. A decade later, in 2154 prior to the outbreak of impending Vulcan civil war, Syrran is killed while escorting the characters of Captain Jonathan Archer and T'Pol to his group's headquarters in the Vulcan Forge. Before dying of his wounds, Syrran places Surak's katra into Archer's mind.
Experiencing a hallucination (or vision), Archer finds himself conversing with Surak within his own mind. Together, they witness the nuclear explosion that had occurred on Vulcan 1,800 years earlier, causing Surak's radiation poisoning. Surak displays some emotion when talking to Archer, as well as the use of Earth-based idioms, but this is likely because of his melding with Archer's human mind.
A subsequent attempt to transfer Surak's katra to Syrran's second-in-command, T'Pau, fails when Surak chooses to remain merged with Jonathan Archer. Once again conversing with Archer inside his mind, Surak instructs him to recover an artifact called the Kir'Shara, which Surak claims will unite the warring factions on latter-day Vulcan. The Kir'Shara is a holographic projector of the philosopher's original, long-lost writings—capable of restoring Vulcan society to the "true path" of non-violence and logic. Archer and T'Pau succeed in taking the artifact to the corrupt Vulcan High Command in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Kir'Shara", resulting in its overthrow. Surak's katra is subsequently transferred into the mind of an elderly Vulcan priest; what becomes of his katra afterwards in the Star Trek backstory is, as yet, unscripted.
The character names of many latter-day Vulcan males begin with "S" and end in "k", perhaps to honor the fictional Surak character, though some Vulcan character names do not fit this formula (e.g. Tuvok).
A character representing a physical re-creation of the "historical Surak" in his youthful maturity—fashioned by advanced alien technology from telepathically-recorded recollections and expectations held by Mr. Spock, appears in the original Star Trek series episode "The Savage Curtain", and is portrayed by the actor Barry Atwater. The vision of a more elderly Surak appearing in the mind of the character of Captain Jonathan Archer is portrayed by the actor Bruce Gray.
The only specific mention of the character of Surak in the latest 24th century period of the Star Trek saga is in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "In the Cards", where the character of the Ferengi trader, Quark, hawks a bracelet "from the time of Surak". However, a parallel between Surak's role in the Vulcan people's enlightenment and the role of the character of the elderly, now-Ambassador Spock in aiding the Romulan people's underground struggle "toward a new enlightenment" is implied in the Star Trek: The Next Generation two-part episode, "Unification".
Cultural impact
Twentieth-century fiction has only rarely risen to that level of social influence which makes it a "modern myth". One that has done so is the saga of Star Trek and its major archetypes. The fictional Surak's philosophy of rationalism with emotional mastery and its role as a cornerstone of Vulcan and Starfleet mythos has contributed a distinct philosophical component to the broader cultural influence of Star Trek. Similar to the anecdotal testimonies that Star Trek has inspired many of its viewers to become scientists or engineers, other viewers have adopted Starfleet- or Surak-inspired personal philosophies and lifestyles and founded fan-based or Surak-philosophy-inspired rationalist and humanist charitable organizations. Later highly popular science fiction television series such as Babylon 5 and Stargate are thought to have achieved their appeal in part by broadly emulating the optimistic rationalist and humanist world view first embodied in the dramatis personae of Star Trek, suggesting this world view is of continuing appeal.
See also
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