8 Star Trek Vulcans Who Lost Control Of Their Emotions

Ever since Mr. Spock's (Leonard Nimoy) first appearance in Star Trek: The Original Series, Vulcans have been a staple of Star Trek cannon. In shows like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds or Star Trek: Voyager among others, Vulcans stand front and center. In other shows, like Star Trek: The Next Generation or Star Trek: Discovery, Vulcans may not be on the bridge, but Vulcan characters nevertheless have a lot of influence. Even in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, where Vulcan characters are few and far between, the influence of Vulcans on the Federation as a whole remains palpable.

The reason for their influence is obvious: Vulcans are iconic. From their green blood to the elegant Vulcan nerve pinch that few non-Vulcans can replicate, the various Vulcans of Star Trek never fail to impress both audiences and crewmembers alike. But what really sets Vulcans apart are not their physical abilities, but their mental abilities. Vulcan logical philosophy undergirds the core values of the Federation, and hand in hand with that logic comes the unique Vulcan virtue of extremely repressed emotions. Despite this ideal, however, at least eight Vulcans so far have lost control of their emotions, if only briefly.

8T’Pol

Star Trek: Enterprise

Because Star Trek: Enterprise is set more than a century before The Original Series, Enterprise was able to tell the story of the early relationship between Earth and Vulcan. Central to that relationship is Vulcan science officer Subcommander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock), the first Vulcan to serve as a science officer on a Starfleet vessel. T'Pol, however, was far from the perfect Vulcan. Her own mother commented that T'Pol's emotions were always close to the surface, even as a child, and her record on the USS Enterprise certainly backs that up. T’Pol is, for a Vulcan, highly emotional.

Throughout Enterprise, T'Pol has a lot of great episodes with many small emotional reactions. In season 1, she had an emotional response to Jazz music, and in season 4, T'Pol is visibly moved when Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) gives her an antique compass. An infection even makes T’pol go through the Vulcan mating cycle, Pon Farr, prematurely. Most dramatically, after an exposure to trillium-D in season 3, a chemical that removes a Vulcan's ability to suppress their emotions, T'Pol developed an addiction to the substance and the emotional highs it produced. Even after she stopped using trillium-D, T'Pol was never able to fully suppress her emotions again.

7Lt. Spock

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

One of the most exciting things about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is the opportunity to see classic characters from The Original Series before they have fully matured into the characters that made the show iconic. In particular, seeing a younger Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck) means Lieutenant Spock is a version of Spock who hasn't quite grown into the (mostly) serene and logical Vulcan that Captain Kirk depends upon. For example, when Lt. Spock fights the Gorn in season 2, he gives into his rage so strongly that he punches a hole in the wall.

Most revealing is the Strange New Worlds season 2 episode "Charades," where Lt. Spock is made fully human. As a human, Lt. Spock doesn’t feel the same need to repress his emotions, and so can reveal the feelings that he normally keeps under the surface. He calls out rude behavior from colleagues, he stands up for his human mother, and he finally gives into his feelings for Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush). While his human state arguably means that Lt. Spock wasn't a "Vulcan" giving into his emotions in "Charades," the episode was nevertheless an opportunity to see what’s in the heart of Star Trek's most iconic Vulcan.

6Mr. Spock

Star Trek: The Original Series

Leonard Nimoy's Spock was, for many viewers, an introduction not only to the character of Spock but to Vulcan culture as a whole. From the beginning of Star Trek: The Original Series, two things are clear about Mr. Spock. First, he values logic above emotions. Second, he cares deeply about his friend, Captain Kirk (William Shatner). It’s not surprising, then, that as early as season 1 there were episodes that caused Spock's emotional suppression techniques to break down. He gets an infection in "The Naked Time," or is contaminated by spores in "This Side of Paradise," and these outside influences bring forth Spock's emotions.

But the most impactful emotional outbursts from Mr. Spock come when he is under the influence of nothing but his own heart. In "Amok Time,” chooses to fight Captain Kirk during the pon farr, and believes he killed his best friend. When Captain Kirk reveals that he’s still alive, Mr. Spock's smile shows the true depths of his emotional connection to his friend. By this point, Mr. Spock has gone through the emotional turbulence of pon farr, and is, in theory, in his right mind once again. So this emotional outburst is perhaps the most heartfelt Vulcan emotion in Star Trek.

5Sarek

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek's Vulcan Ambassador Sarek (Mark Lenard) is perhaps most famous for his relationship with his children, son Spock and foster daughter Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), and for his role in the Federation-Klingon war. In contrast to his emotional children, Ambassador Sarek is the ultimate symbol of Vulcan logic, propriety, and emotional control. Indeed, Ambassador Sarek's unwillingness to show fatherly love to Spock drove a tragic rift between father and son explored in The Next Generation. Because of this history of dignity and strength, the one time Sarek does lose control, it is all the more impactful.

The crack in Ambassador Sarek's perfect emotional armor was revealed in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "Sarek." In his old age, Sarek developed Bendii Syndrome, which affected his telepathic and emotional abilities. So, instead of negotiating an important treaty, Ambassador Sarek ended up projecting his emotions onto the crew of the Enterprise, and, once, openly weeping. Ultimately, Ambassador Sarek had to mind-meld with Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) in order to complete the mission. Luckily, there was a silver lining to Ambassador Sarek's emotional breakdown: via Captain Picard, Sarek was finally able to show his love for Spock in "Unification."

4Lt. Commander Chu'lak

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is one of only a few Star Trek shows where Vulcans and Vulcan influence are not central to the storyline. One of the rare Vulcan characters to appear in Deep Space Nine was Lt. Commander Chu'lak (Marty Rackham). Lt. Commander Chu'lak is one of the only Vulcans who commits murder in Star Trek, and he kills "Because logic demanded it." Nevertheless, Counselor Ezri Dax (Nicole de Boer) points out that his murders came from the trauma seeing his former crewmates die. So, despite Chu'lak's defense, his killing came from an emotional breakdown.

Perhaps what is most interesting about Lt. Commander Chu'lak is what happened to him off screen after Deep Space Nine. While one might assume that an emotional murder spree might have resulted in a full discharge from Starfleet, but Star Trek: Prodigy shows that this is not the case. In "Supernova Part 1," the crew roster for the USS Dauntless flashes on screen, where Chu'lak is serving as chief science officer (despite being one of Star Trek's only Vulcan villains), alongside Chief of Security Tuvok and Chief Engineer Vorik. It seems Vulcan therapies are so effective that even after a lethal emotional breakdown, it’s possible for Vulcans to be rehabilitated.

3Lt. Tuvok

Star Trek: Voyager

Lieutenant Tuvok (Tim Russ) had reached the ripe old age of 107 at the start of Star Trek: Voyager, making him one of the oldest Vulcans to be a central character in Star Trek. As such, Tuvok has a somewhat different relationship with his emotions than the other Vulcans on this list. Tuvok is mature, healthy, and, most importantly, confident in his Vulcan identity. As such, Lieutenant Tuvok feels no shame about displaying annoyance towards Neelix (Ethan Phillips), cracking the occasional hillarious joke, or reflecting with Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) about missing his wife. In other words, Lieutenant Tuvok has nothing to prove.

But even accounting for Lieutenant Tuvok's more laid-back attitude towards emotions, there are still a few occasions when his emotions come out. The episode "Gravity" reveals that when he was an adolescent, Tuvok fell so passionately in love that he rejected logic entirely for a time. As part of his duties as chief of security, Lieutenant Tuvok initiated a mind meld with a murderer, and for a long time afterwards Lieutenant Tuvok struggled with the rage transferred in the meld. Emotional moments like these, however, did not take away from Lieutenant Tuvok's overarching emotional control.

2Ensign Vorik

Star Trek: Voyager

For most of Star Trek: Voyager, Vorik (Alexander Enberg) is a background engineering ensign that Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) can use for assignments. However, in the episode, "Blood Fever," Ensign Vorik goes through the pon farr. Although this was only the second time Star Trek had shown the pon farr - Lieutenant Tuvok would experience it in a later episode of Voyager - the pon farr was an established part of Vulcan biology. Nevertheless, Ensign Vorik experienced a loss of emotional control above and beyond what might reasonably be expected for a Vulcan going through the pon farr.

Ensign Vorik's first instinct was to mate with Lt. Torres, causing her to experience the symptoms of the pon farr as well. He rejected the Doctor's (Robert Picardo) solution of a holographic mate - the solution that Lt. Tuvok used - and instead Ensign Vorik tried to fight Lt. Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) to the death to satisfy his urges. In the end, he is only stopped when Lt. Torres fights him herself to complete the pon farr. So, while the pon farr is a normal emotional lapse for Vulcans, Ensign Vorik's experience was an even more extreme version of emotional anarchy.

1Commander Spock

Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness

In JJ Abrams's Star Trek films, Commander Spock (Zachary Quinto) has a very different trajectory than other iterations of Spock. Because the JJ Abrams movies exist in a different timeline than the main Star Trek timeline, Commander Spock can have terrible things happen to him that could never occur in the rest of Star Trek. Notably, the entire Vulcan home world is destroyed, and Commander Spock has a romantic relationship with Uhura (Zoe Saldana). By the end of Star Trek (2009), when Commander Spock's mother dies, he has an emotional breakdown so severe that Commander Spock removes himself from duty.

Things only get more intense in Star Trek Into Darkness. When Khan Noonien-Singh (Benedict Cumberbatch) kills Captain Kirk (Chris Pine), Commander Spock essentially goes on a rampage. Throughout Star Trek, the explanation for why Vulcans suppress their emotions so strongly is that Vulcan emotions are violently strong when uncontrolled. So when, in Into Darkness, Commander Spock believes his best friend has died and he casts aside his inhibitions, audiences finally get to see what happens when a Vulcan fully gives into passionate grief and rage.