Vulcan Spaceflight (Spoilers for "Andorian Incident")

Warning, there be spoilers for Enterprise: "The Andorian Incident" here...
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Ok then.

LUG and many others make the assumption that Vulcans did not have FTL (faster than light) travel at the time of Surak's reformation, which took place around 300 AD or so. (referred to as 2000 years ago in TOS and TNG I believe).

However, "The Andorian Incident" mentioned the monastery as being over 3000 years old. I wonder.... Does this mean Vulcans have had FTL travel for that long? I find it difficult to imagine Vulcans without it setting up a monastery but nothing else on the planet - a trip of several years, minumum, just for a monastery, seems rather difficult to believe. Opinions on this?

If the Vulcans have had FTL travel for 3000 years, I would imagine it would be very primitive - indeed, it may have been that one-way warp travel that LUG described the early Romulans as having. Perhaps in the distant past there was a plasma-bottle refueling station in orbit around the planet, long abandoned and since destroyed.

If not FTL travel, it is possible they were sending out sleeper ships with a crew, including or exclusively monks.

Though, it is also possible that the material generated by LUG and others for Vulcan spaceflight is no longer valid with Enterprise.

I imagine when the designers filled in a lot of the gaps for backstory, they did so knowing full well that it could be countered by series or movie at any point.

I've seen evidence in this forum so far that indicates people being peeved that the writers of Enterprise seem to be ignoring the hard work LUG and FASA and any of the other folks generating content for the RPG.

Just my thoughts... :D

Quack

I guess I was always in the minority. I figured the Vulcans did have Warp Drive a long long time ago.

The Warlike Vulcans of the time spent so much energy on clubbing each other, they didn't get to do much exploring, or empire building.

While the Orions were building trade empires, and falling apart, the Vulcans were building local military empires, and then killing each other.

This could allow you to say that the Romulan Split happened a lot longer ago than right after the Surak Reformation.

One group of Warlike Vulcans sent their ships out into deep space, to avoid some losing end of a war (kinda like if Khan would have had warp drive). Eventually, the proto-Romulans ended up at a planet they settled down on. It had to be far enough away for them to not be found. By the time they got there, their technology was in pretty bad shape, and the planet they settled on was harsh, so they didn't advance as much as the Vulcans did, when they learned to channel their aggression into science.

In this regard, Romulus is to Vulcan what Terra Nova is to Earth.

It also allows things to be set far enough back for the Romulans to lose their Psi potential, and develop those funky head ridges.

The Romulans finally got their stuff together, and went exploring, running across the Humans, and their allies the Vulcans. The Romulans, not realizing that these weren't the Warlike Vulcans attacked first, starting the Earth Romulan war.

And history proceeds as we have thought about it.

Hope this is useful.

Alex

Well considering a Vulcan's long life then a near-warp ship could get pretty much anywhere in a 1/4 of a Vulcan's life.

Say 0.75 LY, then 1 1/3 years would get you a light year

I'm sure monks would have no problem killing time. :D

Good questiion. I see a two possibilities not yet mentioned.

When they said the monestary was 3000 years old, that might not mean what we're assuming. Perhaps the Vulcans discovered the monestary when they landed, it being the relic of a forgotten ancient civilization. If the monestary had some interesting archaelological revelations or psychic phenomenon, the Vulcan mystics might seek it out to study it. After sufficent study, they stayed on.

Or perhaps it was built by an expedition sent out by a slower-than-warp expedition. They might have built they base for the benefit of people coming later and it wasn't extensively visited until warp drive was developed.

Or finally, maybe it was constructed by a slower-than-warp expedition and visited before warp drives. Vulcans live a long time, and it could have been an extremely prestigous pilgramage. After all, if it takes 20 years to get there, you'd only do it if you were REALLY dedicated. A way of weeding out those not serious in the discipline.