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Information About

Surak




  bgcolor #fc0
  Title Surak
  Image Surak_01jpg
  Caption Surak (Bruce Gray) in his last days before dying of radiation poisoning
  Size 250px
  Species Vulcan
  Gender Male
  Hair Color Grey (formerly Black)
  Eye Color Brown
  Planet Vulcan
  Portrayed Barry Atwater and Bruce Gray


Surak is a fictional character of the Star Trek universe. He is the most important philosopher in the history of the planet Vulcan . Living in the age when the Vulcans were a race of violent warriors, Surak founded a movement which reformed the Vulcan way of thinking and lifestyle and led to the world of logically thinking and emotion-suppressing Vulcans known from the series.

It is widely believed that the figure of Surak is based loosely on Jesus Christ and the Buddha .


HISTORY OF SURAK


Surak died in the '' episode " Awakening "), apparently of radiation poisoning caused by a Nuclear -like battle that devastated Vulcan. His spirit, or Katra , was placed in a form of urn where it lay undisturbed until discovered by a Vulcan called Syrran in the 22nd Century . Surak's katra somehow ended up in Syrran's mind, and led Syrran to create a group called Syrranites dedicated to returning Vulcan civilization to the teachings of Surak. A decade or so later, in 2154 prior to the outbreak of a near-civil war on Vulcan, Syrran was killed while escorting Captain Jonathan Archer and T'Pol to his group's headquarters in the Vulcan forge. Before dying of wounds suffered from a lightning strike, Syrran placed Surak's katra into Archer's mind without consent.

Experiencing a hallucination (or vision), Archer found himself conversing with Surak within his own mind. Together, they witness a Nuclear Explosion that occurred on Vulcan 1,800 years earlier (possibly the same explosion which caused Surak's radiation poisoning). Surak actually displays emotion when talking to Archer, as well as the use of Earth-based Idiom s, but this is clearly because of the influence of Archer's mind.

A subsequent attempt to transfer Surak's katra to Syrran's second-in-command, T'Pau , failed. Conversing with Archer inside his own mind once again, Surak instructed Archer to recover an artifact called the ''kir'shara'' which Surak claimed could unite the warring factions on Vulcan. The mystical kir'shara contained a Holographic representation of the philosopher's original writings. Archer and T'Pau were successful in taking the artifact to the Vulcan High Command which resulted in its overthrow (see the Enterprise episode entitled " Kir'Shara " for details). Surak's katra was subsequently transferred into the mind of an elderly Vulcan priest; it is not yet known what became of the katra after this point.

An interesting tidbit is that for a long time many Vulcan males had names beginning with S and ending in k, possibly to honor Surak, though it has been established that Vulcan names don't always fit this formula (e.g. Tuvok ).

A recreation of Surak, created by advanced alien technology and shaped by impressions held by episode " The Savage Curtain ", portrayed by Barry Atwater . The vision of Surak appearing in the mind of Jonathan Archer was played by Bruce Gray .


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