You are in good company! Vulcans have been written about the most out of all the alien species in Star Trek. They have been in every series (whether as regulars -- TOS, Voyager, Enterprise -- or as guests -- TNG and DS9), and this means you have over forty years of world-building to discover. A lot of it is contradictory, in which case screen canon -- the shows and the movies -- takes precedence over book canon. And even within book pseudo-canon, some books are more canon than others, if only because more fans accept them. Spock's World by Diane Duane is probably the one most people agree on as being "the" definitive picture of Vulcan history and culture.
For all that you would think the Romulans, being an offshoot of the Vulcans, would be equally well explored, they are not. Instead, Klingons are probably the second most developed species. For example, Klingon is a fully realized constructed language, or conlang. It has dictionaries, and people have even translated Hamlet into Klingon. Someone invented a Vulcan conlang as well, back in, I think, the mid-to-late seventies, but I don't think it's as thorough a job as Klingon. And there are fragments of Romulan out there, but that's even less thorough -- probably a few hundred words at best.
After Vulcans, Klingons, and arguably Romulans (who are all multi-series presences), the best alien development is on DS9. The key species there are the Bajorans, the Cardassians, the Ferengi, and the various Dominion species, with the Klingons and the Trill also showcased. (And there are always the Borg, in TNG and Voyager, but by their nature they don't have much culture, so they're noticeably less developed.)
*removes hat*
Sorry to blather at you at such length. I am just finding it difficult to contain my current overflowing enthusiasm for Star Trek. :-D
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Date: 2009-06-07 02:19 am (UTC)You are in good company! Vulcans have been written about the most out of all the alien species in Star Trek. They have been in every series (whether as regulars -- TOS, Voyager, Enterprise -- or as guests -- TNG and DS9), and this means you have over forty years of world-building to discover. A lot of it is contradictory, in which case screen canon -- the shows and the movies -- takes precedence over book canon. And even within book pseudo-canon, some books are more canon than others, if only because more fans accept them. Spock's World by Diane Duane is probably the one most people agree on as being "the" definitive picture of Vulcan history and culture.
For all that you would think the Romulans, being an offshoot of the Vulcans, would be equally well explored, they are not. Instead, Klingons are probably the second most developed species. For example, Klingon is a fully realized constructed language, or conlang. It has dictionaries, and people have even translated Hamlet into Klingon. Someone invented a Vulcan conlang as well, back in, I think, the mid-to-late seventies, but I don't think it's as thorough a job as Klingon. And there are fragments of Romulan out there, but that's even less thorough -- probably a few hundred words at best.
After Vulcans, Klingons, and arguably Romulans (who are all multi-series presences), the best alien development is on DS9. The key species there are the Bajorans, the Cardassians, the Ferengi, and the various Dominion species, with the Klingons and the Trill also showcased. (And there are always the Borg, in TNG and Voyager, but by their nature they don't have much culture, so they're noticeably less developed.)
*removes hat*
Sorry to blather at you at such length. I am just finding it difficult to contain my current overflowing enthusiasm for Star Trek. :-D