Editing Surak (section)

==Depiction==
[[Image:Surak in Enterprise.png|left|frame|[[Bruce Gray]] as Surak observing Vulcan's nuclear holocaust.]]
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 [[Anno Domini|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. It's mentioned that his death was shortly before the final battle between the Vulcans and their enemies. His spirit, or [[katra (Star Trek)|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 apparent death by radiation poisoning. It is implied that those elements responsible for setting off the nuclear attack are a splinter group of Vulcans that reject Surak's philosophy and go on to form the Romulan Empire.

A subsequent attempt to transfer Surak's katra to Syrran's second-in-command, [[T'Pau (Star Trek)|T'Pau]], fails when Surak chooses to remain merged with Archer. Once again conversing with Archer inside his mind and appearing radiation burned, Surak instructs him to recover an artifact called the ''Kir'Shara'', which Surak claims will unite the warring factions on latter-day Vulcan. It is unscripted whether Surak himself creates this artifact, or whether it is later created by other Vulcans who carry his katra. The ''Kir'Shara'' is a [[hologram|holographic]] projector of the philosopher's original, long-lost testament—capable of restoring Vulcan society to the "true path" of non-violence and logic. Archer later warns his companions that the Vulcan High Command intends to attack the Andorians, having learned this from Surak who he believes discovered it from some of Syrran's memories that got transferred over as well. 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.

Star Trek author [[Diane Duane]] explored Surak's backstory from the character's own perspective, in the novel ''[[Spock's World]]'' – which depicts Surak's initial awakening and dissemination of his philosophy after leaving his job as a [[computer programmer]] in response to a [[nuclear explosion]] from a war between mining [[conglomerate (company)|conglomerate]]s that spreads to T'Khut, Vulcan's "moon" (in reality, Vulcan's smaller [[binary planet]]). In the character's depicted internal struggle, Surak conquers his own [[xenophobia]], becomes "awake" to the horrors of war, and develops the pluralistic rationalist philosophy of [[IDIC]] ("Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations") plus logic that ultimately brings peace to Vulcan.

The character names of many latter-day Vulcan males begin with "S" and end in "k", perhaps to honor Surak, 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 [[Spock]], appears in the [[Star Trek: The Original Series|original ''Star Trek'' series]] episode "[[The Savage Curtain]]", and is portrayed by actor [[Barry Atwater]]. The vision of a more elderly Surak appearing in the mind of the character of Captain Jonathan Archer is portrayed by actor [[Bruce Gray]].

The only specific mention of the character of Surak in the 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 (Star Trek)|Quark]], hawks a bracelet "from the time of Surak" and in the 23rd century Prime Universe story line wherein Surak is mentioned along with predominantly historical figures in ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan]]'' when the son of Adm. James T. Kirk, Dr. David Marcus, tells his mother, Dr. Carol Marcus, that her name will be mentioned along with other famous scientific individuals such as "Cochran, Einstein and Surak" in reference to her designing and building the Genesis Device.