When Star Trek first hit television screens in 1966, the legendary Leonard Nemoy took helm as the S. S. Enterprise's resident Vulcan. A film adaptation was released in 2009, complete with a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed new cast - Zachary Quinto (who dedicatedly spent months of filming walking around with half-shaven eyebrows) took over Nemoy's iconic character. The Star Trek franchise is one of the most iconic in history; a comparison of Quinto's Spock with stoicism ideals will bring one of the modern world's most sacred creations to a Grecian peak. Even greater than Spock, Star Trek's Vulcan society is an entire population led by logic and stoicism.
In the initial development of Vulcans on their planet, their culture was quite violent and emotional. This violence, along with the worship of many different gods and their constant wars with one another, threatened the planet Vulcan with extinction. In an attempt to avoid this, Vulcan Surak created a new philosophy that lead to the Time of Awakening. As explained by a Star Trek wikia website (source below), "Surak maintained that the root cause of all the problems on Vulcan lay in the uncontrolled outpouring of the peoples' emotions." Lives were to be lived based on logic, and emotions or impulses were to be rigidly controlled. This directly coincides with Epictetus' stoic idea to "use only the appropriate actions of pursuit and avoidance" (The Enchiridion), as it is futile to oppose or dislike things out of your control, as well as the idea that one can only have strict control on opinions, pursuit, desire, aversion, or one's own actions. The control of Vulcan emotions according to stoic ideals is a constant battle, as "Vulcan emotions [are] far more intense, violent, and passionate than those of many other species, including even Humans" (wikia). Therefore, Spock's Vulcan emotional control is a prime example of both Vulcan and Ancient Grecian stoicism and control.
In both Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013), Spock endlessly tries to control his emotions and use logic to his advantage. This is evidenced in a quote from the 2009 film, as he's confused by the a rare time he loses control, stating, "I am conflicted as I once was as a child." The experience is so startling that he continues on to say, "I feel anger for the one who took Mother's life - an anger I cannot control." Spock embodies another stoic maxim in Into Darkness as he's stuck inside a near-eruption volcano, insisting that "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" and that it's necessary to abandon him no matter the cost. He completely stoic in this moment, as he recognizes that he cannot be upset at death, for it is in the nature of human beings to die.
Spock's underlying character turmoil in the Star Trek films is to control his emotions and live logically, which makes him a prime example of how well Ancient stoicism has survived to twenty-first century film and media.
In the initial development of Vulcans on their planet, their culture was quite violent and emotional. This violence, along with the worship of many different gods and their constant wars with one another, threatened the planet Vulcan with extinction. In an attempt to avoid this, Vulcan Surak created a new philosophy that lead to the Time of Awakening. As explained by a Star Trek wikia website (source below), "Surak maintained that the root cause of all the problems on Vulcan lay in the uncontrolled outpouring of the peoples' emotions." Lives were to be lived based on logic, and emotions or impulses were to be rigidly controlled. This directly coincides with Epictetus' stoic idea to "use only the appropriate actions of pursuit and avoidance" (The Enchiridion), as it is futile to oppose or dislike things out of your control, as well as the idea that one can only have strict control on opinions, pursuit, desire, aversion, or one's own actions. The control of Vulcan emotions according to stoic ideals is a constant battle, as "Vulcan emotions [are] far more intense, violent, and passionate than those of many other species, including even Humans" (wikia). Therefore, Spock's Vulcan emotional control is a prime example of both Vulcan and Ancient Grecian stoicism and control.
In both Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013), Spock endlessly tries to control his emotions and use logic to his advantage. This is evidenced in a quote from the 2009 film, as he's confused by the a rare time he loses control, stating, "I am conflicted as I once was as a child." The experience is so startling that he continues on to say, "I feel anger for the one who took Mother's life - an anger I cannot control." Spock embodies another stoic maxim in Into Darkness as he's stuck inside a near-eruption volcano, insisting that "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" and that it's necessary to abandon him no matter the cost. He completely stoic in this moment, as he recognizes that he cannot be upset at death, for it is in the nature of human beings to die.
Spock's underlying character turmoil in the Star Trek films is to control his emotions and live logically, which makes him a prime example of how well Ancient stoicism has survived to twenty-first century film and media.