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I wrote this in the STXI reviews page but that is not a forum so here is it:

"I realy like this movie and i agree with most of the comments here. One thing i didn´t like (and nobody has mentioned) is the number of vulcan survivors. Ok, 6 billions is a good number for Vulcan or any other planet but only 10 000 survivors (all of them off world at the time of the attack?) all around the galaxy for a species that had been warp capable for at least several hundred years seems like a very small number, i mean, come on 10 thousand!!!??? Just on Earth should be several thousands vulcans and what about vulcans on other federation (or not federation) planets, colonies, stations, ships, etcetera; without mentioning pre-federation vulcan colonies where most population could be vulcan. On Enterprise ep "Twilight" Earth is destroyed and 12 years later there are 6 000 surviving humans, that on a time where humanity was warp capable for just 90 years (2063-2153) Would have been better a number around, at least, a few millions and we still have an endangered species."

So what do you think about it?

P.S. english is not my native language so i apologize for any typo.

In Twilight, the human population was reduced to barely 6000 because of the constant hunting from the Xindi.

Exactly my point, after our planet is destroyed and after 12 year of pursuit without mercy, there is still 6 000 humans surviving. But when Vulcan is destroy only 10 000 vulcans remained alive, so there are not vulcans on other places but teir homeworld?

That does seem a bit odd.

I haven't seen the movie yet, though, so I can't really comment on that point.

It is possible Spock was estimating that 10,000 people escaped from Vulcan in the few minutes they had, rather than there being 10,000 Vulcans left in total.

Though that doesn't really square with his "endangered species" line.

Maybe there was a big Vulcan festival on that almost everyone returns home for?

GrahamKennedy wrote:...Maybe there was a big Vulcan festival on that almost everyone returns home for?

The "Ponn Frat Party?"

Until something says otherwise I'm going with only 10,000 Vulcans escaping. I'd be surprised if there weren't that many Vulcans just on Earth. Throw in colonies, starships, research stations, whatever, and I'd have a hard time believing there were only that many in total.

As for the endangered species comment. Even if there are 50,000 left it's still possible. It largely depends on how many Vulcans of breeding age there are and what the minimum population size is that Vulcans need to avoid recessive genes wiping them out do to excessive inbreeding. It takes about 5,000 humans, but it could take 10 or 20,000 Vulcans. We just don't know.

That's my take on it too; just 10,000 survivors from Vulcan alone.
With the "endangered species" line, Spock might have been speeking hyperbolicaly. He might have been of the belief that Nero would hunt all Vulcans to extinction. So at that point they would have been an endangered species, regardless of their numbers.

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The "Ponn Frat Party?"[/quote]

dammit i laughed out loud and nearly got kicked out of the library.....

Well, we have some lines from ENT (I think) that say the the Vulcans were never big on colonizing.....so they might not have had many off world colonies and had very few that ventured off world for things.

Rochey wrote:With the "endangered species" line, Spock might have been speeking hyperbolicaly.

SPOCK might have been doing that? Really? I have to say I doubt that.

ditto

There's no way there are more than 10,000 Vulcans left total. Vulcans are just not the kind of people to get figures wrong or exaggerate while making a log entry, the endangered species line doesn't jibe with that either. To look at ENT there where no huge colonies that we came across. The only things we saw was a dozen or so ships plus a few very small emplacements on various off world locations. The likes of P'Gem had at most a dozen of them if not less. Even the Vulcans on Earth lived in a single compound at that time. They don't seem to like leaving their own planet. I have no problem believing the idea that there are only 10,000 of them left, the fact that Spock thought he needed to quit Star Fleet and join the process of rebuilding the species should tell you something, every man counts.

As I've said, I think this is something where if you looked at TNG onward you'd say sure, there are probably a hundred thousand Vulcans living on Earth alone.

But look at it this way. What do you think is the INTENT of this film on this issue? Because it seems to me that it's very clear that they do intend that there are only 10,000 Vulcans in total. Every aspect of the film points to that - Spock's number, his endangered species comment, old Spock deciding to lend a hand in finding a new colony and take an active role in rebuilding, newSpock wanting to leave to help that effort... all of it points to only 10,000 Vulcans in total.

And this movie and the sequels are simply not going to take anything else into account. TNG and beyond doesn't apply. TOS doesn't even apply!

It's a whole new ballgame.

ok i don't mean to be stupid but if/when the romulans just after the events of star trek (2009) whether from spock or the immense explosions (lol)find out about nero and the future fate of romulus, do you think that they'd start to take precautionary measures now like warming relations with the federation whilst moving from their homeworld, or would they arrogantly believe that the future can be averted in the future by others?