Vulcan IDIC

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Vulcan IDIC Symbol

In the fictional Star Trek universe, the Vulcan IDIC symbol itself is a circle and triangle of white and yellow gold metals resting upon each other, and adorned with a white jewel in the center. The symbol represents the Vulcan philosophy of IDIC ("Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations"), an idea that is often seen as an underlying philosophy of not only the Vulcans, but also a main focus in the message behind the TV show Star Trek. According to an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, Vulcans call the symbol a kol-ut-shan.^[1]

Mr. Spock, the First Officer of the Starship Enterprise, wore the symbol during important gatherings and ceremonies as part of his dress uniform. It appeared for the first time in the Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) episode "Is There in Truth No Beauty?"

It also appeared in Spock's quarters in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

In the series Star Trek: Enterprise, T'Pol is given, through her in-name-only husband Koss, an IDIC pendant from her mother T'Les which projects a holographic relief, enabling T'Pol and Captain Archer to find the location where T'Les and the Syrrannites are hiding.

Also in Star Trek: Enterprise, T'Pol, the science officer, holds an IDIC pendant in Terra Prime while she is in mourning for her dying cloned child Elizabeth, named in honor of Charles "Trip" Tucker's deceased sister.

In the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Take Me Out to the Holosuite", Captain Solok, an Academy classmate and longtime rival of Benjamin Sisko, challenges Sisko and other DS9 personnel to a baseball game against his Vulcan team, the Logicians. The IDIC symbol appears on the Vulcans' ballcaps.

[edit] Origins

The Vulcan IDIC medallion was designed by Gene Roddenberry as a marketing premium long before the third season, probably inspired by the huge 1967 Star Trek convention in New York City. As early as the end of the first season, fans of the show had begun writing in asking for copies of the scripts, film clip frames, etc., and these were soon sold through Roddenberry's "Lincoln Enterprises", run by Majel Barrett.

As evidenced in some of his letters and memos, Roddenberry was fond of circle-and-triangle designs and had wanted to use them for purposes of theatrical unity as early as the first season's "The Return of the Archons".

As reported by editor Ruth Berman (issue #1, Inside Star Trek, July 1968, pp. 15-16), "ardent rock hound and amateur lapidary" Roddenberry came up with the Vulcan philosophy after he presented Leonard Nimoy with a unique "hand-crafted piece of jewelery", a "pendent" (sic) of polished yellow gold (circle) and florentined white gold (triangle), with a stone of brilliant white fabulite - an artificial gem "developed by the laser industry and used in space mechanisms for its optical qualities", and thus well-suited as a gift for an actor in a science fiction show. Readers were encouraged to submit their interest in such a product to the then-Star Trek Enterprises mail order firm. It was noted that "less expensive materials" would keep costs down.

Initial advertisements offering IDIC pendants in three sizes went out in September 1968. The advertisements were enclosed in issues of the official Star Trek fan magazine Inside Star Trek, and read as follows:

"Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations represents a Vulcan belief that beauty, growth, and progress all result from the union of the unlike. Concord, as much as discord, requires the presence of at least two different notes. The brotherhood of man is an ideal based on learning to delight in our essential differences, as well as learning to recognize our similarities. The IDIC symbol is a union of a plain circle and triangle, uniting to produce the beautiful gemstone in the middle. The circle represents infinite, nature, woman, etc; the triangle can represent the finite, art, man, etc."

According to William Shatner in his book about TOS, IDIC was only worked into the episode "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" as an afterthought. The actors all knew it was a mere advertising toy. Reportedly, Leonard Nimoy was asked to wear it and refused, so it was passed on to Shatner; when he also refused, Nimoy reluctantly agreed to wear it. At the last minute, Roddenberry sent down several pages of new script for the dinner scene, in which Spock was to give a longwinded explanation of the philosophy. The actors refused to film it until Roddenberry cut it down.