Star Trek: Discovery gave the planet Vulcan a new name, Ni’Var, which is a deep-cut reference to Star Trek: Enterprise and goes even further back in Star Trek‘s storied history. As the homeworld of Spock (Leonard Nimoy/Zachary Quinto/Ethan Peck), Vulcan is one of the most important worlds in the Star Trek universe. First Contact with Vulcan on April 5, 2063, is what launched the human race to its destiny as a galactic power with the founding of Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets.
Star Trek: Discovery season 3, episode 7, “Unification III”, reintroduced Vulcan in the 32nd century under its new name, Ni’Var. Along with introducing seminal characters like President T’Rina (Tara Rosling), the future betrothed of Ambassador Saru (Doug Jones), “Unification III” revealed that Ni’Var is now a planet shared by the Vulcans and Romulans, with peace kept by the Qowat Milat sect of Romulan warrior nuns. Star Trek: Discovery‘s Ni’Var is the dream of Spock that is realized 800 years after the Vulcan Ambassador attempted to reunite the Vulcan and Romulan people in Star Trek: The Next Generation. But where did the name ‘Ni’Var’ come from?
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Star Trek: Discovery’s Ni’Var Calls Back To An Enterprise Vulcan Ship
Ni’Var was a 22nd-century Vulcan starship
Ni’Var is a Vulcan word that means “two forms”, or an object that has two different viewpoints or two different natures. It’s a perfect word to describe the unified homeworld of the Vulcan and Romulan people. Ni’var is also a callback to a Vulcan ship in Star Trek: Enterprise season 1, episode 15, “Shadows of P’Jem.” The Ni’Var was a Surak Class combat cruiser used by the Vulcan High Command in the mid-22nd century.
Commanded by Sopek (Gregory Itzin), the Ni’Var was ordered to intercept the NX-01 Enterprise and return Subcommander T’Pol (Jolene Blalock) to Vulcan, as T’Pol’s original service with Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and the Enterprise was originally supposed to last only 8 days. Star Trek: Enterprise is the first time the name ‘Ni’Var” was used in canon, and it predates Star Trek: Discovery in the Star Trek timeline by a thousand years.
Discovery’s Ni’Var Has A Deeper Star Trek Origin & Meaning
Ni’Var was coined in the first Star Trek fanzine
The word “Ni’Var” in Star Trek originates in ancillary material tying into Star Trek: The Original Series. The word “Ni var” was coined by Dorothy Jones, a linguist who wrote for Star Trek fanzines in the 1960s. Jones wrote “The Territory of Rigel” in Spockanalia, published and edited by Devra Langsam and Sherna Comerford in 1968. “The Territory of Rigel” was a kind of song that Jones imagined Spock sang with another person, with one singing of light and the other of darkness. Jones established ‘Ni var’ as literally meaning ‘two forms.’
Executive producer and co-creator of Star Trek: Picard, Kirsten Beyer, wrote Star Trek: Discovery‘s “Unification III”. Beyer adopted ‘Ni’Var’ as the name of the unified Vulcan and Romulan planet from Dorothy Jones’ fanzine work. In StarTrek.com, Beyer said of Ni’Var, “I just thought it was beautiful and captured perfectly what would be happening on Vulcan should they truly attempt reunification with the Romulans.” With Star Trek: Discovery season 5 setting up the wedding of President T’Rina and Ambassador Saru, the first union of a Vulcan and Kelpien can be considered an all-new version of ‘Ni’Var.’
Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: The Original Series are streaming on Paramount+
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