Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4, Episode 5 – "Empathalogical Fallacies"
Summary
- Vulcans possess touch telepathy and can communicate with alien lifeforms, while Betazoids can speak telepathically and sense the thoughts and emotions of non-telepaths.
- While Betazoids may use telepathy more frequently, Vulcans have more powerful telepathic abilities, which they can achieve through training their minds.
- Vulcans have greater strength of mind and discipline, making them more powerful telepaths than Betazoids in Star Trek.
Both Vulcans and Betazoids possess telepathy in Star Trek, but their abilities take different forms. Throughout Star Trek: The Original Series, the Spock (Leonard Nimoy), a half-Vulcan, uses his telepathic abilities several times, most often in the form of a mind meld. Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) is also half-Betazoid on Star Trek: The Next Generation, but she can still sense the emotions and thoughts of those around her. Troi's ability comes in useful on the USS Enterprise-D, as she can often tell when a potential enemy is hiding something.
In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, episode 5, "Empathalogical Fallacies," three Betazoid ambassadors visit the USS Cerritos. When the crew begins experiencing uncharacteristic outbursts of emotions, Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) initially assumes the Betazoids must be the cause. As Betazoids approach middle age, they can contract a virus known as zanthi fever which causes them to project their emotions onto others. Eventually, Lt. T'Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz) realizes that she has come down with the Vulcan condition known as Bendii syndrome, which causes her to project her emotions and heighten the feelings of those around her.
