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As used in the fictional Star Trek universe, the Vulcan nerve pinch is a technique used mainly by Vulcans to render another lifeform unconscious by pinching the base of the victim’s neck with all four fingers opposing the thumb. Normally this is done to other humanoids, although in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Spock successfully uses the nerve pinch on a horse-like creature.

Leonard Nimoy, who portrayed Vulcan science officer Spock, conceived the maneuver in the early days of the original Star Trek series. The script for “The Enemy Within” called for Spock to karate chop Captain Kirk’s duplicate, but Nimoy felt that such an action would be undignified for a Vulcan — he therefore invented an alternative.^{[citation needed]} In Star Trek’s scripts, the pinch is referred to as the FSNP, for Famous Spock Nerve Pinch.

Since Spock, various other characters in the Star Trek spin-offs use the technique, including non-Vulcans such as the android Data,^[1] the Changeling Odo,^[2] Voyager’s holographic Doctor,^[3] and the humans Jean-Luc Picard,^[4] Seven of Nine,^[5] and Jonathan Archer^[6] (though Archer was carrying the katra of the ancient Vulcan Surak at the time). In Carpenter Street, T'Pol uses the nerve pinch on the kidnapper, Loomis to stop him escaping from his apartment, and again later in the episode, she also uses it in the 4th episode of the first season on Malcolm Reed to calm him down (earliest example in timeline?).

Some humans, however, have been unable to use the nerve pinch. Spock once commented that he tried but failed to teach it to James T. Kirk.^[7] Likewise, when Dr. McCoy was in possession of Spock’s katra, he was unable to use the nerve pinch. Kirk, however, successfully used the nerve pinch once, commenting that it never worked before, and will probably never work again.^[8]

The nerve pinch has been used on Vulcans and the Vulcanoid Romulans several times, showing that neither race is immune to the technique.^[1][3][5][6]. The only human to have ever been insensitive to it was Colonel Gary Seven, possibly because of metabolic alterations obtained on his planet of adoption (TOS: “Assignment: Earth”). It has been proven inefficient on robotic androids when Spock took the time to softly try it on android Alice, who simply asked him calmly if that gesture had a significance (TOS: “I, Mudd”).

There is no on-screen canon explanation of how the pinch works. Over the years, fans and Expanded Universe writers have made a number of suggestions as to how it works.

The book The Making of Star Trek by Stephen E. Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry offers a simple explanation: the pinch blocks blood and nerve responses from reaching the brain, leading to unconsciousness. In this earliest of Star Trek reference books, the pinch is referred to as the “Spock Pinch.”^[9]

One conjecture was that, because of Vulcans’ telepathic nature and incredible control over their own bodies, they are able to send a burst of neural energy into another being and overload its nervous system, rendering it unconscious, although the pinch does not work on all species.^{[citation needed]} This was supported by the fact that Dr. McCoy could not use it in Star Trek III, but it has been rendered moot by the fact that many non-telepathic characters have used it in modern incarnations of Trek.

Another conjecture is that it can be done by applying strong and surgically precise pressure over baroreceptors of the carotid sinus at the base of the humanoid neck. The objective would be to elicit the baroreceptor reflex as the receptors detect an apparent high pressure state due to the externally applied force and causes reflex bradycardia and/or hypotension, leading to decreased blood supply to the brain and syncope. However, this would likely require bilateral pressure.^{[citation needed]}

The Star Trek episode “The Enterprise Incident” makes reference to a Vulcan “death grip,” which is supposedly a more powerful and lethal version of the nerve pinch. Spock pretends to use it on Captain Kirk in order to complete a mission. Nurse Christine Chapel later asserts that the death grip is a myth, later confirmed by Kirk still being alive. Spock does, however, do something to Kirk that simulates death to such a degree that Romulan doctors certified him dead. Kirk later states that Spock used a nerve pinch to simulate his death, but what Spock exactly does is not explained.

The death grip also lived a short life in Spock’s own beliefs, when he and Kirk were pitted in a battle to the death while in the throes of pon farr. However, it was actually McCoy’s doing, having administered a drug which rendered the captain unconscious and lowered his vital signs to an undetectable level.

As a result, the term “Vulcan death grip” has become a ubiquitous synonym for the Vulcan nerve pinch, despite the fact that the nerve pinch is nonlethal and the death grip may not even exist in Star Trek.^{[citation needed]}

• In an episode of the TV series Soap, Jodie Dallas (played by Billy Crystal) used the neck pinch successfully, to his surprise, in a confrontation with several fighters at a martial arts studio.
• Scott Adams has been known to mention to the nerve pinch in his comic strip Dilbert, where he often refers to it incorrectly as the Vulcan death grip.
• Xena on the series Xena Warrior Princess has a lethal Death Pinch. (This gives the victim 30 seconds to live.)
• The Beastie Boys’ song “Intergalactic” says the listener’s “knees’ll start shaking and your fingers pop / Like a pinch on the neck of Mr. Spock.” Note that the lyrics refer to it as a pinch “of” rather than “from” Spock.
• On an episode of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Kwai Chang Caine uses the “Vulcan Nerve Punch” to defeat several enemies.
• In the Mel Brooks comedy Spaceballs, Lone Starr (played by Bill Pullman) attempts to knock out a Spaceball guard using the technique, prompting the following dialogue:

Guard: What the hell are you doing?

Lone Starr: Uh… the Vulcan Neck Pinch?

Guard: No, no, stupid. You’ve got it much too high. It’s down here where the shoulder meets the neck.

Lone Starr: Like this?

Guard: Yeah! (faints)

• In the film Look Who’s Talking Now, Kirstie Alley’s character loses her job and takes a temp job playing an elf in Santa’s Workshop in a mall. A bratty child asks scornfully if she is an elf. She replies “No, I’m a Vulcan. How would you like a little death grip?” in reference to Alley’s role as Saavik in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
• Pulp hero Doc Savage uses a similar technique.^{[citation needed]}
• “Vulcan nerve pinch” is also hacker slang for a key board combination used to reboot or otherwise interrupt a computer. A common example of this is Control-Alt-Delete for IBM PC compatible computers (see also three-finger salute).
• The book The Action Hero’s Handbook gives instructions for performing a nerve pinch.
• In The Simpsons episode “Mayored to the Mob,” Homer uses the Vulcan Nerve Pinch (or, as Marge thinks, a sleeper hold) to knock out his children. He is then scolded by Marge and promptly repeats the technique on her also. Realizing there is 30 minutes left until supper he applies it to himself.
• In the Futurama episode “Where No Fan Has Gone Before,” the Planet Express crew are forced into a fight to the death with the cast of the original series. When Nimoy is fighting Bender, he tries to “see if this actually works” and attempts one on Bender, which could never work, since he is a robot.
• In the video game Space Quest 6, The Veltron Nerve Pinch uses the same placement of the fingers, but requires the person to also speak lines from Tango and Cash or Hudson Hawk, the combination of the pinch and dialogue from the two movies causing neural overload. Roger Wilco uses this to incapacitate a guard so that he can steal a shuttle.
• In the Cartoon Network animated series Codename: Kids Next Door, the character Kuki Sanban attempted to use the Vulcan nerve pinch unsusccesfully in one episode.
• In the story, Savage Shadow, written by The Shadow’s creator Maxwell Grant the character Doc Fauve (which is French for savage) in a drunken haze applies the nerve pinch to his newfound pal, writer Kenneth Robeson.
• In the pilot episode of Heroes (“Genesis”), after Hiro Nakamura makes the claim that he is able to bend space and time, making references to Spock and Star Trek, and is dragged back to his cubicle by his manager, his friend Ando Masahashi shouts to him that he should use his “death grip.”
• In The Amanda Show, Penelope Taynt more often than not uses the Vulcan Nerve Pinch on those who see her.
• In an episode of A Different World, Sinbad’s character Walter Oakes used the Vulcan Nerve Pinch on two dangerous cocaine dealers after the gang accidentally discovered their stash during a Spring Break vacation in Miami just in the nick of time and, a little later on, to silence a talkative Whitley Gilbert.
• In the Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode “Freak Show,” Commander Andy (Andy Merrill) tells Space Ghost, “If I was in the same room with you right now I would give you the Vulcan Nerve Pinch and knock you out.”
• In the non-canon Star Trek/X-Men crossover by Marvel Comics Spock used the nerve pinch on Wolverine. Wolverine surprised Spock by almost immediately recovering due to his healing factor.
• In an episode of My Name Is Earl, "Early Release", Darnell uses a Vulcan neck pinch to incapacitate a prison guard while assisting Earl in an escape attempt.

• Vulcan nerve pinch article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki