Sfdebris.net

Inspired by the discussion on the need for more alien aliens in one of the Star Trek: Discovery threads.

Which alien species/civilization in Star Trek is your favourite? And which do you find the most convincingly "alien"?

For me... well, as my name should indicate, I'm a Romulan fan. Borg too. And of course there's something to be said for the classic Klingons and Vulcans.

As to alien... well, not so much alien in appearance/biology (Species 8472, among others, comes to mind for that), but I recall Chuck's discussion of how alien the Videan's culture is, that they would apparently find sewing a dead person's face on an acceptable form of courtship.

Some of the species seen in the Titan novels post-Nemesis might be interesting to see. Like the cyborg ostriches. I doubt the St'i'ach could be shown given, well, Disney would sue their asses.

As for my favorite species? Bajorans, Cardasssians... I've always liked the look of the Benzites. The Trill, and not simply because the spots make Trill women really, really sexy. And the Romulans, but with a caveat: my fandom for the Romulans is tied to Diane Duane's novels about them, the Rihannsu novel series set in TOS. Ael t'Rllallieu is possibly my favorite Trek EU character. Also in the rankings is another character from the same series, Terise Haleakala-LoBrutto a.k.a. Arrhae i-Khellian t'llhweiir.

In fact, in Star Trek Online I named my Romulan characters in Rihannsu fashion, and I use ship names from the novels. As did the developers, actually; STO borrows a lot from Duane's works to fill out the Romulans, up to and including referring to New Romulus as "Mol'Rihan", as Romulus was ch'Rihan in Duane's books, Romulan character swearing on the Elements, ship names like Tyrava, system and planet names, even a few mentions of the concept of the Ruling Passion, mnhei'sahe.

I haven't read the Rihannsu novels. My love of Romulans originates in the TV series and films, supplemented by Star Trek Online.

Though, funnily enough, I came up with the name Romulan Republic long before I played Star Trek Online, and, (so far as I can recall), independently of it. I originally came up with it for an RP where I was playing a democratic offshoot of the Romulans, and it seemed to fit.

I was quite pleased to find that their was an actual Romulan Republic in canon (well, not canon, I guess, but official material anyway).

I came to really like the Andorians watching Enterprise. I like Ferengi characters like Quark/Rom/Nog but Ferengi as a aliens are too much of a mess to like.

i've always wished we could see more of the andorians

My favourite's easily the Bajorans, but there's nothing much 'alien' about them. I'm fond of the Benzites with their little vape pods (I missed it when that one in DS9 didn't have it, although there's nothing implausible about the tech having been superseded by something less visible), the glimpse of the Sheliak, but it's really difficult to watch all of Farscape and then go back and be impressed by Star Trek in that regard. The Andorian antennae were good work and added value to the species, but until Trek shows me a Pilot it's going home with the runner-up trophy...

I feel like the ones that stand the test of time are the ones that behave alien - the Cythereans from 'The Nth Degree' are ones that come right to mind there, they just seem so different and interesting (probably because the episode ends pretty much as soon as they show up, so there's just the tantalising hints implied by their method of 'exploration'). Likewise the Tamarians - the metaphor-language thing may not be very deep as presented, but it's instantly accessible as an alien behaviour, and I really enjoy it. The Whale Probe is intriguing, even though it's a bit difficult to think up any kind of rationale behind it, even an alien one, that doesn't seem not so much otherworldly as just dumb. It's not properly alien (spoilers, sweetie) but I love that aspect of V'Ger, and I think it fuels my considerable fondness for TMP as a whole - the Enterprise, embodying us, after the spacedock scene emphasising how big and grand it is, suddenly finding itself a tiny speck facing this inscrutable titan, and the crew struggling throughout the film just to understand it.

And then there's the guy with his nuts on his knee, obviously.

I like the Bolians, because I think apart from humans they are the race that gets the most diverse representation on the show. To use Tropespeak, the Bolians don't have a Hat. We've seen so many types. Professional, cowardly, soldier, scientist, barber, fat, thin, starship captain, thief, etc.

I honestly think we're overdue for having one as a main character on a series. Sadly, I don't know what the canon date of first contact with them was so odds are we won't even see any as background extras in Discovery.

I am probably tremendously in the minority on this but I really liked the Vorta. I wish we had seen more of them but then again part of why I like them may be because I'm a writer and I like the fact there's room for speculation. And of course it probably helps that our main representative of that race is played by one of my favorite actors ever.

I think the Horta were the most alien aliens we saw (lol both my answers rhyme). I wish we could see more of them but with Discovery being a prequel it's unlikely, plus even if we get a sequel later on down the road I imagine the special effects budget wouldn't allow for a non-cheesy looking Horta.

Arkle wrote:I like the Bolians, because I think apart from humans they are the race that gets the most diverse representation on the show. To use Tropespeak, the Bolians don't have a Hat. We've seen so many types. Professional, cowardly, soldier, scientist, barber, fat, thin, starship captain, thief, etc.

I honestly think we're overdue for having one as a main character on a series. Sadly, I don't know what the canon date of first contact with them was so odds are we won't even see any as background extras in Discovery.

From everything I've seen, I suspect Discovery will care about as much for old Trek continuity as Enterprise did when bringing in the Ferengi and the Borg into the pre-TOS era.