TOS - Is There in Truth No Beauty?

[Linkara]

Enterprise has brought the Tholians and Gorn back for little bits (mostly In a Mirror Darkly, but still they were there) and expanded on their nature a bit.

I agree that I'd love a return of the Medusans - hadn't really considered it before, but as Chuck stated - there is something Lovecraftian about this race of beings that most humanoids can't view due to their inherent nature that seems like it's ripe for story potential in a science fiction setting.

I also haven't rewatched this episode in a looooong while, probably because I always confuse it with that one with the energy beings in spheres that want to possess our crew and there's a love triangle and stuff.

[MerelyAFan]

I also haven't rewatched this episode in a looooong while, probably because I always confuse it with that one with the energy beings in spheres that want to possess our crew and there's a love triangle and stuff.

Probably not helped by the fact that Diana Mulduar is in both episodes.

[Durandal_1707]

Odo and Q can count, but as said, they spend 95% of their time looking human.

95% of the time they're on screen, yes. Odo looks human during his workday, but spends his off hours either changing into various shapes or regenerating. As for the Q, I think it's safe to say that they aren't going to look human during the 99.9% of the time that they're doing something other than dealing with humans at the moment. We just have a biased POV there.

[FaxModem1]

Chuck made me think about the idea of beauty and goodness with the English bulldog example. How much of that is linked into biology, with creatures acting friendly changing how we evaluate their appearance? As they say, framing is everything.

[CmdrKing]

"and once again Gene is the Grunkle Stan of science fiction"

Okay I am SUPER looking forward to Chuck's takes on Gravity Falls now. Because hell if that's not an apt analogy.

[Nealithi]

I had been hoping this would be reviewed. Mostly because it had Diana Muldaur in it and I felt she was sufficiently not Pulaski that I was hoping there would more comparisons. I actually forgot she was in Return to Tomorrow. I think the issue with the word 'ugly' may be that someone had them dumb things down. The Medusans are 'disturbing' to humanoid minds and very difficult to determine why. But disturbing is a big word to some so they made it simpler and then it fit with the truth/beauty thing someone came up with. IE concept and not much more.

As to beauty on the show. . . I admit. I grew up with a crush on Uhura.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I'm not sure what prominent alien entails exactly, but as I think about it -

The wraiths if we're not counting the Founders.
The probe in ST IV.
Giant space stomach in Voyager S6 or 7 (and the cute little singing gremlins born in it).
The planet that clones Voyager in a couple of episodes out of mud.

8472 is more of an animaloid, sure. But I'm not sure how that makes for a more interesting specimen for example.

One thing about TOS, is that a lot of the aliens are not only humanoid, but indistinguishable from humans. I get it's just production and aspiration challenges. Just kinda funny.

[clearspira]

I've been trying to recall for hours now what the whole concept of the Medusans reminded me of and I have finally remembered:



This is a 1970s cartoon that repeated itself on Cartoon Network back in the 1990s in that period before Cartoon Cartoons and Toonami where they showed mostly Hannah Barbara and Loony Tunes. The hero is kind of a cross between Superman and The Atom (voiced by the legendary Peter Cullen of Optimus Prime fame) and Yukk who is the ''world's ugliest dog'' whose sole ability was being so ugly that he had to hide his face with that doghouse on his head and every time he removed it in front of the bad guys they were so disgusted they would faint (conveniently he always had his back to us whenever he took the doghouse off).

I remember it tended to be shown alongside the likes of Plastic Man, Space Ghost, Dynomutt and Galaxy Trio. All good cartoons that I really enjoyed, but I won't lie, Johnny Bravo, Samurai Jack and Dexter's Lab were fantastic replacements.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I somewhat guessed she was blind when I saw this. I didn't call it or anything, but there was this whole Book of Eli vibe I got from her.

This episode dragged for me, but as Chuck was saying about it being more serviceable if it wasn't so long, I'd get rid of the ship veering outside the galaxy. That was the part I just double-taked and thought how late in the episode a thing like this was happening. Not much of a payoff.

[Durandal_1707]

I'm not sure what prominent alien entails exactly, but as I think about it -

The wraiths if we're not counting the Founders.
The probe in ST IV.
Giant space stomach in Voyager S6 or 7 (and the cute little singing gremlins born in it).
The planet that clones Voyager in a couple of episodes out of mud.

A few more from TNG:

Farpoint Station.
The "Conspiracy" aliens.
The "ship had a baby" thing in that episode whose name I can't remember that had Vertiform City in it.