star trek aliens names

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Star Trek: The 50 Best Alien Races

From Tribble to Andorians, we're ranking the 50 best alien life forms explored in the Star Trek universe...

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The crews of the various iterations of Star Trek boldly went where no one has gone before — and then boldly met a crap ton of alien species.

Star Trek may be the human adventure, but there have been countless non-human beings, critters, menaces, gods, and blobs that have been introduced in the Star Trek  universe. From The Original Series to The Animated Series , to The Next Generation , to Deep Space Nine , the Delta Quadrant and Voyager , to the early adventures of Enterprise , to the modern day films, Star Trek has gifted fans with unforgettable species after species as the five-year mission has turned into five decades of first contact.

There have been vile races bred for combat, omnipotent races that use humankind as puppets, and even a bunch of cute little furry things.  Star Trek just keeps on delivering the cool aliens show after show, film after film. Just imagine the species that will soon be coming to Star Trek: Discovery ! But now is the time to celebrate the past as we present the fifty coolest Star Trek aliens ever to appear in films or TV.

50. Arcturian

First appearance: star trek: the motion picture (1979).

The Arcturian didn’t have a great deal of Star Trek screen time, but this alien race that resembled melted wax (eww) makes our list because it stands as a prime example of the story richness of the Star Trek  galaxy. An Arcturian can briefly be seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the Mego toy company even made two versions of this blink and you’ll miss him creature (one 3 ¾ inch one 12 inch). But what intrigues us the most is this melty guy’s backstory…

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Star Trek costume crafters extraordinaire Fred Phillips and Robert Fletcher came up with a rich history for the Arcturian. According to Philips and Fletcher, the Arcturians were actually a race of clones that made up the bulk of the Federation’s infantry. While never seen on screen, there are legions of these guys running around, just waiting to be sent to some hostile planet to go to war. The Federation has always been portrayed as peaceful and benevolent, but it has the potential to unleash billions of melty looking monsters at a moment’s notice. Yikes.

Arcturians also appeared in the Star Trek daily comic strip and their back story continues to stand as a great example of the vast richness of the Star Trek galaxy, a place where billions of stories exist at all times. Including one about a race of wax soldiers that can be replicated and sent to do the Federation’s will. Eeep.

49. Edosian

First appearance: star trek: the animated series “beyond the farthest star” (1973).

Edosians are a tripedal species and are skilled at using their three arms and three legs in navigation and piloting. Lieutenant Arex, the loyal Enterprise navigator that first appeared in Star Trek: The Animated Series , is a proud member of the Edosian species and was a recurring character during this era of animated Trek. Arex was voiced by Scotty himself James Doohan and was a standout character in the era between The Original Series and The Next Generation .

Arex popped up in comics and novels and took his place of honor among the original crew. Arex also was a character that fully utilized animation as the six limbs and distinct alien features of this character would have been impossible to pull off in live-action back in the day. But thanks to The Animated Series , the distinctive Edosians live on and prosper in Trek lore.

48. Excalbians

First appearance: star trek: the original series “the savage curtain” (1969).

Listen, any species responsible for bringing Abraham Lincoln into the Star Trek  universe has to make this list. The Excalbians are a silicon based life form that possessed the ability to shape shift. These rock beings, who honestly looked like something Steve Ditko would have designed for Doctor Strange, were fascinated by the human notion of good and evil.

So they did what anyone would do in the same situation: they made a recreation of Abraham Lincoln and teamed it with Kirk, Spock, and famous Vulcan goodie-good Surak and sent them up against four representatives of evil — Kahless the Unforgettable of Qo’noS, Genghis Khan, Colonel Green of Earth and Dr. Zora of Tiburon. How’s that for a traditional Survivor Series match?

For this wonderful bit of schlock and for making us believe that Ben Grimm could work in live action in 1969, we salute the ever curious Excalbians.

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47. Caitian

First appearance: star trek: the animated series “the survivor” (1973).

The cat-like Caitians were represented in Enterprise history by M’Ress, a feline female that served both as engineer and a communications officer during The Animated Series . M’Ress spoke in a purring voice and was a skilled operative that stood side by side with the more iconic members of the Enterprise.

Now, I would like to talk about how cool the Caitians were. I would like to talk about how M’Ress was the main character in the Power Records’ Star Trek book and record set Star Trek: Passage to Moauv (1975). I would also like to talk about how a Caitian also appeared in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home …

But I just can’t help but wonder if Captain Kirk did what he does and somehow at some point bed down with this cat woman. This would make Kirk’s TV sci-fi’s first furry and I’m sort of fascinated by this idea. I don’t want to focus on this idea because it kind of reduces M’ress as a character and the Caitian as a race… But then I read that the alien twins that Kirk hooked up with in the first Abramsverse film were confirmed to be Caitian and everything just stirs up again and I fell absolved of all responsibility.

Anyway, M‘Ress and the Caitians might be considered obscure now, but she was a pretty big deal to Trek lore during The Animated Series era. So this race is a purr-fect addition to our list. Did the Enterprise come equipped with a giant litter box? Okay, I need to stop now; this is going to some bad places.

46. Bolians

First appearance: star trek: the next generation (1988).

The Bolians have been a perennial background species since their first Trek appearance in 1988. The first Bolian fans witnesses aboard the Enterprise was an ambassador, but many other Bolians have appeared around the Trek verse since. They have been seen as barbers, manicurists, Federation troops, and high ranking officials.

Bolians are distinctive due to their blue skin and their ridge that bisects their anatomy. They are highly friendly individuals and compassionate. In fact, an episode of Voyager puts forth that Bolians were  supportive of assisted suicide. These deep seated beliefs make the Bolians an intriguing species ripe for future Trek exploration.

45. Lurian

First appearance: star trek: deep space nine “the emissary” (1993).

Lurians were a very rarely encountered species that possessed multiple hearts, lungs, and stomachs. Fans got to know this ellusive species through DS9 regular/bar fly Morn. Yes, Morn is an anagram for Norm, because, like the famed Cheers fat man, in Quark’s Bar, everyone knew Morn’s name.

Morn was a bombastic and talkative fellow who fans never got to actually hear speak. He was a former thief that barely moved away from his bar stool. Morn was also fiercely loyal to Quark and got his little Ferengi pal out of many a jam. But mostly, Morn just sat there and drank stoically.

Although we only ever met one Lurian, we will always remember his name because Morn was such a constant (and inebriated) presence on Deep Space Nine . He also once had a torrid love affair with Jadzia Dax but that is a tale for another time. Raise a glass to the Lurians!

First appearance: Star Trek (2009)

So far, the rebooted Trek films have not really given funs much by way of alien species. The only classic races to get good screen time in the reboots have been Romulans and Vulcans. But the films did give us Keenser the Roylan, Scotty’s diminutive engineering pal.

Keenser first appeared in the first Trek reboot film as Scotty’s ever present companion when Scotty was exiled on the Federation outpost on Delta Vega. When Scotty beamed to the Enterprise, he left Keenser behind which was kinda sad. JJ Abrams and company must have thought so too as Keenser was all of a sudden part of the Enterprise’s crew in Star Trek: Into Darkness .

Keensar is ever loyal to his pal Scotty as the two share one of the best bromances in the galaxy. The fourteenth issue of IDW Publishing’s Star Trek comic gifted fans with Keensar’s origin. It also revealed the name of his species — Roylan — for the first time.

In this issue, fans learned that Keensar was constantly mocked by his peers because he was so tall (heh). It also revealed that Keensar served with distinction aboard the USS Kelvin and was shipmates with none other than George Kirk.

Keensar the Roylan is a constant presence in the new Trek Universe and I’m sure this member of the Roylan species will have many adventures to come.

43. Mugato

First appearance: star trek: the original series “a private little war” (1968).

Because sometimes in space, there are giant, poisonous horned gorillas. What’s not to love about Mugato? He’s kind of cute, very fuzzy, and is as poisonous as the nastiest snake. Poisonous gorillas in space, this is why we love Trek. Sadly, Mugato only appeared briefly, attacking and poisoning Kirk before being disintegrated by Doctor McCoy.

But, remember: as you watch the hard sci-fi and techno jargon of Trek, as you witness the human adventure of Roddenberry’s galaxy, as you watch carbon-based life forms achieve full potential and enlightenment, remember , in this same world there are fuzzy, horned, albino gorillas that will poison the crap out of you.

42. Acamarians

First appearance: star trek: the next generation “the vengeance factor” (1989).

The Acamarians are an advanced race of humanoids that have found a peaceful existence very late in its history. For centuries, the tattooed Acamarians lived in rival clans and their planet was split apart by warfare. One of the clan wars lasted three centuries and wiped one of the combating sides out of existence. When Picard’s Enterprise encountered the Acamarians, the people finally almost found peace.

However, a splinter group known as the Gatherers could not overcome centuries of clan warfare and refused to negotiate, so Picard had to navigate the complex web of Acamarians politics and bitterness as well as the assassination of the Gatherer ambassador to finally forge a peace with the Acamarians.

Despite all these issues, the Acamarians have a rich culture and mirror many contemporary Earth societies that have been splintered by war. Sci-fi works best when it reflects reality, and through the Acamarians, Trek fans got to see some really effective social commentary about tribalism and societal bitterness.

41. Denobulans

First appearance: enterprise “broken bow” (2001).

A Denobulan served aboard the very first Enterprise as the ship’s doctor, thus making the species vital to the origins of the Federation. Our medic in question, Phlox by name, was one of the main protagonists in Enterprise and was a staunch example of the exemplary qualities of the Denobulan race.

Denobulans are loyal but quite hedonistic by human standards. Denobulan males can take up to three wives while the entire race embraces polyamory. As humanity headed off into space aboard the first Enterprise, Phlox served as a constant reminder of the varied belief systems and practices the people of Earth would encounter as space exploration began.

Phlox and the Denobulan held ethics in high regard as Phlox would never allow a sentient being to suffer. Even though the ridge faced Denobulans had fierce tempers, they also were gentle and kind, and valued knowledge and pleasure over confrontation and violence.

Denobulans also have the propensity to puff out their faces when they were threatened — so, yeah, there’s that. Plus, Denobulans have really long tongues. What was it that I said about hedonism and Denobulans? Anyway, these cunning linguists were great doctors as seen through Enterprise ’s first mayor of the sickbay: Doctor Phlox.

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40. Orions

First appearance: star trek: the original series “the cage” (1966).

The green Orion slave dancer that shimmied into the dreams of Trek fans has been an iconic bit of Star Trek lore since her Shakiraesque debut, but the history of the Orions did not stop there…

Although a cosplay staple, the slave girl was just one Orion. Others have appeared in The Animated Series , Enterprise , novels, comics, toys, and one even prominently appeared in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek timeline as Uhura’s roommate and an early romantic partner of one James T. Kirk.

Orions are a species with close ties to the Federation — ties that are explored in some of the better episodes of Enterprise . Although the Orions will long be remembered because of the grinding of the hips of a slave dancer, there is so much more to this green-skinned humanoid species that has been part of Star Trek lore since almost day one.

39. Ocampans

First appearance star trek: voyager “caretaker part ii” (1995).

The Ocampans carry an importance to the Star Trek  universe because Kes, a noted member of the Ocampan species, was a member of the lost Voyager crew for three years. Ocampans are a race with powerful telekinetic powers but, sadly, this race of elf-like humanoids only have a life span of nine years. (So… combine Jean Grey with a mayfly and you get the idea.) 

Ocampans are very accepting of their short life span and a rather enlightened species. Through Kes, the crew of Voyager learned a lust for life as the wide eyed Ocampan enjoyed every minute of her existance even though she was trapped with the Voyager crew. When Kes’ power grew out of control, she left Voyager and her friends, including her constant companion Neelix, and used her abilities to push the lost Voyager out of Borg space and a year closer to home. This sacrifice taught the crew of the Voyager and fans of the show the innate nobility of the Ocampan race.

38. Vidiians

First appearance star trek voyager “the phage” (1995).

While the Ocampans were a nice, little, Tinkerbell-like species that fluttered about Voyager , there were also these Wes Craven nightmares… The Vidiians suffered a disease known as the Phage. The Phage is kind of like a hardcore space Ebola that utterly destroys the infected’s body and organs. So, yeah, Bones McCoy was sort of right about space being a petri dish of death and pain.

The ravaged Phage would wander the galaxy and rob sentients of their organs and body parts. So there you are, doing warp three with caution around the Delta Quadrant, and, all of a sudden, a few Vidiians beam unto your ship and rip out your liver and intestines. Then, they use said liver and intestines to replace their own — whether you filled out your Federation organ donor cards or not.

The Vidiians were eventually cured by the crew of the Voyager, but you have to assume that in a galaxy so big there are still some Vidiians cruising around out there taking hearts and lungs from innocent travelers. Yeesh.

37. Breen

First appearance: star trek deep space nine “indiscretion” (1995).

First off, cool points for the Breen because the helmet that this species wears looks kind of like the helmet Princess Leia used to disguise herself as a bounty hunter in Return of the Jedi . But the space awesomeness of the Breen doesn’t end there…

The Breen’s fighting prowess and technology are so advanced that even the Romulons and Klingon talk about this mysterious species in hushed whispers. And, indeed, when the Breen made themselves known to the Federation during the Dominion War, things got intense. These mighty warriors allied themselves with the Cardassians and the Dominion to take on the combined might of the Federation, the Klingons, and the Romulons.

During this conflict, the Breen destroyed the USS Defiant, the flagship of the Deep Space Nine space station, and managed to attack the Earth city of San Francisco. The Federation managed to develop counter weaponry to defeat the Breen, but many will remember these armored badassess as race of military specialists to be reckoned with.

The alliance with the Dominion cost the Breen, though, and — after the War — it wasn’t easy being Breen.

36. Hunters

First appearance star trek deep space nine : “captive pursuit” (1993).

Imagine a Trek alien that is pretty much Boba Fett mixed with Kraven the Hunter and you have these big game-tracking motherfuckers. The Hunters popped out of the Bajoran Wormhole and had their first contact with the Federation in the DS9 episode “Captive Pursuit.” In this stirring installment of this reporter’s favorite Trek show, fans were introduced to the Hunters and their chosen prey: the genetically enhanced Tosk.

The Hunters (whether this was the species name is unknown) would alter their Tosk prey in order to make the hunt more difficult. The pursuing of the Tosk was an obsession with the Hunters that rubbed members of the freedom loving Federation the wrong way.

The Hunters even gave the Federation a run for its money as the race of killers had advanced tech to assist them in their eternal hunt for Tosk. Sadly, the Hunters only appeared in one episode of Deep Space Nine , but their fighting skills and bloodthirsty rituals will be burned into the minds of Trek fans for a long time.

35. The Salt Vampire

First appearance: star trek: the original series “the man trap” (1966).

Old Salty here, or creature M-113, is a reminder that space can be a really, really dangerous place because there are things out there called Salt Vampires. And, no, this thing doesn’t just hang around a Pringles factory, it freakin’ shape shifts and then kills innocent people and drains them of their salt. Kirk and his crew first encountered this thing as it took the form of a number of the Enterprise’s crew. It almost killed Sulu, Yeoman Rand, Spock, and Kirk before being shot and killed by Dr. McCoy who had no time for such foolishness.

I suppose Kirk could have kept the Salt Vampire alive and just fed it Wetzel’s Pretzels (those things are like licking the ocean), but I guess Kirk felt that a shape shifting thing that looks like it was spat out of the ninth plane of hell that brutally kills people and drains them of sodium probably needed to be deleted from the universe. One has to wonder what special M-114 might be: Cinnamon Vampire?

34. Cheron

First appearance star trek: the original series “let that be your last battlefield” (1969).

When we first met the Cheron, there was only two members of this species left: Bele (played by the Riddler himself, the great Frank Gorshin) and Lokai. Bele was hunting Lokai whom Bele deemed a traitor after the planet Cheron was wiped out due to centuries of racial wars.

Apparently, some Cheron were black on the left and white on the right while other members of this advanced species possessed the opposite skin alignment. Due to this difference, the entire population — save Lokai and Bele — were eradicated. Bele hijacked the Enterprise and used his vast array of mental capabilities to hunt for Lokai.

The whole opposite was a thinly veiled, but powerful allusion to the destructive potential and sheer idiocy of racism — a message as powerful today as it was in the ’60s. Of course, you know I’m going to say that Mego made a Cheron doll, a toy I treasured in my childhood and called Oreo Man.

We should all have an Oreo Man during our most innocent years. But who knew my beloved Oreo Man was actually a genocidal racist madman that used his vast power to almost destroy the Enterprise? Oh, Oreo Man…

33. Nausicaans

First appearance: star trek: the next generation “tapestry” (1993).

One of the surlier races in the galaxy, Nausicaans are big hairy warriors that hire themselves out as mercenaries throughout the galaxy. A Nausicaan had quite the impact on the life of Jean-Luc Picard. When the future captain of the Enterprise was an ensign, he played a stirring game of domjot with some Nausicaan thugs (as one does). Picard and his pals accused the Nausicaans of cheating and the bad-tempered badasses stabbed Picard through the heart. This required Picard to get an artificial heart. (The more you know!)

The Nausicaans gave the crew of Deep Space Nine a hard time as well. This hairy race of pirates even encountered Captain Archer and the original crew of the Enterprise back in the day, proving that big hairy thugs that cheat at domjot remain big hairy thugs that cheat at domjot.

All that aside, Nausicaan fighting prowess is equal to the fighting prowess of Klingons and the only thing that keeps the Nausicaans from being more of a threat is their mistrust and their inability to come together as a species. Instead of being intergalactic conquerors, the Nausicaans have remained bullies, raider, and cheaters. But they do have killer 80s rocker hair, don’t they?

32. Kazon

First appearance: star trek: voyager “caretaker” (1995).

The Kazon were the first race that the crew of the Voyager encountered when they arrived in the Delta Quadrant, and — as far as d-bag, aggressive alien species go — the Kazon take the space cake (because when you put the word space in front of something, it sounds like you are in the future).

The Kazon race was separated into rival sects, which made negotiating with them as a whole almost impossible. They were once a slave race that served the Trabe, but the Kazon were a fractured species before and during its enslavement. Despite their disloyalty to each other, the Kazon were fierce combatants who were unwilling to negotiate a peace treaty with the Trabe or Voyager.

The Kazon had advanced technology and a back-stabbing blood thirst that introduced the crew of the Voyager to the Delta Quadrant and caused Voyager to be trapped in what was going to be a very hostile place, if the battle-hardened Kazon were any indication.

31. Metrons

First appearance: star trek: the original series “arena” (1967).

We do so love the Gorn. And what alien species was responsible for Kirk’s immortal battle with the Gorn? Why that would be the shiny and nigh omnipotent Metrons.

The Metrons possess tremendous mental powers and can control matter and energy. These human like aliens fiercely guard their sector of space and regard even the most minor intrusion as a great trespass punishable by death. When the Enterprise and a Gorn vessel find themselves in Metron space, the Metrons mentally teleport both Captains to a remote planet and force them to fight.

The Metrons are intensely xenophobic and regard other races as barbaric, so when Kirk spares the Gorn, the aloof Metrons are impressed and free both vessels. You see, a simple act of kindness was all it took to free the Enterprise from the Metrons’ wrath and impress a race of people that do not impress easily. Also, the Metrons wear sparkly evening gowns so they have that going for them…

30. Horta

First appearance: star trek: the original series “devil in the dark” (1967).

The Horta may look like a pile of bile soaked dog puke, but, hey, it was featured in William Shatner’s favorite Star Trek episode, so we have to give this blob of silicon its props.

The Horta was first encountered by a group of miners. After a miner was killed, Kirk and company were called to see what was up. They encounter the Horta, an extremely alien-looking beastie. After the creature is injured, Spock attempts a mind meld but the creature is in too much pain for Spock to connect with it. Soon, the crew of the Enterprise learns that the creature is the lone survivor of its race charged with protecting the eggs of the next generation of Horta. So Kirk and his pals dedicate themselves to protecting the thing’s little vomit eggs from the angry miners.

All jokes aside, the Horta was classic Trek alien: a semi-cheesy-looking beastie that stars in an episode with a powerful theme. The Horta was a prime example that all life has merit and even something that looks like a half-digested taco only wants to survive and thrive. By saving the Horta, the crew of the Enterprise shows that their most important mission is to contact and understand all life, no matter what it looks like. Thank you for that valuable lesson, Mr. Horta.

29. Greek Gods

First appearance: star trek: the original series “who mourns for adonis” (1967).

Wait, what? Oh, by the bristling beard of Zeus, the Greek Gods exists in the Star Trek  universe. 

The legendary deities of ancient Greece were actually super-powered aliens that lived on Pollox IV. They would visit Earth back in ancient times and bask in the worship of primitive humans. Well, the humans of the Enterprise were no primitives, and — when the Pollox IV alien that called itself Apollo trapped Kirk and his crew on the planet and refused to allow them to leave — Kirk and Spock fought back, kicking a god’s ass in the process.

Sadly, we never saw the other Greek gods. (Because could you just imagine Kirk versus Zeus?) But, it was established the other gods existed — and that they wore togas and laurel leaves like they were going to a frat party. The fact that this all exists in the same galaxy as Klingons and Borg just makes me very happy.

28. Hirogen

First appearance: star trek: voyager “message in a bottle” (1998).

The Hirogen are a nasty Delta Quadrant species of reptilian hunters that view any other sentient beings as prey. When the Hirogen chose a victim, the religious ritual of the Hunt began and all aspect of Hirogen culture centered on this blood sport. After the Hirogen tracked and captured its prey, they would remove the victim’s skeletal system, muscles, internal organs, ligaments, and tendons and keep these parts as trophies.

The Hirogen ran afoul of the Starship Voyager a number of times and Captain Janeway and her elite crew always found ways to defeat these hunters. In one of the Hirogen’s more bone headed moves, they created advanced holograms that could feel fear and pain. These thinking holograms quickly became more advanced than the Hirogen and turned the hunters into the hunted.

Despite this addlepated move, the Hirogen were always a feared species for those that traveled through the Delta Quadrant because they were essentially Predators dropped into the middle of the Star Trek universe.

27. El-Aurians

First appearance: star trek: the next generation “the child” (1988).

El-Aurian were a race of wise and peaceful people that transverse the galaxy to listen to the stories of others. When the Borg wiped out the El-Aurian’s home world, the galaxy lost a race of wise listeners… Or it almost did, because the surviving members of this race spread out across the galaxy.

Fans met the El-Aurians when The Next Generation introduced Guinan, the proprietor of Ten Forward, the bar of choice for the crew of the Enterprise. When Guinan came aboard, the members of the Enterprise had a kind and quick-witted being to bounce their problems off of, and Guinan listened. It was a shame that so many people like Guinan were lost to the Borg as the El-Aurians long lived goodness was a boon to the galaxy.

But not all El-Aurians were benevolent. Tollan Soran was an El-Aurian survivor that was aboard a ship of refugees with Guinan when the ships ferrying the El-Aurians refugees was lost to the fiery Nexus ribbon. It seemed that the legendary Captain Kirk was killed in this rescue attempt, but it turns out Kirk was trapped within the Nexus.

Soran became obsessed with returning to the Nexus and his Ahab like need for knowledge led to the first and only meeting between James T. Kirk and Jean Luc Picard. Soran was an anomaly to the El-Aurians species as most of the race used their centuries of wisdom to spread enlightenment wherever they went.

26. Tellarites

First appearance: star trek: the original series “journey to babel” (1967).

Along with Andorians and Vulcans, Tellarites were one of the first species to join the United Federation of Planets. A Tellarite first appeared in The Original Series episode “Journey to Babel,” where Sarek, Spock’s father, was framed for the murder of a Tellarite ambassador.

Sarek was able to solve the crime, freeing his name and forging a long-lasting peace with the Tellarities. Early contact with the Tellarites was recounted in Enterprise , but members of the specials also popped up in The Next Generation and even in a couple of films. Tellarites, with their distinctive beards, hooves, and stubbornness, have long been one of the backbone species of the Federation.

25. Tamarians

First appearance star trek: the next generation “darmok” (1991).

“Temba, his arms wide. Shaka, when the walks fell.” Who can forget these poetic, yet somewhat ominous phrases spoken by Dathon the Tamarian to Captain Picard when the two were trapped on a hostile world together?

Trek lore has it that the Federation and the Tamarians only had seven encounters over the years because the Tamarian language was so hard to comprehend. Well, if he was to survive, Picard would have to understand it (and fast) because Dathon beamed Picard down to the planet in order to teach the human captain a language that was as complex as it was beautiful.

It turns out Tamarians only communicate in metaphors (I’ve had grad school professors like that), and in order for the Federation and the Tamarians to build an accord, Picard would need to understand those metaphors. “Shaka when the walls fell,” has become quite a famous little moment of Trek myth as the Tamarians stand as a metaphor themselves — for cultural understanding and empathy.

24. Species 8472

First appearance: “star trek: voyager” part 1 (1997).

Species 8472 are so deadly that they even make the Borg poop their cybernetic underroos. (Hey, do you think when the Borg poops they all go at once? Or does one go make while the rest of the Collective just snickers? This is now the most ever written about Borg poop on the internet. Or is it? I’m not googling that.)

Anyway, Species 8472 existed in an extra-dimensional bit of hell known as fluidic space. When the Borg discovered the fluidic dimension, the ever deadly race of cybernetic killers busted through the dimensions and attempted to assimilate Species 8472. 8472 was having none of that and fought back, creating weapons that could slay the Borg with ease. In fact, 8472 was able to destroy the Borg Cubes in seconds. (Man, that’s like taking down the Death Star with a single bullet.) Sadly, Species 8472 also took out many innocent Delta Quadrant planets, which forced the crew of Voyager to get involved.

The Borg and Voyager had to form an unlikely alliance to drive Species 8472 back to fluidic space. 8472 was one of the closet things Trek fans ever got to Lovecraft-like cosmic horrors, as even the Borg could not stand up to these waling nightmares. This species appeared a few more times on Voyager until Captain Janeway was able to broker a peace with these terrors that exist behind the fabric of time and space.

23. The Gorn

Oh, the Gorn. Who doesn’t love Gorn? Of course, this rubbery looking and cold blooded reptilian monstrosity first appeared in the classic TOS episode “Arena,” where Kirk had to go mano-e-lizardo with the captain of a captured Gorn vessel. What followed was one of the most classic fights in Trek history as Kirk had to fashion a makeshift cannon to defeat this alien monster.

Despite its primitive appearance, future novels established the Gorn as a technologically-advanced race and, you just have to admit, Trek lore has not even scratched the surface of the Gorn. Imagine the spin offs. The Gorn Identity. Gorn to be Wild. Gorn on the Fourth of July. Fans were able to witness the Gorn home world for the first time in DC Comics’ Star Trek the Next Generation: The Gorn Crisis .

The Gorn were also one of the aliens made by Mego in its second set of Trek dolls. Fun fact: Mego’s Gorn looks nothing like the TV Gorn, as Mego just reused Marvel’s Lizard mold, painted it brown and decked old Gorny in the outfit used for the Klingon doll. Despite this lack of toy respect, and despite one of the cheapest prosthetic heads ever seen on TV, the Gorn’s battle with Kirk is still forever burned into Trek lore.

22. Tholians

First appearance: star trek: the original series “the tholian web” (1968).

Get a load of these psychedelic xenophobes. Yeah, the Tholians might look like a funky black light album cover come to life, but, really, they are brutal, territorial, hateful, and will do anything to keep other species out of Tholian territory. But, hey, they are known for the punctuality, so take heart in the fact that, when they kill you, it’ll be done in a timely fashion.

The Tholians cruise around their sector of space in geometric rainbow ships, making the aesthetic of the race more Yes album cover and less cool space despots. The Tholians first encountered the crew of the Enterprise when the USS Defiant flew too close to Tholian space.

Always protective of their borders, the Tholians phased the Defiant out of real space and into an interspace dimension. Kirk himself was phased out of time and space (for Shatner, it wouldn’t be the first or last time this happened), but Spock and the Enterprise were able to get their captain back and pimp-slap the Tholians.

The Enterprise under Jonathan Archer also ran afoul of these crystalline killers. The Tholians are a great example that in space, threats can come in any shape and even rainbows can kill you.

21. Talaxians

First appearance: star trek: voyager “caretaker” (1995).

One of the friendlier species of the Delta Quadrant, the Talaxians — or more accurately, an individual member of the Talaxian species — was pivotal to Voyager’s survival during the years it spent trapped in the Delta Quadrant.

Talaxians became dispersed throughout the Delta Quadrant after a devastating war with the Haakonian Order. Talaxians had no real home world, but that did not break their spirits. Talaxians are a very spiritual, upbeat, and whimsical race that — when confronted with two unpleasant paths to take in life — will find a third, happier path to traverse. This spiritual ability to find light and hope in any circumstance made the Talaxian Neelix indispensable to the crew of the Voyager.

Neelix was the cook and morale officer aboard Voyager and helped his friends out of many spiritual and literal crises. Throughout its wanderings in the Delta Quadrant, Voyager encountered many Talaxians that were always willing to lend a hand. Sadly, many aggressive species like the Borg also targeted the peaceful Talaxians — but, like Neelix, the Talaxians always found that third path.

Keep going, because we’ve got more aliens for you!

20. Organians

First appearance: star trek: the original series “errand of mercy” (1967).

When Kirk, Spock, and the crew of the Enterprise first encounter the Organians, a non-distinct humanoid species, this new race appeared to be akin to an 18th century agrarian Earth society. Spock commented that his tricoder has more technology than the entirety of the Organians planet.

Sadly, the Organians home world became caught up in a war between the Federation and the Klingons. Kirk warned the Organians leaders that war was coming but the Organians were completely unconcerned… When the Klingons arrived and began to take Organians hostages, the Organians remained unconcerned — because, apparently, the Organians are millions of years more advanced than either Klingons or humans. The Organians mentally disabled the Klingon and Federation ships in orbit around their planet and calmly disarmed Kirk, Spock, and the Klingons.

The Organians have an advanced form of ESP and can predict future events. They also can possess the bodies of others. An Organian told Kirk that, one day, Klingons and humans would be friends — something ‘ol James T. couldn’t wrap his head around, but something Next Gen fans would know to be true. So here’s to the Organians, the Amish space gods of the galaxy.

19. The Traveler

First appearance: star trek: the next generation “where no one has gone before” (1987).

Now, let’s all be honest. Yeah, we love Wil Wheaton as he is truly nerd royalty and has done a great deal over the last few years as a sort of geek ambassador. But, real talk: no one really liked Wesley Crusher. We love Wesley’s mom, Dr. Beverly Crusher, but Wes was kind of the Jar Jar Binks of Star Trek . The Traveler freed us of all of that.

The Traveler is a member of a mysterious race of immensely powerful beings. The Traveler could transverse time, space, and heavenly bodies at will and could use his thoughts to manipulate nature and reality. The Traveler seemed to be second only to Q in terms of power and omnipotence.

When the Traveler first met ‘lil Wesley Crusher, he compared the lad to Mozart. This caused Captain Picard to promote Crusher to ensign. Later in his Starfleet career, Crusher began to have doubts about his lot in Starfleet. The Traveler convinced Crusher to leave Starfleet after Crusher began to develop powers similar to the Traveler.

As Crusher’s powers grew, the Traveler took him on as protégé, teaching the former ensign how to best use his vast powers to help the galaxy. Wesley left the Enterprise with the Traveler as his very own Yoda and, for this, Trek fans hold a great debt to the Traveler as he freed us from the oft times insipid Crusher.

You know, looking back, I wouldn’t mind a novel or two explaining what happened to Crusher later in life. So, I guess we can give the Traveler credit for not only freeing us from Wesley, but also for making Bev’s boy into an interesting part of the Star Trek universe.

18. Crystalline Entity

First appearance: star trek: the next generation: “datalore” (1988).

The Crystalline Entity is basically the Galactus of the Star Trek  universe. The Entity is a giant, electromagnetic engine of cosmic death that lives to consume organic matter. It goes from planet to planet, absorbing all organic matter and leaving dry husks of death behind. A Crystalline Entity destroyed the outpost where Commander Data was created, essentially making Data an intergalactic android orphan.

Despite its destructive power, the Crystalline Entity is a beautiful sight: huge and multi-faceted, colorful and shimmering — frankly, an artist’s dream. But, behind the beauty, lies a bite that can lay waste to entire species.

This giant snowflake of death was pivotal in the origins of Data and is one of the most feared species in the entire galaxy. There are other Crystalline Entities out there in the void of space, but, thankfully, encounters with them are very rare. As of yet, no Crystalline Entity has been seen hanging out with a silver guy on a surfboard… but we remain hopeful.

17. Betazoid

First appearance: star trek: the next generation “encounter at farpoint” (1987).

For seven seasons and a handful of films, Star Trek fans got to know a very special Betazoid: Counselor Deanna Troi. Troi was an exemplary member of the Betazoid race — a mostly peaceful people that possess empathic and telepathic powers.

Most Betazoids, including Troi, use their powers for the benefit of others. The Enterprise was saved many times thanks to Troi and her fantastic abilities as she served with honor and distinction about the Federation flagship. Betazoids are indistinguishable for humans except for their all black irises. It’s a very cool thought that there is a race of Charles Xaviers in the Star Trek  universe and, with more Star Trek coming our way soon, let us hope we have the honor to meet more Betazoids.

Fun fact: Gene Roddenberry wanted the Betazoid women to have four breasts. Can you imagine trying to take Troi seriously with four breasts? Thankfully, Roddenberry was talked out of this silliness and the Enterprise’s resident Betazoid counselor became the stuff of Trek legend.

16. Talosians

First appearance: star trek pilot “the cage” (1965).

You know we had to include the first aggressive alien species ever encountered in a Trek episode. And, yes, we’ll get this out of the way quickly: the Talosians’ heads look like asses. We know. ‘Ol fanny foreheads. Butt heads. Get it all out of your system. Okay, done? Good.

The Talosians were the sole survivors of a nuclear holocaust. The remaining Talosians manifested the power to create illusions. These beings grew addicted to the illusions and abandoned technology. Like the Lotus Eaters of old, their existence was now tied to their narcotic-like illusions. Soon, the Talosians grew bored. The buttheads lured alien races to their planet and fed off the psyche of their victims.

Captain Pike of the Enterprise and his science officer Spock were drawn to the Talosian home world. The Talosians tempted the Federation officers with everything they could desire, but — through the minds of both men — the Talosians learned that humans hated captivity. The Talosians showed compassion and let Pike and Spock go. Later, Spock would return to the Talosian planet after Pike was left paralyzed. The Talosians once again showed compassion as they allowed the broken Pike to live his life on the planet.

The Talosian story ends sweetly, but just remember that, somewhere in the galaxy, there are siren-like, androgynous aliens (the male Talosians were actually played by female actors), ready to lore victims into a life of captivity. The Talosians were Trek’s first encountered, named alien species and they are also some of the most memorable as these illusion-casting humanoids set the standard for all Trek species going forward. Not bad for a bunch of ass-heads.

15. Vorta

First appearance: star trek: deep space nine “the jem’hadar” (1994).

The Vorta were genetically bred by the Founders to be the perfect military commanders and strategists of the Dominion. Vorta are sly, cunning, and corrupt. Try to imagine an entire species of Littlefingers and you get the idea.

In addition to the strategic acumen baked into Vorta DNA by the Founders, Vorta are also programmed to believe that the Founders are gods — and the Vorta serve their gods in all things. The Vorta created the Jem’Hadar and could clone themselves so the Dominion would never be without its master strategists for long. Even after death.

But, like the Jem’Hadar, the Vorta were programmed to serve. Upon capture or defeat, a Vorta was programmed to commit suicide, and during the Dominion War, many Vorta pulled the trigger on their own demise. The Vorta was one of the most cunning and immoral races Starfleet ever faced, even if the immorality was inserted into their genetic makeup by another species.

14. Xindi

First appearance: star trek: enterprise “the expanse” (2003).

The Xindi are a collective of six subspecies — avian, arboreal, primate, reptilian, insect, and aquatic — that form a single race. As a whole, the Xindi posed a great threat to the early Federation.

The Xindi worship a race known as the Sphere Builders and, when this mysterious race warns the Xindi that they will be involved in a war with Earth, the Xindi preemptively strike, killing millions of humans. Jonathan Archer and his crew take the fight to the Xindi who provide the first crew of the Enterprise its greatest challenge.

The Xindi was one of the first warnings to humanity that not every race is benevolent as the six races of this advanced culture reined death upon an Earth that was still getting used to the idea of contact with alien life.

13. Trill

First appearance: star trek: the next generation “the host” (1991).

Trills are an advanced species of humanoid that are passionate and kind in most of their dealings. Some Trills are joined with wise Symbiotes that chose different member of the Trill species with which to share a mutual bond. The Symbiotes retain the personalities and memories of each host and pass these aspects on to the new hosts.

The first Trill Trek fans encountered was named Odan. Odan quickly struck up a romance with Dr. Beverly Crusher and, when Odan was tragically killed, the Symbiote was moved into the body of William Riker. Riker had long been friend-zoned by Crusher, so this began one of the most awkward romances in Trek history.

It also gave fans the legacy of the Trill, a legacy that continued into Deep Space Nine with the beloved Jadzia Dax. Through Dax, fans learned about almost every aspect of Trill life. It was a fascinating meditation of duality, sexuality, and identity and the character of Jadzia Dax was almost a dozen disparate characters in one. When Jadzia was lost, the Symbiote moved into Ezri Dax, a wonderful new character that continued the exploration into what it is like being many beings at once.

12. Tribbles

First appearance: star trek: the original series “the trouble with tribbles” (1967).

They’re fuzzy, they squeak, they can be deadly — who doesn’t love Tribbles? Ask any casual fan to name a Trek alien, and there’s a good chance Mr. Joe on the street guy will say Tribbles because these bundles of fur are just that darn famous.

“Trouble with Tribbles” — The Original Series  installment that first introduced these puff balls — allowed Shatner, Nimoy, and company to really flex their comedy chops. But, when you break down the threat the Tribbles represented, they actually are pretty terrifying… Imagine a species that reproduces so fast, a ship can be suffocating on the things in a matter of days. That’s a bit more Giger than Pokemon.

Despite the threat, the Tribbles also brought the laughs to generations of fans. Of course, the Tribbles were revisited in the classic DS9 episode “Trials and Tribble-ations” and also played a major role in the recent film Star Trek: Into Darkness . To quote a great man from a rival space franchise: “Not bad for a little fuzzball.”

11. Jem’Hadar

One of the greatest and most efficiently deadly militaries the galaxy have ever seen, the foot soldiers of the Dominion — the Jem’Hadar — are also one of the more tragic species that can be found in the Trekverse.

Jem’Hadar reach maturity in the span of about three days. They are genetically programmed to be the perfect galactic foot soldier by their masters, the Vorta. To insure control, the Vorta have withheld an essential enzyme from the Jem’Hadar genetic makeup. This enzyme is supplied to the Jem’Hadar in the form of The White, a liquid that the Jem’Hadar has filtered into their systems through a tube in their necks. Essentially, Jem’Hadar are drug-addicted soldiers unleashed upon the galaxy.

The Jem’Hadar were the main Dominion force that laid siege to Deep Space Nine during the Dominion War and were nearly unstoppable. The need for The White was a religion to the Jem’Hadar, who became one of the most feared species in any quadrant.

Jem’Hadar are incredibly resilient and possess keen minds that help them plan for battles. Despite all this, most Jem’Hadar die very young due to the fact that they are essentially cannon fodder for the Dominion. Yet, the Jem’Hadar value duty and loyalty above all else as they embrace their lot as pawns of the Dominion. All for The White.

The Top 10 Star Trek aliens await on the next page!

10. Changeling

First appearance: star trek: deep space nine “the emissary” (1993).

As we all know, life in the Trek universe can take many and varied forms. One of the most profoundly different races of the Trek galaxy are the Changelings, a race of intelligent liquid-based shape shifters that reshaped the political climate of the galaxy with the same ease that they reshape their bodies.

The Changelings were also known as The Founders and were the puppet masters behind the Dominion War. From their wormhole homeworld, the Changelings manipulated the universe. The Founders used entire races like chess pieces showing the Federation and its enemies that there are beings that exist within and behind the galaxy that are willing to go any lengths for power.

But not all Changelings were adversarial. Through Odo, Trek fans saw another side to this fascinating species. Odo was the constable aboard DS9 , a by-the-books cop who went to any lengths (literally) to solve crimes. He was a defender of his Federation friends, particularly Kira Nerys the woman he learned to love. When the Founders merged their liquid forms with Odo, they learned about humanity, and his love and bravery spread even to the hidden spaces of the galaxy.

Plus, The Changelings are an alien species that can easily disguise themselves as furniture. You can’t teach that!

9. Andorians

First appearance: star trek: the original series “journey to babel” (1968).

The Andorians are an aggressive yet advanced race that was one of the first alien races that formed the original Federation of Planets with humanity.

The Andorians have distinctive blue skin, white hair, and two protruding antennae. The blue skinned humanoids have an advanced armada and a long history of conflict with the Vulcans. This conflict was put aside as Andorians entered into the Federation and, with it, decades of peace. But peace wasn’t easy, as seen in Star Trek: Enterprise,  in which Federation Captain Archer and Andorian Captain Thy’lek Shran developed an adversarial relationship that, thankfully, culminated in a friendship based on mutual respect.

The Andorians are more than a bit xenophobic as they refer to humans and Vulcans as “pink skins” and have a long standing mistrust of everything not Andorian. In fact, the Andorians don’t even trust their offshoot race, the very rarely encountered, white-skinned, psychic Aenar.

Enterprise is a bit unfairly-maligned by some Trekkers, but it will always be the show that took the Andorians from background characters to a narratively-explored race with deep contradictions. Of course, I need to mention that the Andorian was also one of the final Trek dolls Mego produced. It is very sparkly.

8. Ferengi

First appearance: star trek: the next generation “the last outpost” (1987).

I would  tell you some facts about the Ferengi, but I’d have to charge you about ten bars of (snarl, drool) gold-pressed latinum first. Because that’s what drives the Ferengi race: cold, hard, glimmering, wonderful cash-money.

By the time fans met the crew of the Kirk’s Enterprise, most races in the galaxy had abandoned cash-based economies to focus on the improvement of science and technology for all beings. But not the Ferengi. These big-eared, fanged critters utilize science and technology to procure cash and heaven help any sentients that stand in their way.

Fans first me the Ferengi in Next Gen as the greedy race of miscreants became the first real adversaries Picard’s crew had to face. The Ferengi in Next Gen were vile and greedy, sort of like spacefaring Daffy Ducks. But, in Deep Space Nine , fans were introduced to Quark, Rom, Nog, and other Ferengi that had a streak of nobility. Oh, they were still as greedy as they come, but this Ferengi family, saved the DS9 space station more than once. Heck, Nog even became the first Ferengi to serve in Starfleet.

In DS9 , fans learned many of the finer points of Ferengi culture. For example, Ferengi women aren’t allowed to wear clothes. In addition to their odd dress codes, the Ferengi live by the Rules of Acquisition, an almost religious text that teaches the Ferengi the best ways to make money. Quark constantly had to choose between loyalty to his friends and his Ferengi impulses for cash and this often humorous double nature led to some fun dramas.

But, if you have a piece of latinum in your pocket, be warned that there are many Ferengi out there who would kill for it because that is the Ferengi way.

7. Romulans

First appearance: star trek: the original series “balance of terror” (1966).

All sentient races in the galaxy have a good, healthy fear of the Romulans — and with good reason. In many ways, the Romulans are like the anti-Vulcans. In fact, Romulans are an offshoot of the Vulcan race. Centuries ago, the Romulans rejected the Vulcan idea of repression of emotions and struck out on their own, finally settling on the twin planets Romulus and Remus and forging an empire.

Where Vulcans are cold, collected, and benevolent, Romulans are fiery, aggressive, and often power hungry. This passionate need to conquer led to the Earth/Romulan war, the first time humanity experienced total war on an intergalactic scale. Earth was eventually victorious and, during the conflict, no human ever actually saw a Romulan. Years later, it was the crew of the Enterprise that actually saw what Romulans looked like and it was Mr. Spock that postulated a common ancestry between Vulcans and Romulans.

The Romulans were based on the aggressiveness and culture of the Roman Empire, which is seen through the race’s military aggression and clothing. Despite years of ill will, the Romulans sided with the Federation in the Dominion War. A Romulan also changed reality, as fans of the new Trek films know…

A Romulan named Nero used a Red Matter device to destroy Romulus and punch a hole in time and space. Nero then went back in time and destroyed the USS Kelvin, causing a new reality to splinter off from the original Trek timeline — a reality Trek fans are currently enjoying in films.

Romulans have touched every part of Trek history and have even created a huge amount of it. They continue to serve as a counterpoint to the Vulcans and their name brings fear and respect throughout the Trek galaxy.

If you can imagine God in the Star Trek   universe, you understand Q. Q isn’t a kind god or an emotionally-distant god, hungry for worship. Q is a curious god that wants to test the intelligent races of the galaxy — particularly Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the Enterprise.

Q is a member of The Q, a race of omnipotent beings that observe the universe from afar and interfere in the lives of mortals when it suits their whims. The Q are a force of nature, appearing when and where they want to bring gifts or utter destruction to lesser beings. It all depends on a Q’s whims. Q became a sometimes-ally, sometimes-antagonist to the crew of the Enterprise and even popped up on DS9 and Voyager . (And, really, how awesome would it be to see Q pop into J.J. Abrams’ Kelvin Universe?)

Q is everywhere and everything. Wherever Q went, great storytelling followed — mostly because of the deeply complex and often comedic relationship between Q and Picard. Whether it was TV, comics, or novels (most notably the eminently readable Q Continuum trilogy by Greg Cox), The Q’s force of nature omnipotence have made them one of the most feared and gloriously divine species in the Trek universe. Yes, in Trek, Q definitely stood for quality.

5. Bajorans

First appearance: star trek: the next generation “ensign ro” (1991).

It is apropos that the Bajorans and Cardassians are so close on this list because the two races are forever linked in the mind of Trek fans. Trekkers first met the Bajoran through Enterprise Ensign Ro Laren, a fiery and ultra-capable young Starfleet cadet.

Ro had everything it took to get ahead in Starfleet. She was loyal, dedicated, brilliant, and strong willed. Yet, the past of her people, the Bajorans, was filled with so much tragedy. The loyalty to her race led Ro away from Starfleet and into the waiting arms of the Marquis, a group that abandoned Starfleet to form a renegade fleet of rebels dissatisfied with Federation doctrine.

Ro’s discontent was expanded upon by the inclusion of the Bajorans in Deep Space Nine . In DS9 , fans learnt of the suffering that the Bajorans were forced to endure at the hands of the Cardassians. Bajorans were a race of freedom fighters, a highly scientific and artistic race that had to embrace militarism and xenophobia in order to survive.

In DS9 , fans learned almost every aspect of the Bajoran race. What began with Ro continued the Kira Nerys, the second in command of the Deep Space Nine space station and a woman who would do anything to keep her people free and punish her former oppressors.

DS9 introduced many Bajoran notables in its many seasons, and not all of them were benevolent. Of all the races introduced in Star Trek , the Bajorans might be the most tragically human as they had to see their own darkness in order to survive the unthinkable in order to survive the Cardassians.

4. Cardassians

First appearance: star trek: the next generation “the wounded” (1991).

Nowhere in the Trek universe have there been a race more troubling, more complex, and more narratively-interesting race than the Cardassians. Fans first met the lizard like, leathery Cardassians in the Next Gen episode entitled “The Wounded,” in which the martial struggle between the Cardassians and the Bajoran was introduced.

The Cardassians were first seen as Nazi-like war criminals that committed a horrible genocide against the Bajoran people. The anger against the Cardassians, amongst other points of discontent, caused a large segment of Bjorn sympathizers to break off from the Federation and form the Marquis.

Cardassians warred with both the Federation and the Klingon Empire and took both fleets to the absolute limits. When the Cardassian/Bjorn conflict ended with the Bajoran victorious, it was up to the Federation to help the galaxy heal. The Federation set up the Deep Space Nine space station to oversee this transition of power as Cardassians began to be tried for war crimes that were simply unthinkable in such an enlightened galaxy. 

At this time, fans met Gul Dukat and Garak. Garak in particular demonstrated that there was more to the Cardassians than violence. He became a DS9 wildcard who, for the most part, was loyal to peace and harmony.

However, both Garak and former Cardassian military leader Gul Dukat had spilled their fair share of blood and the Cardassians began to stand-in for any race that committed genocide. Parallels were drawn not only to the Nazis but to Imperialistic Europe and to America’s treatment of indigenous peoples as well.

The Cardassians were a difficult mirror to look into because they exposed many societal flaws of the contemporary world. Through rich, powerfully crafted characters like Garak, Trek reminds viewers that in all species, there is the capacity for tremendous good and unthinkable evil.

3. Borg

First appearance: star trek: the next generation “q who” (1989).

Throughout Trek history, the wonderful men and women who have crafted stories for Star Trek have often reminded fans that space can be a cruel and terrible place — but no race has represented the horrors of the Final Frontier more than the Borg.

The Borg is a race of cyborg drones that share a hive mind. Their only aim is to assimilate the universe and make all Borg. Borg are mindless automatons that answer to the Borg Queen and the Collective. They are unstoppable and fiercely efficient. The Borg roam the galaxy in their distinctive Borg Cubes and, when they encounter any organic race, that race is forcibly assimilated into the Borg. All hopes, history, art, passion, and individuality become part of the Collective while the individual becomes a living weapon, a husk dedicated only to the Borg. Famously, Jean-Luc Picard fell to the Borg and was transformed into Locutus. As Locutus, Picard came an eyelash away from assimilating the Enterprise.

Later, through characters like Hugh Borg and Seven of Nine, some humanity was given to the Borg. Hugh was an injured Borg healed by Picard’s crew, while Seven of Nine broke her programming and served on Voyager. Through both characters, more and more history was revealed about the Borg. Fans even got to meet the Borg Queen in the film Star Trek: First Contact  — and what an H.R. Giger nightmare that was.

Throughout the decades, Star Trek has been the most hopeful of sci-fi franchises. Trek is infused with humankind’s potential for greatness and a hope for an enlightened future. The Borg serve as a reminder that technology can lead to paradise, yes, but it can also lead to a cold future of pure horror where individuality is worthless and resistance is futile.

2. Klingons

When we first met the Klingons, they were classically humanoid aliens that mirrored the worst of humanity. In the earliest Klingon appearances, Klingon society was portrayed as brutal and despotic. They were slave masters that would do anything to crush any opposition.

The Klingons were constant threats. At times, the Klingons seemed to be analogous to the Nazi Third Reich. In other instances, they resembled Communist Russia. But whatever real world nightmare the Klingons represented at any given moment, whenever a Klingon Bird of Prey warped into a confrontation with the Enterprise, fans know that intense action would follow.

When the Klingons returned in Star Trek: The Motion Picture , this brutal race’s appearance was altered. Suddenly, Klingons were shown to have deep forehead ridges and a more bestial appearance. The real reason this was done was because Trek now had a budget, but there has never been an in story reason for the Klingon alteration. This just adds to the mystique of the Klingon race.

Klingons take the next step of their story evolution in Star Trek: The Next Generation . Now, a Klingon served on the bridge of the Enterprise, and it could be argued that this Klingon — Mr. Worf — was the very model of what a Starfleet officer should be. Through Worf, Next Gen explored every aspect of Klingon culture and made it more like a race of honorable technologically-advanced Vikings or Mongols than an analogy to fascism. That exploration continued into Deep Space Nine and, through the half Klingon-half human engineer B’Elanna Torres, onto Voyager .

There is an actual a Klingon language that exists in the real world. A whole freakin’ language has been created inspired by these honorable and violent warriors of the cosmos. So, raise a glass of Klingon Warnog, grab your Bat’leth, and salute the Klingons — a race that started out as typical villains, but evolved into one of the most engaging and inspiring races in the galaxy.

1. Vulcans

Is there any race in genre fiction more beloved than the Vulcans? This race of logic-driven, emotionless, pointy-eared people have defined the Star Trek experience since day one.

In the Star Trek pilot, “The Cage,” the world was introduced to science officer Spock, a cold, calculating yet brave and benevolent alien who loyally assisted his captain. Fifty years later, Spock is still the strong right hand of the Enterprise. The Vulcan’s lack of emotion serves as a perfect narrative contrast to human nature, with the interactions and differences between Spock, McCoy, and Kirk as the beating heart of Trek since Roddenberry first put pen to paper.

But the wonder of the Vulcans don’t end with Spock. Over the decades — through countless books, films, TV episodes, and comics — many Vulcans have taken center stage and have, in the words of the most famous Vulcan of them all, fascinated fans for generations…

There has been Sarek, Spock’s father who dared to follow his emotions and take a human wife. There has been Tuvok, the brave and able Vulcan officer who served on Voyager. There has been T’Pol, the sometimes cold but always loyal commander that served as the first officer of the first Enterprise. By being so alien, all these characters and so many more have shown the world what it means to be human.

Trek lore has delved deeply into Vulcan history, creating one of most fully-functioning and detailed fictional worlds in all of sci-fi. Sadly, in the latest set of Trek films, Vulcan has fallen and this magnificent race is endangered. But take heart that Spock, Vulcan and Earth’s favorite son, is endeavoring to rebuild the race that has long made Star Trek so awesome.

Marc Buxton

Marc Buxton is an English teacher/private tutor by day,and a super-hyper-uber geek by night. Marc spent six years on the frontlines as a comic retailer before…

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Published Mar 17, 2021

Defining Alien Names, From Cardassian to Vulcan

Check out the history and real world connections behind the names

StarTrek.com

In the 1990s, American pop culture did not have many references to my parents’ native India. James Bond went to India, once. Indiana Jones, too. But those movies were already a decade old. Star Trek would occasionally drop an Indian name or cameo. Narendra III. Khan Noonien Singh. Lal. Vijay Amritraj, the tennis player, was almost lost to the whale probe. But that movie, too, was a decade old.

And so when Deep Space Nine began airing, my father got a chuckle out of the Jem’Hadar.

What did these dour alien soldiers, so desperately in need of moisturizer, have to do with India? As far as I could tell, nothing. In fact, my mother was more excited to see Salli Elise Richardson play Commander Sisko’s love interest, after mistaking her for an Indian actress. Then my father explained it to me: In the old days, jemadars were junior officers in the British Indian Army.

To me, this unlocked an entirely new dimension of Star Trek . It was a universe under the universe, literally subspace. I always took Star Trek to be a fully formed creation, transmitted wholesale from Hollywood to my living room. I never quite appreciated that writers and producers were making it up as they went along, day after day, looking for inspiration wherever it may be found.

Star Trek ’s alien empires were not named by punching random keys on the keyboard. But neither was there a single-minded, Tolkien-esque effort to map the galaxy.

A Timeline Through the Star Trek Universe

In the years that followed, I pieced together real-world stories behind alien names. It was just the sort of trivia that stuck with me. The Indian words were easy. For other species, I figured it out from different sources. David Alexander’s Star Trek Creator: The Unauthorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry was a brick of a book that I received as a birthday present. Stephen Edward Poe’s A Vision of the Future – Star Trek: Voyager , at least, had a soft cover. Beyond that were DVD commentaries, the old Star Trek: Communicator magazine, and (once it was invented) Google. On occasion, I even figured it out from what I learned in school. How else was anyone supposed to learn about Roman mythology?

These were my findings:

Contrary to a lot of speculation in the 21st Century, “Cardassian” was not a reference to the Kardashians. The Cardassian species first appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1991, four years before Robert Kardashian served on O.J. Simpson’s defense team, and 16 years before Keeping Up With the Kardashians debuted.

So what was the origin of the name? Star Trek: The Next Generation writer Jeri Taylor realized her original name for the species, “Circassian,” was a real ethnic group (from the Caucasus region of Asia, near Turkey). So she tweaked the name by playing with the sounds. Interestingly enough, the surname “Kardashian” is Turkish or Armenian in origin.

This is an SAT vocabulary word, defined as the territory of a sovereign. Notably, the British Empire referred to its self-governing territories as dominions (and the jemadar being the muscle of the dominion suddenly made a lot more sense). In Star Trek: Deep Space Nin e, the Dominion was the rare galactic power not named after a particular alien race. The Dominion was intended to be an anti-Federation, a distorted reflection of the Federation made up of numerous species. So it was fitting that, just as the Federation had a common name, so did the Dominion.

StarTrek.com has previously discussed the Ferengi name , with farangi being the Persian word for “foreigner.” I found this curious, as firangi is also a Hindi word ascribed to Western foreigners. As it turns out, the Hindi word has its roots in the Persian word, which has its roots in the Middle East’s exposure to Frankish traders during the Middle Ages. The Franks became the farangi, who became the firangi. In the 1980s, Gene Roddenberry used the name for Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s newest villains.

As previously mentioned, jemadar was a rank for junior commissioned officers during the British Raj. The word is Urdu in origin, used in other contexts to describe leaders or officials. In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , the Jem’Hadar were one species of the Dominion, bred as foot soldiers. However, the name was not meant to draw a direct comparison to jemadars. Writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe recalled developing the species, and simply looking up “soldier” in the thesaurus.

Fitting with American social anxieties of the 1990s, the Kazon’s infighting factions were intended to draw allusions to street gangs. Their original name, however, was slightly different: Gazon. The producers of Star Trek: Voyager changed the name to avoid drawing a comparison to another news topic of the time: the Gaza Strip in the Middle East.

The Klingon language is one of the most famous fictional languages, and volumes have been written about the Klingons as an allegory for the Soviet Union. Less well known is the real-world story behind the name.The Klingon species was named after Wilbur Lee Clingan, Gene Roddenberry’s former colleague in the Los Angeles Police Department. Star Trek was not Clingan’s only brush with show business: He also served as a consultant for the 1960s police procedural show Dragnet . In early Star Trek episodes, some characters pronounced the name closer to “kling-in” than “kling-on,” in line with its origin.

When Gene Roddenberry needed to extend Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s pilot episode to two hours, he devised Q, the omnipotent trickster from a race also known as the Q. Similar to naming the Klingons after someone he knew, he named Q after Janet Quarton, former president of the UK-based fan club Star Trek Action Group.

Romulan and Reman

In Roman mythology, Romulus and Remus were twin brothers who founded the city of Rome. In Star Trek , the characterization of the Romulans and Remans nearly broke the fourth wall, with references to centurions, proconsuls, praetors, and a senate. Quite literally, the “Romulan Star Empire” was just a syllable away from the “Roman Star Empire.” Until I realized this, I never fully appreciated that Captain Kirk was fighting Romans in Space!

This one I caught immediately as a child, as I watched Star Trek: Insurrection in the theater. Sona is a Hindi word meaning “gold.”

The villainous Son’a (who, like the Jem’Hadar, could benefit from a better skin care regimen) had little to do with gold — notwithstanding the warm colors of the film. Some of the most memorable images from Insurrection were the gold-foiled collector ship of the Son’a, and the churning ambers and reds of the Briar Patch.

Just as the villains of Star Trek: Voyager reflected the 1990s, the villains of Enterprise reflected the 2000s. When developing the series, producer Rick Berman named the Suliban after the Taliban, drawing on his personal experience as a documentarian in Afghanistan.

The Vaadwaur looked to be recurring villains in the later seasons of Star Trek: Voyager , but ultimately they caused trouble in just a single episode. Their calling card was the use of subspace tunnels to travel incredible distances, and to appear and to vanish without warning. In Hindi, vah dvaar best translates to “that door.” Had the Vaadwaur become recurring villains, I wondered if their subspace tunnels would have been the door to get Voyager home.

Vulcan is another character from Roman mythology, this time the god of fire. “Vulcan” was also the name given to an apocryphal planet in the 19th century, a hellish world believed to be closer than Mercury to the Sun. Although the name did not align with the cool demeanor of Mr. Spock, it did fit his unbearably hot homeworld.

As I compiled this list for StarTrek.com, I confirmed I was not crazy: There was an Indian influence in Star Trek . What was going on? Western science fiction tended to draw from Western mythology, but Hindi words? The British Raj?

In researching, I learned the doomed Narendra III outpost was named after Naren Shankar, an Indian-American writer who worked on multiple Star Trek series. Meanwhile, Gene Roddenberry’s naming of the Ferengi carried weight in cultures spanning the breadth of Asia. The Jem’Hadar’s name came from the thesaurus.

Star Trek , as I have learned over and over, is not a singular vision. It is a sandbox, in which generations of creative minds have left behind themes, coincidences, and happy accidents. As viewers jump into the sandbox, there is no wrong way to play.

Nitesh Srivastava (he/him) is a writer and marketer who lives in Des Plaines, Illinois. You can find him on Twitter at @niteshsrivastav

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• Why Aliens Are So Important to <i>Star Trek</i>

Why Aliens Are So Important to Star Trek

Excerpted from TIME’s Star Trek: Inside the Most Influential Science-Fiction Series Ever . Available at retailers and at Amazon.com .

Since the time of the Greek philosopher Anaximander, humans have gazed up at the heavens and wondered: Is anyone else out there? For some, the idea that we might be the most advanced beings in all of creation offers a sense of supremacy. Others find it a lonely thought.

Reality has yet to offer a conclusive answer one way or the other, leaving our imaginations to run wild. If aliens do exist, what might they look like? How would they behave? And crucially: Would they be friend or foe? Thinkers no less great than the physicist Stephen Hawking have warned of the latter possibility. “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans,” Hawking remarked in a 2010 documentary on the subject.

Thankfully for the curious among us, science-fiction writers have stepped up to fill our imaginations with myriad possibilities.

Their creations have extended far beyond the archetypical “little green men.” H.G. Wells’s 1898 War of the Worlds, widely hailed as an exemplar of the genre, gave us terrifying Martian invaders and their tripodal death machines. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) offered Klaatu, who visited Earth to urge humanity to end our warlike ways. And of course there was E.T., the disarmingly cute alien simply in need of a ride home.

But nothing in science fiction has contributed to the depth of the extraterrestrial encyclopedia like Star Trek. From the Bajorans (a proud people struggling to recover from another species’s hostile occupation of their world) to the Tamarians (a seemingly incomprehensible race that turns out to communicate through mythology and metaphor), Star Trek’s writers have dreamed up nearly 300 different alien species and counting, according to the fan website Memory Alpha. And that’s just the humanoids.

How can one franchise spawn so many aliens—and so many memorable ones, at that? Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. Science fiction typically uses spaceships, death rays and time travel as devices to offer ominous warnings about the ways humanity can go awry. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry flipped that script, introducing to a 1960s audience a future in which an interated cast of humans (and, just to drive the point home, one actual alien) work together to better understand their universe.

That utopian vision was essential to Trek’s DNA, but it was also a tremendous challenge for one group of people: Star Trek writers, who faced the daunting task of writing stories in which the main characters all got along just fine.

“Gene was very big on not wanting to create conflict among the characters on the show,” says Rick Berman, who led the Star Trek franchise after Roddenberry died in 1991 until 2005 and produced several series and feature films. “He felt that humans, especially Starfleet humans, had evolved to a point where he didn’t want to see conflict between them.”

Yet conflict is at the core of all great storytelling. So if the Enterprise crew couldn’t squabble with one another, Star Trek writers had to find friction elsewhere. Aliens came to the rescue. “Often we were telling stories of how humans had progressed, or not, in the far reaches of space,” says longtime Star Trek writer D.C. Fontana. “But sometimes the theme of the tale was better told by demonstrating how aliens approached or solved problems, or how they failed.”

Things got off to a rocky start. Putting aside Spock—a full-fledged member of the Enterprise crew—the first extraterrestrial to appear on Star Trek was a C-list monster that could have been pulled from any bad ’50s sci-fi flick. A shape-shifter with a serious salt craving, the nameless creature killed off Enterprise crew members by sucking the sodium out of them. The so-called “salt vampire” wasn’t a big hit. Thankfully, matters improved from there.

Humans are complex creatures, capable of being logical, tactical, aggressive, greedy and lustful all in a single one-hour episode. But Star Trek aliens are typically guided by one prime mover. Often it is some trait shared by many people. A desire for conquest, perhaps, or the pursuit of wealth or the urge to protect one’s offspring. That made them a thinly veiled stand-in for whatever driving force they represented, giving the writers a way to craft stories that were less about aliens and more about us. Simply put, Star Trek aliens are a mirror in which we see the best and worst of ourselves—and one in which we see that we’re not as different from one another as we might think.

“The concept of having aliens on a week- to-week basis, sometimes new, sometimes ones that the audience was familiar with, gave the writers the ability to represent all the different qualities of humanity,” says Berman. “Whether it’s avarice or whether it’s a hive-like mentality or whether it’s emotions or whether it’s a desire to be more human, these were all qualities that the aliens allowed us to play with. We could not have done the show without that.”

Case in point: In the third-season Next Generation episode “The Survivors,” Capt. Jean-Luc Picard and his crew find a couple who appear to be the only survivors of an attack on a Federation colony. But when they are offered safe harbor aboard the Enterprise, they refuse, insisting they be left where they were found. It’s an odd request, given their situation. A series of other strange happenings, such as a warship appearing to drive the Enterprise away from the planet, convinces Picard that something is amiss with the pair, who are named Kevin and Rishon Uxbridge. Picard is eventually able to trick Kevin into revealing the truth: he’s not a human but a member of an all-powerful species called the Douwd. Kevin admits that he created a fictional version of Rishon after she was killed in an attack by a murderous race called the Husnock. What’s more, Kevin, who considers himself a pacifist, reveals that in his rage over losing his wife, he killed the Husnock. And not just the Husnock who attacked his world but all of them, everywhere in the universe.

Kevin’s reaction is perfectly “human.” Who hasn’t wished ill will on those who do us wrong? The difference, of course, is that Kevin has the power to satisfy his rage to a horrific extent. Picard, typically motivated by justice, admits that the Federation has “no law to fit” Kevin’s crime, instead letting him live in exile on the planet. The captain concludes, “We leave behind a being of extraordinary power and conscience. I am not certain if he should be praised or condemned. Only that he should be left alone.”

With the possible exception of Spock and the rest of the Vulcans, Star Trek’s best-known aliens are the Klingons. A ruthless warrior race obsessed with battle and honor, the Klingons originally served as a two-dimensional foil for Kirk and company. Many have viewed them as a bellicose stand-in for the great space-race enemy of the original series’ era, the Soviet Union. But so popu- lar have the Klingons become over the decades that theirs is the most widely spoken fictional language in the world, according to Guinness World Records. (Take that, Lord of the Rings fans.) There’s even an ongoing copyright battle over who owns the Klingon language, which has generated some of the more entertaining legal briefs of our time.

At least some of the credit for that popularity is due to actor Michael Dorn, who played the Klingon bridge officer Worf in The Next Generation. That series took the original, more-cartoonish Klingons and gave them depth and relatability. Klingons, as it turns out, are a lot like us. The Klingons are warmongers, like some humans. The Klingons are obsessed with rituals, like some humans. The Klingons are driven by a fierce dedication to their family, like some humans. One of Star Trek’s best Klingon stories came in “Sins of the Father,” a third-season Next Generation episode in which Worf’s late father is accused of treason. As much as it pains him to do so, Worf decides to shoulder the blame in accordance with Klingon custom, despite his father’s innocence, a move that will help preserve the Klingon Empire’s political status quo and keep the empire from spiraling into chaos that could ultimately harm millions. It’s a deeply human story, a meditation on family pride as much as it is a revealing look into the intricacies of Klingon politics.

If the Klingons were Star Trek’s original villains, the Borg were the show’s best. A technologically advanced race of cyborgs, the Borg are bound together into a hive mind called “the Collective.” Just looking at the Borg, a terrifying hodgepodge of man and machine, is enough to send shivers down your spine. But the real terror lies in their motivation: intergalactic racial purity. When the Borg encounter a new species, they either add it to the Collective through forced “assimilation” or simply kill it off.

It’s unclear which is the worse fate. In part, Star Trek is a celebration of humanity’s individuality. The Borg are everything Trek’s humans are not: obedient, robotic, conformist. So great is the fear of assimilation that in the Star Trek film First Contact, an Enterprise crew member who’s going through the horrific process begs Capt. Picard to kill him out of mercy. Picard—who had once been assimilated himself but was saved in a daring rescue by his crew—obliges. “The concept of being assimilated was terrifying, because it seemed like you had no control over it and no ability to combat it,” says Jonathan Frakes, who played Star Trek’s Cdr. William T. Riker and directed First Contact as well as Star Trek: Insurrection.

The Borg, who first appeared in a 1989 episode of The Next Generation, are typically considered a commentary on fascism and racial cleansing. But in a sense, they are aliens posing questions we didn’t even realize we would soon be facing. Can we real-world humans be addicted to constant connectivity through our smartphones, as the Borg are to the Collective? (Cut a Borg off from the hive mind, and the alien’s nonplussed reaction is not unlike that of a teenager stripped of an iPhone.) Does social media give us a platform on which to connect with others to enhance our common understanding, or does it create a hive mind that rejects unpopular opinions, as does the Collective? Should we enhance our physical and mental capabilities with technological implants, as the Borg do? Watch the Borg stories with these pressing questions in mind, and they only become more fascinating.

Given the prominence of races like the Klingons and the Borg, it might seem as if Star Trek’s aliens are almost always villains. That’s far from the case. The greedy Ferengi, introduced early in The Next Generation, were intended as such at first. But fans considered them too silly to be a serious threat. Instead, the Ferengi soon turned into walking, breathing commentaries on the advantages and flaws of unbridled capitalism. If Donald Trump were a Star Trek alien, he would be a Ferengi. They’re driven entirely by making money; they always want the better part of the deal. (They also happen to be some of the most sexist creatures in Trek: they outright ban women from business, though their society undergoes reforms as their story line progresses.) These characteristics put them in stark contrast with Star Trek’s humans, who work not for money but “to better ourselves and the rest of humanity,” as Capt. Picard once put it.

Star Trek’s quintessential Ferengi was Quark, a seedy intergalactic businessman and bartender who was brought to life by actor Armin Shimerman in Deep Space Nine, the franchise’s third television series. Quark often quoted from “the Rules of Acquisition,” a sort of Ferengi guidebook that could double as Gordon Gekko’s personal manifesto. Example rules include “Never place friendship above profit,” “Never allow family to stand in the way of opportunity” and “War is good for business.” But Deep Space Nine’s writers went beyond using Quark as a mere punching bag for Wall Street. In the season-three episode “The House of Quark,” for instance, we see him use his business-like cunning to escape certain death in a duel with a Klingon. The lesson? Sometimes greed is good.

Star Trek writers were skilled at constantly adding depth to the aliens who reappeared through the series. Just as the Klingons’ belligerence was leavened with stories about their love of honor, the warlike Romulans turned out to be literally related to the Vulcans—a glimpse at Trek’s most logical race with the worked only in pairs, providing a lesson about the power of cooperation. And Star Trek: Voyager’s “Year of Hell” offered the history-alerting Annorax, who aimed to use his time weapon to restore his people’s empire to its former glory but killed his own wife in the process, revealing the cost of stubborn pride.

On one level, Star Trek is a science-fiction show about a group of intellectually enlightened humans exploring the far reaches of the galaxy, all to better their understanding of their world. But the show is really about us, back here in the present day, and the common ties that bind us. What better way to show us we’re all alike than through the lens of outsiders? “Aliens are really important in science fiction because they give a little distance character-wise and story-wise so that you can actually have stories about beauty and youth and racism, and on and on and on,” says John de Lancie, who played Star Trek’s godlike character Q. “It puts it on the character of an alien to be able to say things that sometimes you can’t say straight out. I think the aliens in Star Trek and the aliens in most science fiction have a lot of value in that respect.”

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About: List of Star Trek aliens

Star Trek is a science fiction media franchise that began with Gene Roddenberry's launch of the original Star Trek television series in 1966. Its success led to decades of films, novels, comics, and spinoff series. A major motif of the franchise involves encounters with various alien races throughout the galaxy. These fictional races are listed here. Noted Star Trek races include Vulcans, Klingons, and the Borg. Some aspects of these fictional races became well known in American pop culture, such as the Vulcan salute and the Borg phrase, "Resistance is futile."

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This beloved the walking dead character is much darker than fans realize, every hero in smallville's version of the justice league, ranked.

Star Trek has been one of American pop culture's biggest sci-fi franchises for sixty years now. Fans have thrilled to the adventures of the intrepid officers of Starfleet and the many aliens they've encountered, as the show found a way to mix action, science, and thoughtful storytelling. One of the best parts of the show is the way it used its alien races to talk about modern humanity and create characters that challenged fans' views of the Federation.

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Over the years, many of these alien races have been fleshed out and become huge parts of the franchise. The best of them have captured the imaginations of fans for decades.

10 The Jem'Hadar Are More Interesting Than They Seem

At first, the Jem'Hadar seemed like another stereotypical warrior race to act as the foot soldiers of the Dominion, and this was basically true. However, fans were surprised by how complex they could be every time any spotlight was put on the genetically engineered soldiers. A race of honorable warriors whose faith was used against them, the tragedy of the Jem'Hadar made them interesting.

While there weren't too many Jem'Hadar centric episodes, the few that were produced made an impact on fans. They're an underrated race in the Star Trek mythos, one that is ripe for a return.

9 The Desperation Of The Vidiians Made Them Into Relatable Villains

Star Trek: Voyager sent the titular ship into the Delta Quadrant, far away from the familiar races of Star Trek past. The series often just used the archetypes of those more well-known aliens to create new ones, like the Kazon, but the Vidiians were quite different from anything fans had seen before. The entire race was ravaged by a disease called the Phage and traveled space stealing organs in order to keep themselves alive.

When fans learned the truth behind their organ snatching ways, it made them extremely sympathetic, and later appearances by the Vidiians played into that. They represented the best of Star Trek's aliens, changing fans' perception of them as the race evolved.

8 The Trill Were A Very Different Kind Of Alien Race

The Trill first appeared in the season four The Next Generation  episode "The Host." The host race of the Trill in that episode looked very different from the ones that came after in Deep Space Nine, but it wasn't the first time a race went through massive cosmetic changes in Star Trek. What didn't change is the premise behind the aliens.

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A symbiotic race, the long-lived Trill symbionts were put into the body of different humanoid Trill over the centuries. Jadzia Dax was the exemplar of this, becoming one of the most balanced  Star Trek  characters ever , her years of experience making her into a multi-faceted character. Each Trill was an amalgamation of lives, and this allowed the writers of DS9 to play with queer ideas that Berman era Trek didn't often touch on.

7 The Q Were A Race Of Omnipotent Tricksters

Q is one of the most intelligent Star Trek antagonists , and his entire race followed suit. First introduced in  The Next Generation 's   pilot "Encounter At Farpoint," Q became a Star Trek icon. Nearly every resulting Q played up the impish trickster persona that actor John De Lancie created for the character. Fans loved Q and learned more and more about his race and home as the years went by.

The Q are such a uniquely Star Trek race of godlike aliens. They serve to remark on humanity's growth and play amusing tricks on them. Even the least loved Q episodes are among the most beloved in franchise history.

6 The Bajorans' Story Of Occupation And Rebellion Was Unique In The Star Trek Mythos

The Bajorans were a very different kind of Star Trek race. First introduced in The Next Generation  with Ensign Ro Laren, they'd get fleshed out by Deep Space Nine  and become one of the richest and most interesting Star Trek races. Protected by the non-corporeal Prophets, who they worship as gods, their society went through trials and tribulations before they were enslaved by the Cardassians.

The Bajorans were a deeply spiritual people and as fierce as they come, embracing terrorism to fight against their oppressors. Their story was one of the most interesting of all the big Star Trek races.

5 The Borg Are Star Trek' s Most Iconic Villains

The Next Generation  is now known as a fan favorite, but the first few seasons weren't among the best of Trek . In fact, an argument can be made that TNG didn't truly become great TV until the Borg were finally felt in full force in the season three finale "The Best Of Both Worlds." While they were introduced in "Q Who" in the first season, they wouldn't become icons until that epic season finale.

The Borg represented the most frightening enemy of them all, the loss of individuality. They were an implacable foe that couldn't be reasoned with, and even fighting them was often was futile. They forced the crews to think outside the box and made for great TV.

4 The Cardassians' Embrace Of Fascism Made Them Terrifyingly Fascinating

The Cardassians had their genesis in The Next Generation ,   but came to prominence in Deep Space Nine   with some of the show's best episodes revolving around them . While they were often the villains, especially after they sided with the Dominion, they were also shown to be more than just a race of stereotypical evildoers, especially the character Garak.

The race was openly fascist and built their entire society around that idea. They were equally repellent and interesting, showing viewers the split sides of fascism and how it would affect individuals through the actions and characters of Garak and Dukat.

3 The Ferengi Became One Of Star Trek 's Most Fun Races

The Ferengi were introduced in the first season of The Next Generation  and were meant to be a new big villain race for the show. Their portrayal evolved over time until Deep Space Nine,  when Ferengi bar owner Quark became a main character, and fans were introduced to the hyper-capitalist lifestyle of the Ferengi. Ferengi episodes became among the show's most beloved, yet another reason why DS9 has some of the best seasons of Trek .

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The Ferengi were often the most entertaining aspect of every episode they were a part of, and their evolution as a race was a key subplot. Their lampooning of capitalism made them an interesting part of the openly socialistic Star Trek mythos.

2 The Klingons Became One Of Star Trek' s Most Popular Races

The Klingons were the main antagonists of TOS and have evolved over time from the villainous cliches of the '60s into one of the most popular Star Trek races. Creator Gene Roddenberry pulled this off by putting Worf on the bridge of the Enterprise-D in The Next Generation  to show that the enemies of yesterday could be the friends of today.

Worf served as the perfect character to bring the new Klingons to life, as actor Michael Dorn's portrayal of the character made him a fan favorite. Multiple Klingon-centric episodes fleshed out the race, and their culture and language are well known to all fans of Star Trek.

1 The Vulcans Have Always Been A Huge Part Of Star Trek

Spock was the first Star Trek alien fans were introduced to, and the Vulcan race would be established as one of the Federation's most important . Their place in Starfleet and their role in shepherding humanity into the stars was a big part of multiple Star Trek shows. The Vulcans have become a huge part of pop culture, with even non- Star Trek fans knowing something about them.

As they became more fleshed out, they'd only get more interesting. Their cold logic was revealed to be a veneer over volcanic rage that they had to control at all costs. This juxtaposition made them intriguing, and they were always great for human characters to play off.

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Star Trek: The Essential Alien Species

In Star Trek ‘s opening narration, producers clearly established the show’s premise early on.

“… to seek out new life, and new civilizations …”

Star Trek is about exploration, and one of the most important parts of that mandate is the meeting of new and interesting alien species. Over the years, Star Trek and its spin-off shows have introduced us to dozens of unique alien races, each with their own look, history, and enduring characters.

Some of these species, like the Vulcans and the Klingons, have entered the greater realm of pop culture. Even people who are not fans of the series know about many of these alien species. The Vulcan nerve pinch and salute are ubiquitous within the science-fiction fan community and people endlessly parody it as well. Klingons are so well known that they have an official language, and fans have even translated some Shakespearean works into Klingon .

Here we take a look at some of the most enduring alien species of the Star Trek universe.

Alongside Humans, Vulcans, and Tellarites, the militaristic Andorians are one of the founding members of the United Federation of Planets . A belligerent species, the Andorians shared a fraught history with the Vulcans. This history includes a protracted cold war that erupted into armed conflict on several occasions. The Andorian’s relations with the Humans were cemented by the respectful but antagonistic relationship between Captain Jonathan Archer and Commander Thy’lek Shran of the Imperial Guard .

The original series first introduced the Andorians, but it was not until Enterprise that they made their presence felt. Andorians hail from the frozen moon of Andoria. They have blue skin, white hair, and their most prominent trait is their twin antennae. The Andorians share their planet with a blind, telepathic subspecies known as the Aenar . With the Humans, Vulcans, and Tellarites, the Andorians were part of a multi-species effort to prevent a Romulan stealth raider from triggering wars between the alliance’s species. The alliance paved the way for the coalition that would become the United Federation of Planets.

Essential Episodes:  “ The Andorian Incident “, “ Shadows of P’Jem “, “ Kir’Shara “, “ Babel One “, “ United “, and “ The Aenar “.

Embodied by the half-Human Spock ,  Vulcans are possibly the franchise’s best known alien species. Stoic, logical, and seemingly emotionless, Vulcans embrace rational and carefully considered thought. Despite their reverence of logic, many Vulcan rituals involve spiritual elements. They have the ability to initiate telepathic mind melds , and their living spirit – or katra – can be transferred between Vulcans and even Humans.

Although many consider Vulcans emotionless, they insist that they feel emotions, they just do not let feelings control or influence their actions. Applying logic to a situation is always a Vulcan’s preferred method of approaching a situation. As a result, emotional responses from other species, especially Humans, often baffle them. Vulcans are one of the best represented alien species on Star Trek.  Three of the five series aired to date including Vulcan crew members including Spock in  Star Trek , Tuvok  in  Star Trek: Voyager , and T’Pol  in  Star Trek: Enterprise .

Essential Episodes:  “ Broken Bow “, “The Andorian Incident”, “ The Forge “, “ Awakening “, “Kir’Shara”, “ Amok Time “, and “ Sarek “.

Impatient, stubborn, pig-headed, and ugly, the Tellarites love a good argument. They consider it bad form to be polite to those they have recently met. Their preferred method of opening a conversation is through complaints and insults. In short, many consider the Tellarites to be excellent politicians. Tellarites were founding members of the United Federation of Planets, alongside the Humans, Vulcans, and Andorians.

Before the Federation’s formation, Tellarite relations with other races were less than cordial. A Romulan stealth raider threatened to incite war between the four species until a multi-species alliance was formed to track down and destroy the raider. Although introduced in the original series, Tellarites were not seen on screen again until Enterprise .

Essential Episodes:  “ Bounty “, “Babel One”, “United”, and “Journey to Babel”.

Klingons live for battle. The warrior spirit flows through them, and satisfaction of personal honor drives a Klingon’s life. They are formidable warriors, and there is nothing more honorable than victory. Klingons prefer close, personal combat using their edged weapons – the two-bladed bat’leth , the single bladed mek’leth , or the d’k tahg  dagger – to inflict damage on their enemies. Klingons build their starships for combat and arm them with torpedo launchers, disruptor banks and cloaking devices for sudden, swift attacks.

However, Klingons are not above compromising honor to preserve the Empire. The Klingon High Council willingly slandered the name of Worf’s father. High Council did this to avoid placing the public blame on the true culprit, the father of the politically powerful Duras . The Council believed that Worf’s status as a Starfleet officer would stop him from contesting the charges. So Worf accepted the  discommendation from the Klingon Empire to avoid a civil war. But the corruption ran deep, with Chancellors such as Gowron putting personal honor above the interests of the Empire. Some Klingons lamented the loss of other aspects of Klingon culture such as the legal profession for the way of the warrior.

Essential Episodes:  “Broken Bow”, “ Judgment “, “ Affliction “, “ Errand of Mercy “, “ The Trouble with Tribbles “, “ Day of the Dove “, “ Sins of the Father “, “ Redemption “, “ Blood Oath “, “ Way of the Warrior “, and “ Taking into the Wind “.

Romulans are an offshoot of the Vulcan species, and share many of their physical traits. They occupy the twin worlds of Romulus and Remus , subjugating the native Remans . Their society is structured and ordered with a strong military, effective intelligence arm, and ruled by a representative Senate. Subterfuge and infiltration are key weapons in the Romulan arsenal. They possess powerful cloaking devices that allow their ships to move undetected through the galaxy and power their starships with artificial singularities.

Romulans are secretive and often work behind the scenes to destabilize their enemies. Romulan deceit and treachery is legendary. Despite fighting a war with Humans, the Federation did not know what a Romulan looked liked until the mid-22nd century. For much of the 23rd century, the Romulans cut themselves off from the galaxy. They broke their self-imposed isolation upon the destruction of their outposts along the Neutral Zone, possibly by the Borg.

Essential Episodes:  “ Minefield “, “Babel One”, “United”, “The Aenar”, “ Balance of Terror “, “ The Enterprise Incident “, “Unification”, “ In the Pale Moonlight “, and “ Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges “.

Initially introduced in The Next Generation , writers intended the Ferengi to be a new major recurring threat for the crew. Unfortunately, they did not resonate with fans and the production shelved plans to continue their development. Subsequently, they retooled them into a more comical role. Acquiring wealth drives the Ferengi. The

Acquiring wealth drives the Ferengi. The Rules of Acquisition rule their lives and business dealings, and there are guidelines for nearly every conceivable situation. Ferengi have no qualms about swindling customers to achieve the best deals.

Ferengi society is heavily biased against females. For a long time, society forbade Ferengi females to wear clothes or earn their own profit. Reformations to Ferengi society began to redress these issues after many females proved they had a head for business.

Ferengi dabble in a wide range of business ventures and do not worry about the legality of said business. They are often arms dealers and smugglers, and even Ferengi like Quark who runs a bar on the Federation-controlled space station Deep Space Nine was known to engage in illegal activity, much to the chagrin of local authorities.

Essential Episodes:  “ The Last Outpost “, “ The Nagus “, “ Rules of Acquisition “, “ Family Business “, “ Body Parts “, “ Ferengi Love Songs “, and “ The Magnificent Ferengi “.

Deeply spiritual and religious, the Bajorans worship the Prophets . Despite the revelation of their true nature as non-corporeal, non-linear alien beings who learned to love baseball, Bajorans still revere the Prophets. The Cardassians annexed the Bajoran homeworld of Bajor, and they occupied the world for 50 years before withdrawing. The Bajorans fought a bloody insurgency to free their homeworld. Many Bajorans felt betrayed by the Provisional Government when they invited the Federation to take control of an orbiting space station abandoned by the Cardassians and renamed Deep Space Nine.

Bajoran society began the painful rebuilding process, and by recommendation of Captain Benjamin Sisko , remained neutral during most of the Dominion War . Post-occupation Bajor was fraught with internal conflict as opposing factions sought to control the newly-freed planet. The discovery of the wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant established the Bajorans as a power in the Alpha Quadrant. However, they relied on the presence of the Federation to legitimize their claim.

Essential Episodes:  “ Ensign Ro “, “ The Emissary “, “ Duet “, “ The Homecoming “, “ The Circle “, “ The Siege “, “ Shakaar “, “ Accession “, and “ Tears of the Prophets “.

The militaristic Cardassian Union is effectively a police state ruled by the military Central Command and the intelligence arm known as the Obsidian Order . A civilian government known as the Detapa Council  is the “official” governing body of the Union but, in reality, has little power. All criminal trials within the Cardassian Union are for show only – officials decide the trial verdict in advance.

The Cardassians annexed and ruled Bajor for 50 years. During the occupation, they committed countless atrocities, and Bajoran society struggled to rebuild in the wake of their departure. The post-annexation years saw Cardassian fortunes flounder; rumors of a Founder takeover of the Cardassian government led the Klingons to declare war and ravage Cardassian space. Left with little choice, they allied with the Dominion and fought the combined Federation, Klingon, and Romulan forces. In the last stages of the war, the Cardassians rebelled against their Dominion allies as the Dominion would often use Cardassian forces as expendable assets.

Essential Episodes:  “ The Wounded “, “ Chain of Command “, “Duet”, “ Defiant “, “The Way of the Warrior”, “ Return to Grace “, and “ The Dogs of War “.

The Enterprise -D crew first encountered the Borg in the episode “ Q Who “. They quickly established themselves as a true threat to the Federation. Borg are a collection of species assimilated into a shared hive consciousness. They are relentless, terrifying and virtually unstoppable (until serious villain decay took hold in

Borg are a collection of species assimilated into a shared hive consciousness. They are relentless, terrifying and virtually unstoppable (until serious villain decay took hold in Voyager ). They exist solely to assimilate technology and biological lifeforms into their collective in an effort to raise all species to “perfection”. A queen rules the Borg, and their imposing vessels are simple geometric shapes. Even one ship could be considered an invasion.

Responsible for multiple incursions in Federation space, the Borg fought Starfleet at the Battle of Wolf 359 and the Battle of Sector 001 . They even attempted to stop First Contact between the Humans and the Vulcans through the use of time travel which resulted in an awesome movie . The Borg invasion of the Federation is probably the result of the pre-destination paradox. The Borg became aware of Earth because Borg drones in the past who survived the attempt to stop First Contact sent a communication to the Delta Quadrant. This alerted the collective to the presence of the planet. So the Borg investigate, leading to the events that cause the drones to travel to the past in the first place.

Essential Episodes:  “ Regeneration “, “Q Who”, “ The Best of Both Worlds “, “ First Contact “, “ Scorpion “, “ Dark Frontier “, “ Unimatrix Zero “, and “ Endgame “.

Introduced in the final episode of Enterprise ‘s season 2 , the Xindi  became the primary antagonists for season 3 . Time-travelling  Guardians  warn the Xindi that Humans would destroy them in the future. So, the Xindi build a weapon that destroys a section of Earth from Florida to Venezuela, killing seven million. Now forewarned of the Xindi intent to destroy Earth, the  Enterprise  head to the Delphic Expanse to stop them. Humanity would eventually stop the Guardians’ plans in the future, so they lied to the Xindi to eradicate all Humans. Eventually, everyone becomes friends, and the Xindi join the Federation.

Unlike most of the major alien races, the Xindi are not a single species, but six distinct species. These are the Avians , the Arboreals , the Primates , the Aquatics , the Insectoids , and the Reptilians . Despite their vastly differing outward appearance, the Xindi species share over 99.5% of their DNA. By the time the Enterprise encounters the Xindi, the Avians are extinct, and a Council that includes representatives from all five Xindi species governs the remaining five.

Essential Episodes:  “ The Expanse “, “ The Shipment “, “ Proving Ground “, “ Azati Prime “, “ The Council “, “ Countdown “, and “ Zero Hour “.

23 Coolest Alien Characters in the Star Trek Franchise

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14 Sitcom Romances That Should Never Have Happened

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The human race, starting with Antiquity's atomists and philosophers, has always considered the possibility of extraterrestrial life. As the poet Lucretius stated, “Nothing in the universe is unique and alone, and therefore, in other regions, there must be other earths inhabited by different tribes of men and breeds of beasts.”

Fast-forward to modern times, when both cinema and television have produced a plethora of science-fiction projects boasting many alien species in different sizes, colors, and shapes, whether humanoid, beast-like, parasitic, machines, or non-corporeal, from lobster people, to cybertronians , to reptilians, to semi-humanoid plants.

Since space is "the final frontier" in Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek franchise, encounters between humans and aliens, whether friendly or hostile, abound. Trekkies are now very familiar with species like Vulcans, Romulans, Klingons, Andorians, Betazoids, Orions, Bajorans, Cardassians, Species 8472, Changelings, the Gorn, and the Borg, to name a few. They love cosplaying as them in conventions, and there are several apps offering lessons in their fictional languages.

Some of these species have been highlighted more than others in the Star Trek shows and films, so, here is a selection of 15 alien characters who particularly stand out, and who are not Spock, the Borg Queen in her various versions, or fluffy Tribbles.

23 Doctor Sevrin - Tiburonian

In the hippie-inspired Star Trek: The Original Series ’ episode The Way to Eden , Skip Homeier plays Doctor Sevrin , a charismatic Tiburonian acoustics and communications engineer who gathers followers in the pursuit of Eden, a utopic planet untainted by technology. He favors creativity, the arts, and untouched nature over machines, Federation laws, hierarchy, social and moral restraints, and urban life. Driven to insanity and fixated on his goal, he finally selects a new planet as his movement’s Eden, but it turns out to be toxic to humanoids. Refusing to believe he has failed, he chooses to stay there, consume an unfamiliar fruit, and dies on the spot.

Related: Star Trek: 25 Actors Who Played Multiple Roles

22 Morn - Lurian

The most loyal customer at Quark’s, the local bar on the promenade of the Federation starbase Deep Space 9, Morn (Mark Allen Shepherd) is a peaceful Lurian courier with a tendency to observe and chat with other patrons, but the running gag is that he is never actually seen speaking on screen. A notorious womanizer, he is generally peaceful and gentle, at least at the bar, and hides his latinum fortune in his second stomach, as audiences later find out after he fakes his own death.

21 Goran'Agar - Jem'Hadar

Played by Scott MacDonald, Goran'Agar is a first-in-command Jem'Hadar, a genetically engineered soldier race loyal only to the Changelings or Founders. The latter keep these submissive fighters in check by hooking them with an addictive substance called ketracel-white. When Goran'Agar becomes the sole survivor of a ship crash on the planet Bopak III, he tries to stretch his white supply, only to realize that he doesn’t really need it after all.

“I have fought against races that believe in mythical beings that guide their destinies and await them after death. They call them gods. The Founders are like gods to the Jem'Hadar. But our gods never talk to us, and they don't wait for us after death. They only want us to fight for them… and to die for them.”

After his rescue, he gathers a few Jem’Hadar, and they go into hiding on Bopak III, away from the dominance of the Founders and their Vorta diplomats. In doing so, he desperately tries to free them from their ketracel addiction, but he fails miserably, even with the help of DS9’s Doctor Bashir; it turns out he is just a mutated exception, but that his soldiers would all die without their daily dose of ketracel. In the end, he decides to hunt them down and give them an honorable death, instead of seeing them suffer from withdrawal then wither away.

20 K'Ehleyr - Half-Klingon

"Not even a bite on the cheek for old time's sake?”

Born to a Human mother and a Klingon father, K’Ehleyr (Suzie Plakson) appears on Star Trek: The Next Generation as a special Federation emissary, as well as Lieutenant Worf’s on-and-off love interest. She is a feisty mix of Klingon strength and endurance, and human affection, sarcasm, and humor, which makes her one-of-a-kind. Unfortunately, she is killed off way too soon, but not before admitting to Worf that she has given him a son, whom she doesn’t want raised in a strict Klingon environment; a rebel till her very last breath.

19 D'Vana Tendi - Orion

The franchise could definitely use more refreshing shows like Lower Decks , where the focus is on the common underdogs, rather than the higher ranks on the bridge. Noël Wells voices D'Vana Tendi , an enthusiastic, exuberant, optimistic, and eager Orion junior scientist who wants to break free from her species’ ill reputation for piracy, theft, and sex slavery. She is as endearing as she is talented and is eventually asked to train as a senior officer.

18 Vadic - Changeling

Paramount+’s Star Trek: Picard may have been received with mixed feelings , but most Trekkies agree that a couple of new characters sparked some interest, one of whom is the mutant Changeling villain Vadic , wonderfully portrayed by Amanda Plummer . Vadic, Captain of the Shrike and a loyal Founder soldier, is resentful towards humans because she used to be a tortured prisoner in a secret Starfleet facility. She shapeshifted into her torturer right after killing her, to remind herself of her revenge path, and became part of a terrorist Founder-Borg faction. She is a fascinating, emotional villain who is defeated by being blown out into space, and subsequently freezing to death, then shattering into pieces.

17 Doctor Phlox - Denobulan

Starship doctors are often memorable, and Star Trek: Enterprise ’s Denobulan Chief Medical Officer, Phlox , played by John Billingsley, is no exception. Known for his huge, kind smile, his indulgence toward humans, his love for Chinese food, and his rather unorthodox medical practices, “He goes about with this cheerful curiosity that masks his deep philosophical understanding of the motivations of everyone on board,” per a Redditor .

“As far as I know, there are no species in the galaxy that have mastered the art of mixing romance and vocation. This is the one ailment that is universally untreatable; you'll have to suffer through it.” - Phlox

16 Ishka - Ferengi

“I predict that one day, a female will enter the Tower of Commerce, climb the forty flights of stairs to the Chamber of Opportunity, and take her rightful place as Grand Nagus of the Ferengi Alliance.”

The Ferengi are a sexist, greedy, profit-oriented species, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ’s Ishka , played by Andrea Martin and Cecily Adams, is the feminist rebel and capable financier who breaks the mold. She not only conducts business in secret, but also dresses in fancy outfits, which is considered an outrage in her society, as Ferengi women are supposed to walk around naked and submit to the male gaze. What is more, she is Quark and Rom’s mother, the two most likable Ferengi on the show.

15 Elnor - Romulan

The most endearing newcomer on Picard , the handsome, loyal, and somewhat naive superwarrior Elnor (Evan Evagora) is a Romulan orphan who was raised by the Qowat Milat order of warrior nuns on another planet, following the destruction of Romulus. As a child, he looked up to Captain Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart), who gave him fencing lessons and brought him entertaining novels. Now that he is a skilled combatant fiercely devoted to the causes of his choice, he teams up with Picard and his friends to thwart many threats, before eventually joining Starfleet. His famous catchphrase before any close combat is, “Please, my friend, choose to live.”

14 Silik - Suliban

The Suliban, notably the genetically engineered kind, are a peculiar nomadic humanoid race capable of camouflage, climbing on walls and ceilings, and changing the texture of their skin. Silik , portrayed by John Fleck, is a recurring villain on Enterprise who follows the orders of a mysterious being from the future. He is eventually killed in an alternate timeline.

13 Third of Five/Hugh - Borg

Seven of Nine AKA Annika Hansen (Jeri Ryan) had a fascinating arc from Star Trek: Voyager to Picard , but audiences didn’t see much of her when she was still a full-on Borg drone. This is where the rogue Third of Five/Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco) comes in as the most memorable member of that mechanized, mind-controlled species, barring the Borg Queen herself, naturally. Rescued by the USS Enterprise and taken under Picard and Chief Engineer Geordi LaForge’s (LeVar Burton) wing, Hugh quickly warms up to the idea of individuality and friendship, rather than continue being a part of a subjugated collective. When his implants are removed years later, he dedicates himself to helping former Borg drones readjust to their newfound freedom, until he is killed by a Romulan Tal Shiar Colonel, after refusing to give up Picard’s location.

12 Guinan - El-Aurian

“When a man is convinced that he is going to die tomorrow, he'll probably find a way to make it happen.”

Guinan (played by Whoopi Goldberg , Isis Carmen Jones, and Ito Aghayere) is not just your typical bartender turned wise counselor to emotionally troubled patrons. She is an El-Aurian, a perceptive and telepathic race who was at war with the Q beings and whose homeworld was destroyed by the Borg. El-Aurians can live for many centuries and can sense disturbances in the space-time continuum.

11 Winn Adami - Bajoran

One of the franchise’s most formidable villains, Winn Adami , played by Louise Fletcher ( One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) , is a Bajoran religious leader who gives the protagonists of DS9 a run for their money. Cunning, arrogant, politically ambitious, and fiercely protective of her people’s beliefs and customs, she is let down by the very Prophets she follows and is eventually burned to death.

10 Quark - Ferengi

“I love the Bajorans. Such a deeply spiritual culture, but they make a dreadful ale. Never trust ale from a god-fearing people, or a Starfleet commander that has one of your relatives in jail.”

As stated earlier, the Ferengi aren’t exactly a lovable race, but DS9 took a deeper dive into their home planet, customs, philosophy, society, and family life. Quark (Armin Shimerman), the titular space station’s bar owner, may possess his species’ affinity for duplicity, theft, embezzlement, and greed, but he is a fan-favorite character who is generous with his friends and family. A cynic above anything else, he keeps quoting the Ferengi’s most treasured book, the Rules of Acquisition, much to the audience’s amusement; these include, “Opportunity plus instinct equals profit,” “A deal is a deal... until a better one comes along,” and “Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.”

9 Elim Garak - Cardassian

Andrew J. Robinson portrays the tailor and shopkeeper Elim Garak on DS9 . Or at least, that is the character’s official cover, as he apparently used to be an intelligence officer and an assassin who belonged to the dangerous and elite Obsidian Order.

“The truth is usually just an excuse for a lack of imagination.”

Cynical, witty, tasteful, well-mannered, and elusive, he is a rather charming Cardassian, a dominant, gray-skinned humanoid race with thick neck ridges that thrives in hot and humid climates.

8 T'Pol - Vulcan

Enterprise may be the least popular Star Trek series to date, but it boasts a few memorable characters, such as the Vulcan science officer T’Pol , who goes through major character development between the first and last season. Portrayed by the model Jolene Blalock, T’Pol starts off as a typical Vulcan with an aversion for human emotions, customs, and food. Bit by bit, she warms out to her companions and proves to be an invaluable, compassionate, and loyal crew member.

7 Weyoun - Vorta

Jeffrey Combs has portrayed various compelling characters in the Trek universe, but the Vorta ambassador Weyoun , in all his cloned versions, is known to be his favorite. The Weyouns are deeply loyal to the Founders and extremely obsequious, but one particular model, Weyoun 6, goes rogue and questions their motives for war and domination. Devastated by the horrors he has seen, he kills himself by triggering his brain implant.

6 Kira Nerys - Bajoran

Nana Visitor plays the Bajoran Resistance fighter, then Major, then Colonel Kira Nerys on DS9 , a role for which she earned the OFTA Television Award for Best Actress in a Syndicated Series, and the Universe Reader’s Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Genre TV Series. Patriotic, energetic, compassionate, spontaneous, capable, humorous, and brave, she has deep aversion for the Cardassians.

5 Shran - Andorian

The interactions between the blue-skinned Andorian commander Thy’lek Shran (Combs again) and Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) is one of Enterprise ’s most redeeming qualities, partly because of Shran’s honorable and compassionate character, but also because their dynamic is highly entertaining. He starts as a hostile antagonist and ends up saving both the starship and Earth from the Xindi threat, paving the way for the first Federation alliance, which first brings together Earth, Vulcan, Andoria, and Tellar.

4 Q - The Q Continuum

John De Lancie plays the omnipotent, immortal, time and space-bending being Q , who has taken a personal interest in Captain Picard and particularly enjoys teasing Humans and making them go through traumatizing trials. His eccentric character, love for dress-up, and outrageous sense of humor make him one of the franchise most enigmatic and amusing characters.

• Movie Lists

15 of the Most Bizarre Alien Species Featured in 'Star Trek'

"star trek" aliens.

"Star Trek" is filled with unusual aliens, ranging from the humanoid to the crystalloid to the god-like. Here are some of the more unique species from the live-action "Star Trek" series. Please note: We deliberately exclude the more well-known alien races, and limit each of the series to three entries to try to include samples from across the canon. If we missed anything bizarre, tell us in the comments!

1. Salt vampire ("Star Trek: The Original Series," 1966-1969)

The very first episode of "Star Trek" showed promise when it came to weird aliens. An old flame of one of the crew members, Nancy Crater, turns out to be a projection of a sort of salt vampire that soon runs amok on the USS Enterprise. This alien species cannot live long without salt, so it attacks crew members and sucks them dry of essential salts. The creature is eventually stopped in part by a sort of mouse trap that — of course — uses salt. [ What I Learned by Watching Every 'Star Trek' Show and Movie ]

2. Horta ("Star Trek: The Original Series," 1966-1969)

This is a species of silicon-based life (humans, by comparison, are carbon-based) that prefers to feed on rocks. In a moving episode, "The Devil In The Dark," the crew discovers that the aliens are actually intelligent and very loyal to their offspring — but only after the Vulcan alien Spock does a mind-meld with one of the creatures, which is being persecuted by miners angry at the destruction it has caused.

3. Gorn ("Star Trek: The Original Series," 1966-1969)

A member of this extremely strong (but intelligent) reptilian species engages in famous hand-to-hand combat with Capt. James T. Kirk in the episode "Arena." The only way Kirk manages to overpower him is by finding the ingredients for gunpowder on the alien planet on which he is trapped, using his own uniform to help with the ignition. As an honorary mention, we should also include The Metrons, a species that can manipulate energy and matter at will — these are the aliens that set up the fight in the first place, because they are mad at their space being invaded.

4. Q ("Star Trek: The Next Generation," 1987-1994)

Simultaneously terrifying and witty, Q is a seemingly supernatural being who pops up on the USS Enterprise periodically to play tricks on the crew. Some of his memorable actions include giving Q-like powers to a member of the Enterprise (arguing that humans always love learning), and putting humanity on trial for its past crimes while wearing period uniforms from over the centuries. Q, however, isn't all trickster. Alongside his antics, he does warn humanity about the approach of the Borg, which is trying to assimilate all species into a collective. [ The Evolution of 'Star Trek' (Infographic) ]

5. Tamarian ("Star Trek: The Next Generation," 1987-1994)

This species is a tongue-twister for the usual translators that Starfleet officers carry. While the translators can literally tell us what the Tamarians are saying, it's hard to understand what is going on because the species is speaking in metaphors. (Some examples from Memory Alpha: "Temba, his arms wide/open," which means a gift, or "the river Temarc in winter," which refers to the need for silence.) In the episode "Darmok," Capt. Jean-Luc Picard must learn to communicate with a Tamarian quickly before they are both killed by a hostile beast.

6. Crystalline Entity ("Star Trek: The Next Generation," 1987-1994)

This alien goes in the "beautiful but deadly" category, as the crystalline entity was breathtaking to watch in space — it looked a bit like a snowflake, or small and shiny diamonds. However, the entity had a nasty side to it: It could quickly devour all life in its wake. The USS Enterprise finally defeated the entity by sending graviton pulses that eventually broke it into pieces. But sadly, the crew couldn't stop the pulses in time when they realized the creature might be trying to communicate with them.

7. Changeling ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," 1993-1999)

Fans of the series will instantly remember changelings, as their numbers included one of the series' main characters — Odo, the sarcastic security officer aboard the space station Deep Space 9. Changelings were made up of an orange liquid that in the "Star Trek" universe is technically referred to as a "morphogenic matrix." Changelings were able to morph into pretty much anything they wanted to, including inanimate objects or even to resemble humans. [ Love of 'Star Trek' Inspires Highly Illogical Careers ]

8. Jem'Hadar ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," 1993-1999)

Jem'Hadar were one of a few "Star Trek" aliens with very different life cycles than humans. In their case, they were created in "birthing chambers" and were able to reach maturity in just three days. They also fed on a drug called Ketracel-white, which contained an enzyme they needed to survive. That enzyme was deliberately withheld during birthing by the Vorta, who created the Jem'Hadar; this gave the Vorta power over the Jem'Hadar and a captive economy for distributing the drug.

9. Trill ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," 1993-1999)

A main character on "Deep Space Nine" was from the Trill species — Jadzia Dax. Most of the Trill were fairly unremarkable, but there were a small number (including Dax) who lived with a symbiont inside their bodies. This symbiont was intelligent, but required a host organism to survive; it was common to transfer symbionts to young bodies when the older host organism was close to death. This meant that in the case of Dax, the symbiont transferred from an older man to a younger woman, prompting surprise from an old friend, Capt. Benjamin Sisko, the first time he met the younger Dax on Deep Space 9.

10. Hirogen ("Star Trek: Voyager," 1995-2001)

This alien was a brutal enemy of anything in the "Star Trek" universe, simply because the Hirogen consider themselves the dominant species and anything they run across as prey. Their entire culture was focused on hunting down other species, and they had the ability (if required) to break down bones and muscle tissue to eat the prey. Not someone you'd want to invite to dinner.

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Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, " Why Am I Taller ?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada's Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science at several institutions since 2015; her experience includes developing and teaching an astronomy course at Canada's Algonquin College (with Indigenous content as well) to more than 1,000 students since 2020. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace

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The 5 Worst Character Names On Star Trek

It should be stated right up front that the below list is not meant to be taken as a commentary on the strength of certain characters, the talents of the actors playing them, or the quality of the show from which they hail. Indeed, most of them come from legitimately great TV shows and/or are played by very talented people. Some of them may even be among the greatest characters in "Star Trek," and I do not mean to suggest, even for a moment, that they should be removed from the franchise or altered in any way.

Except for their names. "Star Trek" is full of futuristic aliens and evolved humans that need to be named by modern-day screenwriters, and, well, sometimes those screenwriters come up with some pretty silly ideas. It's natural now to accept Brent Spiner's android character from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," but it feels very childish to name that character "Data." Human beings, after all, don't have names like "Synapses" or "Information." Why not give an android a human name? There is a deep-seated illogic to Data's name that has long since been ignored by Trekkies thanks to common usage. Now we just accept it.

Ditto for the Borg, which is, as far as I can tell, an abbreviation of "cyborg." That's not terribly creative, and one might wonder why a species of cyborgs would give themselves such a specific nickname. We also ignore that the last name of the Japanese character Hikaru Sulu (George Takei) isn't a Japanese word; there's no "L" sound in Japanese. But I adore Data and Sulu, and think the Borg were once one of the coolest, scariest things to come from "Star Trek."

Today, it is only the names we shall nitpick. And, golly, there are some strange ones. Let's take a look at some of the silliest, worst, and most confusing alien/future names in all of "Star Trek."

5. Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

In the original "Star Trek" pilot, "The Cage," the U.S.S. Enterprise was commanded by Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) and his first officer was an unnamed character he merely called "Number One." Number One was portrayed by Majel Barrett and played a notably large role in the episode. When the show was retooled to feature Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Number One vanished and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) took over the first officer role.

It wouldn't be until the publication of "The Autobiography of Mr. Spock" in 2021 that the character would finally be given a name. Her name was carried over to her reappearances in "Star Trek: Discovery" and then, later, "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" ( where she was played by Rebecca Romijn ). Her name was revealed to be Una Chin-Riley, and perhaps a few Trekkies let out a groan.

Una, you see, is Spanish for "one." Her first name means one. Know that first officers are called "number one" because they are the first officer, not because it's a nickname. By naming the character "Una," the makers of "Star Trek" seem to have forgotten why Number One was called Number One — for even what a first officer was — and seemingly backward-engineered a reason for the appellation.

Something similar happened in the 2009 "Star Trek" film when Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban) make a crack about losing everything but his bones, leading Kirk (Chris Pine) to nickname him "Bones." The problem with that is that "Bones" was already a nickname for a doctor. During the Civil War, doctors, because they sawed off soldiers' legs, were called "Sawbones." In 1966, that's why Kirk referred to Bones as "Bones." A mistaken origin story for something that was already explained.

And don't get me started on "10 Forward" and how it was manhandled on "Star Trek: Picard."

4. Hugh (Jonathan del Arco) on Star Trek: The Next Generation

In the "Star Trek: The Net Generation" episode "I, Borg" (May 10, 1992), the Enterprise-D rescued an injured Borg from a crash. With an abundance of caution, the crew took the Borg onto the Enterprise, treated its wounds, and locked it in the brig. The Borg have a shared machine consciousness, so the single Borg became confused, unable to hear the hundreds of other Borg voices in its head. Eventually, the Borg begins to develop a consciousness, impressed by the calm and gentle treatment he received from the Enterprise crew.

When his personality began to emerge, Geordi (LeVar Burton) and Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) decided he needed a name. Dr. Crusher pointed at him, brainstorming. "You are ... You ..." she pondered. Geordi, inspired by the word "you," I guess, decided he should be named "Hugh."

The name didn't have to have any particular meaning, of course — they could have named Hugh anything — but not only is it an unpoetic name (apologies to all the Hughs of the world), it was also unbearably clumsy the way Geordi came up with it. True, Geordi is an engineer and not a poet, but surely he could have come up with something better than a word that rhymed with "you." I suppose we should be grateful that Data's creator didn't name Hugh, though. He might have been called "Eyepiece" or something.

Of course, I'd be the smart aleck to name him Björn , so maybe don't listen to me.

3. Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui) from Star Trek: Prodigy

Again, I want to clarify that I have no issued with Rok-Takh as a character, nor do I have any criticisms of Rylee Alazraqui's performance. Indeed, the appearance of Rok-Takh in "Star Trek: Prodigy" was notable for being the first time in "Star Trek" history that a character or an alien species invented for one of the franchise's many tie-in novels migrated into official on-screen canon. Rok-Takh belongs to the Brikar species, which first appeared in Peter David's book "Worf's First Adventure" in 1993.

But, golly, I hate that she's named Rok-Takh, as it sounds like the phrase "rock talk," which is a ridiculous name, given that her skin looks like rocks. She's a talking rock, so her name is Rock Talk. And her species is Brikar, which sounds like "brick-ar," and she's brick-red. It all feels very "Sesame Street."

Throughout "Star Trek," there are occasionally alien species who use proper nouns that just happen to sound exactly like certain English words. The Ferengi, for instance, can boast character names like Quark, Brunt, and Nog. The Ferengi get away with it, though, because Quark (Armin Shimerman) isn't a subatomic particle, Brunt (Jeffrey Combs) isn't dull, and Nog (Aron Eisenberg) isn't a holiday drink. Rok-Takh, in contrast, is a talking rock. It's too silly a coincidence to ignore.

That said, I hope Rok-Takh becomes an effective, happy Starfleet officer, and she is driven, gentle, and intelligent. I have no issues with the character, apart from the name.

2. Garth of Izar (Steve Ihnat) from Star Trek

The "Star Trek" episode "Whom Gods Destroy" (January 3, 1969) implies that all mental illnesses have been essentially cured thanks to modern medicine and super-advanced psychology. Indeed, there is only one institute for the criminally insane left in the entire federation, and it houses only a small handful of inmates. In later "Star Trek" spinoffs, multiple characters would be depicted with disabilities or mental illnesses, but instead of "curing" said characters with a magical injection or something, their disabilities were merely accommodated. The dramatic conceit of "curing" disabilities or mental illness with magical technology begins to tilt dangerously close to eugenics.

But in the original "Star Trek," it was implied that there are no longer any made criminals, except for the few who live in the hospital on Elba II. Recently, however, the lunatics had taken over the asylum. They were led by Garth (Steve Ihnat), a disgraced former captain who, bafflingly, had taught himself how to shapeshift. With his instability and his superpowers, Garth declares himself to be a Master of the Universe and he attempts to hijack the Enterprise from Kirk. The episode is pretty over-the-top, even for "Star Trek" standards.

And, come on ... "Garth?" You expect me to quiver with fear in front of a supervillain named "Garth?" I understand that Penelope Spheeris' teen comedy "Wayne's World" wouldn't be released for another 23 years, but I can only think of the nerdy, neurotic Garth played by Dana Carvey in that film. Garth is a "nerd" name, like "Cyril" or "Percy." It's hard to take the episode seriously when the villain has such a unique and unthreatening moniker.

1. Moopsy (Roan K. Lai) from Star Trek: Lower Decks

I hate to be a killjoy, but I hate Moopsy (Roan K. Lai) from the "Star Trek: Lower Decks" episode "I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee" (September 7, 2023). In the episode, several crew members of the U.S.S. Cerritos visit a high-tech, deep-space zoo, overseen by the living root vegetable Narj (Carl Clemons-Hopkins). They are warned that the animals on the station are all dangerous, but kept safely behind forcefields. Narj panics when he sees that Moopsy, a small, marshmallow-like critter, has escaped. It seems that Moopsy's species can inject its victims with a chemical that liquefies their bones, allowing the little puffball to drink them.

The "a small cute critter that is unexpectedly violent" is an old trope that "Star Trek" should have stayed away from, and "Lower Decks," I'm sad to report, didn't do anything with the trope to make Moopsy stand out. Moopsy is more or less a Pokémon, able to say its own name, possessed of deathly superpowers, and more intelligent than it looks.

"Star Trek" already fulfilled its "dangerous little furry thing" quotient with Tribbles back in the 1960s, so it didn't need something like Moopsy to make the gag more obvious.

Also, I understand the writers of "Lower Decks" were deliberately trying to give Moopsy a silly, innocuous name, but they were too successful in this case. "Star Trek" has always been good about giving animals more scientific-sounding names, or at least a planetary origin. "Star Trek" logic should have dictated Moopsy be called, say, a Jorusian Bone-Drinker.

Star Trek: 10 Alien Species You’ve Probably Forgotten About

Kellin? There's no one here by that name.

10. The Axanar

Jack Kiely is a writer with a PhD in French and almost certainly an unhealthy obsession with Star Trek.

’Discovery’s Elias Toufexis Reveals Which Alien Species He’d Like To Return as in Star Trek

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The Big Picture

• Elias Toufexis didn't know if his character L'ak would come back, adding uncertainty to filming his final scenes.
• He would like to appear in another Star Trek show as a smaller, weirder alien character.
• Toufexis is passionate about Star Wars and Marvel, hoping to join those franchises in the future.

As Star Trek: Discovery took its final bow with Season 5 earlier this year, not only did the series wrap up the arcs of our beloved crew, but it also introduced a few new faces that we wish we'd gotten to see more of. Among those faces was Elias Toufexis , who played one-half of the season's antagonist duo, Moll ( Eve Harlow ) and L'ak (Toufexis). The final episodes of the series saw the star-crossed lovers torn apart as L'ak died protecting Moll.

To celebrate the release of Discovery Season 5 on Blu-ray and DVD , I sat down with Toufexis to reflect on his journey in the Star Trek franchise. Yes, I am still manifesting his turn as the new era of Star Trek's Jeffrey Combs or Suzie Plakson- style actor who makes multiple appearances across the currently running shows , and Toufexis has ideas for where he'd like to pop up next. During our conversation, he also revealed that he didn't know for certain that L'ak wouldn't be back when he filmed his final scene. A huge sci-fi fan himself, Toufexis also revealed which other franchises he'd like to jump into now that he's checked Star Trek off his list. You can read our full conversation in the transcript below or watch it in the player above.

Star Trek: Discovery

Taking place almost a decade before Captain Kirk's Enterprise, the USS Discovery charts a course to uncover new worlds and life forms.

COLLIDER: I really loved your arc on this season of Discovery . Last time we spoke, it was before L’ak was dead, so can you tell me about how you felt bringing his arc to a close and filming those final scenes with Eve [Harlow]?

ELIAS TOUFEXIS: Well, the funny thing about it is that I didn't know if he was gonna come back or not . Even when we shot the testing. They hadn't told me. I remember lying in that bed, and it was either Michelle [Paradise] or Tunde [Osunsanmi], one of them, and I said, “So is this the end? Because I know that the last few episodes are gonna be Moll trying to get him back. Is he coming back?” They were like, “Well, his corpse is gonna be around and stuff, but we're not sure if he's gonna come back or not.” So, it made it less about, “Okay, I'm dying, but I'm not really dying, maybe ?” [Laughs] I die a lot on TV, so it made it a little less than it normally is where I’m like, “Okay, I'm done.”

But they did have a bit of a clap-out for me, which is when a character’s finished, and then the cast and crew get around and applaud. So, I think we all kind of knew that it was the end. But there was always that little hint, so I was like, “Oh, maybe I'm coming back.” Then they asked me to play his body in Episode 10, and I was like, “No, not if I'm never gonna wake up. Just use a dummy.” So, I never came back. That episode, at least, turned out to be my final days on the show.

You did such a good job with the whole arc. I know we spoke a little bit about it last time, your love for this franchise, and since you were in prosthetics the whole time, I genuinely think it would be so easy for you to pop up in another Star Trek show. It's been so long since we’ve had a Jeffrey Combs or Suzie Plakson situation, and I am manifesting that for you. So if you could jump into any of the other currently running shows, which one would you choose, and what kind of character would you wanna play?

TOUFEXIS: Good question. I would have loved to work on Section 31 , but that ship has sailed. Strange New Worlds is still going, and now there's [ Starfleet ] Academy . Academy takes place around Discovery time, so I don't know — maybe L’ak’s not dead. He is. I'm just kidding. It would be cool if he wasn't. But I would like to go a different way because L’ak is a big, brooding tough guy. What if I tried to play a smaller, weirder alien, like a Ferengi or something? Because I have to be in prosthetics. I was in the first season, obviously, as just me, and then I'm also in a Star Trek video game called Resurgence . I play a main bad guy in that again. [Laughs] So, I’m trying to catch up to Jeffrey. I only have nine more things to go, or something like that, before I can catch up to Jeffrey. So, thank you for manifesting that for me.

Watching the older Star Trek seasons, you see those actors who pop up over and over.

TOUFEXIS: Yeah. I mean, it's different nowadays because you don't have 23 episodes a season, and they don't have to fill. It's not like Law & Order , where you have a judge one week, and then he's a criminal the next. We don't have that luxury, so I'd have to wait a little bit, I think. But if this franchise is going where we all think it's going, maybe in a couple of years , yeah, that'd be great.

One of my favorite things about collecting physical media and getting these stunning box sets that they're making is the bonus content. Can we expect to see you in any of the bonus content? Have you seen the gag reel?

TOUFEXIS: I haven't seen anything. They haven’t shown me. I'll tell you, there's gotta be gag reels because Eve, especially, just bumps into everything . When we were wearing those helmets — man, I hope they put this on there — every take, it was just like, bang , Eve falls over, bang , Eve falls over. Because she was leading, so I would just laugh at her falling over. I hope there's outtakes. I did interviews and things like that. I don't know what's on the Blu-ray set, but I'm a big collector, too, and I always like behind-the-scenes stuff. So hopefully there's a good chunk of stuff that I did on there. And if not, I mean, everything is so fascinating. They have five seasons to talk about.

History [ ]

Pre-federation [ ].

The Tellarites had achieved interstellar civilization by the 20th century . In 1957 , a Tellarite freighter picked up the distress call of a Vulcan ship that had crash landed on Earth , near Carbon Creek , Pennsylvania . They passed this information on to the Vulcan High Command . ( ENT : " Carbon Creek ")

Prior to joining the Federation, the Tellarites sent several sleeper ships crewed by orphans into deep space. At least one remained in flight in 2383 , and included Jankom Pog among its crew. ( PRO : " Dream Catcher ")

In the 22nd century , the Tellarites engaged in conflict with the Andorians . In 2154 , Ambassador Gral recalled being aboard a cruiser as they drove "those blue demons " back into their territory by force. ( ENT : " Babel One ")

In April 2152 , a passing Tellarite vessel directed Enterprise NX-01 , suffering severe damage after an encounter in a Romulan minefield , to an automated repair facility . Sub-Commander T'Pol then stated that Tellarites were generally considered trustworthy. ( ENT : " Dead Stop ")

A Tellarite slave trader on Verex III in 2154

However, as of the 2150s , some Tellarites were also involved in dubious businesses. By 2151 , a merchant operating in the area around the Akaali homeworld was a competitor of unscrupulous, covert mining entrepreneur Garos . In March 2153 , the Tellarite bounty hunter Skalaar , working for the Klingons , captured the Human Jonathan Archer , captain of the Enterprise . However, he later helped him to escape from a Klingon ship. Skalaar's brother, Gaavrin , who worked on a space station at that time, used to run a freighter , the Tezra , together with him. However, the ship had been confiscated and dismantled when the brothers trespassed the Klingon Empire. In May 2154, a Tellarite was bidding at an Orion Syndicate slave auction on Verex III in the Borderland . ( ENT : " Civilization ", " Bounty ", " Borderland ")

Captain Jonathan Archer unites the Tellarites and Andorians in order to form a joint fleet with the Vulcans and Humans

In November 2154, a Tellarite delegation led by Ambassador Gral was being transported to the planetoid Babel by the Enterprise to resolve a long-standing trade dispute with the Andorians. However, the Romulan Star Empire had become aware of the threat posed by a closer partnership between Tellar, Andoria , and its neighbors. The Star Empire's attempts to destabilize the region led to the Babel Crisis , during which a secret mission by the Romulans involved the use of two Romulan drone ships , which were able to camouflage themselves as various other vessels. By destroying the Andorian vessel Kumari under the guise of a Tellarite cruiser, thereby causing the cancellation of the Babel conference and nearly escalating an old conflict between the two races, the Romulans nearly succeeded with their plans. However, Captain Archer of the Enterprise defused the tension between the Andorians and Tellarites by unexpectedly answering a Ushaan challenge on which Commander Thylek Shran insisted, Archer thereby protecting Naarg of the Tellarite delegation and deliberately sparing Shran's life by incapacitating him. Archer subsequently allied the Tellarites, Andorians, Humans, and Vulcans to find and destroy the drone ships by forming a joint fleet, thereby altering the result of this Romulan mission to the exact opposite of what it had been intended to achieve. ( ENT : " Babel One ", " United ", " The Aenar ")

Cpt. Archer gives a speech in front of the Tellarite delegation at the talks to form a Coalition of Planets in 2155

In 2155 , a Tellarite delegation attended talks on Earth about forming a Coalition of Planets . Minister Nathan Samuels joked that new universal translators , which the participants were given, were working a little too well when it came to talking to the Tellarites. During the conference, the Coridanites also rejected a Tellarite proposal to enact a trade embargo against the Orion Syndicate. The Coridan representative claimed his people had been trading with the Orions for centuries and that the accusation of Orions attacking Tellarite freighters constituted slander . Despite subsequent terrorist acts by Terra Prime , a xenophobic movement which tried to drive all non-Humans out of the Sol system , the conference was eventually resumed with a passionate speech by Captain Archer, earning the applause of all attendees including the Tellarite delegation. ( ENT : " Demons ", " Terra Prime ")

Several species represented at the Coalition of Planets conference became welded together when the conflict with the Romulan Star Empire escalated into the Earth-Romulan War . After the war between United Earth and the Star Empire began in 2156 , a humiliating defeat of the Romulans by an alliance of Tellarite, Andorian, Vulcan, and Human forces at the Battle of Cheron in 2160 effectively ended the conflict and led to the establishment of the Romulan Neutral Zone between the two power blocs. ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II "; TOS : " Balance of Terror ")

Some time prior to 2161 , Shallash gained notoriety as the second Tellarite liberator . ( ENT : " These Are the Voyages... ")

Federation member [ ]

The founding ceremony of the Federation in San Francisco in 2161

In 2161, Tellar - along with its old war allies Earth, Andoria, and Vulcan - founded the United Federation of Planets in San Francisco on Earth and established a joint Starfleet . ( ENT : " Zero Hour "; TNG : " The Outcast ", " The First Duty "; DS9 : " Inquisition ") As a result, Tellar Prime held a seat on the Federation Council and Tellarites served as Starfleet officers, including aboard the USS Discovery ( DIS : " The Red Angel ", " Through the Valley of Shadows " ) and in high-ranking positions as flag officers , e.g. Admirals Gorch and Zus Tlaggul by the late 2250s . ( DIS : " Will You Take My Hand? "; SNW : " Ad Astra per Aspera "; Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ; DS9 : " Apocalypse Rising ")

A newspaper article ( It's Federation Day! ) in the Picard family album created for Star Trek Generations suggests that an Ambassador Natha Kell was the Tellarite present at the forming of the Federation, though the clipping was not seen on screen and is not considered canon .

The novel Last Full Measure suggests that the Tellarite signer of the Federation Charter was Gral.

Numerous non-canon sources hint that the Tellarite fleet was merged with its Human, Andorian, and Vulcan counterparts to become the new Federation Starfleet.

Tellarite bounty hunter Tevrin Krit

Some Tellarites, however, preferred to follow more venturesome careers, e.g., bounty hunter Tevrin Krit in the 2250s , who unsuccessfully tried to collect the bounty the Federation had put on Harry Mudd . ( ST : " The Escape Artist ")

In 2268 , the planet Coridan sought admission to the United Federation of Planets. However, due to the wealth of dilithium available on Coridan and the presence of illegal mining operations, Coridan's admission was a controversial subject between Tellarites and Vulcans.

Sarek, Gav and others during their journey to the Babel Conference 2268

The Babel Conference was convened to settle the matter and ultimately approved Coridan's admission. Tellarite Ambassador Gav was among the delegates to the Babel Conference, but Thelev , an Orion infiltrator in Andorian disguise on board the Federation starship USS Enterprise , assassinated him and unsuccessfully tried to frame Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan, who, at the conference itself, was ultimately credited with achieving a consensus towards admitting the planet to the Federation. ( TOS : " Journey to Babel "; TNG : " Sarek ")

In 2269 , a Tellarite was among the followers of Garth of Izar during his attempted escape from the high-security Elba II asylum . ( TOS : " Whom Gods Destroy ") A Tellarite served on the ruling council of the pocket dimension Elysia during the late 23rd century . ( TAS : " The Time Trap ")

A Tellarite serving on the Federation Council in 2286

In 2286 , at least one Tellarite was serving on the Federation Council . ( Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ) In 2293 , at least two Tellarites were present at the Khitomer Conference . ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country )

As of the late 24th century , Tellarite dignitaries were present at the Federation Council and Tellarites were serving in Starfleet. A drunken Klingon at the celebrations for the Order of the Bat'leth in 2373 bragged about having killed the Tellarite helmsman of Laporin's starship . ( TNG : " Conspiracy "; DS9 : " Apocalypse Rising "; VOY : " Non Sequitur ")

During the 2370s , Tellarite freighters occasionally conducted trade through starbase Deep Space 9 . ( DS9 : " Shadowplay ")

Following the fall of Betazed during the Dominion War in 2374 , many believed that Tellar could be the Dominion 's next target. ( DS9 : " In the Pale Moonlight ")

Captain Durango in 2380

As of 2380 , at least one Tellarite, Durango , was a Captain in Starfleet. ( LD : " Moist Vessel ")

Jankom Pog in 2383

By 2383 , at least one Tellarite, Jankom Pog , had made it to the Delta Quadrant , apparently having arrived aboard a Tellar sleeper ship . ( PRO : " Dream Catcher ", " Terror Firma ", " Preludes ")

After the Burn [ ]

Tellar Prime remained a part of the Federation through the Burn and its aftermath in the 31st and 32nd centuries , in contrast to other founding members Earth , Ni'Var , and Andoria . ( DIS : " Coming Home ") At least one Tellarite was part of the United Earth Defense Force personnel . Another, Taahz Gorev , was one of the first class of Starfleet Academy cadets when it reopened in 3190 . ( DIS : " Far From Home ", " People of Earth ", " All Is Possible ") However, due to the Burn, an unknown number of Tellarites are stranded outside of Federation space and suffer from Emerald Chain raiding parties. At least one group is known to operate the Tellarite Exchange within Emerald Chain controlled territory. ( DIS : " Far From Home ")

Mirror universe [ ]

Terev being tortured in the mirror universe (2154)

In the mirror universe , Tellarites had been subjugated by the Terran Empire sometime prior to 2155 . By that year, however, some Tellarites had joined a rebellion , which used various non-Terran vessels, e.g., Tellarite cruisers, to fight the Empire.

Major Malcolm Reed and Doctor Phlox of the ISS Enterprise tortured a Tellarite crewman named Terev in the agony booth as a demonstration of the device for Captain Maximilian Forrest and Commander Jonathan Archer . Reed's philosophy on Tellarites was that they were "all guilty of something." ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly ")

Sometime later, Archer and an away team under his command stole the USS Defiant , Archer, frustrated with a lack of progress while trying to apprehend the rogue Gorn Slar aboard the ship, raged, " We'd have more luck sending a squad of Tellarites to capture this thing! " ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II ")

Some Tellarites like Gorch , along with members of other species like Andorians and Klingons, were still in rebellion against the Terran Empire as of the mid-23rd century. ( DIS : " The Wolf Inside ")

Biology [ ]

An average size Tellarite and a "runt"

Tellarites were a stout humanoid species with an average body height shorter than that of Humans , although some individuals could also be taller than average Humans. ( ENT : " Bounty "; TOS : " Journey to Babel "; PIC : " Remembrance ") They had distinctive snouts, often wore beards , and their hands were sometimes hoof -like in appearance. Their lower jaw usually possessed a pair of small tusks . ( ENT : " Bounty "; TOS : " Journey to Babel ") However, at least some Tellarites possessed more prominent tusks. ( DIS : " The Wolf Inside ", " The War Without, The War Within "; PIC : " Remembrance "; PRO : " A Moral Star, Part 2 ")

For information on their hands and faces, see the background information section .

Tellarites standing next to Humans (2154)

Tellarites found Human room temperatures to be cold, indicative of a higher body temperature . ( ENT : " Babel One ")

Tellarite blood was purple in color as it contained hemerythrins , in common with some marine invertebrates on Earth . ( DIS : " Brother "; LD : " Mugato, Gumato ")

Though a particular medical condition known as dyspnea was normally considered a symptom (i.e., the patient noticed it him/herself) and not a sign (i.e., only a doctor noticed the sign during a medical examination) in most species, it was regarded as a sign when present in Tellarites. ( DS9 : " Inquisition ")

Male Tellarites have dominant groin . ( LD : " Mining The Mind's Mines ")

The name "Pog" was reserved for Tellarites who were considered runts . ( PRO : " Crossroads ")

Two references of note regarding Tellarites were mentioned in the second revised draft of the " Journey to Babel " script (dated 19 September 1967 ). The first was noting, " Gav's voice is rough, grating and accented in some way... as though English is very alien on his tongue. " The second reference could be found in a later scene where it read, " He [Gav] sits isolated. Before him is a small bottle of Saurian brandy to which he has been helping himself rather liberally. (NOTE: Tellarites do not get drunk , just feisty.) "

Society and culture [ ]

Symbol of the Tellarite nation in the 23rd and 24th centuries

Tellarite script

Tellarites were known to be an impatient people. ( ENT : " United ") They were also known for their "stubborn pride". ( ENT : " The Forge ") They had a propensity toward strong emotion . However, they enjoyed a good argument, and they even considered debate a sport on Tellar. ( ENT : " Bounty ") Tellarites often began an interaction with a series of complaints; this was how they started arguments with someone they had recently met. If they had nothing to complain about, they would simply insult the person. Because of their ability to argue, and hence their skills in debate, Tellarites made excellent politicians . ( ENT : " Babel One ")

Tellarites sometimes took mud baths . ( ENT : " Babel One ")

A buffet of Tellarite food (2154)

Tellarite cuisine included raw fruits and vegetables , though canines were considered to be something of a delicacy ( ENT : " Babel One "). Other Tellarite food include blood truffle biscuit and sweet radish pie , which is recommended to be topped off with sour gravy ( PRO : " Starstruck "), as well as a type of Sleeper ship stew that is served on their sleeper ships.

Tevrin Krit's family owned a sacred cudgel , the theft of which caused him much anger. ( ST : " The Escape Artist ")

One of Elim Garak 's suggested wedding dresses for Rom and Leeta was in the style of Tellarite modern . ( DS9 : " Call to Arms ") A pair of Tellarite shoes , from an unknown date, were discovered aboard an old derelict freighter by the Bajorans and later sold in an auction at Quark's in late 2373 . According to Quark , the freighter's " cargo hold was crammed with valuable items of every description, " but upon reading the list of items, Quark's nephew Nog mentioned the shoes, upon commenting on the list's comments as being " all a bunch of junk. " ( DS9 : " In the Cards ")

Technology [ ]

Sometime before the 2150s, the Tellarite freighter Tezra was the first of its class and able to haul one million metric tons of cargo at a maximum speed of warp 4.5. ( ENT : " Bounty ")

As of 2153, Skalaar considered force field emitters "the latest technology" aboard his shuttle . ( ENT : " Bounty ")

As of 2154, a Tellarite cruiser was considered to be no match against two Andorian battle cruisers . Ambassador Gral considered Tellarite technology to be inferior to Andorian technology. ( ENT : " Babel One ")

Starship classes [ ]

A 22nd century Tellarite cruiser

• Tellarite cruiser
• 20th century
• 22nd century
• 24th century
• Tellarite ship
• Tellarite shuttle
• Tellar sleeper ship

Individuals [ ]

• Named Tellarites
• Unnamed Tellarites

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ].

A list of all appearances of Tellarites (excluding the regular appearances of Jankom Pog ):

• " Journey to Babel "
• " Whom Gods Destroy "
• TAS : " The Time Trap "
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
• TNG : " Conspiracy " (archive footage)
• VOY : " Non Sequitur " (archive footage)
• " Borderland "
• " Babel One "
• " In a Mirror, Darkly "
• " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II "
• " Terra Prime "
• ST : " The Escape Artist "
• " The Wolf Inside "
• " The War Without, The War Within "
• " Will You Take My Hand? "
• " Brother "
• " If Memory Serves "
• " Project Daedalus "
• " Through the Valley of Shadows "
• " That Hope Is You, Part 1 "
• " People of Earth "
• " Scavengers "
• " Kobayashi Maru "
• " All Is Possible "
• " Coming Home "
• " Remembrance "
• " The Next Generation "
• " Disengage "
• " No Win Scenario "
• " Moist Vessel "
• " We'll Always Have Tom Paris "
• " Mugato, Gumato "
• " An Embarrassment Of Dooplers "
• " First First Contact "
• " Mining The Mind's Mines "
• " Reflections "
• " The Stars At Night "
• " The Inner Fight "
• " A Moral Star, Part 2 "
• " Let Sleeping Borg Lie "
• " All the World's a Stage "
• " Crossroads "
• " Spock Amok "
• " Ad Astra per Aspera "
• " Charades "
• " Lost in Translation "
• " Subspace Rhapsody "
• " Hegemony "

Background information [ ]

The original Tellarite mask

The inspiration for the Tellarite was originally described in a section of the 20 September 1967 script for " Journey to Babel " in a section regarding makeup-costume notes for the aliens:

The Tellarite is short, somewhat thick-bodied. Tellar is a savagely cold planet, and Gav's humanoid body is thickly matted with fur. We will not see much of this, as he is well covered with special clothes which have cold circuits build in for comfort. Gav has an almost Human face; but his brows and hair line are especially bushy, and he has a beard and moustache [sic] to match. His nose, however, is wide and square at the end...almost a snout.

The Tellarites were designed by Fred Phillips . Given virtually no notice that he would be required to design their make-up, Phillips had to do so overnight. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 17, No. 2, p. 32) Two Tellarite nose appliances were designed and manufactured for the appearance in "Journey to Babel". ( Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts , p. 27; Star Trek: The Original Series Sketchbook , pp. 190-192)

The appliances mainly consisted of a one-piece prosthetic appliance, which was made from foam latex and covered the central part of the actor's face. This type of primordial mask was glued on in such a way that the actor's eyes couldn't be seen, and consequently prevented the performer from seeing through its lunettes. This forced the actor to tilt his head back when he was delivering his lines in order to see through his mask. ( Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts , p. 48) Gav actor John Wheeler noted, " The makeup department at Desilu [...] put a plaster mask all over my head and left me two little straws to breathe through. " ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two )

To complete the makeup, a beard and mustache were added. Both these hair pieces were manually applied and were intended to blend into the actor's own head hair. The faux mustache helped to hide the edge of the snout appliance and created an interesting effect with the character's bushy eyebrows. The look was completed with character gloves , worn to represent the Tellarite hands. ( Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts , pp. 48-49)

Two Tellarite costumes were created for "Journey to Babel", and both were sold in the It's A Wrap! sale and auction . [1] (X) [2] (X) [3] (X)

Two images taken from apparent make-up tests appeared in the ending credits of the TOS episodes " The Deadly Years " and " A Private Little War ". These tests appear to be for either Gav or his aide. The second image features regular stand-in and background actor William Blackburn .

The mask used in Star Trek IV

The makeup for the Tellarites was slightly revised for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home . For that film , Kirk Thatcher explained that makeup was done by (newcomer to the Star Trek franchise) Richard Snell and, as such, " we played a little bit. We stuck an Andorian in there and Tellarites, but new Tellarites. They don't look so 'rubber masky.' We tried to maintain the Star Trek look throughout, but bring it up to date. " ( Starlog #111, October 1986 , p. 40) The Tellarite councilor in Star Trek IV is shown wearing robes that were originally created for the white-furred Kazarite from Star Trek: The Motion Picture .

Actor in Tellarite mask for Star Trek VI

Special effects makeup artist Ed French , who described many of the representatives present at the Khitomer Conference as a "homage to television," explained, " We also threw in a couple of the piglike Tellurites [sic], modified a bit from the old Star Trek episode 'Journey to Babel'. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 22, No. 5, p. 34; Charting the Undiscovered Country: The Making of Trek VI , p. 90)

There was no support, in the writing staff of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , for the possibility of a Tellarite or multiple members of the species appearing on that series. ( AOL chat , 1997 ) However, Makeup Supervisor Michael Westmore wanted to create an updated version of the Tellarite ever since 1998 , a wish he expected would be practical. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 46 , p. 83)

Finally, with the advent of Star Trek: Enterprise , a chance to again show Tellarites on screen seemed more feasible than it had before. While working on ENT in 2002 , Michael Westmore related, " I've already sent Brannon [Braga] a note and said I want to do them. The eyes probably wouldn't be as deep sunk, I'd probably modify the pig-like nose a little bit, and the hair would be better - we'd probably have a thousand-dollar lace beard on him instead of that bushy thing they wore! " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 98 , p. 45) In addition, he mentioned that he "would like to put a bony ridge on them." ( Starlog #311, June 2003 , p. 33)

When the opportunity finally presented itself for the Tellarites to appear on Enterprise , the makeup was again changed, the species receiving a completely new makeup scheme, in " Bounty " in 2003 , due to improved makeup techniques as well as a greater budget. " The hunter in 'Bounty' [namely Skalaar ] was originally a non-descript alien, but making him a familiar species helped jump-start the episode, " explained Michael Sussman . ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 108 , p. 48) Shortly after completing work on "Bounty", Executive Producer Brannon Braga commented on how the Tellarites had been updated, saying, " We reconceived the makeup a little bit so it's not quite as hokey. They were never really developed, so we also tried to create a little character and culture for them. We [...] wouldn't hesitate to do the Tellarites again. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 145 , pp. 31-32) One thing missing in the Star Trek: Enterprise makeup were the three fingers which some Tellarites have in Star Trek: The Original Series , though a slight reference to that in ENT can be seen in their cloven fingernails.

In the final draft script of ENT : " Babel One ", the Tellarites in that installment were described as "rotund".

Several Tellarite costumes from Enterprise were sold in the It's A Wrap! sale and auction. The auction listings also revealed that a fat suit was worn under the Tellarite uniform to give the appearance of added weight. [4] (X) [5] (X) [6] (X) [7] (X) [8] (X) [9] (X) Also included was a lot of latex Tellarite face, hand, and arm makeup appliances. [10] (X)

Glenn Hetrick noted about redesigning the Andorians for Star Trek: Discovery , " It blew our minds that we were getting to revisit those. " (" Creature Comforts ", DIS Season 1 DVD & Blu-ray special features)

Trivia and unused material [ ]

A Tellarite named Vashi was to have appeared in Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "Point of Extinction", though that installment was never produced . In the episode's first draft script, a somewhat lengthy description of the Tellarites referred to them as "short-tempered".

In the first draft script of ENT : " Strange New World ", a group of Tellarite survivors were referred to in a ghost story told by Charles Tucker . These Tellarites, according to the tale, had survived the crash landing of their Tellarite transport on Pluto but had then eaten one another .

There was apparently a recurring motif of being punched in the gut by a Tellarite in Star Trek: Enterprise . In the final draft script of "Bounty", a visual reaction Skalaar gave to his brother - Gaavrin (also a Tellarite) - revealing to him that Tezra , a freighter Skalaar had owned and loved, had actually been cannibalized by the Klingons was described thus: " Skalaar looks like he's been punched in the gut. " Similarly, in the episode " Observer Effect ", Charles Tucker III comments that he feels like he has been "gut-punched by a Tellarite."

Apocrypha [ ]

The Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual , to which Geoffrey Mandel , Eileen Palestine , and Douglas Drexler all contributed editorial content and/or illustrations, gave the planet Tellar Prime a location of 61 Cygni V, described a typical Tellarite as an "artiodactyloid biped," and taxonomized the species as Homo cygni. The earlier Star Fleet Technical Manual had identified the social system to which Tellar Prime belonged as "The United Planets Of 61 Cygni".

Shane Johnson , in The Worlds of the Federation , described Tellarites as being belligerent, but good engineers for all that, and described debate as a favorite form of entertainment among Tellarites. Although neither of these descriptions has been explicitly confirmed on screen, the character of Jankom Pog on Star Trek: Prodigy fits them.

In the novel Articles of the Federation , Bera chim Gleer was a Tellarite representative in the Federation council in the late 2370s and early 2380s, known for his long speeches and opposing Federation President Nanietta Bacco's inauguration. He is also referenced by political figures in Unjoined and A Time to Heal . Articles of the Federation also featured Kav glasch Vokrak, a Tellarite reporter.

A Tellarite named Colv served as an engineer on a cargo freighter in the Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers eBook Breakdowns . The Tellarite people are later referenced in the same novel for their involvement in "the infamous Tellarite bar-fight story," which is popular among the crew of the USS da Vinci .

In the Star Trek: SCE ebooks, which are eventually printed as paperback novels, a Tellarite character called Mor glasch Tev takes over the position of second officer after Kieran Duffy's death.

In the novel The IDIC Epidemic , Tellarites are listed as composing less than 28% of the Vulcan Science colony Nisus.

In the Star Trek: 25th Anniversary game, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy encounter a Tellarite on Pollux V who describes the Krognik demon - a creature from Tellarite mythology. This creature is the traditional shape of the Tellarite devil and his minions. Its physical appearance is described as being decidedly wolfish, with sharp teeth in a long snout.

Tellarites have made two appearances in comics from IDW Publishing . In Alien Spotlight : " Orions ", Christopher Pike encounters some on Babel in 2265 , when he is being feted as fleet captain . One of these, Administrator Muso, is a wanted criminal and bounty hunter , and is taken into custody with the help of an Orion slave girl . In Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between : " An Inconvenient Truth ", Jean-Luc Picard , while investigating a conspiracy in Starfleet, is fired on by a Tellarite in the shadows on the grounds of Starfleet Academy .

The Star Trek Roleplaying Game Starfleet Operations Manual and Aliens supplements characterize Tellarites as having great mechanical aptitude, perhaps due to their greater perception of distance, dimension, and depth, as well as being extensively trained in engineering at every level of the education process.

Female Tellarites are a playable race and gender for the Federation faction in Star Trek Online . Females are depicted as having the same pig-like facial features, but with pointed, wide extended ears.

External links [ ]

• Tellarite at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Tellarite at Wikipedia
• 1 Bell Riots
• 3 Daniels (Crewman)

Screen Rant

I can't believe star trek just brought back this one animated series species.

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Star Trek’s Future Requires More Patience Than Ever

Star trek isn’t supposed to have money: what is latinum, i don't care if modern star trek breaks established canon.

Warning: contains spoilers for Star Trek: Defiant #18!

I cannot believe that Star Trek just brought back an underused species from the Animated Series. Star Trek: The Animated Series aired for two seasons in the 1970s and helped keep the franchise alive before its return later that decade. The show now occupies a nebulous spot in Trek canon, but in Star Trek: Defiant #18, one species introduced to the mythos makes a shocking return.

Star Trek: Defiant #18 is written by Christopher Cantwell and drawn by Angel Unzueta. Chief O’Brien has left Earth to find Worf and his crew, who have become embroiled in a Romulan coup. O’Brien tracks the Defiant to the Delta Triangle. The ship is seemingly deserted, but O’Brien learns that six Kzinti are on board. The cat-like aliens are attempting to plunder the derelict ship, but cannot access the computer core, which is encrypted.

O’Brien tries to stealthily observe them, but his allergies get the best of him, and before long, he is in a firefight with the Kzinti.

Star Trek: The Animated Series Kept the Franchise Alive During its "Wilderness Years."

The kzinti have a cool science fiction pedigree.

Star Trek went off the air in 1969, but soon found its audience in syndication, who demanded more adventures with Kirk and Spock. Their prayers were answered in 1973 with the premiere of Star Trek: The Animated Series . Many of the principals, both behind and in front of the camera, returned for the show. Star Trek: The Animated Series took advantage of the medium, depicting exotic aliens and environments that would have been impossible on live action television. The Animated Series pushed the boundaries of what Star Trek was capable of.

The Kzinti creator Larry Niven adapted the race from his own works, called The Man-Kzin Wars.

The Kzinti, introduced in the episode “The Slaver Weapon,” were one of The Animated Series’ unique contributions. Created by legendary science fiction writer Larry Niven, the Kzinti were a felinoid (cat-like) species. Known throughout the galaxy as scavengers, the Kzinti have had a tense relationship with Earth, going back to the late 21st century. A Kzinti currently serves aboard the USS Cerritos (of Lower Decks fame), indicating relations have at least thawed considerably. The exact canonicity of the Animated Series is up for debate, but the Kzinti are worthwhile additions to the Star Trek lore.

The Kzinti Have the Potential to Be Amazing Star Trek Villains

The kzinti need to make a star trek return.

And now Christopher Cantwell and Angel Unzueta have brought the Kzinti back, if only for a brief moment. The Kzinti might prove difficult to pull off on live-action television, but they are perfect for comics and animation. Unlike other cat species seen on Star Trek , like the Caitians, the Kzinti are a threat. They have formidable technology and nearly overpowered O’Brien on the Defiant. While not a threat on par with the Romulans or the Breen, the Kzinti have great potential as Star Trek villains. I cannot believe they came back, but I am glad they did.

Star Trek: Defiant #18 is on sale now from IDW Publishing!

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Ready For An "Alien" Marathon? Here's Your Ultimate Guide To Watching All 9 Movies In Order

Please don't hate me for including the Alien/Predator movies, but I didn't want them to feel alienated.

BuzzFeed Contributor

We've been fortunate to experience more than 40 years of Xenomorphs, Chestbursters, and Facehuggers, and the Alien franchise continues to thrive.

The latest film in the franchise, alien: romulus , is out, and the aliens are back and better than ever, believe it or not, there are only nine films in this widely regarded sci-fi horror series. audiences still resonate with it because of the strong characters, intriguing premises, monstrous aliens, frightening kill sequences, and epic storytelling..

For ease, I've put the movies in chronological order and included some interesting facts about the franchise:

Note: When I say "chronological," I mean in the canon of the Alien franchise, NOT when the films were released. 

1. AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004)

View this video on YouTube

Cast:   Sanaa Lathan , Lance Henriksen, Raoul Bova Director:  Paul W.S. Anderson Runtime:  1 hour, 40 minutes Rating : PG-13

Rotten Tomatoes   Score:  22%

Plot via  IMDB : During an archaeological expedition on Bouvetøya Island in Antarctica, a team of archaeologists and other scientists find themselves caught up in a battle between the two legends. Soon, the team realizes that only one species can win.

Alien Franchise Fact: The character of Ripley was originally written to be a male character.

2. Aliens vs Predator: Requiem (2007)

Cast:  Reiko Aylesworth, Steven Pasquale, Shareeka Epps Director:  Colin Strause, Greg Strause Runtime:  1 hour, 34 minutes Rating : R

Rotten Tomatoes   Score:  12%

Plot via  IMDB : Warring Alien and Predator races descend on a rural Colorado town, where unsuspecting residents must band together for any chance of survival.

Alien Franchise Fact: The Alien prop head the actor wore was five pounds !

3. Prometheus (2012)

Cast:   Noomi Rapace , Logan Marshall-Green, Michael Fassbender Director:  Ridley Scott Runtime:  2 hours, 3 minutes Rating : R

Rotten Tomatoes   Score:  73%

Plot via  IMDB : Following clues to the origin of mankind, a team finds a structure on a distant moon, but they soon realize they are not alone.

Alien Franchise Fact: Ridley Scott was the fifth choice to be Alien 's director.

4. Alien: Covenant (2017)

Cast:  Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup Director:  Ridley Scott Runtime:  2 hours, 2 minutes Rating : R

Rotten Tomatoes   Score:  65%

Plot via  IMDB : The crew of a colony ship, bound for a remote planet, discover an uncharted paradise with a threat beyond their imagination, and must attempt a harrowing escape.

Alien Franchise Fact: Star Wars was a heavy influence on Prometheus.

5. Alien (1979)

Cast:  Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt Director:  Ridley Scott Runtime:  1 hour, 57 minutes Rating : R

Rotten Tomatoes   Score:  93%

Plot via  IMDB : After investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin, the crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform.

Alien Franchise Fact: The Alien chest-burster scene was shot with multiple cameras because Ridley Scott could only perform the full effect once since it was very "bloody," and they couldn't keep cleaning it up.

6. Alien: Romulus (2024)

Cast:  Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux Director:  Fede Alvarez Runtime:  1 hour, 59 minutes Rating : R

Rotten Tomatoes   Score:  80%

Plot via  IMDB : While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonists come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.

Alien Franchise Fact: The screenplay for Alien was originally called Dark Star .

7. Aliens (1986)

Cast:  Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn Director:  James Cameron Runtime:  2 hours, 17 minutes Rating : R

Rotten Tomatoes   Score:  94%

Plot via  IMDB : Decades after surviving the Nostromo incident, Ellen Ripley is sent out to re-establish contact with a terraforming colony but finds herself battling the Alien Queen and her offspring.

Alien Franchise Fact: Ridley Scott wanted to take the audience to the edge of stress, similar to The Exorcist and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

8. Alien 3 (1992)

Cast:  Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance Director:  David Fincher Runtime:  1 hour, 55 minutes Rating : R

Rotten Tomatoes   Score:  44%

Plot via  IMDB : Returning from LV-426, Ellen Ripley crash-lands on the maximum-security prison Fiorina 161, where she discovers that she has unwittingly brought along an unwelcome visitor.

Alien Franchise Fact: Conor O’Sullivan , the creature design supervisor on the film, and Ridley Scott built different Xenomorph versions to use on set, ranging from six and a half to nine feet tall.

9. Alien: Resurrection (1997)

Cast:  Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Dominique Pinon Director:  Jean-Pierre Jeunet Runtime:  1 hour, 49 minutes Rating : R

Rotten Tomatoes   Score:  55%

Plot via  IMDB : Two centuries after her death, a powerful human/alien hybrid clone of Ellen Ripley aids a crew of space pirates in stopping the aliens from reaching Earth.

Have you watched all the Alien movies? Let me know in the comments!

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