Main alien races

[esim345]

What are the main alien races in Star Trek? I nominate:

From ToS: Vulcan, Klingon, Romulan
Added in TNG: Betazoid, Q, Borg, Ferengi, Cardassian, Bajoran, Trill
Added in DS9: Dominion (Changeling, Vorta, Jem'Hadar), Breen
Added in VOY: Talaxian, Ocampa, Kazon, Vidiian, Hirogen, Krenim, Species 8472

Are there any I've missed that are more important than the ones I nominated? If so, what new race would you add, and which of my nominees would you drop to make room for it? Also, what are the main races from the Enterprise series?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

TOS: Andorian, Tellarites
ENT: Xindi, Suliban

If the Krenim count despite only appearing in 2.5 episodes, you have to include Tholian and Gorn.

 

[Nerys Myk]

TOS: Andorian, Tellarites
ENT: Xindi, Suliban

If the Krenim count despite only appearing in 2.5 episodes, you have to include Tholian and Gorn.

The Andorians got most of their development in Enterprise. They were important in one episode of TOS, and one of them wasn't even an Andorian. You could put the Orions and the Vulcans under Enterprise as well.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

TOS: Andorian, Tellarites
ENT: Xindi, Suliban

If the Krenim count despite only appearing in 2.5 episodes, you have to include Tholian and Gorn.

The Andorians got most of their development in Enterprise. They were important in one episode of TOS, and one of them wasn't even an Andorian. You could put the Orions and the Vulcans under Enterprise as well.

Yeah but OP listed Trill under TNG so I was going by first appearance.

 

[Nerys Myk]

TOS: Andorian, Tellarites
ENT: Xindi, Suliban

If the Krenim count despite only appearing in 2.5 episodes, you have to include Tholian and Gorn.

The Andorians got most of their development in Enterprise. They were important in one episode of TOS, and one of them wasn't even an Andorian. You could put the Orions and the Vulcans under Enterprise as well.

Yeah but OP listed Trill under TNG so I was going by first appearance.

True. But one off first appearances would make every alien in TOS a main race.

 

[esim345]

So how is this as the revised list?

From ToS: Vulcan, Klingon, Romulan, Andorian, Tellarites, Orion
Added in TNG: Betazoid, Q, Borg, Ferengi, Cardassian, Bajoran, Trill
Added in DS9: Dominion (Changeling, Vorta, Jem'Hadar), Breen
Added in VOY: Talaxian, Ocampa, Kazon, Vidiian, Hirogen, Species 8472
Added in ENT: Xindi, Suliban

I removed Krenim, which is fine with me. Given that, should we still add Tholian and Gorn? What about Denobulan?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Denobulan has equal claim as Betazoid.

 

[Nerys Myk]

If a main character is a member of a race then its a main race.

I still feel that Trill should be under DS9, since the entire species was redesigned for that series.

 

[esim345]

Alright, I added Denobulan and moved some things around. How's this for a list?

Became prominent in ToS: Vulcan, Klingon
Became prominent in TNG: Romulan, Betazoid, Q, Borg, Ferengi, Cardassian, Bajoran
Became prominent in DS9: Trill, Dominion (Changeling, Vorta, Jem'Hadar), Breen
Became prominent in VOY: Talaxian, Ocampa, Kazon, Vidiian, Hirogen, Species 8472
Became prominent in ENT: Xindi, Suliban, Andorian, Tellarites, Orion, Denobulan

Are we missing any big ones? Should Tholian and Gorn be on the list? How about Reman, Organian, and Talosian? And is there anything on that list that doesn't deserve to be there?

 

[The Wormhole]

I'm not sure I'd include the Breen. They only had any real focus in DS9's final season, and even then they were pretty minor players overall. They were more a plot device, the Dominion's new bread winners who shove the Cardassians to the sidelines thereby motivating Damar to rebel.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Nausicaans (TNG, D.S.9.)


Oakleds (TNG; several background appearences on D.S.9.)

It's a damn shame they never had a D.S.9. episode with them.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I'm not sure I'd include the Breen. They only had any real focus in DS9's final season, and even then they were pretty minor players overall. They were more a plot device, the Dominion's new bread winners who shove the Cardassians to the sidelines thereby motivating Damar to rebel.

Breen had a crucial role in the last ten episodes of the show's main arc though so I would include them.

They, at the very least, have the same claim as Vidiian, Hirogen and Species 8472 to being main races. Races that didn't appear in very many episodes total but had crucial roles in main arcs.

 

[T'Girl]

Would the Tellarites really be considered a "main race?" We saw them once in TOS and a couple times in ENT.

They're basically non-existent in TNG-DS9-VOY, possibly they simply weren't seen..

I sometimes wonder if they might have cancelled their membership in the Federation prior to TNG. Went their own way.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I'd say there's two tiers we're dealing with.

Obviously main races, races that either are the main focus or main villain of a series or have a main character.

And fringe main races, races that didn't appear that often but had crucial roles in main arcs. The ones in this category are races like Tellarites, Vidians, 8472, Hirogen, Breen, Orion, Suliban. IMO you either have to include none of them or include them all.

 

[esim345]

Tellarites certainly aren't in the top 5. But they might be top 24, and that's really what I'm looking for. Even if they were only present in a single series, that's enough for me, as long as they were significant in that series.

Would the Tellarites really be considered a "main race?" We saw them once in TOS and a couple times in ENT.

They're basically non-existent in TNG-DS9-VOY, possibly they simply weren't seen..

I sometimes wonder if they might have cancelled their membership in the Federation prior to TNG. Went their own way.

 

[esim345]

I'd say the Vidiians and Hirogen were more important than the Breen. The Vidiians and Hirogen were both the sole focus of multiple episodes. The Breen weren't in a lot of episodes (more than most species, but not a lot), and they weren't the sole focus of any episodes. So I'm comfortable with dropping Breen from the list and keeping the others.

 

[Shawnster]

I would think number of lines spoken by the species and number of episodes they appear in would help toward determining if they were a main race or not. I would list Suliban and Vidiians higher than the Breen. I think the Breen get attention because they "look cool" but they are just a cypher. You could swap them out for another nameless faceless species that has no dialog and not alter the story.

At lest the Vidiians were developed somewhat.

 

[Borough 31]

You missed the most important: The Hierarchy. They basically rule the galaxy one committee at a time.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I think centrality to the main story is more important than just numerically how often they appeared. That's why I would include the Breen and Tellarites over the Vidians and Hirogen easily.

The Breen were the catalyst for the Cardassians rebelling against the Dominion, and the Dominion allies whose ship-disabling weapon drove the internal drama of the last few episodes. They were a crucial part of the central story of DS9. The Vidians appeared in six individual episodes, most of which were unrelated to each other, and all could have been removed without affecting the story in any other episode, same with the Hirogen only they got a handful more appearances.

It's true the Vidians were developed more, but reclusiveness was a core trait of the Breen species. And the phage was cured in a throwaway line in an unrelated episode and they never dealt with the consequences of having spent years murdering people to sustain themselves. Due to the mobile nature of the Voyager series, any species that got development was kind of discarded after moving beyond their space. Were the Vidians really more of a presence in the show than the Potatoians?

The Breen affected the main story, the Voyager races other than main character races and the Borg only affected their own episodes.

 

[esim345]

Do they? That wasn't the impression I got.

You missed the most important: The Hierarchy. They basically rule the galaxy one committee at a time.