Why so much love for Arex?

I like Arex only because he was the only non-humanoid member of the Enterprise crew. (M'ress had a tail and fur, but otherwise she was more or less humanoid.)

 

The problem I had with Arex is that he was anatomically absurd. The tiny neck would never support the head in 1G. The third arm and leg are beyond ridiculous. Evolution would never go in that direction.

I think it is cool that they went with characters it wouldn't be practical to do with live action but I wish they had put a bit more thought into it.

M'Ress/Catians were well-done but Arex/Edoans were silly.

 

Why is he cool?

He's got THREE FRICKIN' ARMS!

 

Yup. Three legs, two heads.

Evolution has produced some crazy shit right here on Earth. Arex is at least as plausible as a universe where nearly every planet produces human beings.

 

Arex represented in one being the Star Trek axiom of acceptance of diversity and also to me the potential of animation in telling stories that until recently, were too expensive to tell.

Plus he was just a cool concept for an alien.

 

I always thought that Arex resembled a young Kareem Abdul Jabbar a little bit.

The low brow and the short nose-bridge....

'cept Arex was orange (or burnt sienna if you prefer...)

 

Exactly. If we can accept Species 8472, with their three necks and three legs, we can buy Lt Arex.

 

He's weird and creepy, and so are a lot of us.

 

Anyone see this?

Speak for yourself!

 

Yep. Cool effect, but Phase II Arex apparently doesn't even have the third arm or leg. So it's not really Arex. Like Spock without the pointy ears and eyebrows, or an Enterprise without nacelles, or something

 

I think its only a test though

 

As a commercial artist, I have to say that Arex's look is also just a really strong design.

And for me, Jim Doohan's Arex voice fit the character's appearance perfectly.

 

The chair is an issue. I've assumed the hind leg folds forward, but that means a complicated hip joint. The leg would practically be dislocated. Ideally, Arex would sit on a stool. Easy on, easy off, no back to tangle the rear leg.

 

Maybe the chairs in the future are really customizable? Perhaps part of the base is removable, giving him room for his leg. The remaining bit of chair base that he sits on would be horseshoe shaped (like a toilet seat!)

This leads to another question: Between which of his legs are his nads? Perhaps we shouldn't go there...

 

His third leg was probably in the front anyway or was folded under his torso.

 

Arex's third leg bends like the other two legs. Here's a screencap: http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/File:Arex_in_command.jpg

 

That picture would seem to indicate that Arex isn't a true tripod, but has three forward-facing legs side-by-side-by-side.

Unfortunately my mind cannot seperate many years of pictures of Arex from TAS, old comics or other old Trek books enough to know if he's depicted differently in other TAS episodes. I can only say (in a somewhat unhelpful manner) that I've seen a pic of him somewhere with a rounder "base" and three legs in proper tripod fashion - two front, one rear.