Aliens of Trek Lit, Chapter One: Nasats!

[F. King Daniel]

Another interesting point regarding Nasats, and how Balance of Nature and other Trek lit sources relate to the single animated apperance: ship designs.

In the shot below, we have what I assume are the vessels of Lara, Tchar, Sord and M3 Green - or Em/3/Green, or however we're going to spell it.

Of course, there's no guarantee that these ships were designed by the races of the owners...but since one of them is clearly Federation, with familiar nacelles and hull colour, I'm assuming it's Lara's (the human), and therefore it can't hurt to suggest the others might well be native designs too. Which means we might be seeing a Nasat ship, something that intrigues me more than it probably should. While I'm a bit wary of playing match-the-colours, I like to think the yellow ship is Tchar's, the gray one Sord's, and the green one our tragically antennaless Nasat's (anyone want to bet that this wasn't the intent with the colours?). The reason I'm pleased to think the green ship is his is because it resmbles some sort of exotic plant, a spiny pod or flower. Given the rainforest habitat established for Nasats in Balance of Nature, I thought this was one of those serendipitous linkages that wind up making sense regardless of any intent. Nasat architecture and aesthetics building on jungle vegetation?

I'm seeing two green ships, and one of them is from the 1952 version of War of the Worlds!

 

[iguana_tonante]

Good stuff, DN. I haven't read any of the SCE book, but I enjoyed this thread very much. I like the stuff that focuses on the "secondary" races of Trek mileage.

I particularly enjoyed your analysis of the Nasat as an insectoid race, and the usual representation of such cultures in Star Trek. In my ongoing RPG campaign (which is quite biased toward the Animated Series, i.e. silly as hell), one of the guy plays a Kaferian, one of the often-mentioned-but-never-seen races in Trek. They are on record as being insectoid, friendly and good with genetics, but nothing more. So, being the funny guy he is, he turned the stereotype around, and made them highly individualistic, ambitious, competitive, almost obsessed with personal success and recognition. He often says that people always assume that bug-folk are ants and bees, forgetting there's also wasps, cockroaches, and spiders.

 

[KimMH]

I found your analysis interesting and more reason to get into the SCE books, none of which I've read yet. (I can hardly keep up w/ the current crop!)

I hope you'll continue this DN!

I was pleasently suprised by the first one i read.

I'm not very strong in the sciences so assumed they would be less interesting to me, but have only heard good things about them. It may be time to take the plunge!

 

[Christopher]

The SCE books aren't any more science-heavy as a rule than most Trek.

 

[Markonian]

Kaferian, one of the often-mentioned-but-never-seen races in Trek. They are on record as being insectoid, friendly and good with genetics, but nothing more. So, being the funny guy he is, he turned the stereotype around, and made them highly individualistic, ambitious, competitive, almost obsessed with personal success and recognition. He often says that people always assume that bug-folk are ants and bees, forgetting there's also wasps, cockroaches, and spiders.

The Kaferians were seen in an TNG-R episode. Before that, they were featured in Christopher L. Bennet's DTI: Watching the Clock, where they were also an individualistic and friendly people. Spiders aren't real insects, I think.

 

[Christopher]

Spiders are arachnids.

 

[Therin of Andor]

There is an occasionally recurring Skorr member of crew onboard the Titan. His name is desYog, and there's not a lot about on him on Memory Beta. http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/DesYog
.

When Curt Danhauser did the trading card texts for the Rittenhouse set featuring Filmation's TAS, he assumed the Skorr ("The Jihad") to be the same species as the Aurelians ("Yesteryear").

From my soon-to-be revised "Toon Trek" site:

Apart from the featured T'char and Aleek-Om,

SKORR of "The Jihad" and "Star Trek Log Five" - Mentioned ("Battlestations!", N). Ensign Rixa, female crewmember of this avian race, featured ("TNG: Section 31: Rogue", N). Skorrian fritters, served in a Kaferian apple compote, mentioned ("DS9: Mission Gamma, Book 1: Twilight", N). USS Titan Lieutenant Commander desYog featured ("Titan: The Red King", N). Goddess teneYa-choFe mentioned ("Titan: The Red King", N).

AURELIANS of "Yesteryear" and "Star Trek Log One" - Avian race described; Ambassador Aleek-Aur mentioned ("The Worlds of the Federation", B). Race mentioned ("The Lost Years", "Chains of Command", "The Lost Era: Deny Thy Father", "Ex Machina", "Crucible: Spock: The Fire and the Rose", N). Note: The hominid Ornarans of "TNG: Symbiosis" were originally referred to as Aurelians in an early draft of the script.

http://andorfiles.blogspot.com.au/2009/10/toon-trek.html

 

[Christopher]

In Forgotten History, I was going to put in a reference to the Skorr being a religious sect of the Aurelian species, but then I took another look at the episodes, and in my opinion, while Tchar does look very similar to Aleek-Om, they're not identical. Tchar had darker feathers and a fatter neck, which could be individual variations, but Aleek-Om had wider shoulders, with his arms and wings both coming out of them, while Tchar's arms were mounted lower on his sides, out of the way of the wing joints. Also, Tchar had three digits per hand while Aleek-Om evidently had five (see image 004 in TrekCore's "Yesteryear" gallery), and Aleek-Om's nostrils are more elaborately shaped. That suggests they're distinct species, perhaps related or perhaps simply resembling each other due to convergent evolution.

 

[iguana_tonante]

The Kaferians were seen in an TNG-R episode.

TNG-Remastered? Cool. Do you remember which episode was that?

Before that, they were featured in Christopher L. Bennet's DTI: Watching the Clock, where they were also an individualistic and friendly people.

Ah, didn't know that. It's entirely possible my friend picked it up from there.

Spiders aren't real insects, I think.

Yeah, of course. But it got tedious after a while to type "insects, arachnids, and other kinds of arthropods" so I just shortened it to "bugs".

 

[Christopher]

The Kaferians were seen in an TNG-R episode.

TNG-Remastered? Cool. Do you remember which episode was that?

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Kaferian

An illustration labeled as a Kaferian (taken from a FASA manual) was shown on Data's computer screen in "The Big Goodbye" while he was reviewing the Dixon Hill canon. It would've been there in the original episode; I assume what Markonian means is that it wasn't clearly discernible until the episode was remastered in HD.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Cheers.

 

[Therin of Andor]

That suggests they're distinct species, perhaps related or perhaps simply resembling each other due to convergent evolution.

Agreed. That was always my take on it!

Of course, we now know there was once an avian form of Xindi, too.

 

[KimMH]

The SCE books aren't any more science-heavy as a rule than most Trek.

Are they considered any more bewildering than the String Theory series? The final book hurt my head and I had to reread several passages only to realize I had No idea what was going on.

 

[Judith Sisko]

^Not at all. To me, the crew makes the stories worthwhile. The stories are more about HOW the crew averts the disaster or solves the dilemna, not about the disasters or dilemmas themselves.

 

[Markonian]

I assume what Markonian means is that it wasn't clearly discernible until the episode was remastered in HD.

Yes, that's what I meant.