Aliens We’ve Never Seen

[Arpy]

1. In TNG’s “Tapestry,” Picard is nearly killed by a group of Lenarians before a diplomatic conference.

2. In DS9’s “Dramatis Personae,” Jadzia tells Kira the tale of Curzon and Sisko being cornered by a group of Kaleans on Rochani III.

3. In DS9’s “The Maquis, Part II,” Quark uses the Pygorians to sell weapons and technology to the Maquis. In the The Lost Era novel One Constant Star, the Pygorians are described as having an average height of one meter and lacking pigment in their skin and eyes.

4. In VOY’s “Elogium,” the Gree are described as a people with large probosces (noses). The Ferengi food gree-worms may be a Gree product.

5. Also in “Elogium” we learn of the Scathos, among whom any woman having a child before the age of 40 was to be executed.

 

[Arpy]

Is there a Grand Moff Tarkin fan club in the Star Trek writer’s room? Similar to all the different kinds of "Terrelians," it looks like there are a few different kinds of "Tarkanians" in Trek too.

1. Tarkans:
In VOY’s “Darkling” there’s the exchange:

ZAHIR: You should navigate here, away from this plasma belt, you'll avoid the Tarkan sentries altogether.
TUVOK: It would also take Voyager off a direct course to the Alpha quadrant.
ZAHIR: True, but at least you would still have Voyager.
TUVOK: The Tarkan are that powerful?
ZAHIR: Yes, and that acquisitive. They'll remove your entire crew, settle you on a moon somewhere, and your ship will become their latest trophy.​

2. Tarkanians:
In TNG’s “The Drumhead” Worf says to the Klingon spy J’Dan, “I have tracked the movements of every person who has left the Enterprise since you have been here. I traced one Tarkanian diplomat as far as the Cruces system where he disappeared and has not been seen since.” I'm seeing some Vendorian-looking fellow with a fancy necklace of state.

3. Tarkannans:
In VOY’s “Innocence” Chakotay says, “On my first assignment we were sent to make contact with the Tarkannans. I studied all the information we had about them and pestered the Captain into letting me be part of the diplomatic team. When we came face to face with the Tarkannan delegation I very proudly made the traditional gesture for hello, not realizing that males and females of their race use different styles of movement, and I was actually propositioning the Ambassador.” His hand gesture in the scene suggests humanoid but it could be a humanoid’s approximation of one made by a tentacle or who knows what.

Turkanans:
(Then there’s the “Turkanans” of the failed Earth colony of Turkana IV where Tasha Yar was born and that the ship visited in TNG’s “Legacy.”)

4. Cosimo's Species:
We never got a name for them but in VOY’s “Non Sequitur” Harry’s Italian waiter Cosimo says, “We exist in what you would call a temporal inversion fold in the space-time matrix.” They could be Schisms-like humanoids or something as alien as DS9’s Prophets. (...come to think of it, *could they be the Schisms aliens? Maybe some of them are nicer than others.)

 

[Admiral Archer]

What about the Denebians from Deneb Kaitos V? Apparently Harry Mudd ran afoul of them in TOS and escaped; based on his description they use the death penalty on those who commit fraud. In TAS the Enterprise attends the foundation of a Federation Academy of Science in 2270. The denebians themselves are warp capable. No word on their being members of the Federation.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

We've met a Drelb in Barbara Hambly's novel, Ishmael, but they've never appeared onscreen.

 

[Arpy]

We've met a Drelb in Barbara Hambly's novel, Ishmael, but they've never appeared onscreen.

Yeah, if we open it up to the Lit as well there are a bunch more that we’ve both “seen” and that have only been mentioned. I remember the non-humanoid Federation members from one of the DS9 Relaunch books called the Alonis, for example, that were aquatic people who moved around with antigravs. They didn’t have arms, only little fins but, unless I’m misremembering, I think they could still have been played by human actors (with some CG help or creative costuming) because they had heads that were not too dissimilar from ours.

 

[Denise]

Spock says in Journey to Babel that the Rigellians have an anatomy close to that of Vulcans, so I have wondered if they are a Vulcanoid offshoot. Have we seen them in one of the shows? I know they show up in one of the books (Mind Meld). In that book, they look mostly Vulcan but display emotions.

 

[ED-209]

Niberites - as in Niberite alliance that Worf was going to join?

 

[Farscape One]

I have always wondered about the Nyberite Alliance. Worf said they were always 'eager to hire experienced officers'. This implies that it's a multi-species organization... like a smaller version of Starfleet.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

based on his description they use the death penalty on those who commit fraud.

Needless to say, Ferengi fear them.

 

[Arpy]

Spock says in Journey to Babel that the Rigellians have an anatomy close to that of Vulcans, so I have wondered if they are a Vulcanoid offshoot. Have we seen them in one of the shows? I know they show up in one of the books (Mind Meld). In that book, they look mostly Vulcan but display emotions.

Maybe the smiling Vulcan extras in various shows were in fact Rigelians.

But I think they either naturally evolved on one of the Rigels like the early Vulcanoid Mintakans seemed to on Mintaka III in "Who Watches the Watchers" (and like the countless fully human-looking aliens seemed to on other worlds) or there's a panspermia situation happening with specifically Vulcanoid DNA. Am I misremembering or was the idea in TOS "Return to Tomorrow" that Sargon's people seeded Vulcan many eons ago...could they have done so with Mintaka, Rigel, and others as well?

Niberites - as in Niberite alliance that Worf was going to join?

I have always wondered about the Nyberite Alliance. Worf said they were always 'eager to hire experienced officers'. This implies that it's a multi-species organization... like a smaller version of Starfleet.

Yeah I always wondered about them...half the time I think of them as pirates or privateers operating in between some of the larger powers or on the frontier of.


Some more additions to the list:

Delta Quadrant:

1. In “Threshold” we learn Neelix was an engineer’s assistant for two years on a Trabalian freighter. Trabalian could be a species, a planet, or a company, among other things, but I'm thinking it's a species. A non-humanoid one could explain how Neelix is good with being around so many aliens himself, how difficult things were for him previously, and further drive home how bizarre this far away quadrant is.

2. In “Fair Trade” we find out his friend Wixiban did a year in a Ubean prison for a job Neelix was in on. According to Wixiban conditions there were harsh, with unimaginable punishments, vermin that chewed on the inmates, and having to eat worms to sustain himself. That might be easier for a non-humanoid alien species for whom it’s easier to ignore the “humanity” of its prisoners.


Alpha/Beta Quadrants:

3. In “The Q and the Gray” Q says he wrote Janeway Drabian love sonnets to try to woo her. Drabian could be a kind of sonnet, but it’s probably a species, right? They might look like anything. Maybe something ironically unsexy might fit here…I’m seeing giant blue-gray or green-gray boulder-like aliens...but they could just as easily be wispy upright wolf or fox-like aliens with rubbery spines who love to love.

4. In “I, Mudd” Harry Mudd sold the Denebians of Denab V (who he considered a "struggling young civilization" from a "backward planet”) fraudulent goods and was given a choice of various forms of execution before he escaped. I wonder what a “20th century” non-humanoid planet might be like.

5. In “Loud as a Whisper” we learn of the Leyron of Malkus IX, one of a few known species that developed a written language long before a spoken or sign language. They can’t be too alien though because of their M-9 sign language that Data was studying to try to communicate with the deaf Riva. In “Macrocosm” Janeway says she studied their gestural idioms. They're likely to have at least two humanoid arms/hands.…maybe they’re tripeds? Or how about centaurs?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Isn't it also possible that many of these races may in fact be nationalities?

I wonder if aliens hear humans talk about Russians, Japanese, Americans, etc, and think that they're referring to a species.

 

[Arpy]

Isn't it also possible that many of these races may in fact be nationalities?

I wonder if aliens hear humans talk about Russians, Japanese, Americans, etc, and think that they're referring to a species.

Maybe, and I’ve pointed that out in some of my replies, but I’ve tried to choose only names that likely refer to species.

( When Neelix tells Paris he knows warp theory from having worked as an engineer’s assistant on a Trabalian freighter, he’s likely referring to a species as Paris wouldn’t likely know Talaxian colonies or corporations, and Neelix would have otherwise just told him he’d worked on a freighter. (Would you tell a Klingon you’d worked on a “Taiwanese” freighter? It would mean little to them.)

They could have discussed a “Talaxian Colony of Trabalia” or “The Trabalian Freight Corporation” before, and you could slot that in like SNW reinterpreting Kirk’s line about discovering the Gorn, but it’s inconsistent with this show/writer’s likely intent.

Here’s an easier one to do that though and knock a previous addition off the list: when Wixiban is telling Neelix about doing time in the Ubean prison, both would know who the Ubeans are and if they’re a Talaxian people/entity or of another humanoid species we’ve already met.)​

Here’s some of the ones I’ve previously left out because they could go either way or point to not being species:

1. In VOY’s “Dreadnaught” there’s the exchange:

WILDMAN: It doesn't have to be a human name. I like Sural. It's Vulcan.
EMH: Yes, unfortunately it was also the name of a dictator on Sakura Prime, famed for beheading his rivals, and his parents.​

Is Sakura Prime a Vulcan colony, a Gallamite or world of another species we already know, or are there native Sakurans that should make it to this list? It’s unclear, but because the Doctor didn’t refer to a specifically Sakuran dictator, I didn’t feel it likely enough to include it on my list.​

2&3. In VOY’s “Investigations” Neelix is on the hunt for the traitor onboard and studying subspace transmission logs:

TORRES: Transmissions are logged on by date and time. Anything else?
NEELIX: No. I'll be fine. Thank you very much.
…
NEELIX: Voyager to Mithren… Mithren again… Voyager to Kotati…
​

There’s a good chance those are aliens species…but they could also be Talaxian colonies or those of other aliens we’ve already met:

NEELIX: There are lots of rumours about ships entering Bothan space, never to be heard from again. My sources on Mithren say that they have lost a number of vessels. They say the Botha protect their territory fiercely.
​

His sources on Mithren, not among the Mithren or what have you. Not definitive but later when Janeway’s confronting the Bothan, she refers to the Mithren government not to the “Mithrens” themselves:

JANEWAY: We could destroy your technology. Or adjust your brain wave patterns to prevent telepathy. And then we could turn you over to the government of Mithren. We could even keep you confined in our brig behind a force field.​

4. Then there’s the Botha/Bothans. They’re super territorial, during the entire episode we only ever meet one and he’s constantly manipulating the crew with his telepathy (to the point of never being there), and for all we know his appearance could have been a complete fabrication, another layer of deception, and his people are completely alien from how he appeared. The Bothans maybe should be on this list.


5. Another one more what you’re looking for from VOY’s “Sacred Ground”:

JANEWAY: That's what I'm guessing. The shamans of the Karis tribe on Delios VII practice a ritual that increases the electrical resistance of their skin. It protects them from plasma discharges in their sacred caves. Something similar must happen during this ritual.​

The Karis are likely a tribe/nation of people among a larger group on Delios VII or she would have called them the Karisians or Karisi or something. They could be “Deliosians” or they could be a segment of a larger group we’ve met before. Neo-Luddite Arcturians, say. Or 24th Century (Human) Maasai who’ve never chosen to develop technology themselves to then reject.​

EDIT:

A couple of (I think) non-government organizations that could also be reinterpreted as species:

1. From VOY’s “Alliances”:

NEELIX: He was a Takrit, a band of mercenaries that operates in this system*.
TUVOK: What was he doing when the Kazon-Pommar arrested him?
NEELIX: My contact on the planet said that he was making a sketch of the conference site, and believe me the Takrid are not known for their art.
​

(*A Kazon-Pommar system in which the planet Sobras was located on which Neelix had been before and where he met his contact again in the episode before being arrested.)

Not every species needs to be a monolithic entity. The Takrit could be a species operating within Kazon space (the local Ferengi or Nausicaans) who share a racial characteristic of being bad at art….or they could be an upstart Kazon mafia or gang, thugs for hire—in this case to scope out where the majes (princes) were going to meet so the Trabe could assassinate them.
​

2. In VOY’s “Fair Trade” Kolaati traders made a fortune trafficking in narcotics near the Nekrit Expanse. Wixiban tried to trade narcotics with a Kolaati called Tosin (who was of a sinister-looking species we’ve never seen before and did meet the description of Kolaati being mean as fire snakes), but who was also with two other aliens of a different species. Either the Kolaati hire/accept others to assist them (like the Orion Syndicate) or the word Kolaati is not a species name. Maybe Kolaati is a vicious local animal (a cobra) or mythological creature (Hells Angel) or something else.

 

[Arpy]

Isn't it also possible that many of these races may in fact be nationalities?

I wonder if aliens hear humans talk about Russians, Japanese, Americans, etc, and think that they're referring to a species.

Here's another thought...

Going back to a previous batch of additions to the list, there's little enough information about either that you could say the Tarkannans and the Tarkanians are the same people – just that when young Chakotay was sent to make contact with them they called them the Tarkannans and that by the time Worf was tracking one on the Enterprise-D they referred to them as Tarkanians. We've seen this previously with the Vulcanians/Vulcans.

Stuff like this could be an interesting exercise in cleaning up some of the similar sounding aliens (where possible; the Delta Quadrant "Tarkans" wouldn't be effected) and lessening the overabundance of aliens (humanoid and not) in the crowded Star Trek Universe. ...then again, there are millions or billions of planets that could support all kinds of life out there so that might not be needed.

But, like, is every strange sounding ingredient Neelix uses from a different planet/one with a native population? If he uses Orvan Oregano, is that from the planet Orvan or just a kind of oregano from Talax or from trading with, say, the Rakosans that Voyager saved in "Dreadnaught" or someone else?

I've made a point of not including foods and animals (Guinan's "Tarcassian razor beast") on this list because we can't be sure they're not from previously seen/known planets.

 

[at Quark's]

The Hingefreel people of Arkintoofle Minor.

They were never seen in the Trek universe.

Granted, they were never mentioned in Trek either, but in H2GT2G.

Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws. The Hingefreel people of Arkintoofle Minor did try to build spaceships that were powered by bad news but they didn't work particularly well and were so extremely unwelcome whenever they arrived anywhere that there wasn't really any point in being there.

Still, I'm curious how our well-behaved Federation would have greeted those ships