Are New Aliens Going to Be a Problem?

[Tenacity]

I believe the biggest problem (for me) with Enterprise was introducing the Xindi ...

I liked the Xindi, for the amount of time devoted to them I thought they were nicely fleshed out. We got a little history, internal divisions and some of their politics.

when there were established races from TOS they could have focused on instead.

Yes, but that would not have been introducing a new species, just dragging back a species that had already been examined (perhaps too much so).

I would have liked to see more Andorians in Enterprise ...

What Enterprise did with the Andorian was great, take a hardly seen species and really fleshed them out. Enterprise could have (very) simply reused the Klingons in the "slot" they used the Andorian, but instead used a species that wasn't established, and was capable of being developed.

I don' mind new races on Discovery, so long as we don't get a new race they focus on to the point of not exploring other established races.

Some established species are so establish that there no more room to grow.

"We do not discuss it with outsiders"

Worf was sitting with two close friends when he said this, which makes his statement ... odd.

 

[Awesome Possum]

How many species are actually in the Federation? We only see Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, those blue bald guys and a handful of others. I'd really like to see more species, it's what I loved most about the reboot films. It showed a Starfleet full of different species all working together. I want to see weird stuff, like how the Enterprise-D was supposed to have dolphins on board. I want to see them go to that level and have a dolphin swimming around in an uniform.

 

[Tenacity]

How many species are actually in the Federation?

In the third season of TOS, Kirk refers to the Federation as "a vast alliance of fellow creatures."

To me at least, this sounds like more than a few dozen species, Kirk makes it sound like the Federation has species (creatures) numbering in the hundreds or thousands.

Discovery is set approximately a decade before Kirk's use of "vast."

 

[Spot261]

In the third season of TOS, Kirk refers to the Federation as "a vast alliance of fellow creatures."

To me at least, this sounds like more than a few dozen species, Kirk makes it sound like the Federation has species (creatures) numbering in the hundreds or thousands.

Discovery is set approximately a decade before Kirk's use of "vast."

Unless "vast" in this context refers to the scale of the alliance and not the number of member races.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

By 2373 the Federation's territory was spread across 8,000 light years, with a membership of over 150 worlds. According to Star Trek: Star Charts by 2378 the area of the Federation was still 8,000 cubic light years and there were 183 members and 7,128 affiliates. According to the StarTrek.com, in the Kelvin timeline, by 2258 the Federation consisted of 120 members and 700 colonies. Even in the movies and TV series, with the many budget and make-up restrictions, we've seen many dozens of alien species serving in Starfleet.

 

[Tenacity]

Unless "vast" in this context refers to the scale of the alliance and not the number of member races.

I see vast as Kirk referring to the number of species/creatures in the alliance. To be honest, I not sure what you mean in your post.

By 2373 the Federation's territory was spread across 8,000 light years, with a membership of over 150 worlds.

A theory I ran across in (iirc) Reddit a few years back proposed that the Federation had more members in the later 23rd century than in the mid 24th, the suggested number was approximately fifteen hundred.

This because of relations with the Klingons (and later the Romulans) in the 23rd century a part of what the Federation is is a defense alliance.

By the turn of the 24th century peace of a sort had developed with the Klingons, and later the Romulans withdrew into isolation. It was a time of stability and peace and the Federation began to shed members.

By the time of FC, while still covering a large area, the Federation actually had fewer members. Perhaps only a tenth of it's maximum number of a century before.

I found this theory interesting and it is how I see the Federation.

 

[Spot261]

I see it as Kirk referring to the number of species/creatures in the alliance. To be honest, I not sure what you mean in your post.

As in there's more than one possible interpretation of that statement. It could mean vast in terms of physical space, manpower, resources, not necessarily the number of species. Any of those are valid given the sentence as presented.

 

[Nyotarules]

Federation, 8,000 light years bound to have lots of different species as members, especially non humanoid looking ones. Starfleet needs to reflect this diversity and stop looking like a humans plus a few friends setup.

 

[Tenacity]

especially non humanoid looking ones

Beyond a certain point non-humanoid might need to be excluded from being a primary character. A species with no face who communicate through a synthetic voice might in time be unrelated to the audience.

The Horta character in Duane's novels had a small box attached to his back, and his speech emitted from this.

Something like this as a one time guest character this would be fine (obviously not a Horta), but would some such work for a regular? Truly non-humanoids would be relegated to background extras?

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Something like this as a one time guest character this would be fine (obviously not a Horta), but would some such work for a regular?

I think it could work.

I mean many people, myself included, consider the KITT to be most interesting character on Knight Rider.

 

[Spot261]

I imagine it would come down to budget and time constraints. Apart from being much more difficult to render as relatable to a (presumably) human audience, truly non humanoid characters are going to require significant investment in SFX or CGI, not to mention prolonging filming to accommodate the interactions with humanoid characters played by live action actors.

I'm not saying it would be a bad thing for those reasons, but the producers of any show are always faced with the challenge of balancing limited resources to best effect and the decisions made will inevitably reflect that, along with the need to make the show appealing enough to be financially viable.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Federation, 8,000 light years bound to have lots of different species as members, especially non humanoid looking ones. Starfleet needs to reflect this diversity and stop looking like a humans plus a few friends setup.

Totally agree here. I'd love a Trek series where there was just one human on the main cast and only a handful onboard the whole ship!

 

[somebuddyX]

I would love to see new aliens and old aliens mixed together. Like a Tellarite, a Bolian, a Cardassian and a Suliban hanging out in a bar together when some new alien main cast dude/lady comes to hang out. Or maybe not that blatant. I always loved how in the TOS films there were tons of new aliens just hanging out. Especially the Efrosians. More Efrosians please.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

Efrosians? Like the orange-skinned UFP President in STVI? Um… let's not go there.

 

[Nyotarules]

Beyond a certain point non-humanoid might need to be excluded from being a primary character. A species with no face who communicate through a synthetic voice might in time be unrelated to the audience.

The Horta character in Duane's novels had a small box attached to his back, and his speech emitted from this.

Something like this as a one time guest character this would be fine (obviously not a Horta), but would some such work for a regular? Truly non-humanoids would be relegated to background extras?

I might be in the minority but I like characters that are 'the other' . I have no problems relating, since I am considered 'the other' in real life. I am aware that the majority of the audience are used to being the 'default human' of their society, maybe Star Trek needs to take them out of their cultural boxes.
(Another reason I prefer the novelverse, it reeks of diversity).

 

[Spider]

I'm not interested in any new atypical Star Trek humanoid aliens, they already have enough of those. And some, apparently, will change their appearance again. I am weary of the forehead of the week alien, which I'm sure we'll get some more of. Some truly alien creatures and a bit of exploration into plausible exobiology would be fantastic. And Star Trek shows have done this before, so it's not like they can't. More craptastic shit like the Xnidi from ENT would be a downer.

 

[Tenacity]

(Another reason I prefer the novelverse, it reeks of diversity).

Different view, I think the novel-verse just reeks.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

We saw three-ish years of one ship's encounters in this time period. The universe is big. Like, really really really big. There could be a dozen shows across multiple time periods and the 13th show could be set in any of those time periods and still encounter different species.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Name one Star Trek series that doesn't have multiple on screen canon violations over the 50+ year run of the franchise? (hell, name one that doesn't have internal - IE they violated something seen earlier in the run of the individual Star Trek series - conon violations conflicting with itself?)

No TV show in history has ever been entirely consistent with its own self. There are always discrepancies.

As for ENT, hell, most of the so-called "canon violations" were more like "fanon violations". Urban legends, as it were, which were never true. Like that horseshit about Spock supposedly being the first Vulcan in Starfleet, or Kirk's ship being the first ever that had the name Enterprise.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

No TV show in history has ever been entirely consistent with its own self. There are always discrepancies.

As for ENT, hell, most of the so-called "canon violations" were more like "fanon violations". Urban legends, as it were, which were never true. Like that horseshit about Spock supposedly being the first Vulcan in Starfleet.

LOL I've said it before and I'll say it again. Canon adherence has become more of a straitjacket on Star Trek stories than anything else. I say if the writers "violate" the canon, but the story is good, kick the canon down the road and tell your damn story.