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Familiar Federation races in Star Trek 2009.

ConRefit79

Captain
Captain
Besides Humans and Vulcans, were any familiar federation races shown in Star Trek? Andorians, Tellarites, ect.
 
We saw Vulcans, Romulans, Orions, Tribbles and (in the deleted scenes) Klingons.

Mentioned but not seen were Andorians and Cardassians.

The "Art of the Movie" book has pictures of a Gorn and a Salt Vampire ("The Man Trap") that were in the background of the Rura Penthe prison yard.
 
We saw Vulcans, Romulans, Orions, Tribbles and (in the deleted scenes) Klingons.

Mentioned but not seen were Andorians and Cardassians.

The "Art of the Movie" book has pictures of a Gorn and a Salt Vampire ("The Man Trap") that were in the background of the Rura Penthe prison yard.
Thanks. But the Gorn, Romulans, Klingons and Salt Vampires are not part of the Federation..
Tribbles are not sentient beings.
 
We saw Vulcans, Romulans, Orions, Tribbles and (in the deleted scenes) Klingons.

Mentioned but not seen were Andorians and Cardassians.

The "Art of the Movie" book has pictures of a Gorn and a Salt Vampire ("The Man Trap") that were in the background of the Rura Penthe prison yard.
Thanks. But the Gorn, Romulans, Klingons and Salt Vampires are not part of the Federation..
Tribbles are not sentient beings.

You weren't expecting me to read your entire post before replying, were you? :vulcan: :biggrin:

(also Klingons were members of the Daniels' alternate 26th century Federation that fought a war with the Sphere Builders in the Expanse. And Tribbles only want you to think they're non-sentient)
 
^ I suppose that's the main reason.

But do we really need an Andorian with movable antennae if he/she is only going to be a background character in one scene?

I'd just like to see an Andorian or Tellarite, even if it's for a brief moment, just to know that they're there.
 
Besides Humans and Vulcans, were any familiar federation races shown in Star Trek? Andorians, Tellarites, ect.

Unfortunately, no Andorians or Tellarites. :(

As to why they're ALWAYS excluded, even as background characters, I simply don't know.
Could it be the radio controlled antennae?

That'd be a lazy excuse given the budget. The TOS movies had Andorians, Tellarites, and a whole mess of random aliens as background characters (most notably in the hearing scene from Trek IV). Even Enterprise had non-speaking Andorians as background characters in episodes like "Terra Prime."
 
Unfortunately, no Andorians or Tellarites. :(

As to why they're ALWAYS excluded, even as background characters, I simply don't know.
Could it be the radio controlled antennae?

That'd be a lazy excuse given the budget. The TOS movies had Andorians, Tellarites, and a whole mess of random aliens as background characters (most notably in the hearing scene from Trek IV). Even Enterprise had non-speaking Andorians as background characters in episodes like "Terra Prime."

IIRC there was a background Andorian in TNG "Captain's Holiday".
 
^ True.

Andorians appeared twice in TNG, in Captain's Holiday and The Offspring. After that, however, they never appeared again until ENT. They never once appeared on DS9 or VOY.

Tellarites have it even worse. They never appeared once on TNG, DS9, or VOY. Even on ENT, they only appeared in a couple of episodes.

I would have thought that with Trek XI's massive budget, they would have been able to have at least one of each of these races appear in the movie.

I just don't get why TPTB refuse to use them.
 
It's not a budget thing since they have other, completely random, never before seen aliens in some scenes whose prosthetics must be just as expensive.

I wasn't overly keen on using an orion because it involved sanitising one of the few fun unscrupulous races (a Deltan might have been more fun - since shagging one can make you go insane) but I have to accept that Gaila was a very popular character.

I wouldn't mind them revamping some of the races a bit to make them more alien and visually striking - big eyes could be a betazoid for all I care - but I tire of giving them a free hand because we get a string on one shot races who have no back story, no purpose, and no chance of being seen again, and Trek has plenty of those already.

Give us some Andorians and Tellarites dammit!
 
It's not a budget thing since they have other, completely random, never before seen aliens in some scenes whose prosthetics must be just as expensive.

I wasn't overly keen on using an orion because it involved sanitising one of the few fun unscrupulous races (a Deltan might have been more fun - since shagging one can make you go insane) but I have to accept that Gaila was a very popular character.

I wouldn't mind them revamping some of the races a bit to make them more alien and visually striking - big eyes could be a betazoid for all I care - but I tire of giving them a free hand because we get a string on one shot races who have no back story, no purpose, and no chance of being seen again, and Trek has plenty of those already.

Give us some Andorians and Tellarites dammit!
I was joking about the antennae. I figure if they could afford Worf for 7 seasons of TNG and what, 4 seasons of DS9, they could afford Andorians. I was never really interested in them until Enterprise. I wonder why they were never really explored before then?
I liked having an Orion in the film, but I always thought the Orions weren't part of the Federation. They're always portrayed as criminals(Pirates, mobsters and slave traders).
 
Orions aren't in the Federation (at least not according to "Journey to Babel" and "The Pirates of Orion"). Neither are the Klingons in the 24th century Federation when Worf's a member of Starfleet, nor Bajor when Ro joins. Race isn't an issue for Starfleet enlistees. If you're willing to play by their rules, they'll have you.

I'm sure Gaila has an interesting backstory. Maybe we'll get a life story novel one day (like we got for Saavik in "The Pandora Principle")

Oh, and I remember reading somewhere that the TNG powers that be considered Andorians "too cheesy", and instead invented the bald, blue Bolians as a replacement. I have no idea if it's true or not.
 
I've heard that there was a lot of resistance to using any TOS aliens in TNG. Worf was going to be a recurring guest star but the liked Micheal Dorn so much that he was elevated to a series regular by the time they started and he usurped some of Tasha's role (particularly as she started to be written as a bit ineffectual).

We had no Vulcans until much later in the show's run apart from Dr Selar who, inexplicably was touted as a possible love interest for Worf! I'd also heard that the antennae were considered too cheesy so the insipid Bolians were brought in to play the role of blue-skinned aliens.

Technology had improved by the time of Enterprise and the Andorians proved quite popular so they became a bigger part of the show. I'd go so far to say that the Andorians were the best part of the show but that's just me.
 
Andorians and Tellarites weren't used in the early days of TNG because Roddenberry wanted as clean a break with TOS as possible. It was only after constant prodding that he allowed Klingons and Romulans to be on the show.

After Rick Berman took over, he decreed from on high that Andorians looked too much like cheesy 1950s-esque aliens. In fact, he was adamantly opposed to having any aliens with antennae since he personally thought they looked stupid. Of course, I've always argued that the " ever-so-slightly-different forehead of the week alien" was what was cheesy, not the Andorians. It wasn't until ENT that people were able to convince him that technology had improved to such a state that they could make Andorian characters without them looking "cheesy."

As for the Tellarites, it was pretty much the same thing. Berman thought that the Tellarite makeup was goofy and wouldn't be accepted by the audience in the 1980s and 1990s. Again, it wasn't until ENT that people were able to convince him that makeup techniques had advanced enough to allow Tellarites to appear.

Of course, this brings me back to my original complaint.... Now that it's been proven that Andorian and Tellarite characters can be shown without appearing goofy or dated, we had BETTER see some of them in Trek XII!
 
To seek out new life and new civilizations.

Andorians and Tellarites are stories best told, imo, pre-OS. As in Enterprise.

The only story left to tell about them by the time of the Nuverse era might be the Coridan dispute but would that really be worth wasting screen time to rehash? I hope not.
 
^ They can seek out new life and new civilizations and yet have Andorian and Tellarite crewmembers, can't they?

I'm not asking for a massive, in-depth examination of their respective cultures (although I think that would be much more interesting than countless "new life/new civilizations" stories where the only thing we learn about the new aliens is their name and appearance). I'd be perfectly happy seeing one working in the background, in engineering for example.
 
I was never really interested in them [Andorians] until Enterprise. I wonder why they were never really explored before then?

... I remember reading somewhere that the TNG powers that be considered Andorians "too cheesy", and instead invented the bald, blue Bolians as a replacement.

I can see what they may have meant about the "cheesy Andorians" (Smurfs with
antennas perhaps) but I agree about Enterprise. That series did a brilliant job with them I thought. I'm not quite so convinced about the Tellarites. :)
 
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