How do you feel about "too humanoid" aliens in Trek?

[***]

I always figured that it appeared to Crichton that the aliens were speaking English, due to the microbes' influence on his brain or whatever. Either way, I really liked that it was dealt with right off the bat and seemed consistent throughout the series.

I don't think I really noticed the lack of alien variety until Voyager. It seemed like every week there was another alien with something new glued to their face.

 

[barnaclelapse]

Somehow I think I'd be a little annoyed if every single alien in the galaxy was some wildly designed monster. A little variety is good, and I can certainly appreciate an alien design with somewhat more subtle touches than that of, say, a Klingon.

 

[Anwar]

I always figured that it appeared to Crichton that the aliens were speaking English, due to the microbes' influence on his brain or whatever. Either way, I really liked that it was dealt with right off the bat and seemed consistent throughout the series.

I don't think I really noticed the lack of alien variety until Voyager. It seemed like every week there was another alien with something new glued to their face.

Thing is, when VOY deliberately WANTED to have unique aliens they did make them. The Think Tank aliens and the 8472 are the prime examples. The rest of the time it didn't matter how alien the aliens looked, so the FX people weren't given money or real instructions on what they should look like which left them with the default "forehead" thing.

But then again, remember than one of Trek's most memorable alien species' only difference from humanity is that their ears are pointed...

 

[Nerys Myk]

I think this is lazy writing and should be chastised as such.

TOS has proven that creative writers can make interesting aliens which are not human-like (ie: Horta).

Modern Trek writers got lazy and stopped even trying to be creative like that, and that is a darn shame.

Yet in TOS many, if not most were identical to humans. The Horta worked because of the story being told. It needed to be a non-humanoid "monster".;

 

[amdmiami]

Trek could have definetely used some more creative aliens instead of the bumpy forehead of the week.