More able to absorb sensations of pain through touch. Not direct telepathy.
This is exactly my question. How does it expand within telling the story? If it it just a visually interesting alien with no descriptors beyond "Looks cool" then it leaves a very hollow feeling for me.
Also an excellent point. I would love more of the differences between Mars and Earth or other human colonies. The variety in cultures would be as interesting to me in the human colonists as the aliens.
I agree very much with this. If I'm not mistaken the only two main characters we ever got were Tasha (from Mad Max world, whatever it's called) and Beverly, who's technically a Lunarian, I believe, but nothing ever came of it. To be honest I really wish we'd seen more.
Ah okay I must have conflated Ilia with Troi too much, since the latter character originated, in part, in the former. Well without telepathy then I agree that Deltans are fairly ill-conceived as they are now (like I'm pretty sure they, their hyper-sexed culture and their bald heads were just created to tickle a particular itch of Roddenberry's)
Agreed. Use of aliens should always be well written to support the need of the story.
The Bajorans were one of the alien races that appealed to me much more than most, aside from the Romulans and Species 8472. I do like your ideas for exploring the Bajorans but I feel that the clashing factions were outside the scope of the story told in DS9.
I have not but I might have to add it to the reading list.
What can I say, I love all that TOS stuff; I love that you were able to name 7 or 8 unique and memorable species. Whereas Worf and Quark and Neelix and Phlox and Saru [and Bortus] are all made up according to the exact same aesthetic or style with only slight variations, and it’s an omnipresent feature of that brand of Trek which I just happen to dislike.
) And the Betazoids (who, for the same reason just got black contact lenses) 
Deltans wanting to serve in Starfleet must take their Oath of Celibacy, for such a hyper-sexual species I could see this having serious issues somewhere down the line (especially if they are the only Deltan on the ship so have no outlet). It could raise some interesting questions around why, is it harmful to non-Deltans physically or mentally, is there something Deltans carry that doesn't effect them but is the equivalent of space-herpes to other races, or is it merely social conventions of other races force them to suppress a key part of their culture merely to fit in? What if a Deltan breaks their vow, is that cause for legal proceedings or punishment in some way (maybe something we'd see as inhumane). What if the idea of Deltans not having sex with other races is something for them to maintain "racial purity", and what if a Deltan female then became pregnant to a Bajoran/Human/Tellarite shipmate what would her fate and the fate of her child be?
Yes.
Also yes.
Garak's being Cardassian is central to who he is. Their natural paranoia and xenophobia led them to create their elite intelligence organisation, to monitor its own people as much as other races, weed out dissent and purge those who don't abide by the rule and control of the state, given their loyalty, duty and devotion to Cardassia is at the forefront of their culture. Growing up in that, as the illegitimate son of the head of the Obsidian Order, would warp his ideology so when he lost that and was cast out he had to build himself up with all he'd learned and still find a way to do his duty to the state and find a way to return. But that's always been my take on the character.
If that is the case for the story then it has possibility of a story. But, the Deltans would need to be well fleshed out to support it, otherwise it could be done with humans just as easily.
A well fleshed out, likeable character is always key, you don't need to necessarily relate with them to enjoy them and be willing to go with them on their journey. Deltans as a species are pretty much blank slates having only had one on screen appearance, so any direction could be taken with them in order to make their culture and society very alien but also reflect aspects of modern day Earth to be examined in some sort of sci-fi context.
I don't have to relate to them at all. I just need to understand their point of view. Which is why I want more than just rubber foreheads. I'm sure I sound super repetitive at this point and maybe I'm arguing against straw people but I feel like so many episodes of Trek just slap foreheads on and call it good.
There are a lot of species that suffer from the "alien of week" trope and have no depth to them other than being an ally/enemy/mystery the crew encounter once and then never seen or heard of again. Whilst its nice to flesh out the universe a little these two-dimensional races rarely give much of interest, which then results in the creators falling back on the likes of the Klingons or Borg time and again, which pushes them beyond the point of exhaustion and doesn't do anything all that interesting with them (often removing their sense of threat/menace). The Cardassians and Ferengi could've had the same fate, but you just need to watch DS9 to see all the world building that went on there, especially with the latter who went from being a joke to being very complex (mainly thanks to some great characters).
