Yeah, things can change between script and film. Jedda in The Wrath of Khan was scripted as Deltan, but in the final film he was human.
Spoilers I finally exposed myself to The Animated Series
- Thread starter Qonundrum
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Maybe they waxed/shaved. Or maybe they're the Caitian version of these: https://featuredcreature.com/6-strange-breeds-of-hairless-cats/
Or they're not Caitian at all. If it wasn't stated onscreen, it doesn't count, no matter what the script or the filmmakers said offscreen.
Or maybe in the Kelvin Universe, that's just what Caitians look like.
Might be the future way humans roleplay. Forget about catsuits - getting a tail plugged in, some ears pitched, and the irises stretched is a matter of two and a half minutes of painless surgery. Or there may be a pill for it.
Pretending to be Caitian might be cool. Actually looking like one might not be, considering basically all of today's examples of like practices.
Timo Saloniemi
Pretending to be Caitian might be cool. Actually looking like one might not be, considering basically all of today's examples of like practices.
Timo Saloniemi
Nobody called them Caitians onscreen. Therefore, they're just unidentified tailed humanoids.
Those were 'Egyptian' Caitians.
Ditto TAS.
The point is, it's optional. We aren't required to assume they're the same species as M'Ress just because the word was in a script.
To me, it counts for that particular universe, but it does not inform my views on TOS itself.
Kor
When I said it didn't count, I was speaking from the perspective of the creators of future Trek productions, not individual viewers. The point is, if something is in the script but doesn't make it to the final film, then there's no reason future filmmakers can't ignore it and do something different, so it therefore isn't binding or "real" with regard to the overall continuity. A future filmmaker in the Kelvinverse could easily depict proper catlike Caitians, or give a different name to the species of those tailed twins.
Those aren't incompatible. Since it is a mythology rather than an objective reality, that means it shouldn't be expected to be perfectly consistent. Telling stories is an art form, and no two artists will depict the same subject in exactly the same way, because they bring their personal artistry to the work. As long as the core ideas and characters and themes of the myth remain, the details of the telling are merely a matter of artistic license.
Agreed, and this is the same standard I've always applied to Saavik and her alleged Romulan heritage.
That's another good example. The line about Saavik's Romulan heritage was scripted for The Wrath of Khan but cut from the finished film, and when Nimoy made The Search for Spock, he treated Saavik as pure Vulcan. Since it wasn't in the completed work, it didn't affect later works. Similarly, in DS9: "Statistical Probabilities," a scene was actually filmed in which Sarina Douglas spoke, but it was cut for time, and that inspired the producers to write "Chrysalis" based on the premise that Sarina couldn't speak.
On Earth there is, sometimes, quite dramatic diversity in feline populations. Heck, on Earth there is arguably diversity in everything. I don't see much problem in seeing the twins as being Catians, even if they don't look identical to other examples, they could just be another race of Catian to M'Ress, but still members of the same overall species.
I use the same logic to rationalize the change in appearance in the Trill between the forehead alien on TNG, and Dax showing up wholly human, save for the spots. They're both Trill, just different species of hominids on the Trill homeworld. The difference was just never explained.
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