I just don't buy ENT's Orions

[Timo]

What about homosexuals? Would lesbians feel the same attraction straight men would (rather than headaches heterosexual women experienced) and vice versa for gay men?

Combine this with

ENT explained that the Orion Women's power was due to pheromones, bio-chemical attractants that are inhaled. In a crowded room full of potential buyers, I can't see any way they could target individuals, encouraging some to bid and others not to.

and then note that the Orion females can use their chemical wiles on a wide variety of species - but that the influence gets to be felt only after a certain amount of time.

In light of this, I give my full support to the idea that the pheromones have to be optimized for the target species and perhaps even the target individual; the lady may release a broadband cloud at first, or try out a spectrum from one end to the other, and see what works - or, as experience mounts, may preselect a combination that will convince Kirk to marry her in a heartbeat and give his ship as dowry, but leave McCoy cold. But she would have the option of making Uhura crazy with lust, too. The optimizing process just takes a certain amount of effort and time, and may work at different rates on different species or individuals.

Who eventually gets affected is not only a matter of the chemicals working on him or her, of course. In a room where everybody gets all hot and bothered due to chemicals in the air, additional cues are needed to direct all that lust. Otherwise, Kirk in a room full of lawyers would just grab the nearest female where only starship captains dare grab in a room full of lawyers, and a completely useless barrister would start swooning the Orion. A suggestive look, wink and lap dance would probably be mandatory for completing the intended effect. But they would get the job done, probably with high specificity even if there would be classic bar fights as collateral.

We saw two Orions. One was an illusion and one was insane. Not sure if that's a representative sample.

I'd rather argue that both were illusions. See how Marta's body paint rubs off on Kirk? She probably was in the asylum for believing she was Orion!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

I give my full support to the idea that the pheromones have to be optimized for the target species and perhaps even the target individual

Now there's an idea. I hereby adopt it into my personal canon.

Just to clarify...are you saying Orions are naturally able to control the type and combination of pheromones they release? Do you think an Orion female can choose not to emit any pheromones at all?

 

[Timo]

Probably not. But humans are wondrously insensitive to pheromones in the real world; no doubt an Orion could be leaking the stuff in copious amounts without any noticeable effect, and only a conscious effort to produce even more of the stuff would finally cause the human male to react. Sort of like the difference between breathing and panting seductively.

The ability to produce a range of chemicals would seem to go hand in hand with the ability to seduce a range of species. But it might be that only certain individuals can produce the chemicals needed to seduce humans, and others can seduce Bolians etc. Who knows, perhaps the whole thing is artificially engineered into the slaves (along with the green color to tag them as property), and at some point the slavers behind this conditioning made an error with tolerances and gave a group of slaves a chemical mix capable of affecting the slavers themselves...?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ian Keldon]

Well, "Bound" did at least lead to one of Michelle Erica Green's most memorable rants:

*rant snipped*
​

I've read some of her rants before...she's a loon, and it's best just to ignore her.

Fortunately a few weeks later, B&B made her wrong by producing TaTV...

She was already wrong.

 

[The Badger]

...Who knows, perhaps the whole thing is artificially engineered into the slaves (along with the green color to tag them as property), and at some point the slavers behind this conditioning made an error with tolerances and gave a group of slaves a chemical mix capable of affecting the slavers themselves...?

An interesting hypothesis, although I should point out that all the Orions we've seen are green.

There's one matter that we've not addressed. We're not simply talking about Orion women here. They have been specifically referred to as Orion Animal Women. Why the distinction? If that's what Orion women are all like, why add such an extra term?

A while back I had an idea about this. I put it in my fanfic, but as I can't really expect everyone to read that (you'd need a remarkably high tolerance for Mary Sues) I'll put it here.

The Orion Animal people are not representative of the Orion people in general. They're separate, different from them. Perhaps they're a distinct ethnic group, or genetically modified. Maybe they are a relatively common mutation, the result of a hereditary disorder that only strikes if both parents are carriers, or even the inhabitants of another world in the Orion system. Whatever their origin, the Orions consider them property, a commodity to be sold at auction.

The Animal Women fit the descriptions given in Trek: they are 'vicious, seductive,' and 'known for their extreme appetites, their innate skills'. They 'actually like being taken advantage of'. The Animal Men? We have no data here. Perhaps they are the same as the women. Or perhaps they are immensely strong and resilient, making them suitable for manual labour.

Marta may have been madder than a box of frogs, but she knew her Shakespeare. Gaila got into Star Fleet academy. I'd speculate then that these were ordinary Orions, not the Animal subgroup. And the same for the three spies in Bound. They acted the role to infiltrate the crew, but were far too smart to fit the descriptions given elsewhere.

Indeed, given what little we do know of the Orions, I'd speculate that the pheromone ability is not natural to Orion women. Perhaps not even to the Animal Women. It could have been the result of genetic or surgical modification (the Orions have a history of the latter, if only for disguise purposes). The three sisters who attempt to capture the Enterprise may well have been altered specifically for the mission. Or maybe Syndicate agents regularly use this method to control their subordinates. The Orion captain did say he was their slave, after all.

So. Two groups. One large population, physically and mentally comparable to humans, apart from the skin hue. The other, visually identical to the first, but enslaved and treated as property.

Right, that's my hypothesis. It deals with all the problems I have with ENT's depiction of Orions, but probably has flaws of it's own. Thoughts, opinions?

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

I just think of "Orion Animal Women" as a racial slur, or even an advertising tool. The slaver wants to paint a certain picture about the people he or she is selling, to attract more buyers and make more money. In an ENT episode, a slaver mentions "two Utani Serpent Women." Does that mean they had been modified with snake DNA? No, it's just an added descriptor to entice the buyer.

 

[The Badger]

In an ENT episode, a slaver mentions "two Utani Serpent Women." Does that mean they had been modified with snake DNA? No, it's just an added descriptor to entice the buyer.

Or, they are a serpentine species in a galaxy in which intelligent serpentine life is relatively rare. It is that rarity that is the distinguishing factor.

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

Fair enough. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. No offense, but personally your theory on OAWs feels a bit too contrived for me.

 

[The Badger]

Ah, OK. Maybe I went overboard on some of the details. But the basic idea is simple. There are two groups of Orions. One slavers, the others enslaved.

 

[Timo]

Or then way more than two, considering the blueskinned pirates from TAS. Also, we already know "Orion" can be an expression referring to the crime syndicate, and none of its members in DS9 "Honor Among Thieves" were of the green-skinned species. Or the blue-skinned one, for that matter.

Apart from that, I'm all for the idea that the green-skinned species is looked down by the rest of the Orion culture, referred to as "animals", and categorically enslaved. The slaves just serve in a wide variety of roles, including captors and salesmen for their fellow greens! Whenever liberated from the Orion context, the green species can conduct normal humanoid lives. But whenever operating within the Orion context, they are subservient to the other species there, probably in a complex hierarchy that may include the blueskinned pirates in another subservient role.

Timo Saloniemi