I just watched D.C. Fontana's exciting episode Journey to Babel. I think many would agree it is one of the best TOS episodes. I was wondering if anyone knows what race the little people covered in gold are?
Journey To Babel
- Thread starter Patrick O'Brien
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Journey to Babel is my favorite episode of TOS. 
As for the gold skinned aliens - it was purposed for them to appear in an episode of ENT's fourth season with the name Ithenite. However, it proved too expensive to have them appear on screen. The name, however, was stated in an episode of ENT's third season - in which it was said that they joined the Federation at least sometime before the 26th century.
As for the gold skinned aliens - it was purposed for them to appear in an episode of ENT's fourth season with the name Ithenite. However, it proved too expensive to have them appear on screen. The name, however, was stated in an episode of ENT's third season - in which it was said that they joined the Federation at least sometime before the 26th century.
Thanks, Admiral Shran. I've always wondered about them, too.
In fairness, the Memory Alpha talk page http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Talk:Ithenite describes this identification of the aliens as possibly non-canonical. However, there isn't really any reason to doubt that this was the intention during development of ENT, based on this info.
In fairness, the Memory Alpha talk page http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Talk:Ithenite describes this identification of the aliens as possibly non-canonical. However, there isn't really any reason to doubt that this was the intention during development of ENT, based on this info.
To be canonical, they would have had to be called Ithenites onscreen. They were unnamed in TOS, and name-dropped but not seen in ENT. But none of the background aliens of TMP or ST IV were named onscreen either, but Memory Alpha accepts that official production notes can be acceptable.
I agree. They just didn't come out and say it was non-canonical on the talk page, and instead just leave the issue hanging.
It seems to me that the reason the article exists at all relates to the following, described at http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Memory_Alpha:Canon_policy#Production_and_reference_materials:
Believe it or not, if there had only been one Shran episode of ENT, his name would never have been officially canonical. Only the Andorians Keval and Tholos get named onscreen. Shran and the silent Thon are only named in the Characters list of the script of "The Andorian Incident".
Journey to Babel is my favorite episode of TOS.
As for the gold skinned aliens - it was purposed for them to appear in an episode of ENT's fourth season with the name Ithenite. However, it proved too expensive to have them appear on screen. The name, however, was stated in an episode of ENT's third season - in which it was said that they joined the Federation at least sometime before the 26th century.
Thanks Admiral Shran
Ithenite it is. Too bad they never appeared in Enterprise, that would have been cool.
Just remembering. There were convincing fan opinions, in the 70s and 80s, that the little gold guys might have been representatives of Coridan, but ENT later gave us an actual episode set on Coridan.
And we found out that they're just typical forehead aliens.
I never knew if they had a name. I just figured that in movies and TV, any diverse group of alien or exotic-looking people has to include a dwarf or two.
Kirk had all the moves! Is their a running list of Favorite TOS episodes on this forum?
The old Stardate magazine, companion to FASA's '80's RPG, had an article about these guys and called them the "Dayen". Their color was attributed to the high concentration of metallic salts in their homeworld's oceans.
I take it "Ithenite" is canon not "Dayen"?
No. As correctly stated upthread by Therin of Andor, there is no canonical name at all. Refer upthread for more information, which is upthread.
However, "Ithenite" is the best name available, because it was on the verge of becoming canonical, and you can bet that "Ithenite" will never be contradicted in canon.
Ok, thanks. I should have read more closely.
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