Less Aliens of the Week

[Orphalesion]

I'll not hold my breath on juicy world building. That is not Trek's strong suit.

It really isn't. We spend 7 years next to Bajor and we know very, very little about it. We just kept hearing about that damn "Northern Peninsular" whenever they needed the name of some region.

And Troi was a main character in one Star Trek series and appeared in several others, and we know even less about the Betazoids than we know about Bajor.

 

[Vger23]

I’m good with it. I don’t want worldbuilding as much as I want cool outer space adventures.

 

[BillJ]

I like "Aliens of the week".

 

[tesral]

I love good world building too. Been doing for over 30 years in various forms. But, that isn't why I watch Star Trek.

Yea I get that. I have been building worlds as long as I can remember, 60 years or so. Formally once RPGs got invented and I discovered them. It gave me a frame for what I had been doing. So my fantasy world is 44 years old. I've been building my Trek world as long. The Trek Creative Wiki started as a general depository for the list and it has become Jay's and my game depository. Worlds, ships, ideas and anything else.

But no, you don't watch Trek for world building. I would like to see more.

 

[XCV330]

I would like to find out what happened to all these warp capable species on our cosmic back lawn during the ENT era that are never seen or heard about again. Did the Federation Rootbeer just cocacolonize them out of existance? Are they little enclave nations surrounded by more successful neighbors?

 

[dupersuper]

Shouldn't the title be fewer aliens of the week?

 

[Tim Walker]

One thing Enterprise did well was letting us get to know the Andorians and the Tellarites.

 

[at Quark's]

On the one hand, I like the idea of many alien species, because it conveys that the galaxy is huge, and teeming with life. On the other hand I agree that they tend to blur together as 'generic humanoids with one particular trait or cultural shtick'.

I wonder if (and if yes, what) Roddenberry would have done anything differently in term of universe concepts, could he have had any inkling that the Star Trek franchise would still be on the air more than 55 years later and still churning out new series. (For a run of just a few years, the 'alien of the week' concept was fine, of course).

 

[Xhiandra]

II feel this has resulted in numerous underdeveloped aliens and cultures. There are many episodes where the uniqueness of the alien species was really unimportant to the plot. For example, in TNG's "Aquiel" introducing a new species was irrelevant to the story and Aquiel could easily have been Andorian or Tellerite. The same is true with TNG's "Half a Life." The euthanasia of elderly adults could have worked just as well had Timicin been Deltan.

I somewhat agree with Aquiel. In fact, until I rewatched it fairly recently, I remembered her as Human. Her species is irrelevant.
But by that token, why not make her a unique species, then? It makes the galaxy/Federation seem bigger at no real cost; and if she'd been from an established species, nothing new would've been learned about that species.

In Half a Life, I'm quite happy it was a unique species. The species was there for one reason: to discuss the idea of forced cultural euthanasia, its motives and its ramifications. If it had been an established race, you know people would've harped on the fact that "X race wouldn't do that". It would've been a distraction.
And again, having a unique species makes the galaxy bigger.

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[Shawnster]

In Half a Life, I'm quite happy it was a unique species. The species was there for one reason: to discuss the idea of forced cultural euthanasia, its motives and its ramifications. If it had been an established race, you know people would've harped on the fact that "X race wouldn't do that". It would've been a distraction.

Or Timicin could have been from Gideon and we could see how that culture swung so far the opposite direction from Kirk's day. Such a euthanasia idea could easily develop in 100 years since they abducted Kirk.

Or they could clearly establish this was a cultural, religious, or ethnic splinter group of Andorians, Tellerites, Deltans or whomever.

There are plenty of established one off species we really don't know much about. More so when TNG aired

 

[Orphalesion]

Or Timicin could have been from Gideon and we could see how that culture swung so far the opposite direction from Kirk's day. Such a euthanasia idea could easily develop in 100 years since they abducted Kirk.

But having TNG just deal with and re-visit the planets form TOS would have just led to Small Universe syndrome and people would have likely complained that the new Enterprise just "boldly goes where Kirk has already been before" or some such.

 

[tesral]

But having TNG just deal with and re-visit the planets form TOS would have just led to Small Universe syndrome and people would have likely complained that the new Enterprise just "boldly goes where Kirk has already been before" or some such.

Which is why you need a healthy mix of the two. Say, one third old and the rest new. Or drop the dime and have a few Tellerites or Andorians show up in the crew. Makeup costs are why you don't see them more often.

One advantage Lower Decks has and they should use is no species is more expensive as any other.

 

[fireproof78]

But having TNG just deal with and re-visit the planets form TOS would have just led to Small Universe syndrome and people would have likely complained that the new Enterprise just "boldly goes where Kirk has already been before" or some such.

Well, we did get the Naked Now.

 

[The Wormhole]

Or Timicin could have been from Gideon and we could see how that culture swung so far the opposite direction from Kirk's day. Such a euthanasia idea could easily develop in 100 years since they abducted Kirk.

Well, I could see that being shot down as feeling it would require knowledge of TOS. Typically, a show should focus on developing its own internal continuity and spare the connections to other series on an as needed basis.

 

[Xhiandra]

Which is why you need a healthy mix of the two. Say, one third old and the rest new. Or drop the dime and have a few Tellerites or Andorians show up in the crew. Makeup costs are why you don't see them more often.

But isn't that what TNG (and subsequent series) actually did? For instance, TNG greatly expanded on Klingons, Vulcans and Romulans. Then, DS9 expanded upon new TNG races that appeared in a few episodes (Ferengi + Bajorans and Cardassians, but the latter two were created to build up DS9), or even a single one (Trills). Even Bolians and Benzites randomly show up.
ENT built up Andorians from TOS, and so on.

There was a mix of old and new, sometimes even "one-time" old species, though usually it was more established ones.

 

[Forbin]

Aquiel could have been simply human. There wasn't a single script reason for her to be anything but human. Her behavior was 100% human. I spent the episode staring at her forehead and wonder why? why? why?