This was the only appearance of a Saurian on screen in all the live action productions.
It's blurry, like I'm looking at him after several (dozen) Saurian brandies...
New Species Revamps on DSC?
- Thread starter Arpy
- Start date
It's blurry, like I'm looking at him after several (dozen) Saurian brandies...
Yeah he was just in the very far background of the sceneIt's blurry, like I'm looking at him after several (dozen) Saurian brandies...
The BTS close up picture of the Saurian, I don't think is the same character, they're wearing a different uniform.
Skin colour is also lighter.
Yep, and everything that deviates from that deviates from what we've assumed is a Saurian for 40 years. I'm not saying that's logical really, just that I think that's the reason.
This was the only appearance of a Saurian on screen in all the live action productions.
This was the only appearance of a Saurian on screen in all the live action productions.
The publicity photo is of a second Saurian that appears peeking up behind other crew in the background of a closeup shot of the crowd:
(It's still only a sample size of two individuals. And for all we know they are siblings!)
-MMoM
DONT GO A-MESSIN' WITH MAH PRECONCIEVED NOTIONS!!!1!1!
Linus as a Saurian looks great bar the eyes. The nasal roots are pretty much the same along with head proportions (slightly less elongated in DSC), and with that the added detail of a lizard-like scaling for the prosthetic flesh is a great added detail. However those eyes are a massive ball drop. First the film used in the eye lensing reflects light poorly so they come off looking blackened in digital post hence convey no natural coloration. Secondly they just doubled the lensing material for the iris/pupil which sure makes it darker than the rest of the eye prosthetic but again is bugger all in the lighting used. If they had taken the time to produce better lenses for the eyes that were not only made of better material for the lighting considerations on set, but also mimicked the look of an Iguana's eyes I would have given them a gold star for how the Saurian (Linus) looks.
Example:
Example:
Because the default shouldn't be apologizing for less creative work? I'm looking forward to Linus and will explain it away like this for myself, but I don't like having to.
I'm all for different skin colors. I think I started a thread a while back on most Trek races being to monochromatic. (Cardassians especially would look really cool with some being kinda charcoal-colored and some kinda chalk-colored. Maybe some with more mottled skin like Gul Lemec in "Chain of Command, Part I," before they changed his makeup for Part II!)
Why aren't humans green or blue? There's a color range for us, but it doesn't include every color. It would have been nice if they kept the alien purple. How many animals in the real world or Star Trek races are purple?
This Saurian is wildly different both skin and eye color, and, again, looks like his own primitive ancestor, his scales being so deep. And a bit cartoony, with his bone structure stuck in a distinct expression. You can go kind of out there with some of these things, but it'd be nice if they kept some things closer to the original.
Why should anyone care, given how little is known of the original? Because they chose the original to revamp. They Didn't create a new Xiapodian; they presented us Saurian.
Linus as a Saurian looks great bar the eyes. The nasal roots are pretty much the same along with head proportions (slightly less elongated in DSC), and with that the added detail of a lizard-like scaling for the prosthetic flesh is a great added detail. However those eyes are a massive ball drop. First the film used in the eye lensing reflects light poorly so they come off looking blackened in digital post hence convey no natural coloration. Secondly they just doubled the lensing material for the iris/pupil which sure makes it darker than the rest of the eye prosthetic but again is bugger all in the lighting used. If they had taken the time to produce better lenses for the eyes that were not only made of better material for the lighting considerations on set, but also mimicked the look of an Iguana's eyes I would have given them a gold star for how the Saurian (Linus) looks.
Example:
I like your profile pic from TMP! Do you have a larger version?
That's so funny! I never noticed it before. It's like Trek's first ever photobomb. Alien tryin' t' represent among a sea of humans. He's even surrounded by walls of human hair, drowning in the mammaliana lol"I see you"
(Gah, apologies to the moderators for the three posts in a row...!)
Last edited:
That's so funny! I never noticed it before. It's like Trek's first ever photobomb. Alien tryin' t' represent among a sea of humans. He's even surrounded by walks of human hair, drowning in the mammaliana lol
(Gah, apologies to the moderators for the three posts in a row...!)
Think of the money TMP spent/wasted on these awesome prosthetics and costumes, only to have them seen in THIS manner for a split-second of time.
No wonder we never get to see the whole crew like this in STAR TREK, anymore ... they're damned ugly, most of them.
Yup. We will destroy your preconceived notions of all Star Trek related materials. Largely because it is unrealistic to expect every single thing to fit in without ever thoughts have crept up in the minds of fans over the last 50 years.
Also, it is even more unrealistic to demand that all aliens look identical to every iteration ever seen. I would not want the production crew to apologize for the updated design of the Saurians any more than I want GR to apologize for updating the Klingons. The level of handwringing over alien desire is concerning to me. Largely because rather than focusing on enjoying the show, it must be dissected piece by piece and examined for it's "True Star Trek blood" while be narrated by Jonathan Frakes.
I really don't care about aliens looking identical, but as someone pointed out upthread, Star Wars has never really redesigned any of its signature races. Or any of its tech for that matter. New things are introduced, but the old elements, once in place, are never re-imagined.
As much as I don't want to delve in to the timeless battle of Star Wars vs. Star Trek (though, I think SF Debris already ruled in SW's favor, at least for the wikis
), Star Wars is not a good comparison. The main reason is that as much as I like SW the technology is very stagnant. That is neither realistic nor a good benchmark for me to compare.Regardless, I am of the opinion that all speculative fiction (science fiction & fantasy) needs to work on more diversity among races of aliens or fantasy creatures. This includes both Star Trek and Star Wars and I think both franchises are lesser for not having the diversity of current races but instead just adding more aliens.
I love all variety and attention given to the TMP background aliens, but I do have to say that the Saurian and Arcturian in particular look like rather unconvincing rubber masks to me, far from "awesome" anyway. And no doubt that's exactly why they were put at the very back to begin with. The Andorians and Betelgeuseans look MUCH better, and that's likewise probably why we got to see them a bit closer:
The ones I'd have most liked to see more of would be the chelonian Rigellians from the air tram station...although they may not have held up that great themselves. I bet there was little to no articulation to those masks:
Sonak photobomb!!!!
(Unfortunately, making that GIF lowered the resolution a noticeable bit. If you ever want to go scouring individual frames to identify all of Fletcher's varied alien designs in the movie—and yes, they're all in there, though many only barely recognizable unless you have a big screen—this screencap site is a great resource, much better than TrekCore. But navigating the pages can be somewhat tedious.)
-MMoM
Last edited:
If you're talking about showing aliens as something more deep than "planet of hats" I agree. Though there is so, many less hours of official Star Wars than Trek that Trek wins this by default. Star Wars never did anything with a race like DS9 did with the Cardassians, for example.
