Picture the Novelverse - Characters, Ships and More !
- Thread starter Relayer1
- Start date
After seeing those pics I've realized that I still picture M'ress in a skirt. FC uniform pants just look wrong on her hind legs. Plus, with pants she'd need a tail hole, which is all kinds of weird.
I went through the first 10 pages and did not really like any of the pics.
I'm not a fan of his original concepts either, but I thought his Trek Lit character portraits were pretty good.
What's the problem with there being a hole? Supposedly, Starfleet would adapt its uniform code to species with unusual physiognomy, e.g. Naraht, Torvig, Dr. Ree. Furthermore, Caitians and their offshoots, the Ferasans, have a place for their tails, too. Actually, it even sticks out of skirts instead of going beneath them.
OT: Kirk's twins in STID are Caitians, too.
OT: Kirk's twins in STID are Caitians, too.
I don't think that claim should be taken too seriously. An interviewer asked Damon Lindelof if they were Caitians and he said yes. That doesn't necessarily prove that was the intent. I think sometimes filmmakers say "Yes" to the weird questions that the public and the press ask them just to play along and get it out of the way. Or because they're punchy from a lengthy press tour and aren't remembering clearly. Just as a rule, answers to leading questions should not be trusted. Sometimes reporters put words in people's mouths and sometimes people let them.
Besides, they bore no resemblance whatsoever to Caitians except for having tails. They had no fur and their faces were entirely human.
In one of the media interviews, the actresses talked about the hours they spent in makeup and that even cat ears had been molded for them. More likely, this was a day of makeup tests and its possible there was an original intent to give them more feline facial features, but that the makeup was lessened - their ears appear quite human - as time went on.
Speaking of Naraht:
Duane Trek by Therin of Andor, on Flickr
Above: Naraht the horta; Harb Tanzer, Chief of Recreation; Nurse Lia Burke; linguist Janíce Kerasus; and Doctor Tom Krejci (DC Comics TOS Series I: the "Double Blind" two-parter, #24-25, and "The Last Word", #28). All of these characters have appeared in Diane Duane "Star Trek" novels, and most also in the old, text-based, computer game, "The Kobayashi Alternative". Harb's hair is miscoloured; it should be silver/white.
Naraht by Therin of Andor, on Flickr
Speaking of Naraht:
Duane Trek by Therin of Andor, on Flickr
Above: Naraht the horta; Harb Tanzer, Chief of Recreation; Nurse Lia Burke; linguist Janíce Kerasus; and Doctor Tom Krejci (DC Comics TOS Series I: the "Double Blind" two-parter, #24-25, and "The Last Word", #28). All of these characters have appeared in Diane Duane "Star Trek" novels, and most also in the old, text-based, computer game, "The Kobayashi Alternative". Harb's hair is miscoloured; it should be silver/white.
Naraht by Therin of Andor, on Flickr
Thanks for the pics. I loved those characters from Diane's novels.
I think I read somewhere they're called that in the script, although it may have been parroted BS.OT: Kirk's twins in STID are Caitians, too.
I don't think that claim should be taken too seriously. An interviewer asked Damon Lindelof if they were Caitians and he said yes. That doesn't necessarily prove that was the intent. I think sometimes filmmakers say "Yes" to the weird questions that the public and the press ask them just to play along and get it out of the way. Or because they're punchy from a lengthy press tour and aren't remembering clearly. Just as a rule, answers to leading questions should not be trusted. Sometimes reporters put words in people's mouths and sometimes people let them.
A couple of the early concepts do vaguely resemble the M'ress that appeared in the old Star Trek Power Records stories:
Sadly, none of the concept designs had fur. Although maybe it's for the best. I was a little squicked out by Sulu/M'ress in the old DC comics.
http://mauryruiz.com/wp/?page_id=646
A couple of the early concepts do vaguely resemble the M'ress that appeared in the old Star Trek Power Records stories:
Sadly, none of the concept designs had fur. Although maybe it's for the best.
Ah, that's an interesting concept comparison!
It's not explained in a novel, but it's addressed in the letter column to issue 28. In Bob Greenberger's words:
(Although I don't think Naraht ever appeared in the comic again.)
Personally I can understand Sutton's reasoning. On TV, you can imbue a featureless rock with life by having it move around, but in a still image it's just going to look like a rock. Giving it a face of sorts helps personify it and better convey the idea that it's a thinking being.
Also, Sutton's design for Naraht works better in the context of a starship made for humanoids than the original design did. He's more upright and he has tentacles for manipulating things. Diane Duane could easily enough write about Naraht being on the ship, but honestly I never really understood how a Horta could fit in a turbolift or operate a console. It's the kind of thing that works better in words than pictures.
I guess it could be argued that the "nose" is a trick of the shadows, or a coincidentally-located blob of silicon. The rectangular "eyes" annoyed me, but perhaps they are enhancements like his Starfleet-insignia-decorated "voder"?
He does. He cameos in "The Last Word", #28, as... an amorphous blob of silicon. And perhaps at Konom's bachelor party?
There aren't that many ships in the novels that haven't been featured on a cover by this point. We've seen the U.S.S. Titan, the U.S.S. Aventine, the U.S.S. Robinson, the U.S.S. da Vinci, the I.K.S. Gorkon, both the U.S.S. Excalibur and the Excalibur-A....
When I came up with White-Blue, I imagined him looking a bit like the Tachikoma/Fuchikoma AI robots from the anime series Ghost In The Shell...
Kinda like this guy, with more limbs and a smaller abdomen "pod".
