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Propose new aliens

Most of the aliens shown in Star Trek look like humans with weird facial bones or other features that could be conveniently added by a make-up artist from the 60s. Think of Vulkans, Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, Denobulans, Ferengi, etc.

What kind of aliens should the next series include that would capitalize on the FX / CGI capabilities of the 21st century and make us believe that they are indeed not human actors wearing a complicated make-up?

I'm fine with bumpy forehead aliens and the occassional lizard/insect type alien like the Xindi. The bumpy forehead alien is what Trek does and it makes it feel like Trek. I don't want the crew to be bumping into absurd looking monsters all the time or it would end up looking as stupid as Dr Who.

I see your point, but what is the likelihood of the universe being filled with bumpy foreheaded humanoids? The number of species is staggering even on Earth. So what's with this exclusivity? It's just not carefully thought through.
 
No. It wasn't poorly thought through. They couldn't have the budget to do very alien races for the alien of the week every week.....
 
They couldn't have the budget ...
In another thread recently, I suggested that the producers use people who are child actors and separately some actors the size of basketball players, to depict different alien species.

On a set similar to the bridge of TNG, you could put different looking aliens at Worf's usual console. The console itself would partially hide them from the waist down, so a alien with say four arms could be stationed there. A second set of arms would be mechanical and the mech for them run down behind the actor, put him (or her) on a small platform to give the appearance of a tall alien and to make the second set of arms more apparent.

They wouldn't be able to move around much, but it would be interesting in static camera shots.

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More could be done to show non-Humans in Starfleet having different cultures, like Ensign Ro's ear piece, or the Eloshan (sp?) officer in ST4 who had abundant facial hair. So that Starfleet doesn't simply scream "Look have incredibly bland and identical we all are."

Come on, a 150 species in the Federation, and only Troi had even a hint of a made up accent?

The more Klingon Worf became, the more interesting he became, because he stopped being a Human with a thingy on his forehead. To me, when Worf stood before Picard and refused to volunteer a transfusion for the injured Romulan, is when he grew out of being a background character.

Or when Kira was revealed to be a spiritual person, she step out of the Star Trek prosthesis cookie cutter.

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A actor in a "fat suit," not because the character is fat, just a naturally large alien race. Hire someone with a big head, to go with the suit.

:)
 
It would be still "bumpy heads" with child actors or ex-NBA players.
 
I love the idea of a four-armed alien handling the weapons console. Space cockroaches would also rock. TNG had some brilliant moments in this respect, like the space whales in Galaxy's Child. It's a pity that they didn't pursue that idea a little bit more.
 
Meet - the Ciridonians. Hailing from the planet Ciridonia, they look exactly like humans, but for one thing.

Their faces are on their stomachs, with the brain inside. They wear shirts with a hole cut in the middle so that they can see. Some Ciridonians choose to cover their entire face except for their eyes, others are happy to be seen from eyebrows to mouth. This means that they are already more diverse than Klingons.

Do they have heads? Yes. Of course, they are useless, with no face, hair or brain. Useless, except for one thing. Their skulls are harder than diamonds. So they can attack by bending over and charging. This allows them to strike their enemies with brutal force while at the same time protecting their face and looking hilarious.

They do not need to sit down, adapted after generations of looking up at the thing they are supposed to be working on, such as meals or computers. This combined with their lethal head weapon makes them ideal guards. They sleep standing up, like horses. This is so that they do not roll onto their front and suffocate.
 
I'm never sure about CGI aliens on TV. I always thing that they date rather quickly and then there's the whole thing of how the actors interact with them.

Personally I'd love to see them go more old school like FarScape and get some puppets in the mix.

I still want to see the Galamites!
I would love to see them too!
 
I kind of recall similar fear-inducing aliens have appeared in Doctor Who over the years. One even infected a tribal race that used voodoo dolls like the Furies did.
Actually, anything resembling Doctor Who aliens (as opposed to Forehead Aliens) might be a welcome change. I've actually grown disappointed that Star Trek, with all its fabled vision and imagination, never came up with anything as interesting as the Ood or the Jidoon (or, hell, even the Daleks).

JJ's team did some pretty amazing things in preparing for the Rurapenthe scene despite the fact that it wound up on the cutting room floor. I expect they'll try to get a return on that investment by recycling some of their alien designs for that scene in future movies; the multi-faced alien and the salt vampire redux, for starters.

I'm never sure about CGI aliens on TV. I always thing that they date rather quickly and then there's the whole thing of how the actors interact with them.
Puppets/actors are more realistic anyway, if only because it takes a lot less thought and experimentation to get them to move realistically. Which, in the end, is probably why JJ's team only went CGI when they needed a giant space monster and left everything else down to makeup and latex.
 
I was waiting for the "passionate" rebuttals, as I myself felt my hackles rising at that, ahem, "observation".

Concerning the oft' remembered but never revealed "rodent things on Demorus and the poison darts they threw"...for years I envisioned them as a sapient but "technologically limited" species using toxin coated weapons. But someone once presented a radically different spin on the idea. mIt may have been Shane Johnson who released "The Worlds of the Federation". He depicted them as mere animals with a natural defense biology. Given the actual phrasing of Michell's dialog in WNMhGB, technically, that idea is just as valid.

Still, I rather like the idea of aboriginal rats with attitude, gibbering a lot like Jawas.

Sincerely,

Bill
 
It would be still "bumpy heads" with child actors or ex-NBA players.
I don't believe Mister Holm possessed bumpies.

:)

mr_homn.jpg


I know...It's incredible...7 foot all and all that drinking, still no bumps on his head after walking down and up the corridors of the Enterprise all these times Lxawanna showed up...
 
I find bumpy heads less annoying than species who look exactly like humans. Sure, bumpy foreheads aren't all that realistic, but they sometimes look pretty cool. As long as they're not totally ridiculous, I don't mind bumpy foreheads at all.

One really ridiculous looking alien was the guy from...dang, I forget the episode's name. He was the guy planning to kill Quark who blatantly told Quark he was planning to do so...anyways, he had this ridiculous...thing that connected his nose to his chin and covered the center of his mouth. It looked incredibly stupid in my opinion.
 
It's hard to watch that guy without wondering how the heck he ate.

I'm pretty happy with the diversity of Trek aliens. Bumps don't bother me. The only thing that does bother me is what I refer to as "star trek villagers", the idyllic folk all wearing single colored tunics who greet our away team with baskets of fruit.
 
A dog like, dog shaped, dog sized sapient intelligent spacefaring species that has an elephant like, but more dactylous trunk on its nose that it uses as a hand.

The so called, Eledogies.
 
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