Question about the 'Ridged Trill'

[DigificWriter]

Hi. I was wondering something: is there an 'official' literary explanation for why there are two different species of humanoid Trill, the 'ridged Trill' and the 'spotted Trill'? Also, is there a list out there of 'ridged Trill' characters who've appeared in Trek lit?

 

[tenmei]

I seem to remember a story from somewhere that they envisaged using the ridged Trill makeup for Terry Farrell and the character of Dax but when they did her up, she didn't look attractive so they came up with a new design that allowed her to look attractive.

Don't recall seeing a fanon explanation, though.

 

[DeVario]

They do not discuss it with outsiders.

 

[David cgc]

I'm sure there was one. Some kind of hybrid or offshoot... thing. It might've been tied into the fear of transporters. I'm just completely blanking on it.

 

[JD]

They explain it in a brief reference in Forged in Fire. I don't remember exactly,

Spoiler: Forged in Fire

but I know it had something to do with the Klingon Augment virus.

 

[David cgc]

Right, yes, that was it!

 

[Thrawn]

Yeah. The virus mutated, and caused ridges to manifest on the Trill, the opposite of its effect on the Klingons. One of my very favorite continuity spackles, actually. Quite clever.

 

[tenmei]

Hmmm. Interesting way to explain it.

 

[DigificWriter]

I heard that the Worlds of DS9 story 'Trill: Unjoined' deals with the ridged Trill, but wasn't sure if that book jived with the explanation given in 'Forged in Fire'.

Anybody got a list of ridged Trill characters who've appeared in Trek lit?

 

[Therin of Andor]

is there a list out there of 'ridged Trill' characters who've appeared in Trek lit?

Memory Beta would normally be the place to check, but the entry is quite sparse and hasn't covered ridged Trill.

The female host incarnation of Ambassador Odan appears in the Wildstorm TNG/DS9 comic crossover mini-series, "Divided We Fall", which ties-in to the DS9 Relaunch novels. When they do a flashback to Beverly's now-deceased male Odan lover/host, they first depict him in heavy shadow, so it appears he has ridges. Later, they show him with spots, so it's a rather clever blend.

However, the Trill story in "Worlds of DS9" does mention ridged Trill and, as another poster said, "Excelsior: Forged in Fire" has a good cameo for the group that ties in to ENT.

 

[MHJH]

I heard that the Worlds of DS9 story 'Trill: Unjoined' deals with the ridged Trill, but wasn't sure if that book jived with the explanation given in 'Forged in Fire'.

It deals with them in that it acknowledges their existence, but, as far as I can remember, it doesn't actually provide any sort of explanation. There's a few that appear in a crowd scene, that's all. Of course, Mangels and Martin wrote both stories you refer to, so I'd be surprised if they didn't mesh.

 

[nx1701g]

Spoiler: Forged in Fire (extensive)

The opening chapters of Forged in Fire focus on Antaak (the older Klingon who worked with Phlox in Affliction and Divergence) spent his life trying to find a way to cure the Klingon infection that caused the forehead to lose the cranial ridges. He created a serum that would cause the ridges to reappear in Klingons almost instantaneously, but the Klingon Government did not believe his claims because he was a dishonored outcast. To test his theory he went to a Klingon Colony (name escapes me) and he infected the water supply with the chemical he'd developed. It had the effect of storing the cranial ridges, but the majority of people died. There were several hundred Trill on the planet and they were also infected thus creating a second species of Trill with Ridges.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Spoiler: Forged in Fire (extensive)

The opening chapters of Forged in Fire focus on Antaak (the older Klingon who worked with Phlox in Affliction and Divergence) spent his life trying to find a way to cure the Klingon infection that caused the forehead to lose the cranial ridges. He created a serum that would cause the ridges to reappear in Klingons almost instantaneously, but the Klingon Government did not believe his claims because he was a dishonored outcast. To test his theory he went to a Klingon Colony (name escapes me) and he infected the water supply with the chemical he'd developed. It had the effect of storing the cranial ridges, but the majority of people died. There were several hundred Trill on the planet and they were also infected thus creating a second species of Trill with Ridges.

What were Trill doing there?

 

[Technobuilder]

^
Shopping?

 

[Christopher]

Why wouldn't there be Trill there? Trill have been on Earth and Vulcan and other worlds throughout the 22nd and 23rd centuries as well as the 24th, so why not there too?

 

[ToddCam]

No. There were no Trill mentioned being on Qu'Vat colony.

Here is the section about this in Forged in Fire.:

It's from Curzon's POV. He is thinking about medical secrets.

"It was because of the closely held secret of Trill symbiosis that the Trill people had sought neither apologies nor reparations from the Klingons when a strain of the Klingon-engineered strain of the Levodian flu retrovirus had mysteriously infected a Trill colony. Although the infection had not proven lethal, it had caused a mutation not only among the Trill who were exposed to it but also among their descendants. Although the high, rippled forehead manifested by the few who carried the mutated genes differed from the classic features of the Klingons [...]"

It goes on about prejudice against this segment of the Trill population.

 

[nx1701g]

^ Apologies. I must have somehow combined the two.