*sigh*, not a Nasat....

[Deranged Nasat]

Okay, this isn't one of my usual "let's share!" threads, because this time I'm asking people to discuss something they don't like . One of the defining traits of Trek literature, building of course from a screen franchise of 5 live-action series, 11 films (I counted 'em ) and an animated show, is how large and complex the universe it explores truly is. You already knew that, of course...

As I've mentioned previously, one of the things I love about Trek lit is the sheer number of civilizations and races involved, all interacting, and the interplay between these varied nations, races, cultures and societies is a large part of what makes Trek so meaningful and enjoyable for me. Exploring these alien cultures is also constantly interesting. This is one reason why I'm looking forward so much to the Typhon Pact series: large-scale Trek politics and the fleshing out of races and societies we often don't know much about.

This might be difficult to answer, given that not everyone shares my obsessive love of detail or particularly cares what races and cultures are being explored, but I have a question. Is there any particular race, nation, culture or species that you feel doesn't particularly contribute anything to the Trek universe? Not counting minor races who are named once or feature in a single scene and thus don't have time to mean anything, but a race prominant enough to have meaning...but which, for you doesn't.

Is there any particular culture or race that jumps to mind as having left you cold despite your being asked to invest a response in them? Either because they weren't actually explored or explained in an interesting way, because the potential wider significance of them is ignored, because you thought they offer nothing unique, or because you found them simply dull? Or for whatever reason you no longer have any time for them, or never did.

I suppose it might be phrased also as the opposite of the response you have to the races you love to see. When you see a member of one race or hear mention of it, you think "I like them ", but when this one pops up, it's or even . It's like, if he'll excuse me, Therin and the Anti-Andorians....

Which race would you happily see wiped from the face of the Trekverse so you need never be bored or annoyed by them again?

Anyone like to share? (I'll be a day or two travelling, so I might not be able to check in right away...)

 

[Myasishchev]

The current state of the Romulan Empire leaves me cold. It's substantially Nemesis' fault, I guess, but they'd have been best off ignoring it altogether.

I wouldn't mind seeing a rehabilitation of the Ferengi.

Edit: I missed the last bit, where apparently our choices must be exterminated to the last of their species. In which case, TrekLit did right by me, I guess, in that they

Spoiler: does Destiny still need spoiler protection? Bruce Willis is a ghost, too

destroyed the Borg.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

The current state of the Romulan Empire leaves me cold. It's substantially Nemesis' fault, I guess, but they'd have been best off ignoring it altogether.

I wouldn't mind seeing a rehabilitation of the Ferengi.

Edit: I missed the last bit, where apparently our choices must be exterminated to the last of their species. In which case, TrekLit did right by me, I guess, in that they

Spoiler: does Destiny still need spoiler protection? Bruce Willis is a ghost, too

destroyed the Borg.

Well, no, they don't have to be exterminated . That was a joke.

PS: So is the thread title. I love the Nasats, so don't go away thinking they were my example!

 

[flemm]

I'm going to say the Bajorans, which is a bit odd in the sense that I'm a fan of DS9 the series, and focus mostly on the DS9 relaunch as far as Trek Lit is concerned (with occasional forays into other areas, time permitting).

The Bajorans came to mind, though, when you mentioned this because as a race they just seem so thin and underdeveloped considering how much time has been spent near, on and around their world. Has more Trek taken place in the vicinity of any world moreso than Bajor? With all the time the Enterprise spends in space, Bajor has to be up there. Yet the Bajorans remain rather generic: they are religious, basically. Yipes! There's got to be more potential here.

We do know that the Bajoran civilisation is ancient, which is potentially intriguing. In Explorers (season 3, I think), we learn the ancient Bajorans were capable of interplanetary space travel, which was perhaps the coolest use that has been made of this aspect of their civilisation. Again, there seems to be the potential for so much more to be done here.

Bajoran characters like Kira and Ro work well because we end up knowing so much more about them, but the Bajorans as a whole stand out to me as one of the more tepid and uninspired/uninspiring Trek alien species.

 

[Cicero]

On screen and in the novels:

The Bajorans

In the novels:

The post-Nemesis Borg
The Ferengi
The post-Nemesis Romulans
The Klingons (except in Serpents Among the Ruins)
The Neyel
The Trill
The Thallonians
The Xenexians

Aside from the Thallonians, the Bajorans, and the Xenexians, I've enjoyed each of these species in capable hands, and would like to see them again, but handled differently.


Conversely, I particularly like:

The Horta
The Nasats
The Andorians
The Brikar
The Cardassians
Diane Duane's Romulans
David R. George III's Romulans
The Klingons in Serpents Among the Ruins

 

[Cicero]

I'm going to say the Bajorans, which is a bit odd in the sense that I'm a fan of DS9 the series, and focus mostly on the DS9 relaunch as far as Trek Lit is concerned (with occasional forays into other areas, time permitting).

The Bajorans came to mind, though, when you mentioned this because as a race they just seem so thin and underdeveloped considering how much time has been spent near, on and around their world. Has more Trek taken place in the vicinity of any world moreso than Bajor? With all the time the Enterprise spends in space, Bajor has to be up there. Yet the Bajorans remain rather generic: they are religious, basically. Yipes! There's got to be more potential here.

We do know that the Bajoran civilisation is ancient, which is potentially intriguing. In Explorers (season 3, I think), we learn the ancient Bajorans were capable of interplanetary space travel, which was perhaps the coolest use that has been made of this aspect of their civilisation. Again, there seems to be the potential for so much more to be done here.

Bajoran characters like Kira and Ro work well because we end up knowin so much more about them, but the Bajorans as a race stand out to me as one of the more tepid and uninspireduninspiring Trek races.

I entirely agree.

 

[Therin of Andor]

It's like, if he'll excuse me, Therin and the Anti-Andorians....

Ha! I spent many, many years complaining there weren't enough Andorians - and then, in quick succession, we got Shar in the DS9 novels, then Shran, "Andor: Paradigm" and "Spotlight on... Andorians". So I'm not complaining.

My only annoyance regarding race was when an early DS9 episode focussed heavily on Bajorans. I liked Ro and Sito (on TNG) and Kira, but Bajoran religion and politics left me cold. But every character and alien race has fans, so who am I to deny someone their moment in the limelight?

 

[Steve Roby]

Seems to me that the thing with the Bajorans is that they, unlike most alien cultures in Star Trek, are treated like real people. They don't have that one way of behaving that so many other cultures are reduced to. Yes, they tend to be religious, but there are militarists and pacifists among them, business people and bureaucrats, artists and criminals. This is not a problem, AFAIC.

 

[21Spike65]

^Agreed. I've never really understood the problem people have with the Bajorans.

For me, I'd probably say that the Suliban take the cake for the least interesting race. Silik was at least played by a good actor, but the species as a whole never really interested me.

 

[Thrawn]

Oh right the Suliban. I'd totally forgotten about them.

...so, yep, they would seem to qualify.

 

[DS9Continuing]

I never really cared about Romulans. They didn't really seem to have any edge. It seemed like the Cardassians ended up becoming what they originally intended the Romulans to be. But for some reason, it worked with the Cardassians where it didn't with the Romulans.

Although there was one scene in the Lit that really seemed to make them crystallize for me - although a scene that was based on screen canon. In Taking Wing, Troi makes note of the design on the floor of the Romulan Senate chamber - a representation of Romulan space and Federation space at odds with each other. She realizes that this is how they define themselves - as "enemies of the Federation." That kind of made me grasp their mindset a lot more than ever before.

A different race that nothing has ever been done with - and I've pointed this out before - is the Bolians. They've been around in the background since TNG season 1, and they get dragged out whenever they need some alien colour in a scene. The occasional titbit here and there - they're okay with suicide, you can feel their pulse in their ridge, etc - but nothing substantial has ever been done with them.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Is it wrong that I didn't know what a Nasat is?

 

[Sci]

Is it wrong that I didn't know what a Nasat is?

http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Nasat

 

[Therin of Andor]

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/File:Em3Green.jpg

 

[Nerys Myk]

Been there, that's why I said "didn't".

 

[William Leisner]

^ It's only wrong that you have not been reading the SCE/CoE stories, which gave the Nasats their name.

 

[captcalhoun]

betazoids. i like troi (particularly since Titan's made her more 3D) and her mum's funny but

ooo, i sense angst and i like to get naked.

is about all else they seem to amount to.

oh, and that security guard Konya's good since he can't sense emotions.

 

[Therin of Andor]

betazoids. i like troi (particularly since Titan's made her more 3D) and her mum's funny but

I loved Tam Elbrun, Devinoni Ral and Lon Suder! Great characters!

 

[Christopher]

oh, and that security guard Konya's good since he can't sense emotions.

He can, just not very well. He's not so much empathically "blind" as "nearsighted." Lwaxana Troi has been established as a formidably sensitive telepath, near the high end of the bell curve of telepathic sensitivity for Betazoids, so I figured there had to be Betazoids at the lower end of the bell curve as well. Since Konya's telepathy is relatively weak, he chose to train himself to focus it on a single area of the brain, a basic level of physiological response that's less complex and thus easier to read than higher levels of cognition.

 

[Thrawn]

betazoids. i like troi (particularly since Titan's made her more 3D) and her mum's funny but

I loved Tam Elbrun, Devinoni Ral and Lon Suder! Great characters!

I always thought it was a real shame they got rid of Suder. He was fascinating.