• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Star Trek characters with superpowers

Is this thread for television characters only? Being in the Lit section, I first thought of several of the New Frontier crew, but also of Naraht from Diane Duane novel. Naraht is a Horta, man...does whatever a Horta can.
 
Can't believe no one has yet mentioned Wesley Crusher, who evolved into a Traveler. He can halt time, move through space-time pretty much at will, perceive time differently from other sentient beings. Heaven knows what else he'll be able to do as he gains experience and expands his abilities.

Another duh! And the episode where Wesley became a Traveler was one of the more recent episodes of The Next Generation I've watched.
 
Is this thread for television characters only? Being in the Lit section, I first thought of several of the New Frontier crew, but also of Naraht from Diane Duane novel. Naraht is a Horta, man...does whatever a Horta can.

It's not exclusively for TV characters, but I'm afraid I'm not much help with New Frontier - I don't have any copies and only read the series once back in the mid/late-2000s through the library. But speaking of book characters, what about Sparky the nebula creature that depowered Risa from S.C.E.? I'm trying to remember everything he (it?) could do, but I may need to go back and read the story again.

As for the Horta, that's another character/species I need to go back and rewatch to remember what they can do.
 
I'm not sure how to answer that question; what constitutes "special" in this case? Or rather, what doesn't? They're nonhumanoid entities existing in a completely alien environment; it's questionable if they'd have any abilities in common with humanoids to start with. Any ability to survive, sense, maneuver, or interact in that environment would be completely alien to any human ability; even something basic like vision would no doubt operate in a very different spectral range, be far more light-sensitive due to the extreme darkness of interstellar space, and so on.

But I suppose some cosmozoans have shown abilities that would be unusual even by baseline cosmozoan standards, such as FTL travel, matter transmutation, shapeshifting, etc. Entities like the vampire cloud, the star-jellies, and the Crystalline Entity seemed to have pretty exceptional abilities.

The spirit in which I intended this question to be answered in is a superpower is pretty much "any superhuman ability beyond normal human traits, including but in absolutely no way limited to flight, super strength, projection of destructive energy beams and force fields, invulnerability, telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation, super speed, or weather control."

Also, while most starships could technically be considered to have superpowers (they fly at superhuman speeds through interstellar space, they fire energy beams that could destroy planets, they can create holograms on the holodeck and teleport through the transporters and create food and materials with the replicators using matter-energy conversion, and some of them cloak, not to mention the interphase cloak from "The Pegasus", just to name a few - each of which I consider to be a legitimate superpower), unless they have a natural or artificial intelligence (I guess that could mean individualism), I don't count them, unlike Data, an android. Similarly, I put Geordi on my list of characters, even though his powers are derived from his VISOR/later ocular implant, for which I mention that the VISOR is the source of said powers.

Therefore, using the Dikironium cloud creature as an example, it would have the following powers: FTL interstellar travel, intangibility/phasing (which would take it out of the Enterprise's weapons range and enable it to get through the shields), and possibly transfiguration/transmutation - all of these abilities came from its Memory Alpha article and not the actual episode, since again I haven't watched it recently and personally cataloged its powers.
 
The Doctor (and Prof. Moriarty as well) counts - as a sentient hologram, he's naturally intangible and also has both knowledge absorption & accelerated thought process, but does he (or Moriarty) have anything else?
 
The spirit in which I intended this question to be answered in is a superpower is pretty much "any superhuman ability beyond normal human traits, including but in absolutely no way limited to flight, super strength, projection of destructive energy beams and force fields, invulnerability, telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation, super speed, or weather control."

Well, yes, that's obviously what it means in general, but my point is that I don't think that general definition applies to something like cosmozoans in particular. It seems like a category error to ask about abilities beyond normal human traits when talking about creatures that are not even remotely humanoid and don't have any abilities that are like normal human traits in the first place. I mean, you might as well ask the question about whales or giant redwoods. The comparison is meaningless if the things being compared have so little in common to begin with.
 
Well, yes, that's obviously what it means in general, but my point is that I don't think that general definition applies to something like cosmozoans in particular. It seems like a category error to ask about abilities beyond normal human traits when talking about creatures that are not even remotely humanoid and don't have any abilities that are like normal human traits in the first place. I mean, you might as well ask the question about whales or giant redwoods. The comparison is meaningless if the things being compared have so little in common to begin with.

Okay, maybe asking if cosmozoans have superpowers is too complicated or doesn't work, but where's the line? Do characters who have superpowers need to be humanoid, or not space-faring life forms? Would Green Lantern Mogo (who is a sentient planet), who has - according to the DC Wikia/Fandom page - Chlorokinesis, Interstellar Travel, Atmokinesis, Gravity manipulation, Geokinesis, and Telepathy outside of his (technically genderless but is generally casually referred to as male) Green Lantern ring not qualify?

To use another example that I have on my list that showcases how I'm cataloging these things: I have two different versions of the Pokémon Charizard, Ash's and one that belongs to Alain (from the Kalos series). Both Charizard can fly with their wings (categorized as Flight/Wing manifestation) and both can use Flamethrower (fire breath), but only Alain's can Mega Evolve (Transformation) and use Thunder Punch (Elemental fist/punch).

In addition to Pokémon, I've also got ghosts, zombies, witches, wizards, sorcerers, Whitelighters, vampires, Vampire Slayers, aliens, genetic hybrids and half-breeds, demons, Ascended/Higher Beings, angels, gods and goddesses, mutants, meta- and superhumans, immortals (such as Star Trek's own Flint), and even a few people like Criminal Minds' Spencer Reid (enhanced intelligence) and Psych's Shawn Spencer (hyper awareness/observation), whose natural abilities are technically possible but extremely rare/unrealistic in real life. I've also included certain objects that bestow powers upon the user if/when applicable or particularly memorable, such as Iron Man's armor, Batman Beyond's costume, the Millennium Items from Yu-Gi-Oh!, the Talismans from Jackie Chan Adventures, and even some items from the Warehouse (13). (As you can see, I obviously watch a lot of TV (including kids shows and a few animes) and read a lot of books, comic books, and graphic novels!)

Anyways, I appreciate all the feedback I've gotten so far; thanks for everybody's help.
 
The EMH Doctor on Voyager with the use of the mobile emitter was pretty super powered.
Super Ego and Deus Ex Machina powers do help, the latter also applies a lot to Seven as well (assuming she isn't the cause of the plot of the week she'll have the solution for it).
 
Dax: 550 year lifespan.
Picard and 7: Ability to hear the Borg.
Lwaxana: Telepathy.
Riker: Multiple Man: ability to be in two places at once.
Paris: Serious jack of all trades: holonovelist, ship designer, ace pilot, medic, who knows what else?
Mayweather: Invisible Man.
 
Ilia the Deltan uses a combination of pheromones and healing powers to end Chekov's pain when V'ger burns his arm in ST:TMP.
 
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it (or maybe I missed the mention) but isn't the novel Genesis Force basically a TNG Superhero Team novel?
That's what Vornholt said in his Voyages of Imagination interview about Genesis Force.
 
I suspect no one was reading the Genesis Wave books by that point, so how would anyone know?

It was a hardcover release. And much better than the third GW novel. And yes, the crew was gathered together because of their unique attributes.

I guess the problem with the OP's premise: is a super power only a superpower when the individual is away from their own race? For example, it seems that all Deltans have pheromones and healing powers. A Deltan among Deltans would not stand out as anything unusual.
 
It was a hardcover release. And much better than the third GW novel. And yes, the crew was gathered together because of their unique attributes.

I guess the problem with the OP's premise: is a super power only a superpower when the individual is away from their own race? For example, it seems that all Deltans have pheromones and healing powers. A Deltan among Deltans would not stand out as anything unusual.

You're right in that a Deltan among Deltans wouldn't stand out, but if you had a specific Deltan character in mind - or if it clearly established that (almost) every Deltan had those abilities - I'd count it. To use a similar example, most Betazoids are telepathic, but since Lwaxana Troi is an individual character, I have her listed as a telepath; likewise, Kryptonians such as Superman and Supergirl have the usual Kryptonian superpowers under the yellow sun, but I have multiple versions of said characters (including but not limited to the comic book versions, the New 52/DC Rebirth versions, Arrow-verse versions, DCAU versions, and Smallville versions) each listed separately, not to mention General Zod and/or some of the characters from the "New Krypton" storyline c. 2008-2010.
 
I suspect no one was reading the Genesis Wave books by that point, so how would anyone know?
Frankly, I’ve never read them (only listened to the audio abridgements, and only much much later) but I did read VoI, which is where I picked up that factoid.
 
I thumbed through my copy of The Battle of Betazed, and added Hent Tevrin's "superpowers" to my list (and since he uses his multitudes of telepathic and telekinetic powers as a serial killer, he qualifies as an honest-to-goodness (well, badness) supervillain!): in addition to his unusually strong telepathy and empathy for a Betazoid, he's also mastered telekinesis and the projective empathy. And (minor spoilers for the book that came out in early 2002!) before he died, he passed his knowledge on how to kill with his mind on to Deanna, who is, fortunately for her, not psychically powerful enough to employ those methods.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top