How about Bolians?
...except for a few references about their digestive system and bathroom issues, we don't know much about them.
That is true. We know only a handful of things about the Bolians.
1. The males tend to be stocky, whereas the females tend to be thin.
2. Their species seems to prefer hairlessness as we have seen some with hair but it is a rarity.
3. Their bathroom needs are, for some reason, greater than our own.
4. They have ridges on their tongues that protect them from acidic foods.
5. Humans often have a negative reaction (nausea, etc.) to intimate relations with them.
6. Their blood is of a blue coloring when removed from their body, indicating that (like some real world animals) their species may use copper-based hemocyanin to carry oxygen instead of iron-based hemoglobin.
I think that's most of what we know about them. It might be interesting to explore them a little more and get to know one of them as a continuing character, not just an occasional gueststar.
Voyager had a Bolian crewmember (originally one of the Maquis), and
Enterprise had a Bolian barber, but we never saw much of them really.
I'm always starving for more Andorians.
Andorians are one of the species that I was considering. I always found them interesting, and I thought
"Enterprise" did a good job of expanding their lore. Knowing they were one of the first species to join the United Federation of Planets, it seems to me that we should see more of them in Starfleet.
I'm not criticizing the shows for this, don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting it was an error because a species being in the Federation doesn't automatically indicate that members of that species should want to serve in Starfleet. It just seems from a narrative viewpoint, now that we have seen the crucial role they played in the Federation's formation, it would be nice to see some serving in its most prominent organization.
Some non-humanoids would be good too.
I actually had an idea for a different sort of life, though it may be vaguely humanoid in that I think it would still need limbs of some sort to utilize the ship's computers and perform its duties aboard a starship or starbase. The idea, though is for an aquatic species that cannot leave the water and thus would need to exist in a specialized environment of tubes interspersed throughout the starship to allow it to move from one location to another.
This starship would probably be more akin to a submarine aesthetically, with curved walls to accommodate the tubes throughout, more like the
NX-01 than the
Enterprise D. It would also require that this species interact with the ship's main computer in order to translates its natural language (probably similar in nature to whalesong) and then broadcast it to the crew where and when was necessary.
Like the Horta. Great idea!
I've heard this suggestion before, and I am certainly not opposed. I actually think it's a very interesting idea, but I'm not sure how to make that work. How would the Horta fulfill a Starfleet duty post with its biological and cultural differences, most importantly its lack of articulating limbs or spoken language of any kind?
A Gorn.
The Gorn don't have to be members of the Federation, but they could be allies or just have some sort of peace treaty agreement between them. Since the Cestus III incident, relations between the Federation and the Gorn could have improved enough by now to allow a (sponsored) Gorn to serve in Starfleet perhaps.
This is an interesting suggestion, showing how relations have improved, much like they did with the Klingons from
the Original Series to
the Next Generation. I'm sure I know the answer to this, but which type of Gorn, the humanoid seen in
TOS: Arena, or the more raptor like character seen in
ENT: In A Mirror Darkly?
Speaking of which, can we justify both as being different subsets of the Gorn species to avoid the visual discrepancy being used as a continuity discrepancy or do we just have to assume they're the same being and there are no differences beyond out of world concerns (like budgetary constraints and technical know how)?
I personally have toyed with the idea of a human form Species 8472 who would be interested in participating with real world Starfleet after the simulation.
There's something I never thought of. That's really interesting, and I believe it is certainly plausible from an in universe standpoint. It would likely be a younger member of their species, and they would choose to maintain the form of a different species (one native to the Alpha and Beta Quadrants), forcing them to rely on regular injections to prevent their reverting to their native form.
Do you think they would be honest about their species when applying? It could be that they receive a recommendation from Chakotay or Janeway (a referal from a senior Starfleet officer being a requirement for a member of a non-Federation species wishing to serve.) If they were honest, I can still see them wishing to keep their nature a private matter, with only the Captain and the medical officer (who must synthesize, monitor, and maintain their injections) having this knowledge. There is a lot of narrative potential here either way.
In terms of interesting game mechanics, Xindi insectoid could be interesting.
Xindi would be another interesting one. They seem to have disappeared back into their own territory in universe, and instead of seeing this as just a result of the fact that they hadn't been created yet when the older but chronologically later series were being written, I think I would subtly address it in narrative, having everyone be unfamiliar with their species and having to be reminded of their history lessons.
