The Aliens are not quite Alien

[Retroneon]

We've all heard the jokes about the aliens in Star Trek being no more than people with funny foreheads. I'd like to think that's true in the fiction too. It entered the canon when DNA samples from several of the major aliens were traced back to common ancient humanoids. As such, do we call the present humanoids in the galaxy, "species" or "races"?

Roddenberry was able to discuss controversial subjects, by presenting them in a disguised form. And he wanted the aliens to appear humanoid, not just for budgetary reasons, but so that we could relate to the characters. I feel that an ultimate praise of storytelling, may be to realize that Star Trek is a story about people after all.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Trek aliens are so implausible (humanoids evolving on alien planets that frequently? or at all???) that they obviously aren't really intended as literal aliens. They are simply more focused versions of humans, and they exist for the purpose of exploring the human attributes they represent.

This is why humans are usually the most boring part of the story, or at very least, they have to work hard to keep the aliens from stealing all the scenes.

I once saw a great essay by a marine biologist complaining how sci fi aliens are never even as alien as an Earth creature like a squid. Of course, he didn't fully appreciate that you can't tell any story just about a squid. It's always about human beings, such as:

1. Disneyesque story about an anthropomorphized squid with cute big eyes and a cuttlefish sidekick.

2. Competing teams of marine biologist vie on the high seas to be the first to bring back a giant squid alive.

3. Giant squid terrorizes a small yacht populated by drunk frat boys and half-naked bimbos.

4. Bimbo Squid II: the giant squid now has to fight sharktopus for its dinner.

I could keep going with the squid stories, but every single one would really be about people.

 

[Paradon]

If they were intelligent, they have to think like we humans, or at least to a greater degree, but physically, I don't think they have to resemble humans much at all.

 

[Gojira]

Of course we all know budget restrictions and story telling restrictions limited the types of aliens we saw.

But I would like to see more intelligent aliens that had no resemblance to any humanoid.

 

[Arpy]

I'm agree with Space Therapist.

I wish they'd have thrown in a line in some series somewhere pointing out that intelligent life in the universe really is very diverse, and that humanoid forms are actually in the minority, despite being the ones the shows focused on.

 

[T'Girl]

and that humanoid forms are actually in the minority

For me, it was less about the "humanoid form," and more about the endless similarities of the cultures and societies, to terrestrial ones.

We needed more of the "we send our seven year olds into the desert to see if they could survive" thing on Trek. And less of "gee, we're all really the same inside."

 

[YARN]

We've all heard the jokes about the aliens in Star Trek being no more than people with funny foreheads. I'd like to think that's true in the fiction too. It entered the canon when DNA samples from several of the major aliens were traced back to common ancient humanoids. As such, do we call the present humanoids in the galaxy, "species" or "races"?

Roddenberry was able to discuss controversial subjects, by presenting them in a disguised form. And he wanted the aliens to appear humanoid, not just for budgetary reasons, but so that we could relate to the characters. I feel that an ultimate praise of storytelling, may be to realize that Star Trek is a story about people after all.

Science fiction is never truly alien. It's always about people. That which can be understood isn't truly alien. If a creature were truly alien or other, there would be no story to tell, as there would be no coordinating grid for understanding.

2001 gestures at the ineffable in its third act (although there is a pretty mundane explanation for this sequence), but it met with mixed results from audiences.

Admittedly, Trek is pretty lazy about its business. Almost every alien is humanoid and speaks English, which moves the plot along nicely. Laugh at the Horta all you will, but at least they gave it a shot in this episode.

 

[Darth Picardous]

Aliens in Trek that do not look humanoid do not tend to interact well with them, examples being the Tholians, Sheliak and the Hirada.

 

[Distorted Humor]

I once saw a great essay by a marine biologist complaining how sci fi aliens are never even as alien as an Earth creature like a squid. Of course, he didn't fully appreciate that you can't tell any story just about a squid. It's always about human beings, such as:

Spoiler: Massive B5 Spoiler

Vorlons...are energy Squid!

 

[Yevetha]

Yeah but they are not the protagonists.

 

[Pauln6]

I do think that Trek's focus on bumpy foreheads was part of its charm but also its weakness. It worked fine in the sixties but increasingly modern audiences want more from their sci fi. Babylon 5 and Farscape took a small step in the right direction in this regard. I think I agree that you need your main protagonists to be relatable human(oid)s but it would have been better to limit the number of races and give each one greater breadth over several stories rather than introduce a new race every few episodes.

P.S. I think their natural state was actually crystalline.

 

[Distorted Humor]

Yeah but they are not the protagonists.

Well first off, if you make a alien like say, the Vorlons who are truly Alien, most of the audience is going to be unable to connect to that individual.

Spoiler: B5

(and it shows the level of writing in Babylon 5 that you care when Kosh gets Kiboshed )

And you could Argue that Kosh is a Protagonists in the theme of Gandalf the Grey.

 

[Pauln6]

Another good example was the Taelons in Earth: Final Conflict. They were awesome in season one but it was felt that they (and the associated plots) were not relateable enough (or possibly that the CGI was too expensive). The show was tweaked with each successive season until the final season was so schlocky as to have almost no connection to the show's intellectual origin.

I'm doing a B5/Star Trek crossover comic story and I'm really looking forward to using the Vorlons because they are so unusual.

 

[Yevetha]

The second book of Zahns conquerors trilogy has alien protagonists.

 

[Anwar]

I once saw a great essay by a marine biologist complaining how sci fi aliens are never even as alien as an Earth creature like a squid. Of course, he didn't fully appreciate that you can't tell any story just about a squid. It's always about human beings, such as:

Spoiler: Massive B5 Spoiler

Vorlons...are energy Squid!

But his Encounter Suit made him humanoid enough for us to care before we learned that...

At least Trek gave us the excuse that most life was created by ancient humanoids, which is more than shows like Doctor Who where there are tons of aliens out there that look just like Humans (or Gallifreyans).

 

[C.E. Evans]

There could be entire galaxies out there where humanoid life-forms are far more the exception rather than the rule, IMO.

 

[datalogan]

I always understood the need to have a lot of humanoid aliens due to budget constraints.
Where I was usually disappointed was with the lack of development of alien cultures as unique to humans. Other that the more mainstream alien races like Vulcans, Romulans, Klingons, Trill, Denobulans, etc, most races were not developed beyond whatever 1 alien characteristic that moved the plot forward (like suicide at age 60 in TNG Half a Life). Rarely did we get insights into different cultures, like religion, social constructs, marriage, etc.
And even what we saw with the more mainstream aliens weren't very alien.

It also disappointed me a little that the alien biology wasn't as alien as it could be, even within the constraints of budget. Even if someone looked exactly human (or just with a small difference like ears or forehead), there could still be very different biological differences presented in the story that cost nothing in make-up budget. Things they did do where things like the different location of the Vulcan heart, or the fact that Klingons have 3 hearts, Deltan pheromones, and different blood color. But they could have also had races see different a spectrum of light, or hear different ranges of sound, or be plant rather than animal, etc.

 

[T'Girl]

Spock: "Immense beings, a hundred limbs which resemble tentacles. Minds of such control and capacity that each limb is capable of performing a different function."

Kirk: "Immense beings with a hundred tentacles would have difficulty with the turbolift."

Okay, sometime like that.

In Babylon Five, there was the Minbari, the "boneheads," while not totally unique, an effort to create a different alien civilization was made.

Every time you started to think you had them figured out, they reminded you, that you in fact hadn't.

 

[Pauln6]

Babylon 5 did a fairly decent job because they had a bible listing the alien races they were using. Different alien species in Star Trek were made up from one week to the next. I don't really agree with the list of 'developed' aliens. Conjoined Trill aside, what do we actually know about humanoid Trill society or psychology? Apart from telepathy, what are the defining traits of betazoid society? What makes a denobulan tick? I think that only vulcans, klingons, cardassians, bajorans, ferengi, tamarians, andorians (after Enterprise), borg, founders, vorta, and romulans (just barely) had a decent amount of development. I do think that B5 did a better job overall.

 

[T'Girl]

Apart from telepathy, what are the defining traits of betazoid society?

Well Deanna was the daughter of a "fifth house," and her mother just happen to be an ambassador, which suggests (maybe) some kind of a old British royal system. Possibly interesting as a Federation member.

Always wanted someone to come up with a explanation of this "princess" Sarek had a child with -- something more than a simply discounting.