The Best Aliens of DS9...

[Farscape One]

I am in agreement with TribbleFeeder from another thread that we need a 'best alien' thread. And DS9 really deserves it.

I'll start with one that may seem obvious... the Jem'Hadar. I love their makeup design. They look mean and terrifying. And they are the perfect soldier. And there is so much more to them than just that, but they don't really let you see it.

"TO THE DEATH" and "ROCKS AND SHOALS" are among my favorite episodes largely because of the Jem'Hadar. I would have loved even more episodes centered around them.

And my thanks to TribbleFeeder for inspiring me to start this thread.

Everyone... your best aliens?

 

[Kilana2]

The Cardassians. Big improvement of what we have seen in TNG.

 

[Armus]

The Breen. I like their look and sound, they looked very Return of The Jedi. They added to the aesthetics and the conflict of season 7. With so many verbose characters and aliens, it was nice to have a species that was mysterious and just cool to look at.

 

[XCV330]

The Ferengi got fleshed out and maybe one of the best developed races in Trek during DS9. I know some of the Ferengi episodes are tedious but in terms of a species that doesn't look hyooman, has its own ethical system that is more than just a "this is what we humans would be like if we were bad guys!"

 

[Alejandro]

The Breen. I like their look and sound, they looked very Return of The Jedi. They added to the aesthetics and the conflict of season 7. With so many verbose characters and aliens, it was nice to have a species that was mysterious and just cool to look at.

The Breen are a copy (or a homage) of Boushh Leia in ROTJ. I really liked them.
The Ferengis
The Cardassians
The Jam'Hadar

All of them great races and great make ups

 

[Riker'sMailbox]

Loved the development of the Ferengi and the Cardassians.

As for new aliens: Voorta and Jem' Hadar

 

[Leviathan]

DS9 really "fixed" the Ferrengi, Cardassians, and Klingons for me...made them a much more complex people.

I rather liked the Changelings...hive mind that exists in liquid state. A decent opponent that also managed to win more than a few battles.

 

[2takesfrakes]

I can't help myself, I really like the Bajorans. Their spirituality really set them apart in the STAR TREK lexicon, though I must admit that they could be frustrating, at times. And, of course, the trill ... Jadzia had pizzazz & razzamatazz. She made DS9 for me. And who could ever forget her in her little TOS cosplay outfit for her adventure in "Trials and Tribble-ations."

 

[Qonundrum]

The Wadi. They're underwhelming and I'll step up to bat as their differences alone make them alien.

Yes, they spoke differently - the universal translator isn't a magical device or shouldn't be. It can get the gist of material but not always be accurate, especially if the non-Federated beings from another quadrant have a really way-out language.

They also did something miraculous: Made Quark (and more Ferengi as a result) to develop as a character with some depth and dimension.

True, they had outfits that would be deemed by some as "too outlandish,. even for Studio 54's standards" (bold and spangly in color, not "lack thereof"). Well, art can be subjective so forgetting all that, the costumes do look passable on their own... and the material would reveal all its technicolor splendor if remastered on blu-ray from the original 35mm negs. So would Quark's. DS9 always had some better-than-first rate costuming that would really pop out on remastered blu-ray.

True, the budget under-ran in budget. There were numerous problems that led to the budget cuts as well. I think that is the underlying cause of any problems related to the episode they're in.

And I want to talk about their hair. Long, beautiful hair that goes down to there... Trek, from 1966 to present, always has used modern day/contemporary/soon-to-be-dated-and-reviled-because-it's-old hairdos. Buzzcuts, beehives and whatever-that-was-on-Tasha's-head-in-"Haven", but having said that the mullets have dated worse than the beehives. If only Spock wore a beehive instead of bowlcut, the latter might be timeless but it's timeless in the worst possible way... now Spock with a mullet, oh yeah! Then again, the Wadi had hair approaching Crystal Gale's ten foot length, not Billy Ray Cyrus merely minuscule mullet... but they're supposed to be alien and be somewhat different and it's refreshing to see aliens that look humanoid without the need of someone having to glue bits of rubber onto their foreheads. So they tried donning horse manes onto their head. It's a refreshing and inexpensive change to make up for the costumes.

No, the Wadi really are underrated - and the episode trying to have an alien feel, humans do tend to box "alien" with "weird", "icky", and so on. But sci-fi is supposed to deal with alien stuff. Not cozy up with a cozy soap opera feel as a cheat.

Not that I'm opinionated or anything.

 

[Sakonna]

All the major aliens on DS9 are fantastically done (or redone), but I've been thinking recently of how they also excelled in the design, execution, and casting of minor incidental aliens. The Flaxian assassin in "Improbable Cause." The Xepolite weapons smuggler in "The Maquis." The Boslic freighter captain. Morn! They all popped out of the background or tiny scenes to become very memorable Trek aliens.

DS9 was also better than the other shows at coming up with effective ways to create aliens just with wardrobe and hair, when the makeup budget went bust. The "Shadowplay" village. The warring aliens in "Armaggeddon Game." The auction bidders in "Q-Less" that were mostly blue fabric wrapped around some poor actors head.

 

[Artoo Atari]

Lurian!

 

[Jetboogieman]

A few answers to this.

I would say, the work Armin, Aron, Max, Wallace Shawn and quite a few others did on the Ferengi was phenomenal, gave them complexity, gave them a real beating heart, real meat and potatoes as far as fleshing out the species within the context of the series goes.

Next I would say the one that jumps out at me the most is the Vorta, there's just something about a villain with charm, now alot of that does come down to Jeffrey Combs performance lets be honest.

I mean there's a million scenes one could choose from, but his portrayal just goes above and beyond in all of them, this one is definitely one of the best:

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But there are so many that stand out, his scene with Sisko about the minefields, when he talks to Jake Sisko about his news stories not going back to the Federation, his scene with Damar where they're talking about god, there's just so many just insanely great lines and scenes associated with Weyoun that the Vorta are definitely at the top of my list.

Other honorable mentions:

The Jem Hadar - the whole ketracel white thing, just a really interesting idea that really works and leads to some very interesting episodes such as Rocks and Shoals, one of my favorites.

The Breen - I'm a little luke warm on them, had they been fleshed out a little more, maybe we'd got to learn more about them, might have had more to say but they're just kind of there at the end, not knocking them but they're just not noteworthy.

The Founders - Yeah they were interesting no doubt.

The Bajorans and Cardassians - Obviously being such a focal point of the entire series, they were all nicely fleshed out throughout all the series, I would say with certain Characters and storylines there may have been a few misteps, Kai Wynn, Dukat and the whole Pah Wraith thing... I didn't really care for that.

But one only needs to see this scene to see just how far both alien races had come as far as the writing had evolved over the course of the series:

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I'm sure I'm missing quite a bit here but my minds gone blank and I've rattled on quite enough I think you'll all agree.

 

[Terok Nor]

The Cardassians are magnificent. I don't think there's a more well developed species in Star Trek. They feel completely real. Not to take away from the Ferengi, the Vulcans and the Klingons but the Cardies are a notch above all others in my opinion.

I personally found the DS9 iteration of the Trill the most interesting of the "new species" introduced. A hokey premise from a hokey episode of TNG suddenly became something wonderful.

Obviously the Jem'Hadar deserve a mention. Just like the writers intended, I would not want to be around these guys. They are fearsome and unpleasant and absolutely perfect as the soldiers of the Dominion. We never did get a recurring Jem'Hadar character and I think that was for the best. The less we know about them the better.

 

[Farscape One]

I think I agree with you about it best there was no recurring Jem'Hadar character. I don't think a single one appeared in more than one episode, with the exception of Ikat'ika in "IN PURGATORY'S SHADOW" and "BY INFERNO'S LIGHT"... obviously only because it was a two-parter.

The nature of them just wouldn't make a recurring one feel believable, given how they all have such short life spans and their way of life. It also makes them even more dangerous. In fact, other than the Borg, a Jem'Hadar is the very last species I want to get in a fight with.

 

[Sakonna]

The standout Jem'Hadar performance of the series for me is "Rock & Shoals." That poor actors eyes are so red in the exterior scenes! You really feel the misery of the punishing heat they're working in, I can't imagine being in the direct sun all day in that getup.

It really was smart of them to never recur any Jem'Hadar characters. I did always wish they had done more with that Alphas vs. Gammas thing from "One Little Ship", though... that was an intriguing notion.

 

[USS Firefly]

The Cardasians and the Vorta

 

[Discofan]

The Cardasians and the Vorta

Dukat and Weyoun more precisely...

 

[USS Firefly]

Dukat and Weyoun more precisely...

And Garak and Damar

 

[Discofan]

And Garak and Damar

Garak... definitely!

Damar...

 

[TribbleFeeder]

Ahh! Just saw this. Thanks for the nod @Farscape One

I really loved what they did with the Cardassians. They made them so multidimensional. Some of my favorite characters in all of DS9 were Garek, Dukat and Ziyal. So much depth there.

The whole trifecta of the Dominion war was incredible. The Vorta and Jem’Hadar were a brilliant army for the Changelings. Easy to grow and control, endlessly loyal.

Even some of the aliens we only see in one episode were on point, like the Teplan blight people or Nidell’s species (Halanan?).

Also, whatever Morn is. Love that guy.