What aliens should they have met in season 5?

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Enterprise' started by t_smitts, Sep 23, 2012.

  1. horatio83

    horatio83 Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Oct 25, 2009
    While the Ferengi episode was fun and the Borg episode was surprisingly good after plenty of lackluster VOY stories I consider the Nausicaans to be the only 24th century aliens who really fitted into the show.
     
  2. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 5, 2008
    Location:
    A type 13 planet in it's final stage
    I thought so, but there was nothing on Memory Alpha. So I finally checked "Affliction" and AHA! There he was.:)

    ...then he moved and I saw it was a trick of the light:( :(
    [​IMG]
     
  3. ChristopherPike

    ChristopherPike Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 13, 2006
    Supposedly a Rigellian IIRC. Trouble is, which numbered planet in that system?

    Same race of alien who urged Malcolm to meet that pair of butterfly dancers in "Broken Bow", I'd imagine.
     
  4. ChristopherPike

    ChristopherPike Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 13, 2006
    Coridans* differed a bit between their humanoid appearance in "Shadows of P'Jem" and that delegate who turned up in "Demons" wearing somekind of spikey facemask or breathing apparatus.

    Like Rigel, a few different species who live in that system, maybe go by the same name.

    *A system being argued over in TOS "Journey to Babel".
     
    Last edited: Oct 9, 2012
  5. t_smitts

    t_smitts Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2005
    They kinda did that with the Suliban and the Xindi, plus many other aliens of the week. Anyway, Enterprise shouldn't have been too much about finding NEW (to the audience) worlds and aliens (TOS, TNG, and Voyager were better suited for that). Enterprise should be about discovering the familiar and it became part of the world of the other shows.
     
  6. Bry_Sinclair

    Bry_Sinclair Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2009
    Location:
    Scotland
    Deltans, Efrosians, Rigellian Chelon (the sabre-toothed turtles), Skorr/Aurelians, Edosians, Caitians, Saurians, Rhaandarite.
     
  7. ChristopherPike

    ChristopherPike Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 13, 2006
    Betazoids - who eventually negotiate an Armistice with the Romulans, ensuring there's never any officially recorded face-to-face meeting. Telepathy plus subspace technology. Either that or the Aenar are involved and possibly the Remans on the opposing side.

    A episode each featuring first contact with El Aurians and Cardassians would've been nice.
     
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2012
  8. Kegg

    Kegg Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2009
    Location:
    Ireland.
    I'm definitely not one of the people who seemed to have a problem with Enterprise foregrounding races we'd never heard of - the Denobulans, the Suliban, the Xindi. Anyone with a cursory knowledge of Star Trek of any era will pretty much trip over dozens of alien races that are seen or mentioned once and then never again, something that's true even of the original series (for all the great hoopla made about Balok's First Federation it disappeared like a mirage...)

    I think really the issue with the new races was to do interesting things with them. There were definitely some ideas with Denobulans that had merit - their nonhuman social mores, for example, and Phlox was very personable and well performed by Billingsley - but the makeup design always felt pretty prefunctory to me, like the design one excepted from a Voyager alien of the week.

    But yeah, new aliens. Just give some meat to the matter - an interesting story involving these aliens - and make it work. Offhand I thought "Silent Enemy" handled an alien of the week in a pretty solid manner.

    But moving on!

    Betazoids are the first that came to mind for me. It's implied they're in the same ballpark as Vulcan, Tellar and so on during the Dominion War arc of DS9, so they were almost certainly contacted during the 22nd century. Their somewhat underplayed mores (like naked weddings) does sound like fodder for the kind of humour Enterprise was terrible at, though, so I'm of two minds there.


    And it would be dealing again with the messy issue of basically importing an alien species from another well-known science fiction franchise... like if the Enterprise just ran into Wookiees or something. I'm aware there's a precedent in "The Slaver Weapon", but - while that's definitely one of TAS' strongest episodes - it's no less weird there.

    ...and has a cat-race ever looked good in live action? The dreadful Kilrathi of the Wing Commander movie come to mind.

    I dunno. It could work, and I'd trust Coto particularly to make a fanwanky episode that's nonetheless very entertaining, but I can just see ways that'd go wrong.
     
  9. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 5, 2008
    Location:
    A type 13 planet in it's final stage
    How well-known are the Kzinti, really? I imagine seeing them in Star Trek would boost sales and interest in Larry Niven's novels.

    Farscape had some fantastic 7-foot-tall kitty people, using actors on stilts, with excellent costumes and makeup. I can't really see the forehead-obsessed Trek going for something so different, but I'd have loved to see them try.
     
  10. pimp

    pimp Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 18, 2008
    Location:
    United Kingdom, London
    I always wanted to know who that shadow figure guy was helping those suliban was. Maybe he from a different race of people??? his story wasn't fully explained.
     
  11. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 5, 2008
    Location:
    A type 13 planet in it's final stage
    Ah, good old "Future Guy". His identity and backstory are revealed in the novel Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock. As for his species, he's...
    A Romulan/Suliban/Tandaren hybrid.
     
  12. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2011
    Location:
    Sacramento, CA
    The Cat Nurses in Doctor were pretty awesome looking, IMHO
     
  13. T'Girl

    T'Girl Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2009
    Location:
    T'Girl
    the Cowardly Lion, not too bad for the day.

    :)
     
  14. Kegg

    Kegg Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2009
    Location:
    Ireland.
    Oh no doubt they would. IIRC Larry Niven was all for the use of the Kzinti in season 5, and of course he'd been quite happy to adapt one of his own short stories for the animated show. So there's clearly no issue on that front.

    As to how well known they are... Ringworld is a Hugo and Nebula winning novel and was quite a hit in its day and is still often cited as a classic. There's nowhere near as well known as Wookiees, obviously, or most other media aliens... but as far as aliens in sci-fi literature, they're probably among the more recognizable races.

    I'm not sure who you mean offhand. Unless you mean the guy from "DNA Mad Scientist", and he was pretty awkward looking. I love Farscape, I love their muppets, and I love their commitment to doing really weird looking aliens, but the truth is their muppets-of-the-week - or partial muppets of the week - were of decidedly variable quality, and he wasn't that convincing.

    'For the day' is probably the key phrase.

    No idea what that is. Sounds like one hell of a B movie, though. The Cat Nurses in Doctor! See the thrilling feline medical assistants to host themselves in the body of the medical professional! A tale beyond your imagination!

    And I suppose the probably-Caitians of The Voyage Home looked alright, but we never had to see them talk.
     
  15. Bry_Sinclair

    Bry_Sinclair Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2009
    Location:
    Scotland
    I believe he means the Sisters of Plenitude from Doctor Who.
     
  16. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2007
    Location:
    inside teacake
    ^I love how they look elegant with all the qualities of a cat that raised them to god like status in some cultures but with zero cuteness.
     
    Last edited: Oct 17, 2012
  17. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2011
    Location:
    Sacramento, CA
    Thanks Bry, apparently I inadvertantly left out the "Who" in Doctor Who, no surprise it made no sense :alienblush:
     
  18. Bry_Sinclair

    Bry_Sinclair Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2009
    Location:
    Scotland
    Here to help :bolian:
     
  19. jespah

    jespah Taller than a Hobbit Moderator

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2011
    Location:
    Boston, the Gateway to the Galaxy
    Has anyone mentioned Ikaarans? Karyn Archer is part one, but we never see a full one.
     
  20. The_Baron

    The_Baron Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Apr 30, 2010
    Location:
    UK
    Tell that to The Cat from Red Dwarf! He's lookin' nice!

    and now?

    Still lookin' nice!