Your Favorite Ridiculous-Looking Alien Species

[Ryva Brall]

There's no getting around it. Star Trek has had some pretty silly-looking aliens. Sometimes the makeup artists were trying to be creative and original. Other times, well... it's kind of obvious they just slapped something together on the fly. Either way, the result is usually hilarious. So what are some of your favorites? Feel free to post pictures, too.

I'll go first: the Antedeans.

.......What a handsome race.

 

[Captain Rob]

How about the little gold-skinned guys from "Journey to Babel"?
When it comes to ridiculous-looking clothing. I'd give it to the Elassians. Their women are hot and sexily dressed, while the men wear plastic placemats for clothes.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

My favorite ridiculous-looking species? That would be Vulcans.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The Horta came across as very low budget in some shots in particular, very much like a man under a rug. But I absolutely love the Horta, and that episode.

 

[T'Girl]

Can't remember the species name, but the tip of their nose is physically connected to their chin.

How were they supposed to eat?

 

[Melakon]

Morn. Originally built as a background extra, but became so popular an episode was created for him.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

The Horta came across as very low budget in some shots in particular, very much like a man under a rug. But I absolutely love the Horta, and that episode.

The other rock creature, Yarnek of Excalbia, was a bit on the ridiculous side with his castinet claws. But I might have bought into it if he had been part of a better episode.

 

[Mysterion]

Can't remember the species name, but the tip of their nose is physically connected to their chin.

How were they supposed to eat?

Beat me to it. This was obviously a "looks cool" design and not a "what might an alien look like" design.

 

[Jonas Grumby]

My favorite ridiculous-looking species? That would be Vulcans.

Actually, in that vein, I think I'd give that trophy to the nuRomulans (from the "spinoffs" era, not the "Abramsverse" Romulans) instead. They're very similar to Vulcans, but those cow-catcher foreheads elevate the giggle factor considerably.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

My favorite ridiculous-looking species? That would be Vulcans.

Actually, in that vein, I think I'd give that trophy to the nuRomulans (from the "spinoffs" era, not the "Abramsverse" Romulans) instead. They're very similar to Vulcans, but those cow-catcher foreheads elevate the giggle factor considerably.

True. The Romulans all had Beatles haircuts, latex foreheads, elvish ears and Krystle Carrington shoulder pads: a hilarious combination to say the least.

 

[Third Nacelle]

Edo. Maybe not alien-looking at all, but the fact that they're all blond, buff, and running around in discoslut wear was always hilarious for me. Even the supposed police were dressed ridiculously.

 

[Captain Rob]

How about an alien that we didn't actually see. Carlos the Medusan. Which was basically a big black lunchbox with blinking Christmas lights inside.

 

[Garrovick]

There was one species on all Trek series that I always thought looked laughable - in TOS and ENT it was practically all you ever saw, but there were lots of them in the other series also. I can't think of the name right now but I remember there being a running joke about how the Ferengi said their name.

I mean, there were no forehead ridges, no wrinkles to speak of, no antennae, no spots, the ears were very bland and boring, no nose ridges, only one mouth, very bland skin tones (although there were a few variations here, but each person only had a single tone, no color-mixing to speak of), only a few eye colors, nothing glowy - not to mention their hairstyles, very dull - and some of them didn't even have any hair at all! It's like the makeup department didn't even care. They didn't even give them much in the way of jewelry to wear, and whenever you saw one in civilian clothes they were almost always ridiculous-looking.

 

[Ryva Brall]

Can't remember the species name, but the tip of their nose is physically connected to their chin.

How were they supposed to eat?

You mean this fool?

The Tak Tak, from VOY's "Macrocosm". Frankly, there wasn't anything about them that wasn't ridiculous.

Also, I just have to mention Armus, from TNG's "Skin of Evil". His personality was certainly menacing, but honestly? He just looked like an oily trash bag. Picard's face pretty much sums it up:

"What the hell is this?"

 

[R. Star]

Who can forget the Gorn?!

 

[Ryva Brall]

THE GORN! Godzilla and the Green Goblin, all rolled into one.

Though, I admit, that's a rather fetching ensemble.

 

[scotpens]

How about an alien that we didn't actually see. Carlos the Medusan.

That would be Ambassador Kollos. Carlos was his Mexican friend.

Who can forget the Gorn?!

The Gorn lizard suit didn't really look that bad, considering when the show was made. What's silly is that brief spangly tunic. It looks like something Bob Mackie designed for Cher.

(Of course, the tunic was there to hide the zippers and air vent holes in the Gorn costume. Also, the Gorn are intelligent and civilized and wouldn't go around naked.)

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

My favorite ridiculous-looking species? That would be Vulcans.

Actually, in that vein, I think I'd give that trophy to the nuRomulans (from the "spinoffs" era, not the "Abramsverse" Romulans) instead. They're very similar to Vulcans, but those cow-catcher foreheads elevate the giggle factor considerably.

True. The Romulans all had Beatles haircuts, latex foreheads, elvish ears and Krystle Carrington shoulder pads: a hilarious combination to say the least.

Was it ever explained how the 'color coding' system on Romulan uniforms (in TNG, anyway) actually worked? It had absolutely nothing to do with rank or specialty, they just basically threw it out there at random. In-universe, I wonder what it means. Something to do with family or clan affiliation, maybe?

 

[Ryva Brall]

Was it ever explained how the 'color coding' system on Romulan uniforms (in TNG, anyway) actually worked? It had absolutely nothing to do with rank or specialty, they just basically threw it out there at random. In-universe, I wonder what it means. Something to do with family or clan affiliation, maybe?

Like you said, it was completely arbitrary. So it can mean whatever you want it to mean.

I can't believe no one has mentioned the Kazon yet! Or, as I like to call them, sunburned Klingons with Brillo pad hair.

 

[R. Star]

The Kazon aren't worth remembering.