Thanks to modern effects, animated aliens can now appear in live action Star Trek.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Things have changed an awful lot in the Star Trek universe since the early 1970s. Now that sounds
00:05like a heck of a statement because things have changed since last Tuesday, let alone anything
00:09else. But when you think about it, when Star Trek the animated series first hit screens all the way
00:16back then, quite frankly, there was no plan for the future. There was no movies at that point.
00:22There was in fact just the cancelled TV series that went before. So quite frankly,
00:27Filmation had a bit of fun with some of the designs. We got some really great aliens in them.
00:33Now that technology has come along that bit better, we can have some of these aliens. So the time is
00:39about right. Not least because we are now on the 50th anniversary of Star Trek the animated series.
00:47I'm Sean Ferric for Trek Culture and here are nine Star Trek the animated series aliens that should
00:54appear in live action. Number nine, Pandronians. Pandronians first appeared in the episode
01:00BAME, B-E-M, which actually stood for Bug-Eyed Monster. The fun thing about Pandronians is they
01:05can split themselves into three, which in 1973 was a case of, all right, illustrator, let's split this
01:13into three. You know, if we were going to do this on live action, we just wouldn't. Not the 70s anyway.
01:19Fast forward all the way to today and the Pandronian has appeared in Star Trek Lower Decks.
01:24Now again, the nature of that animation makes it that bit easier to do than splitting it up.
01:31However, we can now achieve things like that with, you know, when I say ease, I mean relative ease.
01:38I mean, I couldn't do it myself, but I am not a CGI artist. Just before the CGI artists out there say,
01:44you saying it work, it's easy, Sean. No, no, I am not. But they are fun. They refer to themselves in
01:49the third person or say this one when talking about themselves. They are often used to test
01:54Starfleet officers, which could be a lot of fun in a setting like Strange New Worlds, but could be a lot
02:02of fun if we ever get the season two of Prodigy that we want or Starfleet Academy, which should be
02:10set in the 32nd century as well. Number eight, the Megans. The Megans are a funny one because they
02:17appeared in the episode The Magic of Magus 2, which is bonkers, but also there's, it pays a lot of
02:24homage to the Crucible and, you know, Satan. That's actually not as much of a throwaway comment. That is
02:31because one of the Megans takes the form of Lucian, who very much takes the stereotypical image of the
02:38goat-legged, goat-horned, oddly shredded, upper-bodied, well, satanic character from popular
02:46culture. However, the Megans themselves are more elongated, humanoid creatures that could quite
02:53easily these days be realized in live action. They exist in the center of the galaxy. So on the one
03:00hand, you might have that being off-putting for dealing with them in live action because,
03:05well, quite frankly, we don't like going to the middle of the galaxy in live action, unless it's
03:10the original series, unless you're going to find God. They also have this history with Earth as well,
03:15so it would be very interesting to see how they would interact with, you could arguably deal with
03:21them in strange new worlds, just have, I don't know, Spock go off somewhere for the day, or like that again,
03:27deal with them far in the future, now that they've had about a thousand years to watch humanity grow.
03:33Number seven, Lactron. All right, okay, so look, they're not one of the prettiest alien designs in
03:41Star Trek, okay? But look, we've got Armas floating around out there, so I'm not going to be pointing
03:46any fingers. The Lactrons appeared in the episode Eye of the Beholder, and effectively they resemble
03:51sort of giant slugs. They are, however, quite intelligent, and as the Enterprise arrived over
03:58Lactron 7 to find missing members of a previous expedition there, they realized that the Federation
04:04was still quite simplistic. They invited the Federation to revisit their planet again in, well,
04:10let's just say a few years. Their invitation would be a perfect time for Starfleet Academy
04:17to revisit them. That would allow everyone to kind of get on the same page. Now, also, we know that
04:23where back in the day, to save money, you would have had sentient gas clouds, or, you know, rubber
04:29monsters. The technology that Discovery has been using, or, you know, Star Trek at the moment, is
04:34these would, you know, these are much more realizable. That's not a word. But these are much more realizable
04:42in today's modern age. Look at species 10c, for example. If you can do something like that, you can do
04:47giant squid kind of snail creature. Can we think of a better word for these?
04:53Number 6. M3 Green's species, the Nassat.
04:58M3 Green was introduced in the episode The Jihad, and was effectively a big sad-eyed beetle. It was
05:04also a thief and a master locksmith that became part of an adventure to find a religious relic.
05:09M3 Green was displayed as a wee bit of a coward over the course of the adventure, and it was actually
05:17up to their teammate, the Reptilian Sword, that they were able to go through with the mission
05:24altogether. The novel series Star Trek Starfleet Corps of Engineers features a rapid response
05:29engineering team. That's where we get the name the Nassat from, and we get P-8 Blue, who's another
05:35member of this species from that. Now, having that in live action would be quite a contrast against
05:41engineers like Torres, O'Brien, Geordi. You know, it'd be fun to see a purely alien engineer like
05:49this. And I mean, we're not saying that Lanthanite aren't alien, or that Enar aren't alien. I just want
05:55to see my bug creature, okay? I just want to see my bug creature. Number 5. Swords species.
06:01Now, this is from the same episode, the Jihad, as M3 Green's the Nassat as well. Swords species are
06:09shown as a large reptilian, large-clawed, big-crested species. So, straight away, we might be thinking,
06:18well, hang on, there's a nice luck on reptilian species in Strange New Worlds at the moment that's
06:23scaring the absolute piddle out of people. The difference between the Gorn and Swords species is
06:29that the Gorn have proven themselves time and time again to be fearsome, quite frankly, lacking
06:35compassion or empathy, and a brutal race of creatures. Whereas, if Swords is anything to go by,
06:43his species is far, far different. He is shown helping M3 Green through the trial to get to the
06:50religious relic in the Jihad. He is shown showing compassion and feeling toward others as well. So,
06:57knowing that we can now realise reptilian, larger creatures in Star Trek with the technology afforded
07:04to us, it would be nice to have this as a foil, or even as a comparison, if you like, to the Gorn.
07:11You've got one reptilian creature trying to rip your head off, and another one trying to give you a nice
07:16little cuddle. And quite frankly, isn't that what we all want? Number 4. Aquan. The animated series
07:23episode The Ambergus Element introduced the Aquans into Star Trek's history. They had once been an
07:29air-breathing race, but once their planet Argo underwent a massive transformation, the Aquans had to
07:36adapt to live underwater, which they did via genetic manipulation, which would eventually go on to be
07:44mutations. So, this is an alien species that exists in its current form, thanks to the very kind of thing
07:52that sets the Illyrians on edge when it comes to Starfleet. Frankly, the Federation doesn't want anything
07:59to do with genetic engineering, or at the very least, it won't let anyone serve in Starfleet,
08:05asterix, asterix, asterix, asterix, basically depending on the situation. What could be very interesting now
08:11is having something that requires the advanced medical knowledge of a creature like the Aquans to be used
08:17by a Starfleet medical personnel? For example, what if Mbenga had to single out the Aquans as the only race
08:26who would be able to help him in the search for a cure for insert condition here? That would then lead to
08:33yet another exploration of Starfleet's, well, if you like, relationship with genetic engineering and the
08:40fallout from that. On the one hand, I think it would make for a fabulous story here in Strange New Worlds.
08:46On the other hand, I think it is something that could be revisited perhaps in Starfleet Academy as well,
08:52because at some point we need to see a relaxation of the laws around genetic engineering when it comes
08:59to Starfleet. We know that as recent as Prodigy, Dal had to be given special permission to join Starfleet
09:07Academy as a warrant officer, so it would be nice to see in the 32nd century that at least by then
09:14Starfleet's got it right. Number three, Edozians. Now Edozians are perhaps the most iconic alien from
09:22Star Trek the animated series. I'll get back to another one. But when you think of the animated
09:28series, if you're like me, you might think of Lieutenant Ariks. Ariks is the tri-pedal navigation
09:35officer that sits opposite Sulu on the bridge of the Enterprise. Effectively, he nicked Chekhov's job,
09:41so you know, fair play, fair play. It was voiced by James Doohan and he is one of the images that just
09:47spring to mind straight away from this period of Star Trek. Think of Species 8472. Now this is early
09:54doors, this is mid-90s when we're talking about realising that in, well, I say live-action CGI,
10:00and of course we're 20 years on from then, longer. And we've seen with, like if you look at say the Ba'ul,
10:07for example, from Star Trek Discovery, and other alien races that show that we can do more now.
10:15The Edozians have been shown again in Star Trek Lower Decks as still very much being part of the
10:20Federation, so seeing them come into live-action, this to me feels like one of the most obvious
10:29choices that we should be looking for to bring into live-action. If you check out as well on YouTube,
10:35the production company Otoy, O-T-O-Y, have actually done an image of Ariks in live-action.
10:44And, you know, there's a little bit of Uncanny Valley going on, but it looks really good. I think,
10:50you know, if we can follow a character like Saru as a main character, we can easily follow in a
10:55Dogean as well. Number two, Kukulkan. The episode How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth was written by
11:02Native American writer Russell Bates and co-writer David Wise. This depicts the alien Kukulkan as a
11:09large, winged, snake-like creature. The main idea of the episode was dealing with the idea that the
11:16Native Americans couldn't have developed their cities and technology without help from outside
11:23cultures. This is an idea that has since been explored in much greater detail than was,
11:29well, frankly, known in the 1970s. Kukulkan deposits several members of the Enterprise crew
11:34in a magnificent city which features architecture from Native American style, Egyptian style,
11:41ancient Chinese style, among others. It was the intention of Russell Bates to say that if, you know,
11:48the Native Americans couldn't have designed things without help from, you know, old fantastic
11:54civilizations like the Phoenicians, Egyptians, the Atlanteans, then neither could any of the other
12:00ones as well. The episode, in terms of what it tries to do, holds up today. Some of the ideas have
12:06since been debunked, but Kukulkan appeared in Star Trek Lower Decks as a holographic representation not
12:12too long ago, meaning that this idea of an ancient deity having visited Earth, which has been done in
12:20Star Trek in live action as early as the original series for Who Mourns for Adonai as well. I think
12:26this is an idea that really could be revisited quite timely now as well.
12:31Number one, the Kazinti. I mean, if you've ever watched any of my videos, you know I was waiting
12:38for the Kazinti. There's a couple of reasons, and it's not just because I love them. They're big cats,
12:42what's not to love? But also they've been shown that in their original form, in the slaver weapon,
12:48yes, the male Kazinti, they left a little bit to be desired, let's be honest. They weren't very
12:54popular when it came to female Kazinti, nor were female Kazinti very popular when it came to them.
13:00We would like to think that they have grown in the time that it's been between the animated series
13:06and Star Trek Lower Decks, where there is a Kazinti serving on the USS Cerritos. We know via the shields
13:13being raised around the Riker's cabin in Nepenthe that the Kazinti certainly exist in live action.
13:20They just haven't been seen yet. Larry Niven's design is one of those ones that I feel they've
13:25been quite omitted up to this point. There have been feline aliens in live action. For example,
13:31if we look at the the Senate room, if you like, from Star Trek IV The Voyage Home, we see that,
13:36well, what is at least, at least occasion, if not a Kazinti, appears here. You know,
13:42CGI will have learned some mistakes or learned from mistakes of recent adaptations of long running
13:49stage musicals for how not to present the Kazinti in live action. So, you know, now that we've seen
13:56how not to do it, perhaps Star Trek can be the one to show how to do it. That's everything for our list
14:01today, folks. What do you think is missing from this list? Let me know. Thank you so much to our writer,
14:06Frank Chavez, who originally wrote this article. You can catch that over on whatculture.com.
14:10Thank you so much to our wonderful editor for making this look so pretty. You can follow us
14:13at Triculture over on Twitter, and you can follow us at TricultureYT over on Instagram.
14:18Catch myself at Sean Farrick on the various socials as well. Everyone, you look after yourself until I
14:22see you again. Make sure that you live long and prosper. Make sure to our friends in Ukraine,
14:27Slava, Ukraine, everyone, however long it is until I see you again, look after yourself,
14:32be kind to yourself, take a break if you need it, look out for others, make it so. Thanks very much.