- 20/06/2025
Thanks to modern effects, animated aliens can now appear in live action Star Trek.
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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 I work as easy, Sean? No, no, I am not. But they are fun. They refer to themselves in the
01:49third person or say this one when talking about themselves. They are often used to test Starfleet
01:55officers, which could be a lot of fun in a setting like Strange New Worlds, but could be a lot of fun
02:02if we ever get the season two of Prodigy that we want or Starfleet Academy, which should be set in
02:10the 32nd century as well. Number eight, the Magans. The Magans are a funny one because they appeared
02:17in the episode The Magic of Magus 2, which is bonkers, but also there's, it pays a lot of homage to
02:25the Crucible and, you know, Satan. That's actually not as much of a throwaway comment. That is because
02:32one of the Magans takes the form of Lucian, who very much takes the stereotypical image of the goat
02:38legged, goat horned, oddly shredded, upper bodied, well, satanic character from popular culture.
02:47However, the Magans themselves are more elongated humanoid creatures that could quite easily these
02:54days be realized in live action. They exist in the center of the galaxy. So on the one hand,
03:01you might have that being off putting for dealing with them in live action because, well, quite frankly,
03:07we don't like going to the middle of the galaxy in live action unless it's the original series,
03:11unless you're going to find God. They also have this history with Earth as well. So it would be
03:15very interesting to see how they would interact with, you could arguably deal with them in strange
03:22new worlds, just have, I don't know, Spock go off somewhere for the day or like that again, deal with
03:28them 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,
04:10well, let'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
04:41realizable in today's modern age. Look at species 10C, for example. If you can do something like that,
04:47you can do giant squid kind of snail creature. Can we think of a better word for these?
04:53Number six, M3 Green's species, the Nassat. M3 Green was introduced in the episode The Jihad,
05:01and was effectively a big sad-eyed beetle. It was also a thief and a master locksmith that became
05:07part of an adventure to find a religious relic. M3 Green was displayed as a wee bit of a coward over
05:14the course of the adventure, and it was actually up to their teammate, the reptilian sword, that they
05:22were able to go through with the mission altogether. The novel series Star Trek Starfleet Corps of
05:27Engineers features a rapid response engineering team. That's where we get the name the Nassat from,
05:33and we get P-8 Blue, who's another member of this species, from that. Now, having that in live action
05:38would be quite a contrast against engineers like Torres, O'Brien, Geordi. You know, it'd be fun to
05:46see a purely alien engineer like this. And I mean, we're not saying that Lanthanite aren't alien,
05:53or that Enar aren't alien. I just want to see my bug creature, okay? I just want to see my bug creature.
05:59Number five, swords species. Now, this is from the same episode, The Jihad, as M3 Green's The Nassat as well.
06:07Swords species are shown as a large reptilian, large-clawed, big-crested species. So, straight
06:16away, we might be thinking, well, hang on, there's a nice luck on reptilian species in Strange New
06:22Worlds at the moment that's scaring the absolute piddle out of people. The difference between the
06:27Gorn and swords species is that the Gorn have proven themselves time and time again to be
06:33fearsome, quite frankly, lacking compassion or empathy, and a brutal race of creatures. Whereas
06:41if sword is anything to go by, his species is far, far different. He is shown helping M3 Green through
06:49the trial to get to the religious relic in the Jihad. He is shown showing compassion and feeling
06:55toward others as well. So, knowing that we can now realize reptilian, larger creatures in Star Trek,
07:03with the technology afforded to us, it would be nice to have this as a foil, or even as a comparison,
07:09if you like, to the Gorn. You've got one reptilian creature trying to rip your head off, and another
07:15one trying to give you a nice little cuddle. And quite frankly, isn't that what we all want?
07:20Number 4. Aquin. The animated series episode The Ambergus Element introduced the Aquins into Star
07:27Trek's history. They had once been an air-breathing race, but once their planet Argo underwent a massive
07:33transformation, the Aquins had to adapt to live underwater, which they did via genetic manipulation,
07:42which would eventually go on to be mutations. So, this is an alien species that exists in its current
07:49form, thanks to the very kind of thing that sets the Illyrians on edge when it comes to Starfleet.
07:56Frankly, the Federation doesn't want anything to do with genetic engineering, or at the very least,
08:01it won't let anyone serve in Starfleet. Asterix, asterix, asterix, asterix, basically depending on the
08:08situation. What could be very interesting now is having something that requires the advanced medical
08:14knowledge of a creature like the Aquins to be used by a Starfleet medical personnel? For example,
08:21what if Mbenga had to single out the Aquins as the only race who would be able to help him in the
08:28search for a cure for insert condition here? That would then lead to yet another exploration of
08:36Starfleet's, well, if you like, relationship with genetic engineering and the fallout from that. On the one
08:42hand, I think it would make for a fabulous story here in Strange New Worlds. On the other hand, I think
08:47it is something that could be revisited perhaps in Starfleet Academy as well, because at some point we
08:54need to see a relaxation of the laws around genetic engineering when it comes to Starfleet. We know that
09:00as recent as Prodigy, Dal had to be given special permission to join Starfleet Academy as a warrant
09:08officer. So it would be nice to see in the 32nd century that at least by then Starfleet's got it
09:14right. Number three, Edozians. Now, Edozians are perhaps the most iconic alien from Starfleet the
09:23animated series. I'll get back to another one. But when you think of the animated series, if you're like
09:29me, you might think of Lieutenant Ariks. Ariks is the tri-pedal navigation officer that sits opposite
09:37Sulu on the bridge of the Enterprise. Effectively, he nicked Chekhov's job. So, you know, fair play.
09:43Fair play. He was voiced by James Doohan, and he is one of the images that just spring to mind
09:48straight away from this period of Star Trek. Think of Species 8472. Now, this is early doors. This is
09:54mid-90s when we're talking about realizing that in, well, I say live-action CGI. And of course,
10:01we'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
10:35YouTube, the production company Otoy, O-T-O-Y, have actually done an image of Arix 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, though, you know, without help
11:22from outside cultures. This is an idea that has since been explored in much greater detail than
11:28was, well, 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
11:59ones as well. The episode in terms of what it tries to do holds up today. Some of the ideas have since
12:06been debunked, but Kukulkan appeared in Star Trek Lower Decks as a holographic representation not too long
12:13ago, meaning that this idea of an ancient deity having visited Earth, which has been done in Star
12:20Trek in live action as early as the original series for Who Mourns for Adonai as well, I think this is
12:27an idea that really could be revisited quite timely now as well. Number one, the Kizinti. I mean, if you've
12:35ever watched any of my videos, you know I was waiting for the Kizinti. There's a couple of reasons,
12:40and it's not just because I love them. They're big cats. What's not to love? But also they've been
12:44shown that in their original form in the slaver weapon, yes, the male Kizinti, they left a little
12:51bit to be desired. Let's be honest. They weren't very popular when it came to female Kizinti, nor were
12:58female Kizinti very popular when it came to them. We would like to think that they have grown in the
13:03time that it's been between the animated series and Star Trek Lower Decks, where there is a Kizinti
13:08serving on the USS Cerritos. We know via the shields being raised around the Rikers cabin and
13:16Nepenthe that the Kizinti certainly exist in live action. They just haven't been seen yet. Larry
13:22Niven's design is one of those ones that I feel they've been quite omitted up to this point. There
13:27have been feline aliens in live action. For example, if we look at the Senate room, if you like, from
13:34Star Trek for the voyage home, we see that, well, what is at least, at least occasion, if not a Kizinti
13:40appears here. You know, CGI will have learned some mistakes or learned from mistakes of recent
13:47adaptations of long-running stage musicals for how not to present the Kizinti in live action. So,
13:55you know, now that we've seen how not to do it, perhaps Star Trek can be the one to show how to do
14:00it. That's everything for our list today, folks. What do you think is missing from this list? Let
14:04me know. Thank you so much to our writer, Frank Chavez, who originally wrote this article. You can
14:08catch that over on whatculture.com. Thank you so much to our wonderful editor for making this look
14:12so pretty. You can follow us at TriCulture over on Twitter, and you can follow us at TriCultureYT
14:17over on Instagram. Catch myself at Sean Farrick on the various socials as well. Everyone, you look after
14:22yourself until I see you again. Make sure that you live long and prosper. Make sure to our friends in
14:27Ukraine, Slava, 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.
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