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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
01:18anyway.
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
01:43there say,
01:44you saying I work as easy, Sean? No, no, I am not. But they are fun. They refer to themselves
01:49in 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
02:02of 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 Megans. The Megans are a funny one because they appeared in
02:18the episode The Magic of Magus 2, which is bonkers, but also there's, it pays a lot of homage to
02:25the
02:25Crucible and, you know, Satan. That's actually not as much of a throwaway comment. That is because one
02:32of the Megans 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.
02:46However, the Megans 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,
03:00you might have that being off-putting for dealing with them in live action because,
03:06well, 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
03:27again, deal with them far in the future, now that they've had about a thousand years to watch humanity
03:33grow. Number seven, Lactron. All right, okay, so look, they're not one of the prettiest alien designs
03:41in Star Trek, okay? But look, we've got Armas floating around out there, so I'm not going to be
03:45pointing any fingers. The Lactrons appeared in the episode Eye of the Beholder, and effectively,
03:51they resemble sort of giant slugs. They are, however, quite intelligent, and as the Enterprise
03:57arrived over Lactron 7 to find missing members of a previous expedition there, they realized that
04:03the Federation was still quite simplistic. They invited the Federation to revisit their planet again
04:09in, well, 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 realizable
04:42in today's modern age. Look at Species 10C, for example. If you can do something like that,
04:46you 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
05:14over
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,
05:32and 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
05:58bug creature.
05:59Number five, swords species. Now, this is from the same episode, The Jihad, as M3 Green's The Nassat as
06:07well. Swords 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
07:08comparison,
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,
07:41which 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,
08:02it won't let anyone serve in Starfleet, asterix, asterix, asterix, asterix, basically depending on
08:08the situation. What could be very interesting now is having something that requires the advanced
08:14medical knowledge of a creature like the Aquins to be used by a Starfleet medical personnel? For
08:20example, what if Mbenga had to single out the Aquins as the only race who would be able to help
08:27him in the search for a cure for... insert condition here? That would then lead to yet another exploration
08:35of Starfleet's, well, if you like, relationship with genetic engineering and the fallout from that.
08:41On the one hand, I think it would make for a fabulous story here in Strange New Worlds. On the
08:46other 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
09:13then,
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 series,
09:29if you're like me, you might think of Lieutenant Ariks. Ariks is the tri-pedal navigation officer
09:35that sits opposite Sulu on the bridge of the Enterprise. Effectively, he nicked Chekhov's job,
09:41so, you know, fair play. Fair play. He was voiced by James Doohan, and he is one of the images
09:47that 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,
10:07the Ba'ul, for example, from Star Trek Discovery, and other alien races that show that we can do more
10:14now. The 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
10:28choices 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. And, you
10:44know,
10:45there's a little bit of Uncanny Valley going on, but it looks really good. I think, you know,
10:50if we can follow a character like Saru as a main character, we can easily follow in a Dojian as
10:56well. Number two, Kukulkan. The episode How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth was written by Native
11:03American writer Russell Bates and co-writer David Wise. This depicts the alien Kukulkan as a large,
11:09winged, 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
11:22help from outside cultures. This is an idea that has since been explored in much greater detail than was,
11:28well, frankly known in the 1970s. Kukulkan deposits several members of the Enterprise crew in a
11:35magnificent 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,
11:48you know, the Native Americans couldn't have designed things without help from, you know,
11:53old fantastic civilizations like the Phoenicians, Egyptians, the Atlanteans, then neither could any of
11:59the other ones as well. The episode, in terms of what it tries to do, holds up today. Some of
12:05the
12:05ideas have since been debunked, but Kukulkan appeared in Star Trek Lower Decks as a holographic
12:12representation not too long ago, meaning that this idea of an ancient deity having visited Earth,
12:18which has been done in Star Trek in live action as early as the original series for Who Mourns for
12:24Adonai as well. I think this is an idea that really could be revisited. It's quite timely now as well.
12:32Number one, the Kizinti. I mean, if you've ever watched any of my videos, you know I was waiting
12:38for the Kizinti. 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 Kizinti, they left a little bit to be desired, let's be honest. They weren't
12:54very popular when it came to female Kizinti, nor were female Kizinti very popular when it came to
13:00them. We would like to think that they have grown in the time that it's been between the animated
13:06series and Star Trek Lower Decks, where there is a Kizinti serving on the USS Cerritos. We know via
13:13the shields being raised around the Rikers' cabin in Nepenthe that the Kizinti certainly exist
13:18in live action. They just haven't been seen yet. Larry Niven's design is one of those ones that I feel
13:24they've been quite omitted up to this point. There have been feline aliens in live action. For
13:31example, if we look at the Senate room, if you like, from Star Trek IV, The Voyage Home, we see
13:36that, well, what is at least a Kizinti, if not a Kizinti, appears here. You know, CGI will have
13:43learned some mistakes, or learned from mistakes of recent adaptations of long-running stage musicals
13:51for how not to present the Kizinti in live action. So, you know, now that we've seen how not to
13:57do
13:57it, perhaps Star Trek can be the one to show how to do it. That's everything for our list today,
14:02folks. 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 at
14:14TriCulture over on Twitter, and you can follow us at TriCultureYT over on Instagram. Catch myself
14:18at Sean Farrick on the various socials as well. Everyone, you look after yourself until I see
14:23you 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
14:39much.
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