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.
00:05Now that sounds like a heck of a statement because things have changed since last Tuesday,
00:08let alone anything else. But when you think about it, when Star Trek the animated series
00:14first hit screens all the way back then, quite frankly there was no plan for the future. There
00:20was no movies at that point, there was in fact just the cancelled TV series that went before.
00:26So quite frankly Filmation had a bit of fun with some of the designs. We got some really great
00:31aliens in them. Now that technology has come along that bit better, we can have some of these aliens
00:38so the time is about right. Not least because we are now on the 50th anniversary of Star Trek the
00:46animated series. I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture and here are nine Star Trek the animated series
00:52aliens that should appear in live action. Number nine, Pandronians. Pandronians first appeared in
00:59the episode B.E.M. which actually stood for Bug-Eyed Monster. The fun thing about Pandronians
01:05is they can split themselves into three, which in 1973 was a case of all right illustrator let's
01:13split this into three. You know if we were going to do this on live action we just wouldn't. Not
01:18the 70s anyway. Fast forward all the way to today and the Pandronian has appeared in Star
01:23Trek Lower Decks. Now again the nature of that animation makes it that bit easier to do than
01:30splitting it up. However we can now achieve things like that with you know when I say ease, I mean
01:37relative ease. I mean I couldn't do it myself but I am not a CGI artist. Just before the CGI artists
01:43out there say you say I work it's easy Sean. No, no I am not. But they are fun. They refer to
01:49themselves in the third person or say this one when talking about themselves. They're often used
01:54to test Starfleet officers which could be a lot of fun in a setting like Strange New Worlds but
02:01could be a lot of fun if we ever get the season two of Prodigy that we want or Starfleet Academy
02:09which should be set in the 32nd century as well. Number eight the Megans. The Megans are a funny
02:16one because they appeared in the episode The Magic of Magus 2 which is bonkers but also there's it
02:23pays a lot of homage to the Crucible and you know Satan. That's actually not as much of a throwaway
02:30comment. That is because one of the Megans takes the form of Lucien who very much takes the
02:36stereotypical image of the goat legged goat horned oddly shredded upper bodied well satanic
02:44character from popular culture. However the Megans themselves are more elongated humanoid creatures
02:52that could quite easily these days be realized in live action. They exist in the center of the
02:59galaxy so on the one hand you might have that being off-putting for dealing with them in live
03:04action because well quite frankly we don't like going to the middle of the galaxy in live action
03:09unless it's the original series unless you're going to find God. They also have this history
03:13with Earth as well so it would be very interesting to see how they would interact with you could
03:20arguably deal with them in Strange New Worlds just have Spock go off somewhere for the day
03:26or like that again deal with them far in the future now that they've had about a thousand years to
03:32watch humanity grow. Number seven Lactron. All right okay so look they're not one of the prettiest
03:40alien designs in Star Trek okay but look we've got Armus floating around out there so I'm not
03:45going to be pointing any fingers. The Lactrons appeared in the episode Eye of the Beholder and
03:50effectively they resemble sort of giant slugs. They are however quite intelligent and as the
03:56Enterprise arrived over Lactron 7 to find missing members of a previous expedition there they
04:02realized that the Federation was still quite simplistic. They invited the Federation to
04:07revisit their planet again in well let's just say a few years. Their invitation would be a perfect
04:15time for Starfleet Academy to revisit them. That would allow everyone to kind of get on the same
04:21page. Now also we know that where back in the day to save money you would have had sentient gas
04:27clouds or you know rubber monsters. The technology that Discovery has been using or you know the
04:33Star Trek at the moment is these would you know these are much more realizable. That's not a word
04:40but these are much more realizable in today's modern age. Look at species 10c for example. If
04:46you can do something like that you can do giant squid kind of snail creature. Can we think of a
04:52better word for these? Number six M3 Green's species the Nasat. M3 Green was introduced in
05:00the episode The Jihad and was effectively a big sad-eyed beetle. It was also a thief and a master
05:05locksmith that became part of an adventure to find a religious relic. M3 Green was displayed as a wee
05:12bit of a coward over the course of the adventure and it was actually up to their teammate the
05:20reptilian sword that they were able to go through with the mission all together. The novel series
05:26Star Trek Starfleet Corps of Engineers features a rapid response engineering team. That's where we
05:31get the name the Nasat from and we get P8 Blue who's another member of this species from that.
05:36Now having that in live action would be quite a contrast against engineers like Torres, O'Brien,
05:44you know. It'd be fun to see a purely alien engineer like this and I mean we're not saying
05:51that Lanthanite aren't alien or that Enar aren't alien. I just want to see my bug creature okay.
05:56I just want to see my bug creature. Number five swords species. Now this is from the same episode
06:04The Jihad as M3 Green's the Nasat as well. Swords species are shown as a large reptilian large
06:12clawed big crested species. So straight away we might be thinking well hang on there's a nice
06:20look on reptilian species in Strange New Worlds at the moment that's scaring the absolute piddle out
06:26of people. The difference between the Gorn and swords species is that the Gorn have proven
06:31themselves time and time again to be fearsome, quite frankly lacking compassion or empathy,
06:37and a brutal race of creatures. Whereas if sword is anything to go by his species is far far
06:45different. He is shown helping M3 Green through the trial to get to the religious relic in the
06:51Jihad. He is shown showing compassion and feeling toward others as well. So knowing that we can now
06:59realize reptilian larger creatures in Star Trek with the technology afforded to us it would be
07:05nice to have this as a foil or even as a comparison if you like to the Gorn. You've got one reptilian
07:13creature trying to rip your head off and another one trying to give you a nice little cuddle
07:17and quite frankly isn't that what we all want? Number four Aquan. The animated series episode
07:24The 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
07:35had to adapt to live underwater which they did via genetic manipulation which would eventually
07:43go on to be mutations. So this is an alien species that exists in its current form thanks to the very
07:51kind of thing that sets the Illyrians on edge when it comes to Starfleet. Frankly the Federation
07:58doesn't want anything to do with genetic engineering or at the very least it won't let anyone serve in
08:04Starfleet asterix asterix asterix asterix basically depending on the situation. What could be very
08:10interesting now is having something that requires the advanced medical knowledge of a creature like
08:16the Aquans to be used by a Starfleet medical personnel. For example what if Mbenga had to
08:23single out the Aquans as the only race who would be able to help him in the search for a cure for
08:30insert condition here. That would then lead to yet another exploration of Starfleet's, well if you
08:37like, relationship with genetic engineering and the fallout from that. On the one hand I think it
08:42would make for a fabulous story here in Strange New World. On the other hand I think it is something
08:47that could be revisited perhaps in a Starfleet Academy as well because at some point we need to
08:54see a relaxation of the laws around genetic engineering when it comes to Starfleet. We know
09:00that as recent as Prodigy, Dal had to be given special permission to join Starfleet Academy as
09:08a warrant officer so it would be nice to see in the 32nd century that at least by then Starfleet's
09:14got it right. Number three Eidosians. Now Eidosians are perhaps the the most iconic alien from Star
09:22Trek the animated series. I'll get back to another one but when you think of the animated series if
09:29you're like me you might think of Lieutenant Arex. Arex is the tripedal navigation officer that sits
09:36opposite Sulu on the bridge of the Enterprise. Effectively he nicked Chekhov's job so you know
09:42fair play, fair play. He was voiced by James Doohan and he is one of the images that just spring to
09:48mind straight away from this period of Star Trek. Think of Species 8472. Now this is early doors,
09:54this is mid 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 for example
10:08from Star Trek Discovery and other alien races that show that we can do more now. The Eidosians
10:16have been shown again in Star Trek Lower Decks as still very much being part of the Federation so
10:22seeing them come into live action this to me feels like one of the most obvious choices that we should
10:30be looking for to bring into live action. If you check out as well on YouTube the production company
10:36Otoy, O-T-O-Y, have actually done an image of Aryx in live action and you know there's a little bit of
10:46Uncanny Valley going on but it looks really good. I think you know if we can follow a character like
10:52Saru as a main character we can easily follow an Adolgian as well. Number two, Kukulkan. The episode
10:59How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth was written by Native American writer Russell Bates and co-writer
11:05David Wise. This depicts the alien Kukulkan as a large winged snake-like creature. The main idea
11:13of the episode was dealing with the idea that the Native Americans couldn't have developed their
11:19cities and technology though you know without help from outside cultures. This is an idea that has
11:25since been explored in much greater detail than was well frankly known in the 1970s. Kukulkan
11:32deposits several members of the Enterprise crew in a magnificent city which features architecture
11:37from Native American style, Egyptian style, ancient Chinese style among others. It was the intention
11:44of Russell Bates to say that if you know the Native Americans couldn't have designed things
11:51without help from you know old fantastic civilizations like the Phoenicians, Egyptians,
11:56the Atlanteans, then neither could any of the other ones as well. The episode in terms of what it
12:02tries to do holds up today. Some of the ideas have since been debunked but Kukulkan appeared in
12:09Star Trek Lower Decks as a holographic representation not too long ago meaning that this idea of an
12:16ancient deity having visited Earth which has been done in Star Trek in live action as early as the
12:22original series for Who Mourns for Adonai as well. I think this is an idea that really could be
12:29revisited quite timely now as well. Number one the Kzinti. I mean if you've if you've ever watched
12:36any of my videos you know I was waiting for the Kzinti. There's there's a couple of reasons and
12:40it's not just because I love them they're big cats what's not to love but also they've been shown
12:45that in their original form in the slaver weapon yes the male Kzinti they left a little bit to be
12:52desired let's be honest they weren't very popular when it came to female Kzinti nor were female
12:58Kzinti very popular when it came to them. We would like to think that they have grown in the time
13:04that it's been between the animated series and Star Trek Lower Decks where there is a Kzinti
13:08serving on the USS Cerritos. We know via the shields being raised around the Riker's cabin
13:16in Nepenthe that the Kzinti certainly exist in live action they just haven't been seen yet.
13:21Larry Niven's design is one of those ones that I feel they've been quite omitted up to this point
13:27there have been feline aliens in live action for example if we look at the the senate room if you
13:33like from Star Trek 4 The Voyage Home we see that well what is at least at least occasion if not a
13:39Kzinti appears 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 Kzinti in live action so
13:56you know now that we've seen how not to do it perhaps Star Trek can be the one to show
14:00how to do it. That's everything for our list today folks what do you think is missing from this list
14:04let me 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 Trek Culture over on Twitter and you can follow us at Trek Culture
14:17over on Instagram catch myself at Sean Farrick on the various socials as well everyone you look
14:22after yourself until I see you again make sure that you live long and prosper make sure to our
14:26friends in Ukraine Slava Ukraine everyone however long it is that 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