Did Species 8472 have a name?

[Kolrad]

Something that bugged me about Species 8472 was that they went from enemies to allies during the course of the series, yet so far as I can remember, Janeway and her crew never stopped calling them Species 8472. You'd think that it would be a good diplomatic move to find out the actual name of an alien race rather than calling them by the faceless designation their mortal enemy, the Borg, gave them.

But then again, I think they called themselves by that name for some strange reason. Was that ever explained?

 

[Apogeal Alpha01]

Species 8472 is the Borg disignation, which Seven recalled to Janeway. Another name was never revealed.

Wiki: Species 8472

Memory Alpha

 

[RyanLevy]

If they are the only species that lives in fluidic space, why would they give themselves a name?

 

[exodus]

Frank.

 

[donners22]

Well, they are rip-offs of B5's Shadows, which in turn resemble creatures in Aliens. So eiher name would suit.

 

[Angel4576]

Their bioships were more reminiscent of the Vorlons.

I wouldn't say that they ripped either of them off though. They should be applauded for attempting something even remotely different for Star Trek.

As far as name's go, I'd have found it amusing if they'd said that their actual name was Species 8473.....

 

[exodus]

Angel4576 said:


They should be applauded for attempting something even remotely different for Star Trek.

Agreed, 8472 was a very cool and fearsome looking creature. I loved the action figure!

The Insectoid Xindi reminded me more of the Shadows. The Shadows themselves always reminded me of the giant ants from "Them".

 

[Bill Morris]

It seems like a glaring omission, though, that they couldn't devote a few seconds of screen time to having Janeway, Chakotay, or even Neelix ask and get an answer as to what they would prefer to be called.

 

[Kegek]

The Shadows and the Xenomorphs in turn owe much to the chthonic beings of Lovecraft.

Anyway, they were definitely one of VOY's best alien races, and, as they never bothered identifying themselves by any names even when in negotiation, probably did not have any (didn't they communicate telepathically or something?)

 

[Angel4576]

It seems like a glaring omission, though, that they couldn't devote a few seconds of screen time to having Janeway, Chakotay, or even Neelix ask and get an answer as to what they would prefer to be called.

Perhaps it was just unpronouncable, like that of the Shadows in B5.

Anyway, they were definitely one of VOY's best alien races, and, as they never bothered identifying themselves by any names even when in negotiation, probably did not have any (didn't they communicate telepathically or something?)

Primarily, they communicated via telepathic link, but as In the Flesh showed, they were capable of communicating verbally, albeit when in human form.

I think someone made the point earlier, that a species communicating via telepathy probably wouldn't think of themselves in terms of names, hence a species label wouldn't exist, even in their own perceptual vocabulary. If it ever became necessary to communicate a name to a different species, where would you begin? Hence they probably stuck with Species 8472 as they had no name of their own to override it.

 

[Turbo]

I remember seeing an interview with the VFX guys, where they admitted that they had such a short time to design 8472 for Scorpion, that they did indeed retexture the Shadows and give them Vorlon ships.

 

[Anwar]

They didn't have mouths, and yeah they were totally telepathic . I don't think they had any reason to make a name for themselves due to that.

 

[Laren]

Maybe TPTB figured that a second name would confuse the viewers? They thought that about continuity too, right?

 

[Kegek]

Turbo said:
I remember seeing an interview with the VFX guys, where they admitted that they had such a short time to design 8472 for Scorpion, that they did indeed retexture the Shadows and give them Vorlon ships.

It must have been a bit more than retexturing, especially with the aliens themselves - it's a much better model than their Shadow equivalent.

 

[kipron]

LCARS 24 said:
It seems like a glaring omission, though, that they couldn't devote a few seconds of screen time to having Janeway, Chakotay, or even Neelix ask and get an answer as to what they would prefer to be called.

Maybe they just didn't care enough to ask? IIRC, the events of Scorpion didn't leave much time for pleasantries.

I do agree it should've been brought up later on. It would've been a nice way to end that S5 episode where they make peace - Chakotay asks the name of their species, and Ellen Tigh starts to answer but the screen goes black before we find out.

Leave 'em wondering.

 

[SilverHedgehog1]

That was Ellen? Wow.

having made out with one of them, Chakotay is the only person with grounds for not "remembering" their name.

The Doctor had their sexual customs in a database. That's cold. Since he's the only one that could pronounce a name over two hundred characters long if they continued to rip the Shadows.

The term "slave name" comes to mind.

JMS knew exactly what both a Shadow and a Vorlon looked like half way through the 80s. How half assed that "whoever" was in charge of Voyager left the creative decisions in the hands off off house repeddling mercenaries.

 

[misskim86]

Didn't the 8472 have two feet tho? The shadows had more

 

[SilverHedgehog1]

On first viewing, I saw Scorpion with an assortment of friends who used to hang out for this sort of stuff. It sounded like sports when the 8472 showed up. It sounded like soccer. As if some Italian player was bawling like a pig tail school girl with a skinned knee faking some crap to get a penalty kick.

 

[iguana_tonante]

SilverHedgehog1 said:
As if some Italian player was bawling like a pig tail school girl with a skinned knee faking some crap to get a penalty kick.

 

[Angel4576]

^^

Blatent!