The Cult of the Bumpy Forehead

[tranya]

This is a bit of a spinoff of other discussions over the (only vaguely humanoid) Kelvin crewmember who may or may not be Edoan/Triaxian/whatever.

In Bob Orci's latest interview with TrekMovie, there was this exchange:

TrekMovie: This brings up one of the more ironic critiques. You guys finally have the budget and resources to create truly alien aliens. Some fans think we should not see any new aliens that we did not see in The Original Series, and some even think that it is Star Trek tradition to do latex-on-forehead aliens and that Trek aliens should be anthropomorphic. That having Star Wars kinds of aliens, breaks with Trek tradition.


Roberto Orci: For the first question, I use the same argument that some use to justify Khan recognition of Chekov [in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan], which is: if you just went to a lower deck in that first season, you might have seen Chekov. So the idea that can’t see a new alien by merely turning the camera some other way on a ship that you might have seen before - I think it is fair to see a new alien. As for the second point, we actually had this conversation where one of the fun alien aliens we read about, I think it was in "Prime Directive," was this octopus creature, that was clearly not anthropomorphic at all. We talked about doing something like that, some stranger creatures, and I think we pushed it a little bit. I don’t think any of them go too far off the realm, but that was something on our minds. I don’t think there has to be a tradition of keeping them anthropomorphic, but I don’t think we strayed too far from that.

This brings up, then, who exactly are the people who believe that most Trek aliens should follow in the traditions of TNG and the subsequent shows, and be humanoid with bumps on their heads? I've personally always followed what Orci states here — e.g., there's nothing to say that there isn't a Horta below decks somewhere on the Enterprise-D — and don't know if Anthony was overstating this in his question or not. Are there really people who believe this?


Is there a cult of the bumpy forehead I don't know about?

 

[Butters]

Don't know. Weren't aliens like the Borg and species 8472, the Sheliak et al well received for being a bit more alien the regular pointy ear of lumpy head warrier type?

 

[tranya]

We never saw the Sheliak on screen, did we? And aliens like the 8472 were certainly not the norm.

 

[SPCTRE]

We never saw the Sheliak on screen, did we?

Actually, we did, in The Ensigns of Command (TNG).

 

[Rÿcher]

We never saw the Sheliak on screen, did we?

'course, he might have been a representative for them.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

We never saw the Sheliak on screen, did we?

'course, he might have been a representative for them.

You know when I swa that episode I couldn't help but think that that was the bastard that offed Yar.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

It depends on what kind of a performance you want from your "alien."

I'm sure that given their budget and resources, if Abrams and company wanted a truly peculiar-looking alien to interact dramatically with the rest of the cast they could afford a Serkis/Gollum or two. If ones budget is more limited, though, human actors who are able to use the full range of their physical and facial expressions are the way to go if what you're looking for is a full realized dramatic performance rather than a "monster" or a bit of sophisticated muppetry.

 

[Dane_Whitman]

I think that if take a good look, you can find plenty of non bumpy foreheaded aliens throughout Trek. TOS did various interesting alien creatures, TNG did one or two like the Sheliak, DS9 had the Founders, VOY had among others 8472 and the Equinox aliens, and ENT's Xindi included Aquatic and Insectoid aliens. Not to mention all those entities and gas clouds and other aliens that were created with a simple special effect.

So any weird aliens they introduce in XI will fit right in. They created a lot of interesting species in the Titan novels and that didn't seem out of place.

 

[ClayHefner]

Vulcans and Romulans looking just like humans is already enough.
The Kelvin dude is perfect- looking very humanoid even. Not a Star Wars Muppet but also not like all those terrible, cheap bumpy forehead alien designs.
Oh and also PLEASE no more turd aliens.
Sheliak= turd in suit.

 

[jamestyler]

This brings up, then, who exactly are the people who believe that most Trek aliens should follow in the traditions of TNG and the subsequent shows, and be humanoid with bumps on their heads? I've personally always followed what Orci states here — e.g., there's nothing to say that there isn't a Horta below decks somewhere on the Enterprise-D — and don't know if Anthony was overstating this in his question or not. Are there really people who believe this?

A TNG episode, The Chase, suggests that an alien race found itself alone in the galaxy... they planted a few seeds of their own DNA and such like, and those seeds grew into plants. Or.. more aliens... of which only a few were show, but it could have been moe widespread and the cause fo so many evolving in the same shape.

I don't think it's impossible to have other forms of life, but that episode brought some in-story non-budget logic to their similarities.

The only problem they'd have is creating too many different races to make it beyond believable that they'd never be seen in the future.

 

[tranya]

This brings up, then, who exactly are the people who believe that most Trek aliens should follow in the traditions of TNG and the subsequent shows, and be humanoid with bumps on their heads? I've personally always followed what Orci states here — e.g., there's nothing to say that there isn't a Horta below decks somewhere on the Enterprise-D — and don't know if Anthony was overstating this in his question or not. Are there really people who believe this?

A TNG episode, The Chase, suggests that an alien race found itself alone in the galaxy... they planted a few seeds of their own DNA and such like, and those seeds grew into plants. Or.. more aliens... of which only a few were show, but it could have been moe widespread and the cause fo so many evolving in the same shape.

I don't think it's impossible to have other forms of life, but that episode brought some in-story non-budget logic to their similarities.

The only problem they'd have is creating too many different races to make it beyond believable that they'd never be seen in the future.

True enough, but "The Chase" was an after-the-fact budgetarily-motivated retcon of sorts, just as the later ENT explanation for smooth-headed Klingons was. These are stories that were invented, at least in part, to explain away why Trek couldn't show us more truly different alien species -- they were fine enough stories, and there is certainly an entertaining canonical logic for the existence of these stories, but I'm asking a different question.

Are they canon? Sure. Should they be constraints to the portrayal of aliens in future Trek (especially Trek which has a bigger budget than recent Trek has had)? I'm curious to see if anyone actually argues this.

 

[jamestyler]

These are stories that were invented, at least in part, to explain away why Trek couldn't show us more truly different alien species -- they were fine enough stories, and there is certainly an entertaining canonical logic for the existence of these stories, but I'm asking a different question.

I know, that was just to try and explain part of my answer, mostly in the last line. Thee have been a load of races (some known, some background) established and a logic to hide behind... and I don't object to something different, I welcome it...

...the concern for me, if I were a creative power here, would be overdoing it and getting too carried away, which would be beyond the realms of believability tying it all in or dissapearing them later (which is still important to a lot of people) and might age previous shows, or lower standards for a TV series or budget cuts in future releases.

That might not make sense outside of my head... but I hate movies with too much alien content, going too fa and making the thing look cheap and tacky.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

You know when I swa that episode I couldn't help but think that that was the bastard that offed Yar.

I believe he was, in a sense - wasn't the same voice actor and stuntman used?

At any rate, I don't care if they introduce some new aliens. It's not like it's never been done, since Denobulans were a creation of Enterprise. And I'm really not against the idea of these new aliens being truly alien, since it's not an unknown phenomena in the whole of Star Trek. Just because the aliens from 'The Chase' seeded the humanoid form across the galaxy doesn't mean that humanoid life is the sole build. Like it's been pointed out above, non-humanoid aliens are not unknown to the world of Trek.

 

[Red Ranger]

We never saw the Sheliak on screen, did we?

'course, he might have been a representative for them.

You know when I swa that episode I couldn't help but think that that was the bastard that offed Yar.

Looks more like Yarnek's cousin to me! -- RR

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I was heartbroken when Shields and Yarnek divorced.

 

[M'Sharak]

I was heartbroken when Shields and Yarnek divorced.

Are they still on speaking terms, at least?

 

[Disco Bones]

Vulcans and Romulans looking just like humans is already enough.
The Kelvin dude is perfect- looking very humanoid even. Not a Star Wars Muppet but also not like all those terrible, cheap bumpy forehead alien designs.
Oh and also PLEASE no more turd aliens.
Sheliak= turd in suit.

There were plenty of non-forehead aliens shown in the trek films; check out the memory alpha page of federation members for some choice examples from TMP and TVH.

 

[Dale]

I was heartbroken when Shields and Yarnek divorced.

Are they still on speaking terms, at least?

dude.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

This brings up, then, who exactly are the people who believe that most Trek aliens should follow in the traditions of TNG and the subsequent shows, and be humanoid with bumps on their heads? I've personally always followed what Orci states here — e.g., there's nothing to say that there isn't a Horta below decks somewhere on the Enterprise-D — and don't know if Anthony was overstating this in his question or not. Are there really people who believe this?


Is there a cult of the bumpy forehead I don't know about?

There's a very good reason to conclude that there wouldn't be a Horta anywhere on the 1701-D.

It's clearly stated in "Devil in the Dark" that the Horta can exist in "our atmosphere" for only a short period of time. This is a logical statement, based upon the best ideas about how silicon-based life might work... an atmosphere high in oxygen would be poisonous to silicon-based life.

Furthermore, a Horta (as we saw it) has no hands, no digits, not even any real tentacles. And why should it? But the 1701-D is designed for use by creatures using a fairly standard form of interface.

To have a Horta on-board, it would have to live in a special "Horta habitat" separate from the rest of the crew, with different methods of interaction with the ship's technology.

If YOU were a Horta, would you want to be imprisoned (for all practical purposes) in a special "zone" and limited in terms of what jobs you'd be allowed to undertake?

I don't have any issue with the idea of there being Horta in Starfleet, but they'd probably serve on ships primarily crewed by Horta (along with any other silicon-based lifeforms... but remember, at the time of TOS, none had ever been encountered!)

Anything else is simply "political correctness" without giving serious thought to the practical realities of the situation.

 

[tranya]

Political correctness? Seriously, you're gonna go there?