Does Star Trek have the best alien races?
- Thread starter Neo
- Start date
How do you define best?
If you mean aliens that look and act alien then Star Wars is/was a lot more imaginative.
Nasty aliens, my vote goes to Doctor Who. Still can't beat the Daleks. (The Beeb also managed to produce real aliens on an even lower budget than TOS!)
If you mean aliens that look and act alien then Star Wars is/was a lot more imaginative.
Nasty aliens, my vote goes to Doctor Who. Still can't beat the Daleks. (The Beeb also managed to produce real aliens on an even lower budget than TOS!)
Although I love Star Trek, I don't think they have been that imaginative with their aliens. Some of that is a limited TV budget, some of it is the difficulty of doing a weekly TV show in a limited time, some of it is due to only having one person doing make-up (Michael Westmore). I'm not criticising him, he has won awards, but you won't get many new ideas out of the same person after a while.
The alien culture, heritage and societies have been well fleshed out -- look at Vulcans, Klingons, Bajorans, Cardassians, Ferengi, Romulans, Borg. They are like real people to me, and it is what Star Trek does best.
But as Ray said, they aren't very Alien; they are more like exagerated humans. For real aliens you need to look to books, where you can let your imagination fly, and there are no budget restrictions on effects.
The Star Wars aliens were more imaginative looking, but I would like much more character development of them. They were at least less like a man in a mask and suit, than Star Trek TOS and Dr.Who. However, those programmes are quite old, so for their own time they did well.
The best recent development on Star Trek was species 8472, but how long did it take them to make a cgi alien? Some say it is just a rip-off of the Babylon 5 Shadows, well there is a good reason for the similarity, after B5 finished, the graphic artists went and got jobs on Voyager and designed it. It is simptomatic to me of how Star Trek has always followed the trends, rather than set them, as Star Wars did.
The alien culture, heritage and societies have been well fleshed out -- look at Vulcans, Klingons, Bajorans, Cardassians, Ferengi, Romulans, Borg. They are like real people to me, and it is what Star Trek does best.
But as Ray said, they aren't very Alien; they are more like exagerated humans. For real aliens you need to look to books, where you can let your imagination fly, and there are no budget restrictions on effects.
The Star Wars aliens were more imaginative looking, but I would like much more character development of them. They were at least less like a man in a mask and suit, than Star Trek TOS and Dr.Who. However, those programmes are quite old, so for their own time they did well.
The best recent development on Star Trek was species 8472, but how long did it take them to make a cgi alien? Some say it is just a rip-off of the Babylon 5 Shadows, well there is a good reason for the similarity, after B5 finished, the graphic artists went and got jobs on Voyager and designed it. It is simptomatic to me of how Star Trek has always followed the trends, rather than set them, as Star Wars did.
little star
expert member
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2001
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- 470
well...
I say, "ditto!" to pretty much everything in the reply Dave posted.
I definitely give ST credit for fleshing out their aliens with history, culture, language, etc. This is a big part of what makes ST enjoyable and interesting for me to watch!
I think they sometimes could have done better with the actual physical appearance of aliens---throw in some less humanoid ones every now and again. And for the ones that are humanoid, how about coming up with some makeup other than assorted RIDGES to distinguish them from humans? The ridge thing has been overused lately!!
little star :star:
I say, "ditto!" to pretty much everything in the reply Dave posted.
I definitely give ST credit for fleshing out their aliens with history, culture, language, etc. This is a big part of what makes ST enjoyable and interesting for me to watch!
I think they sometimes could have done better with the actual physical appearance of aliens---throw in some less humanoid ones every now and again. And for the ones that are humanoid, how about coming up with some makeup other than assorted RIDGES to distinguish them from humans? The ridge thing has been overused lately!!
little star :star:
Oh yeah, i do agree with you. S.T. does definately have the best aliens. everyone knows that they are just people with a hell of a lot of makeup on, but, they look so realistic. it's sooooo....i don't know what else to say.
:alienooh:
:aliengray
:alienooh:
:aliengray
markpud
Former Ascifi.com mod
B5 was great, if you get chance to see the full run of the show u should try to. The plot arcs thru from s1 to the end, it is very clever. But i think the UK sci-fi channel has just stopped showing it.
markpud
Former Ascifi.com mod
actually I dont think it is out on DVD. One of the movies "In the beginning" is avail to pre-order for December in the US, but not the series as far as I can see...
markpud
Former Ascifi.com mod
they're missing out on a lot of sales there.. i dont buy VHS cos they take up too much room and the quality degrades too much, so its DVD or nothing....
Cool thread.
I think the borg are a good alien species. Clever, original (i think), scarry etc. Voyager has pretty much ruined that towards the end but that is not really their fault - they just didn't seem scarry at the end.
Then i like the little asgards from stargate.
Farscape has some pretty weird aliens and I think probably does the best for weirdness and uniqueness. From sentient planets to helium farting foot high what ever they are called. Quite cool. Moya is also pretty cool.
My favourite aliens ever have to be in the book by Niven and someone else i think it was called Foothold or something like that. They are basically elephants. It is good/funny sci-fi book with a very different portrayal of alien invasion!
I think the borg are a good alien species. Clever, original (i think), scarry etc. Voyager has pretty much ruined that towards the end but that is not really their fault - they just didn't seem scarry at the end.
Then i like the little asgards from stargate.
Farscape has some pretty weird aliens and I think probably does the best for weirdness and uniqueness. From sentient planets to helium farting foot high what ever they are called. Quite cool. Moya is also pretty cool.
My favourite aliens ever have to be in the book by Niven and someone else i think it was called Foothold or something like that. They are basically elephants. It is good/funny sci-fi book with a very different portrayal of alien invasion!
got to say it is the best show out there. Trully unique. You just never know what is going to happen. The excitment of Teal'c becoming mind washed sort of thing (ie a surprise) is the sort of thing that happens every episode in Farscape. One show you can't watch individual eps on their own - babylon5 style i think (not that i ever saw much of that).
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