The Star Trek Influence?

[Koopa]

I am not a Star Trek fan at all. When the show was aired on tv, the only times i watched it when i was bored out of my skull with nothing else to do, and even worse stuff on the tv. It is no surprise then that i hardly know anything about it.

Today i had too much time on my hands, and after reading about the man some called a king (Not me, mostly since i consider Bryant to be the current king of the nba --> few in Europe probably ever heard about Lebron James, when almost everybody knows Bryant, to me in part shows the difference, and today proved it.) I somehow ended up googling star trek. I was just about to leave it alone, since it was all pretty boring, when i noticed something in the list of Star Trek races that completely surprised me. And took my attention.

List of Star Trek races - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mekhar, Mokra, Metrons, Napeans, Sheliak all names of Star trek races, and boy do they sound familiar. Since Star Trek is considered something as the Mekka of science fiction, i could not help but wonder wether Erikson was influenced by it. And if so, what does it mean for Erikson character, how does it influence the storyline, .... .

Seeing as i know next to nothing about Star trek, i was hoping someone could enlighten me. Perhaps fill in a few dots, links between erikson work and star trek.

 

[biodroid]

Wasn't Erikson an Anthropoligist before this? I reckon he got that idea from his scientific knowledge of the human race and the diverse cultures. That seems more plausible to me and makes sense why he did it too. Not that I am throwing out your idea of him being a Trekkie maybe, I am sure he has lots of influences like that to drive him to write.