10 Most Mysterious Ancient Alien Civilisations In Star Trek

First uncovered in the Next Gen episode The Chase, the ancient Progenitor society was one of the most profound discoveries in galactic history—the originators of all humanoid life in The Milky Way.

As the first intelligent life in their part of space, the Progenitors eventually took to the stars and found themselves completely alone. Knowing their society wouldn't last forever, the Progenitors seeded life all across the galaxy on thousands of different planets, and coded their genes to evolve towards a common humanoid form: the same form of the Progenitors themselves. All this was revealed when a team of Humans, Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians found a code hidden in all their DNA that triggered a short holographic message.

They were originally created by the writers as an in-universe explanation for why so many aliens in Trek look so similar to Humans, but the story of these ancient humanoids became a frequently discussed topic on TrekCulture and elsewhere in the Star Trek community. Many found it strange that such an important revelation was glossed over so quickly by the characters in The Chase. Fortunately, the Progenitors recently returned to the screen as the focus of Star Trek: Discovery's final season.

Discovery learned that a team of scientists located ancient Progenitor tech shortly after the events of The Chase. Inside a liminal space between space and time, one of these scientists met with a representative of the Progenitors, who offered to share their power. However, this was during the Dominion War, and the scientists who found the tech knew that the Progenitor tech could destroy all life in the galaxy just as easily as it created it. The scientists worked together to hide clues of the tech's location all across space, ensuring that whoever seeks it will have to pass numerous trials proving that they are worthy. Captain Burnham and the crew of the Discovery were able to pass these tests, but in the end chose to hide the portal to the tech on the far side of a black hole's event horizon, concluding that the Progenitors have already given a diversity of life to the galaxy and the tech was not currently needed.