10 Star Trek Aliens Who Should Make A Comeback

8. The Bynar

The Bynar were introduced in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode 11001001 as glorified IT guys who secretly used the Enterprise-D 's computer as backup storage for their planet's endangered central computer.

They informed the crew that they didn't ask for help because their binary thinking could only allow for two possible answers: yes or no. Their situation was so dire, damage to their central computer would catastrophic to their society, they couldn't risk a 'no'.

As shown in the episode, the Bynars were cybernetically enhanced humanoids who interacted with their planet's central computer through a synaptic processor implanted in their heads shortly after birth. They controlled the rate of information they received from the computer through a buffer worn on the waist. They always lived and worked in pairs and spoke a high frequency language that resembled binary code and was unintelligible to humans. When they did use English, the finished each other's sentences.

This level of technological and social integration essentially made the Bynars a benign version of the Borg. A future appearance by the Bynars could explore themes of this episode in greater detail. For example, the question arises could their binary thinking lead to a war with the Federation? if the question they faced were "Does the Federation pose a threat?" Would they wage war because they couldn't risk a 'yes' answer?

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Frank Chavez is a freelance writer, playwright, and screenwriter from the San Francisco Bay Area. They live in the Census Designated Place outside the small city, outside of Oakland with their wife and numerous cats.