9 Star Trek: The Animated Series Aliens That Should Appear In Live Action

When Star Trek: The Animated Series premiered, it featured almost the entire original cast. However, instead of Ensign Chekov, the navigator's station was manned by Arex, a three-armed alien from a species called the Edosians, voiced by James Doohan. This helped Filmation save money by not hiring Walter Koenig and let them add a new alien character. The use of animation meant that Arex could look truly alien rather than being a human with a bumpy head.

As exemplified by such creations as the rubbery-looking Gorn or the cheap-looking Mugato, creating aliens that looked like anything other than humans proved extremely difficult for 1960s effects artists.

With the introduction of the very alien-looking Saru in Star Trek: Discovery, it seems that makeup techniques have advanced to the point that Arex could finally be introduced in live action Star Trek.

With Star Trek: Strange New Worlds both revisiting and fleshing out the 23rd century with new details, adding Arex to the Enterprise crew as a junior navigation officer seems a logical choice. And with the untimely death of Anton Yelchin, he would also seem a natural fit as the new Enterprise navigator if the next movie in the Kelvin timeline materializes.

The digital imaging company OTOY has recently experimented with bringing Arex to life in photorealism - proving that the time is here.