Star Trek: 10 Unique Next Generation Alien Races You Forgot About
They're so important for such a short time - let's never forget their presence in Star Trek!
Star Trek has been producing new alien species from the beginning, with new and interesting variations on nose ridges becoming an art within the franchise. While The Original Series had its pointed-eared hobgoblins and throbbing-lobed illusionists, The Next Generation would build on what came before.
With species like the Vulcans, the Klingons, and the Talosians in their back pockets, this new series was able to work on those early inspirations. As an audience, we would see several non-humanoid species joining the roster of the Milky Way, though predominantly two-armed, two-legged folks would pop up from week to week.
Some would quickly establish themselves as franchise mainstays - the Bajorans, the Cardassians, the Borg - while some would pop up for an episode or two, before fading back into obscurity. We are here to shine a light on those who said hello, even as we were saying goodbye.
10. Sheliak - The Ensigns Of Command
Let's just be very clear from the beginning - the Sheliak were, by the stipulation of the Treaty of Armens, well within their rights to demand Tau Cygna V. The fact they didn't just wipe the 'human infestation' out from orbit was a true show of self-restraint.
The Sheliak were a non-humanoid race, described as being wrapped in several layers of mucous. Their language eluded the Federation's translators, with telepaths struggling to understand them as well. The Treaty of Armens was so intricate - a demand of the Sheliak, so that there would be no room for misinterpretation - that three hundred and seventy Federation negotiators were sent to work on it.
When the Sheliak arrived at Tau Cygna V to begin colonisation of the Class H world, they initially refused to wait the three weeks that Captain Picard told them it would take to evacuate the humans. However, their own bureaucracy worked against them, as Picard invoked a third-party arbitration clause, which could have delayed their colonisation efforts by six months.
Once the humans were cleared, the Sheliak physiology meant they would have no issue settling on a radiation-rich world.