this post was submitted on 06 May 2026
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TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name

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[–] Danarchy@lemmy.nz 26 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

My dad when this aired: dang what a good and awesome story with a good and awesome message

Also my dad: Mexicans tho

[–] ummthatguy@lemmy.world 19 points 16 hours ago

Ooo, swing and a miss.

So close.

[–] hypeerror@sh.itjust.works 76 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

We just figured the galaxy didn't have the budget for non humanoid intelligent life.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago

Right right only canon shows count

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 47 points 19 hours ago (2 children)
[–] CentipedeFarrier@piefed.social 13 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

One head-type-thing and four limb-type-things, with only two being primarily locomotive, makes that more humanoid than not on an intergalactic body plan scale.

We are very bad at thinking up truly alien life.

[–] SippyCup@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I respect the constraints of production budgets. I don't expect TV aliens to look much different than people with some crap glued to their face.

Mass Effect at least branched out a little. But all of the squad mates were still basically humanoid. I expect they used mocap and similar limitations. Though it really could have benefitted from an Elcor squad mate.

"Irritated; you are a jackass... Captain. Irreverent; the cultists... Do not matter. Hopeful; bombard them from orbit and let's... Go."

[–] CentipedeFarrier@piefed.social 1 points 9 hours ago

I don't expect TV aliens to look much different than people with some crap glued to their face.

I mean.. I kinda do.. especially these days when CGI makes up more than half of your budget for nonsense reasons. Why don't they try harder? They could and it would cost them zero extra.

[–] stringere@sh.itjust.works 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

The Hooloovoo resemble a super-intelligent shade of the colour blue. One was seen in a prism for Zaphod Beeblebrox's address upon stealing the Heart of Gold. On certain special occasions, such as the aforementioned Presidential event, they refract into a free-standing prism.

[–] CentipedeFarrier@piefed.social 1 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Ok, fair enough, I’ll give us one example of being good at it, as the exception that proves the rule.

[–] stringere@sh.itjust.works 1 points 18 minutes ago

I can't find the name of them but in one of the Star Wars novels the Millenium Falcon ends up trapped in some ice caverns and they encounter sentient clouds of gas, methane iirc.

So we do have some people making up cool aliens.

Oh, the Pequeninos in Speaker for the Dead. They were sentient humanoid beings that became the trees of their world when they died. There's more to it than that, but that's the gist.

[–] llamatron@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

I've never understood this phrase. How does an exception prove a rule? Surely an exception disproves a rule?

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 17 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

his (assuming he?) existence can be compared to that of Carcinisation. some species just always evolve into crabs, some always evolve into amorphous tar blobs that embody evil.

[–] PlasticExistence@lemmy.world 19 points 18 hours ago (1 children)
[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 18 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

For real though, there’s a reason you only see the Aquatics and the Insectoids in like two episodes of Enterprise.

[–] 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip 8 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

and yaphit might have been a reason why orville ran out of budget and was not renewed 😆

[–] 13igTyme@piefed.social 11 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Orville was technically never cancelled. Seth also confirmed a few months ago that the script for the newest season is written, but it's hard to find time for all the actors at the moment.

[–] 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip 7 points 18 hours ago

Technically.... I am not sure it means much, since writing a script is a lot cheaper than turning it into finished series.

[–] Zachariah@lemmy.world 37 points 20 hours ago (4 children)

also why they can interbreed

[–] AppleTea@lemmy.zip 5 points 8 hours ago

I kinda just forgot Spock, Torres, and Troy were half human

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago

Fuck anything hard enough and it will breed

Klingon terraforming 101

[–] betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world 17 points 19 hours ago

Life, uh, finds a way.

[–] DharkStare@lemmy.world 13 points 19 hours ago

Star Trek Enterprise explains that it involves medical intervention to allow interbreeding between species. I've always assumed that's what was going on for everyone.

[–] teft@piefed.social 23 points 18 hours ago (5 children)

Convergent evolution. Maybe bipedal locomotion gives some sort of advantage to intelligence.

[–] Rozauhtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 4 hours ago

If you're bipedal you have free arms to throw rocks and make tools.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

Maybe humans are the crabs ~~crackheads~~ of spaceflight

[–] pjwestin@lemmy.world 7 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

Yeah, this is a viable explanation, although it is dependant on life evolving mostly the same way across the galaxy. If life mostly evolves on ocean planets in the Goldilocks Zone frim the same basic elements, then sure, prokaryote, fish, tetrapod, biped could be an extremely common path. But it's entirely possible there are a wide variety of initial circumstances that can generate life, and there are tungsten-based hyper-intelligent shrimp people living in gas giants

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 hours ago

But without hands, those shrimp people aren't going to be able to do much in the way of tool use, which limits their space-faring prospects. If you're not a warp-capable species, you're basically nobodyl. I feel like you at least need to kick off the tech-tree with fire and banging rocks together. Fire means air, which means terrestrial locomotion, and tetrapod seems like the most elegant form for that to take off (three legs on the ground while one moves). Banging rocks together means two hands, which assuming we're developing from a tetrapod, means bipedalism.

Sure there might be some tungsten-based shrimp people who achieve warp through telekinesis or something suitably Traveler-esque, but that kind of hyper intelligence doesn't exactly lead to involving oneself in the petty squabbles of lesser life forms. They might exist, but they wouldn't be characters Starfleet would interact with regularly.

[–] tmyakal@infosec.pub 15 points 17 hours ago

Not intelligence, but tool-wielding.

Pigs and whales are smart, but neither can swing a hammer.

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 6 points 15 hours ago

Exactly this. Bipedal, fingers for tool making.

[–] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 36 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

"We were too busy fighting"

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 23 points 20 hours ago

There's a lesson here.

[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 8 points 19 hours ago

Everybody was kung fu fighting

[–] grozzle@lemmy.zip 12 points 17 hours ago

It did come up again, it's just not many people made it to near the end of Discovery.

[–] AbsolutelyNotSpez@lemmy.world 18 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

Any mention of the word troglodytes gets an instant upvote from me. :)

[–] Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net 4 points 17 hours ago

It just flashes screenshots of Number Munchers into my brain

[–] chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago (3 children)
[–] WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world 3 points 15 hours ago

That is so good!

[–] AbsolutelyNotSpez@lemmy.world 5 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Another instant upvote for Viagra Boys!

[–] WhyIHateTheInternet@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

Man that comment works on many levels. Quality shit right here folks.

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[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 15 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Hey, why do you look like a changeling?

[–] user1234@fedinsfw.app 8 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

In universe, maybe they were the first humanoid species the changelings encountered.

Realistically, they just didn't get that creative with character design.

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[–] Whelks_chance@lemmy.world 15 points 20 hours ago (2 children)
[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

Ew. Wash that pan before you have guests

I thought this was indeed brought up in the show. Am I wrong?

[–] cattywampas@lemmy.world 9 points 20 hours ago

If she were not dead, I would kill her!

[–] negativenull@piefed.world 7 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

HA! I literally watched this episode last night!

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