the hirogen star trek

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• Humanoid species
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• 3.1 First splinter timeline
• 4.1 Starships and vehicles
• 5.1 Hirogen ranks
• 6.1 Appearances
• 6.2 Connections
• 6.3 References
• 6.4 External link

Biology [ ]

In terms of appearance, the species show characteristics of both mammal and reptilian based lifeforms. Such characteristics have led to some speculation that the modern day Hirogen may be the products of genetic engineering . Their skin resembles that of a reptile with a rough pebble-like appearance to it. Typically, this tends to be tan or beige in color though this could vary but the entire species lacks any form of body hair. On the other end of the spectrum is their warm-blood nature and their capacity to bear live young similar to mammals. ( Decipher RPG module : Aliens )

A more notable aspect of the Hirogen is their great height. They are shown to normally tower over humans . This allows them to use their size and strength to intimidate as well as overpower others. Despite their height, they are able to move in silence and the fact that they emitted no scent allows them to surprise their prey. ( Decipher RPG module : Aliens )

The Hirogen's immune system is heightened enough to neutralize every sedative in the Federation/Starfleet medical database. Most Hirogen wear armor that is designed to handle rapid pressure fluctuations. The Hirogen also have acute sensory perception. ( VOY episode : " Prey "; ST reference : The Visual Dictionary )

Culture [ ]

Hirogen on the hunt

The Hirogen were once a great civilization and an advanced culture. However, by the 24th century, they were hunting themselves to extinction. Hirogen society is organized like wolves. Hirogens will organize themselves into packs of hunters lead by one designated Alpha. A Hirogen's status is determined by the number of prizes from the hunt, which are usually body parts. Most Hirogen roamed the Delta Quadrant seeking prey either alone or in small groups. ( VOY episodes : " Hunters ", " Prey ")

The concept of the hunt completely dominates their culture with nothing holding importance except for the pursuit, capture and slaughter of their prey. ( Decipher RPG module : Aliens )

Though physically powerful, the race often trains themselves further for battle. This obsession with hunting, however, means that they neglect every other aspect of their civilization. ( Decipher RPG module : Aliens ) All their energy is put into their hunts which are becoming unproductive and exhausted. The Hirogen's cultural and scientific advancement has come to a standstill. ( VOY episodes : " The Killing Game ", " Part II ")

Their culture demands that the hunters study their prey to anticipate and understand their abilities. Older hunters believe that study is important to make sure they do not become the hunted. ( VOY episodes : " The Killing Game ", " Part II ")

History [ ]

Map of the Hirogen relay station network in the Delta and Beta Quadrants

One hundred and ten thousand years ago they were assimilated by an early version of the Borg . The Hirogen became a nomadic race of hunters, devoting their culture towards the hunt and the theory of "a strong offense is the best defense". Most Hirogen have forgotten this fact of their history . The Hirogen also abandoned their homeworld so they could search and hunt for challenging prey. However, they were able to build a Hirogen relay station network that stretched to the edges of the Delta Quadrant ten thousands years following their encounter with the Borg. ( ST - New Worlds, New Civilizations short story : " The Hunted "; VOY episodes : " Message in a Bottle ", " Hunters ", " Prey "; ST references : The Star Trek Encyclopedia , The Visual Dictionary )

By the 22nd century , the Hirogen were a nomadic hunter species that had long ago abandoned their planetary roots. They had become wide spread in the Delta Quadrant where they typically hunted races native to the region such as Kazon , Vidiians , Talaxians and similar civilizations near their territory. Their pattern of hunting meant that they became even more distanced from one another in the 23rd century . This eventually led to their culture being in decline by the 24th century . ( Decipher RPG module : Aliens )

The Dominion had contact with Hirogen for centuries before the year 2374 . The Jem'Hadar were considered worthy prey by the Hirogen. One Hirogen, Hajur , was captured in 2357 by the Norcadians ' Tsunkatse coordinator, Penk and forced him to fight in Tsunkatse matches for the next twenty years. Penk, however, released his son. ( DS9 - Gateways novel : Demons of Air and Darkness ; VOY episode : " Tsunkatse ")

First contact with the Federation and the Hirogen was made by the USS Voyager in 2374 when they used their relay network to contact Starfleet Command . Following that event, Voyager then found messages buried in on one of their relay stations. Two members of Voyager s crew were then captured by a pair of Hirogen, Idrin and Ranjen . Luckily, the two Voyager crew members were then rescued and the hunters were sucked into the station's power source, a Quantum singularity . A pair of Hirogen, Vurond and Karon , then hunted and captured a member of Species 8472 . Unfortunately, the Species 8472, attacked and dismembered Vurond . Voyager then briefly helped Karon to catch Species 8472, but decided to not allow him to kill it. Several Hirogen warships then arrived to retrieve their hunter and species 8472. Seven of Nine then decided to beam the species 8472 to one of their ships along with Karon. ( VOY episodes : " Hunters ", " Prey "' VOY reference : Voyager Companion )

The Hirogen, under Alpha Karr , then captured Voyager and it's crew. They then used Voyager 's holodecks and forced to the crew to participate in the Hirogen's war games taking place in World War II and other places. A truce was formed between Voyager 's crew and the remaining hunters when they ended the simulations aboard Voyager . The Hirogen under Takirac were then given a optronic datacore and hologenerator to help them create their own holo-simulations. ( VOY episodes : " The Killing Game ", " Part II ")

For the next three years, the Hirogen used the holo-technology to stimulate their hunts. They built the holo-technology into their facilities and built holoships where they could hunt their favorite prey and teach young Hirogen the skills of the hunt. However, the holograms rose up against them. The Hirogen were attacked three times by Iden 's holograms before Voyager ended the rebellion. ( VOY episode : " Flesh and Blood "; VOY reference : Voyager Campanion ; ST reference : The Star Trek Encyclopedia )

In 2391 , Romulan exile Commander Sela met with several Hirogen in the Makar compound to discuss an alliance. ( STO website  : The Path to 2409 )

The Tal Shiar later used this alliance to their benefit, enlisting Hirogen assistance in their plans, particularly in their attempt to disrupt the efforts of the Romulan Republic to colonize New Romulus in 2409 . In a recording recovered by an allied away team that attacked a Tal Shiar base in the Vastam Peaks , a Hirogen alpha declared that in keeping with this alliance, " Starfleet and the Klingons will be our prey. " ( STO missions : " New Romulus: Mountain Base ", " Secret Shuttle Codes ", " New Romulus: Paehhos Crater ")

In 2410 the Federation recruited at least one Hirogen tribe still living in the Delta Quadrant into the Delta Alliance . During the battle over Vaadwaur Prime , Captain Harry Kim called them in as reinforcements when the Kazon turned on the Alliance. ( STO - Delta Quadrant mission : " Takedown ")

Another group of Hirogen tried to capture the KDC Samsar after it was hijacked by Keten , but were defeated by the USS Rhode Island and another Alpha Quadrant Alliance starship. ( STO - Delta Quadrant mission : " Dust to Dust ")

First splinter timeline [ ]

In 2376, a Hirogen ship attacked a Malon tanker and killed the Malon crew. A Hirogen Alpha was killed by Taran'atar . ( DS9 - Gateways novel : Demons of Air and Darkness )

Around this time, Voyager encountered a Hirogen ship, the HHV Rhev after one was caught in an Iconian gateway and stranded near No Man's Land along with sixty-one other ships. Despite the potential prey to hunt for relics, the Hirogen Alpha decided to restrain themselves in the name of survival and join the caravan led by Voyager. ( VOY - Gateways novel : No Man's Land )

Technology [ ]

The Hirogen devote all their technology towards creating weapons for their hunts. Their technology was fairly advanced but their main weapons were the scavenger rifle and the Tetryon pulse disruptor which were about as effective as Romulan disruptor rifle . Hirogen also carried knives and blades for close combat. ( VOY video game : Elite Force ; ST reference : The Visual Dictionary )

Their ships were heavily armed with powerful energy weapons. ( ST reference : The Visual Dictionary )

After they were given the holo-technology by Captain Kathryn Janeway , the Hirogen engineers were able to incorporate it with their technology. Engineers, such as Donik were able to create holograms that could learn, adapt and outsmart the Hirogen. These modifications, however, created and caused some of the holograms to join Iden 's rebellion against the hunters. ( VOY episodes : " Flesh and Blood ", " Part II "; VOY reference : Voyager Campanion )

Starships and vehicles [ ]

• Seeker -class frigate
• Hunter -class escort
• Apex -class battleship
• Huntmaster -class dreadnought

Known individuals [ ]

Hirogen ranks [ ].

• Alpha Hirogen
• Beta Hirogen

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ].

• DS9 - Gateways novel : Demons of Air and Darkness
• VOY episode : " Message in a Bottle " (first appearance)
• VOY episode : " Hunters "
• VOY episode : " Prey "
• VOY episode : " The Killing Game "
• VOY episode : " The Killing Game, Part II "
• VOY episode : " Infinite Regress "
• VOY episode : " Tsunkatse "
• VOY episode : " Unimatrix Zero, Part II "
• VOY episode : " Flesh and Blood "
• VOY - Gateways novel : No Man's Land
• VOY novel : Fusion
• VOY short story : " Witness "
• PIC episode : " Nepenthe "
• ST novel : Mere Mortals

Connections [ ]

References [ ].

• VOY - Myriad Universes - Infinity's Prism novella : Places of Exile

External link [ ]

• Hirogen article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• Hirogen article at The Star Trek Online Wiki .
• 1 Tzenkethi
• 2 The Chase
• 3 Preserver (race)

Star Trek: Voyager - Who Are The Hirogen?

This lesser-known race of aliens is Star Trek's answer to the Predator.

Writing the beloved ongoing Star Trek franchise comes with many challenges. Every episode is a new adventure, every old idea can be constantly remixed, and every character can have a fascinating interplay with their allies or enemies. One of the fun tasks of Star Trek creators is designing new alien species. Sometimes they borrow inspiration from iconic examples, like the Hirogen, which takes inspiration from the Yautja of Predator fame.

Voyager is the fifth Star Trek series. It had a lot on its shoulders, between accompanying Deep Space Nine , launching the UPN network, and bringing the franchise's first female main character to life. Star Trek was in a time of reckless experimentation, and some ideas turned out better than others.

RELATED: Star Trek: Voyager - Who Is Seska?

Who are the Hirogen?

The Hirogen are a species of humanoid aliens known for their obsession with hunting. They're considerably larger, stronger, and more aware than most bipedal aliens. They can survive toxic atmospheres and shrug off impressive amounts of harmful drugs. Hirogen culture is entirely built upon hunting . They view all other beings as potential prey and collect trophies from those they kill. Their society is stratified into hunting parties who spend almost all their time pursuing targets. This cultural desire has forced the Hirogen into a nomadic lifestyle. They consistently travel the galaxy to find unique prey. Individual Hirogen are rewarded for their triumphs, but the species is suffering. Though they are obsessed with killing, their need to hunt is more complex than a sadistic power trip.

The Hirogen value "worthy prey" above all else. If their target puts up a fight, it's considered worthy. As long as the victim is strong enough to add danger to the experience, the Hirogen will claim trophies from their corpse. Unlike many warrior cultures, Hirogen hunters must study their prey before attacking. Skill is as important a virtue as strength to the Hirogen. Hunting came with many rituals. Hirogen paint their faces, select specific weapons for unique targets, and consistently strive to hunt new prey. When they capture their targets alive, they learn everything they can. Hirogen have firm rules against showing sympathy to their victims. They also forbid causing unnecessary suffering, encouraging hunters to kill quickly and painlessly. It's said that the Hirogen once had an advanced civilization, but their increasingly unproductive hunts forced them to become nomads. Members of the species gradually discovered that their way of life was unsustainable. Their obsession quickly became self-destructive, but they had no interest in stopping.

What inspired the Hirogen?

Behind-the-scenes conversations revealed several inspirations for the Hirogen. Screenwriters Brannon Braga and Bryan Fuller initially set out to create a broad, threatening alien race. The Hirogen were humanoid, like most Star Trek aliens , but they were considerably better built. Football players inspired the Hirogen's initial design. They have mottled skin inspired by Gila monster scales. Braga wanted actors over six foot six to play the Hirogen, but casting on short notice made that challenging. They settled on a few tall performers with smaller Hirogen filling the ranks. Crew members mentioned some similarities with the ill-fated Voyager species, the Kazon, but they have deliberate differences.

The Hirogen have been called Star Trek 's answer to the Predator . Crew members, including writer/producer Joe Menosky, have acknowledged the inspiration. The Yautja doesn't look much like the Hirogen, but their cultures are similar. They're both aliens that hunt lesser species, value competition in their targets, and claim trophies. Several depictions of the Hirogen putting skulls on display are identical to shots from Predator 2 . Hirogen armor resembles the Yautja's formal wear, missing the iconic dreadlocks. The Hirogen provide a more intellectual take on an interstellar trophy-hunting culture . Star Trek adds nuance to even the most explosive of old-fashioned action movies.

Where do the Hirogen appear?

The Hirogen appear in nine episodes of Voyager . They're best known for the two-part episode "The Killing Game." Twenty years after their final appearance in the show that originated the species, a Hirogen appeared in Star Trek: Picard . Much of the Hirogen was assimilated by the Borg Collective. A Hirogen who escaped the cyborgs' grasp is executed in the 2020 episode "Nepenthe." They can be found in novels like Demons of Air and Darkness . Fans can also find the Hirogen in video games, including Star Trek Online and Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force .

The Hirogen aren't the most complex race in Star Trek history . They started from the humble desire to pit the Voyager crew against stronger foes and became one of their mightiest adversaries. Voyager demonstrated its love of nuance by adapting a beloved sci-fi concept into something more intriguing. Whereas the Predator movies use their antagonists as metaphors or horror premises, Star Trek makes a broader point about the nature of trophy-hunting and the virtues of conservation. The Hirogen are more fascinating than their brief lifespan gave them credit for.

MORE: Star Trek: Is Voyager More Advanced Than The Enterprise?

Den of Geek

Star Trek: Picard Makes an Unseen Next Generation Adventure Canon

Jean-Luc Picard talks about facing the Hirogen in his Star Trek: The Next Generation days, but when the hell did that happen?

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This Star Trek: Picard article contains spoilers.

Star Trek: Picard is covering a lot of ground in its final season. Not only is the show a proper sendoff to The Next Generation crew but a continuation of conflicts from Deep Space Nine and even a postscript to the movie First Contact . There’s a lot going on in the Alpha Quadrant, and the latest episode of season 3, “No Win Scenario,” ups the ante even more by including a major reference to a classic Voyager villain.

In a flashback, we watch as retired Admiral Jean-Luc Picard has his meal interrupted by a group of excited Starfleet cadets who have tons of questions about his past adventures. Picard recounts a few for them, including his encounter with the Tamarians in the classic Next Generation episode “Darmok.” But then he references an adventure we’ve never seen before: a conflict involving the Hirogen, a race of hunters from the Delta Quadrant best known for antagonizing Captain Janeway and her crew in Voyager . But with most of the Enterprise missions taking place in the Alpha Quadrant, this has left some fans wondering how and when exactly Captain Picard and his crew met this predatorial species.

Unfortunately, the episode doesn’t really dive into the Hirogen incident beyond a brief mention . That said, it’s not unreasonable to assume that, since the Hirogen are a nomadic people with no homeworld to keep them tethered to one part of the galaxy, these hunters eventually traveled into other Quadrants. Since their culture became so intertwined with the USS Voyager throughout that show’s run, it’s possible the Hirogen somehow followed them out of the Delta Quadrant and into Federation space. The Next Generation and Voyager featured the Barzan wormhold, which sometimes (but not always) connected the Alpha and Delta Quadrants, allowing for starships to travel the extremely long distance between the two in moments. It’s certainly very easy to imagine rogue Hirogen traveling through this space phenomenon, and then terrorizing unsuspecting and defenseless colonies in deep space, forcing the Enterprise-D to eventually respond to the threat posed by the faction.

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Whatever actually happened between the Enterprise and the Hirogen, Jean-Luc’s exploits clearly became one of the many legends the cadets now tell each other at Starfleet Academy. Perhaps now that we know this adventure exists thanks to Picard , it’ll lead to a novel or comic that tells us the whole story of how Captain Picard survived a fight with one of the deadliest races in the galaxy?

And another, even bigger question: now that Picard has established a direction connection with the events of Deep Space Nine , and even brought in some new aspects of Worf’s history , is Voyager closure the next focus for Picard ? This show has quickly become a sort of series finale for the entire ’90s era of Trek , and with Seven of Nine already such an important part of the story, we’d say the time has come to revisit the classic voyage to the Delta Quadrant.

Star Trek: Picard season 3 streams on Thursdays on Paramount+.

John Saavedra | @johnsjr9

John Saavedra is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Den of Geek. He lives in New York City with his two cats.

Star Trek: Voyager: what sparked the creation of the Hirogen

By rachel carrington | mar 6, 2021.

The Hirogen were some of the creepiest villains ever to appear in a Star Trek series. They didn’t battle to defend their territory nor were they trying to increase their knowledge like the Borg. And they didn’t kill to protect their loved ones. Their motives for killing were purely selfish. To them, it was a game, and the hunt was the best part of it. The crew from Star Trek: Voyager learned the hard way that the Hirogen were after trophies, proof that they’d conquered their prey. Their size made them more powerful to defeat, and that size was inspired by the NFL.

When watching a football game, Brannon Braga got the idea to develop a new race of aliens whose size would be intimidating and make them stand out from the run-of-the-mill villains. To make sure they stood out from the crowd, the casting department only looked for actors at least 6’6 tall or taller, but that proved to be difficult. Instead, most of the actors cast for the parts of the hunters were at least 6′ tall.

The two tallest men to appear as the Hirogen were former basketball player, Tiny Ron, who is 7’1 tall, who made an appearance on Voyager at the end of the episode “Message in a Bottle.” And Roger W. Morrissey, who is 7’4 tall, appeared on the episode “Hunters.”  But height wasn’t all that mattered to Braga as the sheer size of football players is what he was going for with the Hirogen.

The costume department gave a big assist to the Hirogen by creating suits that were made of silicone. They were so heavy, it would take two or three people to lift the jacket or leg unit onto an actor. And massive villains were brought to life. All in all, the Hirogen were a scary bunch of aliens, and they all started with a football game.

Next. Contrary to some opinions Star Trek: Voyager did have good villains. dark

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• Beta Quadrant
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• View history

The Hirogen are a nomadic humanoid species and faction originating from the Delta Quadrant . They hunt other sentient beings to challenge their skills and gain trophies as well as reputation among other members of their species.

During her exile between 2387 and 2403 , Romulan Empress Sela made contact with Hirogen hunters and conscripted them into her service. In exchange for their support, Sela has granted them the right to hunt in the territory of the Romulan Star Empire .

• 1 Physical features
• 5.1 Starships
• 5.2 Ground forces
• 6 Missions Involved
• 7 Size charts
• 9 Duty officers
• 11 See also
• 12 External links

Physical features [ | ]

Tarkan , a male Hirogen

Hirogen are very distinct in appearance. They are typically very tall and have an enlarged dual-lobed cranium in comparison to Humans . They are closer in resemblance to a reptilian than a human, given their scaled skin, lack of any lips, lack of any hair or facial hair and flat nose (similar to a Saurian ).

Hirogen are often seen wearing a silvery blue colored full body armor , sometimes with a helmet and/or mask that covers their mouths and nose (possibly for respiratory purposes when hunting prey).

Culture [ | ]

The Hirogen are natural hunters, rarely travelling with company. Their whole society revolves around what they call "the hunt" which carries an almost spiritual meaning to them. Their hunts consist of themselves, the hunters, and their prey, who can be anything from a creature to a humanoid and they typically go after challenging adversaries which they deem to be worthy prey.

History [ | ]

• The U.S.S. Voyager makes contact with the Hirogen in the Delta Quadrant in 2374 and becomes their prey.
• A truce is made later in 2374 when Janeway offers the Hirogen Holographic technology to allow them to become settled.
• The Hirogen's attempt of creating a nation state with the help of holographic hunting ground fails in 2377, when the holograms become sentient, begin to kill the hunters and ultimately escape to a planet of their own.
• With Sela's rise to power in the 2400s the Hirogen are allowed to hunt in the Romulan Star Empire in return for their allegiance.

Politics [ | ]

The Hirogen are largely nomadic, traveling in small autonomous groups with a strict hierarchical order.

Military [ | ]

Starships [ | ].

Ground forces [ | ]

Bosses [ | ], missions involved [ | ].

• “Patrol the Lonco System” : Forces of the Romulan Star Empire and the Hirogen meet in the Lonco System to discuss a formal alliance. Federation players have to intervene and prevent the talks.
• “Colony Invasion” : Hirogen forces are among the possible factions attacking a Federation colony the players have to defend.
• “Alpha” : Klingon players must defeat Hirogen led by Tarkan that are hunting survivors of a crashed Bird-of-Prey on Orith II .
• “Narendra System Patrol” : The player engages Hirogen forces attacking Romulan Republic vessels in the Narendra System .
• “Galorndon Core System Patrol” : The player must escort a herd of Gekli and protect them from Hirogen attack until they can safely return to Fluidic Space .
• “New Romulus: Warehouse” : A group of Hirogen act as Madran 's bodyguards.
• “New Romulus: Mountain Base” : Hirogen hunters agree to help the Tal Shiar in trying to drive the Federation and Klingon Empire off of New Romulus .
• “Enemies in All the Usual Places” : The player inspects a Hirogen subspace communication array in the Trakia System ; after fighting off Hirogen defenders, the player uses it to contact their factions' headquarters in the Alpha Quadrant .
• “Revolution” : Players disable and board a Hirogen ship in order to procure equipment to access a Hirogen subspace array and broadcast a transmission across the Delta Quadrant .
• “Taking Care of Enemies” : The player is ambushed by Hirogen led by Denin in the Pansarka System . The player manages to negotiate a ceasefire, convincing the Hirogen that the Vaadwaur would be much better prey.
• “Takedown” : Captain Harry Kim calls in Hirogen reinforcements when the Kazon betray the Delta Alliance in the battle for Vaadwaur Prime .
• “Dust to Dust” : A Hirogen hunting party attempts to lay claim to the disabled K.D.C. Samsar and must be defeated.
• “The Ninth Rule” :

Size charts [ | ]

Tal Shiar allies, the Hirogen and Elachi ships.

Duty officers [ | ]

Gallery [ | ].

A typical Hunter .

A Hirogen Hunter Escort .

Every Hirogen has a knife.

An Initiate with rifle.

The Stalker .

Alpha Tanjan.

See also [ | ]

• Playable Hirogen Starships
• Hunter , another hunting species

External links [ | ]

• Hirogen at Memory Alpha , the Star Trek Wiki.
• 1 Infinity Prize Pack - T6 Ship
• 2 Delta Recruitment

• Cast & crew
• User reviews
• Episode aired Feb 18, 1998

Helping a wounded Hirogen, Janeway finds that their prey has boarded Voyager, a member of species 8472. Helping a wounded Hirogen, Janeway finds that their prey has boarded Voyager, a member of species 8472. Helping a wounded Hirogen, Janeway finds that their prey has boarded Voyager, a member of species 8472.

• Allan Eastman
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• Kate Mulgrew
• Robert Beltran
• Roxann Dawson
• 15 User reviews
• 6 Critic reviews

• Capt. Kathryn Janeway

• Cmdr. Chakotay

• Lt. B'Elanna Torres

• Lt. Tom Paris

• Seven of Nine

• Ensign Harry Kim

• Hirogen Hunter

• Alpha Hirogen
• Voyager Ops Officer
• (uncredited)
• Crewman Foster

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia The telepathic visions that Tuvok experiences in this episode mostly involves reused shots from the Scorpion (1997) / Scorpion, Part II (1997) , in which Kes sees some of the same images. The recycled footage includes close-up views of a member of Species 8472 that both she and Tuvok individually envisage. Another reused shot is of the battle between a Borg cube and a Species 8472 ship, during which, in the far distance behind the cube, the Starship Voyager can also be seen. In fact, only one of the shots that, supposedly, Tuvok sees telepathically was created especially for this one; it shows a Species 8472 vessel being pursued by a Hirogen warship.
• Goofs Before heading to the asteroid, the alpha Hirogen picks up a rifle, then we see a Hirogen smear white paint on his helmet. When the two get to the asteroid, the one with the red paint is the leader, not the white one. One might think that they have switched roles; however, the Hirogen who picked up the rifle was not the same one seen painting white paint on his helmet.

Chakotay : Is your body armor designed to handle rapid pressure fluctuations?

Alpha Hirogen : It can defeat most hostile environments. I once tracked a silicon-based life-form through the neutronium mantle of a collapsed star.

Tom Paris : I once tracked a mouse through Jefferies tube 32.

• Connections Referenced in Inglorious Treksperts: The Women (2020)
• Soundtracks Star Trek: Voyager - Main Title Written by Jerry Goldsmith Performed by Jay Chattaway

User reviews 15

• Dec 23, 2018
• February 18, 1998 (United States)
• United States
• Official site
• Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (Studio)
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• Runtime 46 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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8 Alpha Quadrant Things Star Trek: Voyager Found In Delta Quadrant

• Star Trek: Voyager finds familiar things from the Alpha Quadrant in the Delta Quadrant, sparking important questions and connections.
• Encounter with Ferengi negotiators leads Voyager crew to stop their interference in a pre-warp civilization for profits.
• Janeway and crew discover humans abducted by aliens in the 1930s living in the Delta Quadrant, including Amelia Earhart.

For a show with the conceit of being so far from home, Star Trek: Voyager found a surprising number of things in the Delta Quadrant that originated in the Alpha Quadrant, including several from Earth itself. The USS Voyager, commanded by Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), and Commander Chakotay's (Robert Beltran) Maquis raider Val Jean were both brought to the Delta Quadrant in 2371 by the Caretaker (Basil Langton). After Janeway destroyed the Caretaker's array to save the Ocampa , Voyager and the Val Jean were left without a ticket back to the Alpha Quadrant, and banded together to make the long journey.

Finding something familiar in an otherwise totally alien corner of the galaxy brought a sense of familiarity to the USS Voyager crew and viewers at home alike, but the presence of something from the Alpha Quadrant in the Delta Quadrant inevitably raised important questions , like how familiar people and objects traveled 70,000 light years from home in the first place, and whether the find could lead Captain Kathryn Janeway towards a quicker path home to Earth.

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A pair of ferengi negotiators, arridor and kol, star trek: voyager season 3, episode 5 "false profits".

The USS Voyager encounters a pair of Ferengi negotiators, Arridor (Dan Shor) and Kol (Leslie Jordan), who claim to be the prophesied Great Sages of the Takarians, a society with Bronze Age level technology. The Ferengi have no Prime Directive to deter them from interfering with the Takarians' development , so they're performing "miracles" with a standard replicator to reap the monetary benefits of the Takarians' worship. Voyager's crew know the Ferengi reputation well enough to know they're no Sages, so they must figure out how to put a stop to Arridor and Kol's grift.

"False Profits" serves as a Star Trek sequel episode to Star Trek: The Next Generation season 3, episode 8 "The Price", as Voyager catches up with Arridor and Kol (formerly played by J. R. Quinonez) seven years after their Delta Quadrant arrival. The Ferengi took a test flight through the supposedly stable wormhole near Barzan II, which was supposed to emerge in the Gamma Quadrant, but instead stranded the Ferengi in the Delta Quadrant, where they made the best of their situation as only Ferengi can.

Star Trek: Voyager Season 3, Episode 23 "Distant Origin"

"Distant Origin" opens on Forra Gegen (Henry Woronicz), a scientist who discovers that his people, the Voth, share certain genetic similarities with the humans aboard the USS Voyager. While this confirms Gegen's theory that the Voth are the descendants of a species brought to their homeworld millions of years ago , religious leader Minister Odala (Concetta Tomei) refuses to accept the truth. Even with Commander Chakotay present as a living specimen of humanity, Odala pushes Gegen to recant, because Gegen's theory goes against the Voth Doctrine that keeps Odala in power.

After meeting Gegen's assistant, Tova Veer (Christopher Liam Moore), Janeway and the Doctor use the holodeck as a research guide to extrapolate how hadrosaurs might look in the 24th century if they'd been able to evolve into a humanoid form with comparable intelligence. The result resembles Veer, so Janeway and the Doctor conclude, like Gegen, that the Voth evolved from hadrosaurs into a highly advanced species on Earth , then fled to the Delta Quadrant in spacefaring vessels instead of being wiped out with the other dinosaurs.

The Friendship One Probe

Star trek: voyager season 7, episode 21 "friendship one".

By Star Trek: Voyager season 7 , the USS Voyager is in regular contact with Starfleet Command, and Starfleet gives Voyager a mission to retrieve a 21st-century Earth probe, Friendship One . The probe proves difficult to find, but once discovered on an alien planet suffering devastating climate collapse, the implications of Friendship One's launch become clear. Besides the irreversible damage to the planet's climate, the inhabitants are all suffering from radiation sickness, and bear understandable hostility towards Earth, because the aliens believe humans orchestrated their destruction with the Friendship One probe.

The United Earth Space Probe Agency was one of the early names for the organization the USS Enterprise belongs to in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode, "Charlie X".

Friendship One was launched in 2067 by the United Earth Space Probe Agency with the intention of making friends with whomever found it, as the name implies. Although Friendship One, the 400-year-old Earth probe, traveled for centuries carrying messages of peace, musical recordings, and ways to translate languages, the people who discovered Friendship One in the Delta Quadrant took a greater interest in the antimatter it used to travel across space. Without the proper knowledge of its use, antimatter proved devastating to the planet and its people, resulting in death and disease for generations.

Dreadnought, a Cardassian Missile

Star trek: voyager season 2, episode 17 "dreadnought".

The USS Voyager discovers a dangerously powerful, self-guided Cardassian missile in the Delta Quadrant, which Lt. B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) recognizes as one nicknamed "Dreadnought" . When B'Elanna was with the Maquis, Torres had actually reprogrammed the missile herself, with the intention of turning the Cardassians' own weapon against them. Without a Cardassian target in sight, the artificially intelligent Cardassian Dreadnought targets a heavily-populated Class-M planet , Rakosa V. B'Elanna determines she must be the one to keep Dreadnought from hurting anyone else, and boards the missile to convince it to stand down.

While no concrete reason is given for exactly how the Dreadnought wound up in the Delta Quadrant, its last known location in the Alpha Quadrant was the Badlands, the same rough patch of space where Voyager and the Val Jean, Chakotay's Maquis raider, fatefully met. Because of this, Torres theorizes that Dreadnought arrived in the Delta Quadrant the same way that Voyager and the Val Jean did , courtesy of the Caretaker.

Star Trek: Voyagers BElanna Is More Klingon Than TNGs Worf Ever Was

A klingon d-7 class cruiser, complete with klingons, star trek: voyager, season 7, episode 14 "prophecy".

The USS Voyager certainly never expected to find a Klingon ship in the Delta Quadrant, but more surprising is the fact that the crew of the Klingon D-7 Class Cruiser believes their savior, the prophesied kuvah'magh, is aboard Voyager . Janeway assures the Klingon captain, Kohlar (Wren T. Brown), that the Federation and Klingon Empire have been allies for the past 80 years, and offers Voyager's own half-Klingon, Lt. B'Elanna Torres, as proof their societies are working together now. The kuvah'magh is Torres' unborn daughter, who does save the Klingons, but not the way they expected.

Centuries ago, Kohlar's great-grandfather set off on a quest to find the kuvah'magh, and the Klingon D-7 Cruiser became a generation ship that is now crewed by the descendants of its original crew . The quest begun by Kohlar's great-grandfather brought Kohlar and his crew to the Delta Quadrant after four generations of searching. Whether B'Elanna's child is actually the kuvah'magh or not, Kohlar desperately wants the baby to be their savior, so that his people may finally rest.

Amelia Earhart

Star trek: voyager season 2, episode 1 "the 37s".

The discovery of a 1936 Ford truck, seemingly disconnected from any parent vehicle, leads the USS Voyager to a nearby Class-L planet, where they find eight humans who have been in cryo-stasis since they were abducted by aliens in the 1930s. Among them are one of Janeway's personal heroes, legendary American aviator Amelia Earhart (Sharon Lawrence) , who disappeared without a trace while attempting to fly around the world, and Earhart's navigator, Fred Noonan (David Graf). Earhart and the other preserved humans are known by the planet's inhabitants as "The 37s", and revered as sacred.

Originally thought to be aliens, the natives of the unnamed planet are the descendants of humans. A species called the Briori abducted the natives' ancestors, along with Earhart and the other 37s, from Earth centuries earlier , and took them to the Delta Quadrant. Once held as slaves, the humans who weren't in stasis revolted to free themselves from the Briori, and developed a thriving, Earth-like civilization in the Delta Quadrant. Voyager's crew consider staying with the humans in their little slice of home, while Janeway also offers a ride back to Earth to anyone who wants it, including Amelia Earhart.

The USS Equinox

Star trek: voyager season 5, episode 26 & season 6, episode 1 "equinox".

The crew of the USS Voyager believe they're the only Starfleet vessel in the Delta Quadrant until they find the USS Equinox, five years into their journey home. Captain Rudolph Ransom (John Savage) and the Equinox crew have had a harder time in the Delta Quadrant than Voyager, with more damage, fewer starting resources, and fewer opportunities to make friends along the way. Ransom's survival tactics include sacrificing innocent nucleogenic life forms for a more efficient form of fuel, which Janeway finds hard to stomach, and decides that Ransom needs to be held accountable for defying Federation ideals, regardless of how badly the Equinox is damaged.

Although Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) suggests that the Equinox might be in the Delta Quadrant on a rescue mission to find Voyager, the USS Equinox's specs don't fit the profile of a starship that would be assigned to a long-range mission. The explanation of how the Equinox arrived in the Delta Quadrant in the first place seems fairly simple, because Captain Ransom tells Janeway that the Equinox was also abducted by the Caretaker , just like Voyager, but the Equinox has only been in the Delta Quadrant for 2 years, and Janeway destroyed the Caretaker's array 5 years earlier.

Seven of Nine

Debuts in star trek: voyager season 4, episode 1 "scorpion, part 2".

When Captain Kathryn Janeway allies with the Borg in order to secure safe passage across Borg space, Janeway refuses the cursory assimilation that the Borg want to use to communicate with Janeway and Voyager's crew, and instead requests a speaker for the Borg, citing the existence of Locutus (Patrick Stewart) as precedent. Seven of Nine , Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01, is selected as the Borg drone to act as liaison between the Collective and Voyager, likely because Seven of Nine had once been a member of Species 5168, like most of Voyager's crew -- in other words, human.

Voyager season 5, episodes 15 & 16, "Dark Frontier" provides even more detail of the Hansens' fateful journey.

After Seven's link with the Collective is severed, more information about Seven's human origin comes to light. In Voyager season 4, episode 6 "The Raven", when Voyager nears the Hansens' ship, the USS Raven, memories of Seven's early life surface, revealing that Seven had been six-year-old human Annika Hansen , the daughter of Magnus Hansen (Kirk Baily) and Erin Hansen (Laura Stepp), Federation scientists who were studying the Borg when they were assimilated. Voyager season 5, episodes 15 & 16, "Dark Frontier" provides even more detail of the Hansens' fateful journey, showing the Raven arriving in the Delta Quadrant by following a Borg Cube through a transwarp conduit.

10 Ways USS Voyager Changed In Star Treks Delta Quadrant

Star Trek: Voyager links back to the greater Star Trek universe with people and starships from the Alpha Quadrant. Connections to the familiar were especially important early on, because Voyager 's place in the Star Trek franchise was established and aided by the legitimacy these finds offered. Later, when the USS Voyager used the Hirogen communications array to communicate with Starfleet Command, links back to the Alpha Quadrant were plentiful again, not only to prove that the USS Voyager was closer to home, but to help Star Trek: Voyager maintain connections to Star Trek and carry the franchise in its final years.

Star Trek: Voyager is available to stream on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Voyager

Cast Jennifer Lien, Garrett Wang, Tim Russ, Robert Duncan McNeill, Roxann Dawson, Robert Beltran, Kate Mulgrew, Jeri Ryan, Ethan Phillips, Robert Picardo

Release Date May 23, 1995

Genres Sci-Fi, Adventure

Network UPN

Streaming Service(s) Paramount+

Franchise(s) Star Trek

Writers Michael Piller, Rick Berman

Showrunner Kenneth Biller, Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller, Brannon Braga

Rating TV-PG

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• Series & Movies

Published Apr 10, 2024

A Brief History of the Progenitors in Star Trek

They designed life itself!

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains story details and plot points for Star Trek: Discovery 's "Red Directive ."

StarTrek.com

Captain Burnham's top-secret mission in the final season of Star Trek: Discovery has finally been revealed. But this time, the Discovery crew isn’t stopping a future-destroying A.I., or a lethal, extra-galactic force. Instead, they’re investigating the basic mysteries of why most species in the Star Trek universe look vaguely human.

As revealed in " Red Directive ," the search for technology used by ancient "Progenitors" sets-up a massive treasure hunt for the season. But, who are the Progenitors? What did Jean-Luc Picard know about the secrets of inter-species alien DNA? And how does all of this fit in with Gene Roddenberry’s earliest ideas for Star Trek ?

Here’s a brief history of the Progenitors, from the early 1960s, to the 24th Century, all the way to 2024, and the 31st Century.

The Real World-Origins of the Progenitors

"The Cage"

When the U.S.S. Enterprise first set out to seek out "new life and new civilizations," a huge swath of those alien lifeforms turned out to look a lot like human beings. And the primary reason for that, at least behind-the-scenes, was two-fold.

First, human actors are more affordable, and second, Gene Roddenberry wanted the classic Star Trek to avoid the sci-fi trope of "Bug-Eyed Monsters." And so, in one of the original 1964 pitch documents for Star Trek , Roddenberry floated the idea of "The Parallel Worlds" concept . The idea was that the format of Star Trek — from a writing and production standpoint — would generally deal with "...plant and animal life, plus people, quite similar to Earth. Social evolution will also have interesting points of similarity with ours."

Unlike a huge swath of science fiction on TV at the time, the promise of strange, new worlds, that were, in fact, populated by people , is something that set Star Trek apart, and was the cornerstone of what gave the series its humanist angle. But, the side effect of course, was an in-universe question — why were so many aliens humanoid?

The Old Ones, Sargon, and The Preservers

"The Paradise Syndrome"

The first two seasons of The Original Series are sprinkled with hints that, in the distant past, the galaxy was visited by super-powered aliens with technology far more advanced than anything in the Federation.

In " What Are Little Girls Made Of? ," we meet Ruk, an android built by "The Old Ones," an alien race capable of creating humanoid androids that were basically immortal. In " Return to Tomorrow ," the disembodied soul of Sargon, refers to humanity as "my children." While Dr. Muhuall says this idea flies in the face of evolutionary theory, Spock mentions the idea that aliens seeded life would "explain certain elements of Vulcan pre-history."

Then in Season 3, in " The Paradise Syndrome ," Bones and Spock tackle the question head-on. When they realize an ancient race of "Preservers" helped various humanoid species throughout the galaxy, the idea of an ancient alien race guiding and "seeding" a ton of humanoid species became less of a myth and more of a working theory. "I’ve always wondered why there were so many humanoids scattered through the galaxy," Bones says. To which Spock replies, "So have I. Apparently, the Preservers account for a number of them."

And then, the questions about an ancient humanoid species went answered. At least, until The Next Generation . 

"The Chase"

Directed by Jonathan Frakes and written by Ronald D. Moore and Joe Menosky, " The Chase " was a sixth-season episode of The Next Generation , which, according to The Next Generation Companion , was considered in the writers' room the most "Roddenberryesque" episode of TNG at that time. The story itself took cues from Carl Sagan's novel Contact , and posited that yes, ancient aliens not only seeded most of the humanoid species, but also hid a message in the DNA of all those species.

Captain Picard's interest in archeology comes in handy during the quest to locate all the DNA strands and reveal the message, which was also represented metaphorically by the ancient artifact known as the Kurlan naiskos .

At the end of the episode, representatives from the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Empire, the Cardassian Union, and the Federation, all witness the truth — an ancient Progenitor (played by Salome Jens) makes it clear that all the humanoid species in the galaxy don’t exist out of pure hubris, but instead, out of a kind of desire for legacy. "You are a monument, not to our greatness, but to our existence…. Remember us."

Ronald D. Moore pointed out that there's no reason to believe that the Progenitors from "The Chase" and the Preservers from TOS aren't one in the same. Though not explicitly stated in the script, he said, "But this could be them, and be internally consistent."

Discovery Brings It All Home

"Red Directive"

While The Next Generation established a canonical fact that TOS only danced around, that only answered the question of why . With Discovery Season 5, a stranger, and more complex question is getting broached — how ?

"The Chase" told us why there are so many humanoid species in the galaxy, but we had no idea how the Progenitors specifically pushed life to evolve on various planets toward the exact form of life we’re all so familiar with. As the crew of Discovery — and other forces — are in pursuit of this ancient tech, Star Trek is boldly speculating on one of the biggest questions of all time.

If there was a supreme intelligence behind the creation of life, what was their method? While these kinds of questions are somewhat mind-boggling in real life, what Discovery is doing now is what Star Trek has done all along: Ask provocative questions that are beyond what we know now, so that maybe, in the future, we’ll be better prepared.

We don’t know that the Progenitors exist in real science, but the "panspermia hypothesis," is a very real scientific concept. A friendly alien may not have consciously sparked life on Earth eons ago, but, in reality, it is possible that some building blocks for life itself may have come from the stars.

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Ryan Britt is the author of the nonfiction books Phasers on Stun! How the Making and Remaking of Star Trek Changed the World (2022), The Spice Must Flow: The Journey of Dune from Cult Novels to Visionary Sci-Fi Movies (2023), and the essay collection Luke Skywalker Can’t Read (2015). He is a longtime contributor to Star Trek.com and his writing regularly appears with Inverse, Den of Geek!, Esquire and elsewhere. He lives in Portland, Maine with his family.

Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1-4 are streaming exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., the UK, Canada, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia and Austria. Seasons 2 and 3 also are available on the Pluto TV “Star Trek” channel in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The series streams on Super Drama in Japan, TVNZ in New Zealand, and SkyShowtime in Spain, Portugal, Poland, The Nordics, The Netherlands, and Central and Eastern Europe and also airs on Cosmote TV in Greece. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

• Star Trek 101

Screen Rant

Star trek origin movie officially announced by paramount for 2025 release.

Paramount Pictures officially announces the next Star Trek movie at CinemaCon, which will arrive in movie theaters in 2025.

• Paramount Pictures announces new Star Trek movie for 2025, directed by Toby Haynes and written by Seth Grahame-Smith.
• Chris Pine-led Star Trek 4 remains in development, while the new film is an origin story set decades before Abrams' 2009 movie.
• Alongside the Star Trek origin movie, Paramount reveals a packed slate of exciting films for 2025-26 at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.

Paramount Pictures officially announces the next Star Trek movie, which is scheduled to arrive in theaters in 2025. As reported in January, the next Star Trek movie isn't the long-delayed, Chris Pine-led Star Trek 4 produced by J.J. Abrams, which remains in development at Paramount. Rather, the next Star Trek movie is an origin story directed by Toby Haynes ( Star Wars: Andor ) and written by Seth Grahame-Smith (A braham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter ).

Screen Rant' s Rob Keyes (@rob_keyes) is at CinemaCon in Las Vegas where Paramount Pictures confirmed the next Star Trek movie , currently called Untitled Star Trek Origin Story , to be released in 2025. J.J. Abrams is also producing Untitled Star Trek Origin Story, which takes place decades before Abrams' Star Trek 2009 movie. See Rob Keyes' Tweet below:

Paramount also confirmed Untitled Star Trek Origin Story will begin production later this year for theatrical release in 2025.

Every Upcoming Star Trek Movie & TV Show

Star trek's new movies in theaters and paramount plus explained, star trek is finally making movies again.

After nearly a decade, Star Trek i s back to making movies. Star Trek on Paramount+ has created a television renaissance for the franchise, but the theatrical side of Star Trek overseen by Paramount Pictures has languished in development hell since Star Trek Beyond bowed in the summer of 2016. Toby Haynes' Untitled Star Trek Origin Story is yet another prequel, but as it's said to be set decades before Star Trek 2009, it could very well be set after Star Trek: Enterprise 's mid-22nd century voyages but otherwise be an origin story for both Star Trek 's Prime and alternate Kelvin timelines .

Meanwhile, J.J. Abrams' Star Trek 4 , which is the "final chapter" of the USS Enterprise crew led by Chris Pine's Captain James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto's Spock, has seen some movement with a new screenwriter, Steve Yockey ( The Flight Attendant ), tackling the long-delayed sequel. Pine and his fellow Star Trek actors, including Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, and Sofia Boutella, have all expressed their eagerness to return if Star Trek 4 can come together.

It's a positive sign that Star Trek movies are finally coming back.

Paramount+ is making their own Star Trek movies, with the recently-wrapped Star Trek: Section 31 awaiting a release date. Starring Academy Award-winner Michelle Yeoh, Section 31 i s the first made-for-streaming Star Trek movie, and it is reportedly set during Star Trek 's "lost era" with connections to Star Trek: The Next Generation. Section 31 could get a sequel if successful, and the Star Trek: Picard spinoff dubbed Star Trek: Legacy may also become a streaming movie instead of a series. However all this shakes out, it's a positive sign that Star Trek movies are finally coming back.

Source: Rob Keyes Twitter

A Star Trek Origin Movie Is Coming in 2025 From 'Andor' and 'Doctor Who' Director Toby Haynes

'Star Trek' (2009) director J.J. Abrams is attached to produce.

The Big Picture

• A new Star Trek prequel film, an "origin story", is in development, at Paramount.
• The Star Trek history before Kirk's missions on the Enterprise is largely unwritten, leaving room for creativity with the new film.
• Director Toby Haynes, known for Andor , is working on the film alongside writer Seth Grahame-Smith; a 2025 release window was announced at CinemaCon.

Star Trek may finally be coming back to the big screen. A prequel to the 2009 J.J. Abrams reboot of the franchise is in the works from director Toby Haynes . The news comes from Paramount's presentation at CinemaCon today, as reported by Collider's Steve Weintraub and Britta DeVore . With Haynes, who recently helmed six episodes of the acclaimed Star Wars series Andor , at the rudder, the film will be written by Seth Grahame-Smith .

So far, other details on the new film are scarce, but it will reportedly be an "origin story", taking place decades before the 2009 Star Trek film, which took place in 2255. That likely means that it will not feature the cast from the 2009 reboot, which has so far been difficult for Paramount to wrangle together for a fourth film, despite numerous attempts to do so . That doesn't necessarily mean that a fourth movie isn't happening: back in March, Paramount hired The Flight Attendant scribe Steve Yockey to pen a new script for the film. For their part, the cast is game as well, with Zoe Saldaña recently stating her willingness to return for a fourth mission on the USS Enterprise .

What Happened Decades Before Kirk's First Missions on the Enterprise?

The history of the Star Trek universe prior to the celebrated voyages of the Enterprise is largely unwritten. The first starship Enterprise 's adventures in the 22nd century were chronicled on the UPN prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise . That series ended with the founding of the United Federation of Planets in 2161, which leaves almost a century of mostly unexplored history between that and the history now being charted on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (and the first two seasons of mothership show Star Trek: Discovery ).

At some point, the nascent Federation faces a devastating war against the Romulan Star Empire , while also engaged in a Cold War with the Klingons. The USS Enterprise will eventually be launched in the 23rd century, under the captaincy of Robert April, who has been briefly glimpsed on Star Trek: The Animated Series and Strange New Worlds , before being handed off to Christopher Pike . Apart from that, however, Haynes and Graeme-Smith have a near-blank canvas upon which to make their mark.

In addition to Andor , Haynes has also helmed episodes of Doctor Who , Sherlock , and Black Mirror ; his work on the latter series includes the episode " USS Callister ," a loving pastiche of Star Trek . Graeme-Smith wrote the novels Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter ; he worked on the story for the upcoming horror comedy sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice .

A new Star Trek prequel film is in development; no date has yet been set beyond a 2025 release window . Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

Species 8472

• View history

Species 8472 was the Borg designation for a non-humanoid species native to a dimension called fluidic space , accessible through quantum singularities . Their highly developed biology and organic technology rendered them tactically superior even to the Borg , who considered them the "apex of biological evolution ". Seven of Nine rated Species 8472 devious and highly intelligent, claiming it would seek the most efficient means of destroying its opponent. ( VOY : " Scorpion ", " Scorpion, Part II ", " Prey ") The species' name for itself is unknown, having only been referred to by their Borg designation.

• 1.1 War with the Borg
• 1.2 The Federation "threat"
• 1.3 Aftermath
• 4 Technology
• 5 Individuals
• 6.1 Appearances
• 6.2.1 Origins
• 6.2.2 Designing the alien
• 6.2.3 Digital modeling
• 6.2.4 Reception
• 6.3 Apocrypha
• 6.4 Further reading
• 6.5 External links

History [ ]

War with the borg [ ].

The Borg encountered Species 8472 in 2373 , after finding their way into fluidic space to search for more species worthy of assimilation . However, Species 8472 proved immune to assimilation and the invasion of their realm provoked a war ; according to Seven of Nine , Species 8472 was the first species to offer "true resistance to the Borg" in their long history . With their superior biological technology , Species 8472 drove the Borg back and launched a counter-invasion of the galaxy , annihilating large numbers of Borg drones , ships and even planets .

The Federation starship USS Voyager encountered Species 8472 around this time, during which a member of the species telepathically communicated their genocidal intentions to Kes . Upon realizing this, Captain Kathryn Janeway decided to ally with the Borg to stop Species 8472, while also ensuring safe passage through Borg space . Armed with bio-molecular warheads which contained modified nanoprobes developed by The Doctor , Voyager destroyed a number of Species 8472 bio-ships in fluidic and normal space. Species 8472 withdrew to their realm, soon after, in fear of the new weapon. ( VOY : " Scorpion ", " Scorpion, Part II ", " Prey "). The consequences of Janeway's actions with Species 8472 almost resulted in Janeway being assimilated by the Borg. ( VOY : " Hope and Fear ")

A member of Species 8472 struggles with a Hirogen hunter.

One member of Species 8472 was left behind in normal space and was relentlessly tracked by a pair of Hirogen hunters for several months . This individual later boarded Voyager in an attempt to return home to fluidic space. Captain Janeway intended to aid its effort, but Seven of Nine refused. Shortly afterward, as the Species 8472 grappled with a Hirogen hunter, Seven took the opportunity to beam them both to a nearby Hirogen ship . ( VOY : " Prey ")

The Federation "threat" [ ]

Their conflict with Voyager led Species 8472 to dismiss the Borg as "irrelevant" and focus their efforts on Humanity , as they had proven themselves much more dangerous with the use of the bio-molecular warhead. In response, they built several terraspheres in the Delta Quadrant containing simulations of Starfleet Headquarters , and genetically modified themselves to resemble Alpha Quadrant species. Their goal was reconnaissance : to infiltrate Earth and gather intelligence on Starfleet 's military capabilities and plans. Some Species 8472 were uncomfortable experiencing the lives of lifeforms so different from themselves, while others found elements of it enjoyable.

In 2375 , Voyager discovered Terrasphere 8 by chance after detecting an ersatz Federation signal. Species 8472 subsequently captured Commander Chakotay , who was on a reconnaissance mission on the terrasphere, believing a Federation attack was imminent. The crew of Voyager managed to convince them that they had no contact with Earth and no hostile intentions, and were able to broker a cease-fire in which they offered the modified nanoprobes in exchange for data on Species 8472's technology. Afterward, Species 8472 returned to fluidic space. ( VOY : " In the Flesh ")

Aftermath [ ]

The Borg continued to patrol a border with fluidic space in the Beta Quadrant . Axum suggested that he would try to make contact with Species 8472 after he was liberated from " Unimatrix Zero " in 2377 . ( VOY : " Unimatrix Zero, Part II ")

Biology [ ]

Close-up of a Species 8472 eye

Two members of Species 8472 courting

Species 8472 stood approximately three meters tall and were tripedal. Their eyes had cruciform pupils and they lacked obvious mouths , nostrils , and ears . They had an epidermis . They were immensely strong, able to dismember humanoid limbs, and rip through bulkheads with ease. They did not breathe oxygen and apparently did not need any atmosphere for survival. They could walk without the aid of gravity , being able to cling to surfaces. ( VOY : " Scorpion ", " Prey ", " In the Flesh ") Species 8472 had as many as five sexes . ( VOY : " Someone to Watch Over Me ")

Species 8472 blood cells

Each cell of a Species 8472 contained over a hundred times the DNA of a human cell; the DNA had a triple helix structure and, as of 2374 , was the most densely coded of any lifeform known to the Federation . Species 8472 possessed an extraordinarily powerful immune system , capable of immediately destroying nearly any foreign agent whether chemical, biological, or technological. This rendered them immune to Borg assimilation . The Species, however, were susceptible to a modified form of Borg nanoprobe that could evade detection by their immune system and disintegrate their cells. ( VOY : " Scorpion ", " Scorpion, Part II ") If Species 8472 cells were introduced into another lifeform, they rapidly proliferated and began to consume it from the inside out. ( VOY : " Scorpion ") Their blood consisted of DNA and polyfluidic compounds . ( VOY : " Prey ") In desperate situations, they could commit suicide by releasing a cellular toxin into their bloodstreams. ( VOY : " In the Flesh ")

Species 8472 was highly resistant to almost all forms of technology . Their bodies generated a bioelectric field that blocked sensors and impeded transporter locks. They could penetrate force fields and withstand quantities of weapons fire that would be lethal to most other lifeforms. Even when injured to the point of appearing dead, they could regenerate. ( VOY : " Prey ")

In their native form, Species 8472 was only known to communicate via telepathy (though they could produce some rudimentary sounds, such as shrieks, hisses and growls). They could initiate mental contact with other telepathic species , such as Ocampa and Vulcans , though to the recipient such experiences were physically taxing and difficult to understand. ( VOY : " Scorpion ", " Prey ") Species 8472 did not sleep . ( VOY : " In the Flesh ")

Culture [ ]

Being the only known inhabitants of fluidic space, Species 8472 was intensely xenophobic . They regarded all other lifeforms as impure and weak, and a threat to their genetic integrity. In response to the Borg "contaminating" their realm, Species 8472 intended to purge all life from the Milky Way Galaxy . ( VOY : " Scorpion ", " Scorpion, Part II ")

However, some members of Species 8472 gained a new appreciation for the experiences of humanoid species after assuming their forms. For example, " Valerie Archer " expressed fondness for various works of Federation art , literature , and music . ( VOY : " In the Flesh ")

Technology [ ]

A console on a bio-ship

Species 8472 used highly advanced organic technology . Their bio-ships were composed of the same biological material as Species 8472, and thus shared both their resistance to technology and their vulnerability to modified nanoprobes. Eight bio-ships working in tandem with an energy focusing ship wielded enough firepower to destroy a planet . ( VOY : " Scorpion ") Species 8472 also possessed sophisticated genetic engineering techniques that allowed them to mimic other lifeforms; this deception, which was maintained through periodic isomorphic injections , could be revealed only through a microcellular scan . While in such mimicked forms, they were functionally a member of the target species and biologically required to live as that species did. A Human or Vulcan form for example was limited to breathing the same atmospheric gasses, required sleep, and was vulnerable to the Vulcan neck pinch . ( VOY : " In the Flesh ") Species 8472 was able to make use of both holographic technology and particle synthesis . ( VOY : " In the Flesh ")

Individuals [ ]

• " Valerie Archer "
• " Boothby "
• " Bullock "
• " David Gentry "
• " Jason Hayek "
• " O'Halloran "
• " Reiskin "
• Unnamed Species 8472
• Terrasphere 8 personnel

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ].

• " Scorpion "
• " Scorpion, Part II "
• " In the Flesh "
• " Someone to Watch Over Me " ( holophoto )

Background information [ ]

Origins [ ].

In the first draft script of "Scorpion", this type of alien was initially referred to as "Species 84729" when the draft was submitted on 18 February 1997 . The species was renamed to its eventual designation by the time a particular revision of the initial draft of the teleplay was issued on 24 February 1997.

The creation of Species 8472 was inspired by the success of previous visual effects in the series, particularly the design of the macrovirus in " Macrocosm ". Visual Effects Supervisor Ronald B. Moore commented, " [Executive Producer Jeri Taylor ] saw that we could do that and maybe, if we had something with a little more meat on it, literally, that we could try to move forward. " ("Red Alert: Amazing Visual Effects", VOY Season 3 DVD special features) According to Taylor herself, Species 8472 was originally conceived by Brannon Braga , who co-wrote " Scorpion ". ("Braving the Unknown: Season Three", VOY Season 3 DVD special features)

Visual Effects Producer Dan Curry was also influential in the genesis of the Species 8472 design. CGI Effects Director Ron Thornton said, " From what I understand [...] Dan Curry, God bless him, managed to convince the producers it would be a really good idea to do a wicked, computer-generated character, something that wasn't a guy in a suit or a guy with chewing gum on his nose. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 16 , p. 37) Curry himself remarked, " When we were originally going to have that species, I suggested to the producers that instead of doing it [as] a guy in a suit, let's take advantage of some of the new CG technology, and do something that can't be a guy in a suit. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 74) Director David Livingston noted, " There was no choice but to create a CGI model. We couldn't do something realistic [in live action]. " ("Braving the Unknown: Season Three", VOY Season 3 DVD special features)

The process of designing Species 8472 began with the script of "Scorpion". Dan Curry recollected, " We had a script for a very vicious alien creature that had to be so powerful and so fearsome that it was able to chop up and destroy the Borg. " ("The Birth of Species 8472", VOY Season 4 DVD special features) Concept artist Steve Burg elaborated, " It said it was big, and ferocious, and terrifying, and moved very quickly; it was 14 feet tall at one point. That was about it. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , p. 28) In the script of "Scorpion" (both the first draft and final draft), the species was described as being at least ten feet tall and wearing an alien breathing apparatus. [1] CGI animator John Teska recalled how he and the rest of CGI effects house Foundation Imaging heard about the conversations over the script: " As there were, you know, script discussions happening at Paramount , we started to get the early word that there may be a new nemesis, a new character that would make even the Borg afraid. And it was very exciting just to know that there's going to be a CG character, that it was going to be a major player for that season. " ("The Birth of Species 8472", VOY Season 4 DVD special features)

Designing the alien [ ]

A conceptual progenitor of Species 8472

Dan Curry came up with the concept of having the aliens each be three-legged. By this stage, he had spent lots of time pondering the potentiality of a tripod alien, motivated by several inspirations. He noted, " I guess it goes back to the old fifties' sci-fi book Day of the Triffids , about these tripod plants that come to Earth and cause trouble. " Another influence on the tripod design was a similarly three-legged, alien character that had appeared in a science-fiction fantasy play that Curry had written, designed and directed, as one of his thesis projects in grad school. " That was a comedic creature, " he noted, " but when this came along, I thought, 'Well, hey, wouldn't it be cool to do a tripod creature?' " ("The Birth of Species 8472", VOY Season 4 DVD special features) Yet another relevant influence was knowing that Foundation Imaging, who were commissioned to design the creature, would likely be able to handle such a lifeform. " I knew also that on 'Hypernauts' Foundation had done a tripod creature that was a kind of pet antelope called a gloose, " explained Curry. " Ron Thornton had shown me a tape of the character. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , pp. 27-28) After deciding that Species 8472 would be tripedal, Dan Curry did some sketches that he later characterized as "very, very crude." ("The Birth of Species 8472", VOY Season 4 DVD special features)

The prospect of demonstrating that the aliens were not being played by actors had an impact on the tripedal nature of Species 8472 as well as their overall design. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 74) However, Dan Curry initially waited to relay the concept of the alien's three-legged form to Foundation Imaging, because Ronald B. Moore wanted to avoid imposing a particular design on the team. Moore recounted, " We approached Ron Thornton at Foundation and said, 'Look, here's what we're trying to do. Why don't you have your guys draw something up, and we'll look it over' [....] I would never presume to jump on that three-legged thing unless it was a script point. I'll just say, 'Show me some alien creatures.' " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , p. 28)

Endeavoring to focus the design, Foundation Imaging brought Steve Burg into the process, he having worked as a concept artist on multiple movies and actually having been responsible for the gloose design. Burg worked with Ron Thornton, who passed all of Dan Curry's and Ron Moore's remarks on to him. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , p. 28) During Burg's tenure on the project, the communication between him and Curry was profuse, with them exchanging many sketches and ideas. ("The Birth of Species 8472", VOY Season 4 DVD special features; Cinefantastique , Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 74)

As Moore had planned, Burg commenced his work on the project by consulting the few details about the alien that were available in the script, including the ultimately changed notion of it having a height of fourteen feet. With very little guidelines to proceed from, however, Burg's first drawing of the alien failed to impress the producers, who deemed it as too conventional, overly similar to the creatures designed for 'Alien' and 'Predator'. Burg later admitted, " I have to say I agree [....] It does have sort of a mantis-like feeling and I think that kept on through [the design process], but I think there was a miscalculation in that we began by making it too derivative, not of Star Trek things, but of other creature designs. There are definitely similarities between the head and the alien from 'Predator.' I think it was the head they were most concerned about. They wanted something like the alien, but they didn't want a rip-off. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , pp. 28 & 30)

Following this initial rejection, Ron Thornton advised Steve Burg to produce several quick sketches featuring a variety of looks that the producers could choose from. " The next batch were just basic silhouettes, " Burg explained. " Some have three legs; some have two legs; some of them have a split tripodal base, with below the knee bifurcated. I don't think I had any real strong idea. " The three-legged approach to some of these renderings meant that the design was nearing what Dan Curry was looking for. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , p. 30) Although some of the images showed the creature with very viscerally sharp teeth, Ron Moore steered the design away from this direction, as the creature also had to look intelligent. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , pp. 29 & 30) " One thing that Ron mentioned, which he may have gotten from Paramount, was that the thing was to have practically no mouth, " stated Burg. " One way of making it look smart is to not give it big teeth, like a Tyrannosaurus or something. If something looks very nasty and it doesn't have obvious claws or teeth, you figure it works on a whole other level. " The producers selected one of the drawings, which suggested the creature's height as well as looking suitably alien, and asked Burg to concentrate on developing it. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , p. 30)

Steve Burg's assignment of fleshing out the chosen sketch involved a fair amount of work, as it was a view of the creature from behind and therefore didn't show its face. As he started by focusing on its alien anatomy and tackling how it might realistically move, the design continued its transformation into a more definite form. Even though Burg supported the notion of the creature having a tripod design as sounding "great," it took him a while to overcome the challenge of the alien having not only three legs but also a front and back. " The biggest problem was dealing with that third leg, " Burg commented. " In the end it became like a Human leg, but it started out as more of a symmetrical tripod; all the legs pointed out from the middle and the body was more centrally located [....] I think it moved back toward something you could relate to; it became sort of a centaur. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , p. 30)

Even while the creature's appearance was evolving with each successive drawing, Steve Burg was forming a considerably clear idea of how it was to look, later saying, " I think that once this guy got underway he began to take on his own identity [....] At a certain point, something clicked and everyone started to see what this creature was. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , pp. 30-31)

Refining Species 8472's face

Work progressed on refining the face. One concept that Steve Burg submitted for the head was judged as being not alien-looking enough, with the producers concerned that it might be mistaken for a mask. They consequently requested that Burg sketch out some alternatives. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , p. 31) " Since the head/face is really where the creature is expressed, it was not at all surprising that they wanted to evaluate several possible directions before committing to a more finalized concept, " said Burg. " I remember I just sat down and churned out a whole bunch of weird alien heads. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , pp. 31 & 32)

According to Dan Curry, he was responsible for deciding that the alien's neck shouldn't be a thick solid structure. " I had [...] the idea of having the neck muscles be separate tubes that you could see through, so it couldn't possibly be a guy in a suit, " Curry said. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 74) However, according to Steve Burg, this facet of the extraterrestrial came about due to him refining the shape of its head. " Somewhere in the middle of doing that I started gravitating toward the sort of tripod neck structure, " Burg related. " That seemed like a good way of making it something that obviously a person could not be wearing, even if you were in a closeup. I tend to think in terms of mechanical devices when I design, and the neck turned into a sort of flight simulator thing. That seemed to click with everybody. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , pp. 31-32) Regardless of who devised the arrangement of the neck, Ron Moore clarified, " I think that what we were trying to do was get something that didn't look like a guy in a suit. If we could design something where you could see its spinal column, and the muscles separate so you would have little openings, that would help us give it other than the look of a guy in a suit. So we tried to get that. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 95) Likewise, Ron Thornton remarked, " We wanted to make sure it had lots of open spaces in it. For example, the neck is actually three very thin muscles, so there couldn't possibly be a guy in a suit. We did the same with arms as well, giving them extra joints and things. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 16 , p. 37)

From the various drawings of the alien's head, the producers chose two or three images. " [They] were similar to each other; sort of variations on a theme, " concluded Steve Burg. " They decided that was the direction they wanted to go. " Making the alien internally consistent allowed Burg to connect the head to the torso – a task that, thanks to the creature's relatively humanoid form, was fairly easy to achieve. " It was just a matter of maintaining the style through the body, " Burg remembered, " putting muscles under the skin that were kind of like what you saw in the head and extending that through the torso. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , p. 32)

Digital modeling [ ]

Teska with the digital model of Species 8472

Once Steve Burg was finished externally crafting Species 8472, his drawings for the alien were handed over to John Teska, who was made responsible for building the model, turning Burg's designs into computer-generated reality. These examples of concept artwork included drawings that demonstrated the creature's full height as well as the approved head designs. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , pp. 31-33) Teska was delighted to join the project. " When I started to be brought into the process, " he remembered, " and I saw some of the sketches that were being done by Steve Burg, you know, I was totally excited because it was a non-humanoid. It didn't look like the usual guys with just facial changes. This one had this very strange kind of neck and very strange body structure, with three legs and everything. So, you know, as an animator, as a character designer or creature person, I was totally jazzed about bringing this guy to life. In this case, Steve Burg had had several meetings with Paramount, so they had several different designs [....] There were many drawings and there were features on each one they liked. So, Paramount and Dan Curry came to me and talked about these different designs, and said, 'Could you put them all together and basically create a creature out of that?' So, I didn't have any singular drawing of, 'This is the final creature.' " ("The Birth of Species 8472", VOY Season 4 DVD special features)

With John Teska's involvement, the alien design continued to develop. " The very first thing I did, " Teska recalled, " was, once I had these drawings, was just did a very simple, blocky kind of shape, just to kind of get the proportions and figure out how big the head, how big the body and everything would be, and then gave that back to Paramount. So, it became a back-and-forth thing, going from very blocky, crude... then working up to the finer details. And then, ultimately, the paint maps and the textures were done several weeks later. So, it sort of evolved over the course of his creation. " ("The Birth of Species 8472", VOY Season 4 DVD special features)

John Teska based the finer details of the design on the few facts that were available about the aliens. Even though their vague backstory did not provide much insight into the creatures' origins, the fact they were to be established as communicating psychically indicated that they wouldn't have to be depicted as talking much. " So, one of the key things was getting kind of an expressive, weird forehead and just a feeling that they were different, " Teska mused. " But then, also knowing how they attacked people – they're always described as really vicious and just tearing – and that they cause infection just by tearing at you or whatever, so.... Really, I mean, that was what drove the animation, was just trying to find a way to make them feel just really fast and menacing, you know, whereas the Borg always had numbers on their side and always had that sort of zombie, 'we're going to get you, no matter what' thing. But with Species 8472, it was just more of the surprise that they'll just... burst your doorway and start slashing. " ("The Birth of Species 8472", VOY Season 4 DVD special features) Similarly, Ron Thornton stated, " A lot of it was creating a personality for the creature in the first place [....] What we wanted to do here was something [...] like a leopard on attack. It would burst through the wall and completely decimate the Borg. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 16 , p. 37) Ron Moore concurred that the desire to separate the look of each of the aliens from "a guy in a suit" also influenced how the visual effects team designed the aliens' movement. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 95)

The question of how to execute some of the alien design aspects initially proved somewhat troublesome. John Teska explained, " There were a few things on this character [that were questionable; the open-neck structure] [...] became a little bit of a question, how to rig that, and then the same thing with the legs. " Dan Curry noted, " My faith in John Teska as an animator was so great that I just trusted he would be able to come up with a very convincing way to move it about. " Teska continued, " Of course, I thought a lot about, 'How would this guy walk?' " Ultimately, however, he needn't have worried so much about designing the way that the alien would move. He remarked, " Ironically, we never actually saw him walk more than one or two steps over the course of his life. He's always leaping into rooms and tearing people apart, but he never actually just walked down a hallway, in any of the shots. Really, I just had to think more about getting these attack motions. " ("The Birth of Species 8472", VOY Season 4 DVD special features) Teska took a week to build the CG model of Species 8472. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , p. 33)

A difficulty similar to portraying the aliens walking through a corridor was how to fit such a tall alien into the corridors, in the first place. Ron Thornton commented, " That it would be something nasty which was supposed to be nine feet tall made it very difficult to do. It was a little tight, squeezing a nine-foot tall character into the corridors, but I think it worked out. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 16 , p. 37)

Highly pleased with the general flexibility of Species 8472's final design, Ron Thornton enjoyed the process of animating the alien. " Suddenly, we could do a totally non-anthropomorphic creature, that was nasty, vicious, and has a personality, " he related. " The animator now becomes an actor and has to give a performance to this creature, and that's something I love to do. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 16 , p. 37)

Reception [ ]

Steve Burg was ultimately very satisfied with the design of Species 8472, including the input that John Teska had, and termed the final version of the aliens as "absolutely amazing." ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , p. 33) Shortly following the initial broadcast of the species' introductory appearance in "Scorpion", Jeri Taylor said of the aliens, " I thought [they] [...] were really cool. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 31 , p. 12) Likewise, the inclusion of Species 8472 in " Scorpion, Part II " made that fourth season premiere a particular highlight for Dan Curry, who remarked of the installment, " It was good to see Species 8472. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 74) The possibility that the aliens would make return appearances, after the "Scorpion" two-parter, was on the condition that they proved to be popular among viewers. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 96) Shortly after the fourth season began its initial broadcast, Brannon Braga said of Species 8472, " People seem to love them, and we're definitely going to see those aliens again this season. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 34 , p. 13)

Despite the general popularity of Species 8472, the feedback from some fans included repeated accusations that the aliens were slightly too reminiscent of the Shadows from Babylon 5 . ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 16 , p. 38) Indeed, the unofficial reference book Delta Quadrant (p. 188) even goes as far as to state that Foundation Imaging – which created the CGI for the first three seasons of the aforementioned series, prior to working on Star Trek: Voyager – was faced with a hurried deadline in regard to the creation of Species 8472's design, and that, according to Foundation employee Adam Lebowitz , the company completed the workload by modifying the Shadows at the wire-frame stage before giving them new skin textures. Ron Thornton – who also worked on Babylon 5 – denied the resemblance, however; he directly stated that the allegation of the reuse "wasn't true." ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 16 , p. 38)

Species 8472 relaxing with a cigarette

Cover of Lightwavin' #4

Species 8472 was featured on the cover of Lightwavin' #4.

In a 2003 interview, Nick Sagan admitted to liking Species 8472, remarking that he thought they (in common with the Vidiians ) were one of numerous "cool aliens" that succeeded in differentiating Star Trek: Voyager from previous Star Trek series. He also opined (about Species 8472, specifically), " I think they're great villains. " [2]

At the 2009 New Jersey Star Trek convention , Kate Mulgrew remarked to the audience that Species 8472 was her personal favorite of Star Trek: Voyager 's villains. [3]

Apocrypha [ ]

Species 8472 and their bioships appear as enemies in Star Trek: Voyager - The Arcade Game .

Species 8472 is one of the main races featured in the game Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force . In that game, the player must infiltrate a Borg cube infested with Species 8472 to locate a material called "isodesium". They are also the main enemy of the Borg and a playable race in Star Trek: Armada II , in which their ships are further depicted as biological in nature, being morphed from active embryos into various types, while stations, also biological, were morphed from passive embryos.

The short story " Places of Exile " in the Myriad Universes omnibus Infinity's Prism tells the tale of an alternate reality in which Voyager is attacked by Species 8472 and crippled. The crew has no choice but to stay in the Delta Quadrant and find a way to survive. Captain Janeway and the crew form a loose alliance of Delta Quadrant species called the "Delta Coalition". The crew also meets 8472 again but they need help from the Coalition. In this story, Species 8472 receive a name – the "Groundskeepers" (in keeping with the incarnation of " Boothby " seen in VOY : " In the Flesh ", who retained much of the personality of the original Boothby and plays a major role in the story).

In the game Star Trek Online , Species 8472 told the Klingons to call them the "Undine", revealed in the tie-in novel The Needs of the Many to roughly translate from the Undine language as "Groundskeepers". In the novel and the game itself, the Undine are major antagonists, having infiltrated the Federation, Klingon Defense Force , and many other factions at all levels. It is the discovery of this infiltration by the Klingon Empire, and the Federation's refusal to believe their warnings, that contribute to the outbreak of war between the Empire and Federation at the game's outset. It is later revealed that the Iconians had attacked the Undine in fluidic space, making them believe that the Alpha and Beta quadrant powers were mounting an invasion and provoking the Undines' actions, including infiltrating the various galactic powers, as well as attacking the Voth as they fought the allied forces of Starfleet, the KDF, and Romulan Republic in the Solanae Dyson sphere . The conflict reaches its climax after the Undine mount an assault on Spacedock One , and the attempt to deploy "Planet-Killer" weapons against Ferenginar , Gornar , Andoria , Qo'noS , and Cardassia Prime . After being repelled by the allied fleets, the Undine retreat back to the Delta Quadrant. Admiral Tuvok and the player manage to negotiate a truce between the Undine and the allied forces at the culmination of the story arc. Other in-game missions reveal that the Borg had developed a way to assimilate Undine into the Collective. Player characters, however, manage to destroy the prototypes and prevent the dissemination of that knowledge through the Collective.

Further reading [ ]

• Steve Burg, Species 8472 –design concept , Effects Special , Volume 1.1, 1998, pp. 60-66
• John Teska, Behind the Scenes: Building Species 8472 , Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 3 , 2001, pp. 82-88

External links [ ]

• Species 8472 at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Species 8472 at the Star Trek Online Wiki
• 1 Abdullah bin al-Hussein