Are These Star Trek's Best Designed Aliens?
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- Опубликовано: 11 май 2023
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#startrek #lore #aliens
The Sheliak are a nonhumanoid alien species in Star Trek. Seen only in the TNG episode "The Ensigns of Command," they are notorious for their legal precision and general xenophobia. But what else do we know about this elusive race?
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It's the most frustrating game I have ever played simply because your station and ships can be fucked with while you're not online and actively in game.
Play to win after Level 14…
Whales will ruin the game for you unless you keep paying for shields.
They will camp at story mission points to attack low level players even when you’re not bothering anyone.
Days of work can be gone in seconds and there’s nothing you can do.
Sometimes people will get together and swarm a bully to defeat but that’s rare.
Never seen those levels of graphics in the promotion in the game itself.
STNG actors sold out when they promoted it likely as a requirement for being in Picard.
@@jeffbudd7678Same here. Whales ruin the game attacking low level players at story points and because of time zones. Mostly China and EU…
how much science would it take to cross breed with them? would the trill be able to join with them and have dots all the way down?
Imagine a species so advanced that threats of violence are meaningless, but fear of third party arbitration is so horrific as to cause you to cave to someone else's demands.
The point is that the arbiters that Picard selected were in their hibernation phase and wouldn't awaken for six months. Picard was asking for three weeks to get the colonists off the planet.
@@Mark73doesn’t change what he said: he knew how to win.
The other point is that the Sheliak are so strict about their contracts that even they were not willing to just say "screw you" to Picard invoking that clause.
TNG alien costumes were such a low bar - I have to agree that this was a great use of “less is more.”
Who would have thought all these years later, me and the chocolate rain man himself would have really similar youtube viewing. I see you in the comments all the time on the videos i watch! 😅😅
I have never been pulled into a comment thread faster. I wish you sang “Love Me Sexy”. Will Ferrell was good but TayZonday would be next level. Whew! Now I got to say it. My RUclips experience is complete.
Yeah, I agree, but I think they used a little too much light. You could pretty easily tell it was just an actor wearing a rug.
Tay's got good taste.
Love seeing you pop up on in the comments of random YT videos I watch
I think the Sheliak's design is really cool. They feel truly alien and foreign. I especially like how sections of its body seem to pulsate, it almost looks like it's breathing.
I wonder if they are skin breather?
Sweet! I love this episode and the fact they call themselves the Sheliak Corporate always made laugh. Like of course a corporation would know every single word of their million page treaty and force you to abide by it.
Yes. And Picard finally got the better of them, and the Sheliak his b----.
I would like to see more of the Sheliak on Star Trek. They just need to walk the line and keep them mysterious and inscrutable and dangerous while treating them as just another alien race with their own hopes and desires.
I second that. And bring in those longterm hybernating Aliens(I forgot the name) who were called upon to arbitrate between the Sheliak and Federation.
@@puschelhornchen9484The Grizzellas
@@ryanbeat5828 Yes. I remember now. Thank you.
i really like the idea of an alien species for whom communication is so difficult that signing a treaty involves drafting several books worth of material just to make sure both parties comprehend it
That wasn't it. They found English so inaccurate that they wanted that level of complexity. Perhaps watch the episode.
@@LordTalax perhaps read what I wrote instead of being unnecessarily aggressive. Some Star Trek fan you are
I really liked this episode. Honestly, I wish TNG would have explored _more_ non-humanoid species but I understand the production constraints. At the time, it would have had to be practical effects because CGI was so new and Paramount was putting most of their Star Trek money into the movies.
They were always my favorite species in TNG because they actually look like aliens. They were so weird and the lighting was so dim, especially only the old, small 90s TV sets, that I could barely even tell what I was looking at. I remember being equal parts terrified of them but also amused because even as a kid, it looked like it was just someone with a blanket over their head pretending to be a blobby alien thing. I never knew they were supposed to be something like a slug. I was always under the impression that they were supposed to be rock or crystal monsters, or something like cold lava, with gold minerals all over their skin.
These folks always stood out to me in my memory of TNG aliens. Using them too much would defeat their ominous nature
The Sheliak have always fascinated me, and I've put in a fair amount of worldbuilding to flesh them out for their prominent place in my own fics. The radiation of their star led me to coming up with an evolutionary timeline based on silicate radiolarians, and how colonies of radiolaria may evolve into larger complex lifeforms. They may be the most alien thing I've ever written about.
Oh, the Sheliak prefer their body temperature to match that of the room in which they are standing? That's definitely some top notch trivia to bring out at the next boring dinner.
I've always been quite enamoured by how much they were able to do with a guy who had some shiny fabric draped over him. I can tell where his arms and shoulders are, but he tries so hard to look like a pulsating body.
It's actually only a few months ago I realised they were kinda similar to cuttlefish and squid in a few ways, when I noticed the "eyes" on the side of their "head" (I kept interpreting that blue glow as being cast by the lights around them).
It occurs to me that a third "solution" to the Beta Lyrae territory stuff is there's both at least one class H and class M world and they share the solar system by doing their best to stay out of each other's way!
These folks stood out to me when I was introduced to Trek. I understand the real word reasons for all of the "people in funny make up" alien designs, so that is not a problem, but I greatly appreciated the non-humanoid appearance of the Sheliak, they appeared to be truly alien to the utmost extent of the word.
I'd absolutely like to see them return.
I always wished for the hard sci-fi where the Sheliak would be the most humanoid of aliens we'd encounter!
That's a big issue I have with the new trek shows, they have so many kickass nonhumanoids to use yet the just change the existing species or make cgi humanoids. The Sheilak or Tholians should've been what the Klingons were in disco (not exactly, but filled that place)
Remember this species from TNG back in the day and thought it was very creative rather than a human with prosthetics on their forehead like most on the show. Thanks for posting.
I always found the Sheliak super interesting. Interactions with non-humanoid species on-screen are so infrequent, when one does occur, it usually becomes a favourite of mine. There's more story to be told there, for sure.
They should add a Sheliak crew member to Lower Decks-he could be a difficult person that always has WAY too many questions about every mission. Like, he’d ask infuriatingly thorough questions about EVERYTHING. Could make for good comedy!
Sheliak HR guy.
And be very good at roasting the heck out of everyone.
Make him the supply officer
It's always nice when we get an alien that's not just a human. I know there's reasons why most trek aliens look human but I really think that moving forward we should see a lot more non humanoid species. Or at least just species that don't look identical to humans. They have much bigger budgets now so why not
Would be nice to do that. I just think that you can not do that with live action. CGI/Animated is the way to go🤔🤔
Because for a species to reach warp capability, they would have to be very similar to us. Even on different planets, predatory animals are going to have forward facing eyes, canine teeth and thicker skulls and the same can be applied to Xenobiology, even when it comes to the idea of spaceflight.
How exactly do you think these mucus covered aliens developed the electronics required, or really any meaningful level of technology?
@alexandertiberius1098 idk use some imagination. Their whole environment could be different and so different adaptations would've been useful. With this species there's not too much to go on but there's a whole genre of speculative evolution. Why not have fun with it? How might an aquatic species view space travel and build their starships? That question alone sounds like great material for a one-off Trek episode
@@TheCosmicNemesis
Speculative biology isn't a load of people sitting around imagining what might be possible, it's often finding the rules that govern the development of life and applying it to more alien environments.
How would an aquatic species develop electronics? How would they discover combustion? Why would they develop space flight without, well... flight? I don't think it's a lack of imagination to point out that that's kind of a stupid question.
@alexandertiberius1098 I just think it's fun. Star Treks about strange worlds and civilizations and I wanna see them
I always liked the obscure none humanoid aliens in star trek just to remind the audience that there are other forms of intelligent life out there. SNW did a good job with the sheppards.
I want a lower decks take on the Sheilak. Their dark ship indicates to me they may come from an underground or dark world. But everytime i see them, i cant help but see a dude wearing a quilt
Picard pwning them is GD gold 😂
I would love to see the sheliak make a comeback. They seemed so distant and mysterious. I loved that they were nonhumanoid. now with better special effects, more can be done with their physical appearance
I must say you are the best Star Trek channel on RUclips. Yours are the most informative and entertaining.
Thank you David!
One interesting aspect of the Sheliak in TNG is that they're an example of a society that is viewed as comparable in technology and local capacity to the Federation. In many ways, they seem simliar (although more advanced and more alien) to the Zalkonians in "Transfigurations", the Talarians in "Suddenly Human", the Tzenkethi in "The Adversary", and the Tamarians in "Darmok" (or even the Ferengi and the Cardassians once upon a time). During the Lost Era and even into TNG, the Federation didn't seem to deal with the Klingons or Romulans as rival superpowers that could start a galactic war at any time. Instead, Starfleet was all too often embroiled in smaller regional conflicts due to Federation expansion into new territory, especially when they were spread far too thin and could face intense local competition from these groups.
you should start a series called "Xeno-biology" or "theoretical Xeno-biology" and focus on how aliens like this evolve and how their biology differs from humans, and what planets they live on might look like, with the goal of these studies to examine more possibilities for worlds that could have life, expanding our potential search through the universe. I have always been fascinated by the idea of extraterrestrial life, but the odds of it being humanoid are so slim, we will never know what alien life looks like until we actually discover it.
Hmm...that's a great idea for a series! It's almost like I literally have forty other videos like that on my channel lol: ruclips.net/p/PLgUxMOqtko1ld8FBPsZFffTCdVGhG5LiI
(You may be a new subscriber, so I thought I'd share this playlist with you haha)
@@OrangeRiver thats why i said start a series with intention, or just load those videos into a playlist and continue on after, but with the type of videos and research you've done in the past, you might be uniquely qualified to help create the field of study, if you get enough research together, maybe you could get an honorary doctorate (if only it was that easy)
Astrobiology is to my knowledge already an established field of study, but it would be really cool to be able to contribute to it! Glad you enjoy the videos ;)
"So how do you wanna design the Sheliak? Something misshapen?"
"I don't know, I don't wanna put in too much effort. Where'd we put Armus?"
If we could have seen them better I think they'd be better appreciated tbh. They look like how most aliens probably WOULD appear IMO haha
@@OrangeRiver They should still be appreciated for not having a typical humanoid design. Actually forget Armus, they're closer in design to Excalbians
Agreed
Great video, I had forgotten about these guys! The Nyberrite Alliance was a faction I always wanted more info on. The thought that Worf strongly considered joining them during his leave from Star Fleet always had me convinced that they were somewhat similar to The Federation.
I would absolutely love to see the Sheilak make a comeback. I feel like with all the new shows coming out they could really use them for something interesting, and I want to see the themes explored in Troi and Picard’s conversation about how different alien species observe reality explored more.
I would like to see more of the Sheliak. I didn't think that we were seeing "skin" or any elements of their bodies. I did not see something "draped in black mucus-secreting folds". I saw fabric and metallic ornamentation that I interpreted as "clothing". Even though their movements seemed very puppet-like, their appearance was so different that it was credible to assume they naturally moved that way. The description of what they were supposed to look like reminds me of the "mucousy" Ba'ul from Star Trek Discovery.
I have been waiting for a good Sheliak video for a while. I always loved this episode, so diplomacy based, with Data finally dropping the hammer!
❤, loving the lore videos 😁. I remember watching the episode when I was younger and then I had thought that they were silicone-based😅 n' not silicon. The point I remember thinking that H-class was labeled radioactive and the environment might be part of what makes them alive. We need a certain amount of temperature warmth to keep us from icing over, the H-class planets are probably like M-class to us with the extra radiation being like a extra warmth in their environment.
The wordy crazy legal system I just put on bureaucracy, lieing stealing and killing happen so much that it needs to be explained that it's wrong and not just a part of nature; even if it takes millions of words:). 👍🏻
I loved that episode, I find the sheliak enigmatic and interesting.
I would like to see the Sheliak show up again....maybe in SNW. Great video as always!
Or Lower Decks or Prodigy.
Thanks Angstony!
I've always wanted more about The Sheliak
Agreed! We don't get nearly enough Sheliac!!!!
I'd love to see the Sheliak on SNW. The timeline mentioned on TNG for the treaty would be just right for a Captain Pike adventure.
Am I the only one who has noticed how much the Sheliak resembled the Excalbians?
I really enjoy most of the truly "alien" aliens in Trek, and this race's impenetrable bureaucratic mindset is very interesting. My wife and I saw this episode a few weeks ago and enjoyed it too lol. Thank you for another interesting video!
God be with you out there everybody. ✝️ :)
It’s a shame the Sheliak didn’t get involved in the Dominion War. While they’d inherently lean towards the Founders, it would be an awesome twist to have the Sheliak choose the side of the Federation-Klingon alliance over the Dominion and Breen, and make the Sheliak the ones who convince the Romulans to join the war for calling out the Dominion as what they are.
But then we would never have gotten In the Pale Moonlight. And I'm not giving that one up for anything.
I second.
In the Pale Moonlight is my very favourite episode in all of trek.
@@marley7145 yeah, we need a certain romulan senator to become a martyr.
As much as I love a good Picard speech, it's only because I'm human.
The Sheliac getting annoyed and offended whenever he tries to talk about morality or friendship is chef's kiss
Oh yeah super underutilized race, they kinda felt like a mix between Armus and the Breen
Definitely would LOVE to see them again, and in accordance with what we've already got. There's a few odd species in ST I think deserve more screen time now that some special effects aren't as impossible to do for shows.
Fun fact: the costume used by the Sheliak is the same one used to portray Armus in Skin of Evil, minus the printer's ink poured over it. I think it's even the same actor.
Sheliak are true Star Trek fans by the quote "You do not debate, you gibber". :)
I remember back when it originally aired how the Sheliak basic shape and movement were very reminiscent to the lava creature from the TOS episode "The Savage Curtain"
Ya, I'd love to see them developed more. Like the Borg, they are essentially completely alien in motive and psychology compared to us, and unlike the Borg, they aren't even really humanoid either, so they are probably the most "alien" aliens Trek has ever come up with, at least until 10-C anyway.
And especially with the modern CGI abilities, actually creating a compelling Sheliak on-screen would at least be possible in a way that it likely wasn't back when the TNG episode came out.
I wonder if they'd be able to be assimilated by the Borg.
@@yuki-sakurakawa the Borg computers wouldn't be able to handle it.
I wonder how the Ferengi Alliance would deal with them. Ferengi entrepreneurship vs. Sheliak arrogance.
"Finally a worthy opponent, our battle will be legendary!"
I loved the idea that they didn’t see humanoids as enemies, equals, or competition. They just thought of humanoids as lesser unimportant infestations. Never saw a Sheliak borg. 😊
Oh hell yeah, I love the Sheliak.
Yes, I would like to see the Sheliak return. I have thought they are the most "alien" looking aliens in Star Trek.
Thanks for the video. I always wanted to know more about this race.
The Sheliak remind me of the Excalbians from "The Savage Curtain."
I've wanted the sheliak to return for eons
Im glad they kept up featuring non human aliens such as Original Series did with Tholians, Excalibans, Melkotians, Organians, Metrons, Gorns, and "devil in the dark" aliens to name a few.
I think I like the concept and mechanics behind what make the Tholians tick a bit more, but I forgot the Sheliak existed!
Sheliak COMEBACK? Yes👍🏾
Thanks for the latest posting. Always enjoy them. More on the Sheliak in future films would be great.
5:03 Nice.
The Sheliak always reminded me of the TOS aliens, the Excalbians.
What's interesting is that, while Sheliak territory isn't shown in the Star Trek: Star Charts book, they do show both the real Sheliak star and Beta Lyrae. Obviously it's debatable if those are the locations in the episode, but if Sheliak space encompassed both stars, it would dwarf all the other territories besides maybe the UFP and Klingons. This would be somewhat consistent with what was said on-screen. They were obviously in Sheliak space in "Ensigns of Command", yet Worf mentioned that the Shelia system was "quite distant."
They really were one of best cracks at a truly non anthropomorphic alien race for early TNG; A complete and apathetic disconnect from our customs with an equally disconnected appearance. Most other races feel almost like they could come from earth in a different timeline and it shows in the copy paste politics. It's satisfying to watch the crew squirm as their old negotiation tools are completely thrown out the window, and it feels more realistic for it. I'd bet more on humanity meeting something like that out there than the Vulcans.
The Sheliak are my second favorite Star Trek aliens. Their design is cool and their no-nonsense attitude is refreshing and original. It was fascinating to see an alien race shutdown Picard so easily and so frequently. The Sheliak said "you do not talk you gibber", like damn that is cold. I really wish we could've seen more 'cause they're so different from everyone else on the show. This of course means that they're probably hard to write for which is probably why we never saw more of them. For me the Sheliak are alot like the Breen, if we knew more about them they'd probably be less cool since the mystery around them and the unexplained parts of them and their society is what makes them cool and once you explain it it looses a bit of that coolness factor just like how the Force from Star Wars stopped being cool when mitochlorians were introduced. I feel like the Sheliak costume was just Arammus's costume repurposed with some extra random bits stuck to it.
The Sheliak are too complicated to bring back. Not due to costume or appearance issues, but more to the aspect that they have no flexibility beyond their own concepts of reality... which makes them a very dangerous species to deal with,
"Breeding like rabbits" had me in stiches (HA!)
I really liked the Tholians too in terms of design and concept. In general I enjoy aliens that aren't just "random human feature dialled up to 11" and as such are truly alien, whether it's their biology, cultural concepts or language such as the Tamarians or the extragalactical aliens in Discovery.
It would be nice to see them return, with them having evolved a bit culturally to the point they can more readily communicate with other lifeforms
Given how well the Horta was realised in Star Trek, I think success depends upon people talking to each other early enough for a good result to be worked out before the cameras roll.
Doctor Who and scads of other low-budget SF have had triumphs, and it's usually due their being a day or two more prep time being available, or a dam good producer actually going the extra mile to get everyone on the same page.
Was interesting to seem some really alien aliens in TNG like you'd occasionally see in TOS.
Yes I would like to see them again.
They're such a unique species and the special effects at the time were so limited. I'd love to see what would be done with them with newer more effective CGI. Also, I intend on doing a cultural study on the Packled sometime in the future. I would love if we could work on it or something like it in the future. It'd be interesting to see our different takes on the species.
Great video, great value production 👌 The "How to-"-Vid really makes me appreciate it even more
Thank you so much!!!
I would love to see the Shelliak return! They are a unique alien race like the Tholians and the parasitic species that latched on to B'lanna and the Ba'Neth.
Would like to see the Skorr and the Xindi return as well. I would like to see the Skorr developed into a race of religious fanatics (as hinted they were in ST TAS).
I would like to see Some of the races from games make it into canon too, such as the Mirak Star League, the Paravians and the Interstellar Concordium.
The Elachi need to come back , and keep them as mysterious and creepy as in STE Silient Enemy.. The crustacean like Solonagen based alien would be a good come back as well again provided their creep factor was kept in tact. Talaxians, Devore, Baneans, the Think Tank from the Delta Quadrant would be good to see again and my favorite race, next to the Romulans, the Vorta NEED to appear again. Besides Avian races(Betelgusians aside) we have not seen in live action a plant based sentient race (such as the Phylosians in ST TAS) unless you consider Fungi to be plants which many don't consider them to be, and an arachnoid race.
As a kid, I always thought this was the same species of the abandoned evil 👿 creature that killed Tasha. Didn’t have the sharpest tv screens back then…
Early TNG is funny AF...unintentionally 😅
I really enjoyed this video of the Sheliak Corporate. One of my favorite episodes. Thank you for your awesome videosTyler
I say, "bring it on". More Sheliak would bring more possabilites of adventure.
Another excellent video! Have you ever thought about making a video about the Horta? Another well design Star Trek alien. I'm sure there is some wild stuff about them in beta canon.
Thank you so much for this delve into the Sheliak! I've been working on a storyline involving an alliance with the Breen, Tholians and Sheliak and I need all the information I can get my grubby little mitts on 👍🍻🎆
yes. the sheliac are and always have been my favorite.
Its funny, running across a lot of these species in the stellaris mods, I have to go and dig back which ones are some of the more obscure ones. I always have respect for the SC. Hard bargainers those bunch are.
I would love to see the Sheliak appear in Strange New Worlds, getting the benefit of modern special effects and higher budgets.
Thank you for the care and effort put into this video.
Your analyses of alien species in Star Trek are among my favorites of your videos. 👍
It would be awesome to see Trek progress into a format that tries to engage with new and interesting questions in the primary timeline rather than jump around to have a complretely divorced story. How we interact with dissimilar species is a huge part of star trek, its a shame we havent gotten to see much od that recently, like STD abandoning its Klingons. DS9 laid a foundation for the tension between solids and the changelings, but that was founded on this more basic tension between humanoids and non-humanoids. The Sheliak could draw on that tension, and maybe give us an opportunity to explore our problems with contemporary forms of xenophobia. But that sounds a bit mature for modern trek.
I’d like a sheliak return to learn more about them
Thanks again Tyler I love your videos especially the ones about possible alien 👽 biology respect 🙏 live long and prosper
Wouldn't mind seeing them reappear
Aloha. I really enjoyed that episode. Finally a non humanoid lifeform. A comeback would be awesome. And the Horta too pls.
Awesome video thanks dude
I really feel like their name came from shellack.
They should have been the main foil in Discovery. But alas..
Yes, bring them back.
You have the most well researched videos I've ever see. But can you tell me what a self sealing stem bolt does or is or wtf they are actually for.
I wouls love a Long Treks special on the Skeliak-Federation War. I mean, the movie implies that it was NOT an easy war for the Federation.
Their pretty cool, but damn I love the breen!
The Sheliak seem to be quite similar to the Excalbians. Perhaps one is an offshoot of the other, like the Romulans are from the Vulcans.
Yes, I would like to see their civilization fleshed out more, though with Trek in the state of disrepair it's been since 2009 (Picard season three notwithstanding), that seems unlikely, even in novel form.
A war between the Federation and the Sheliak Corporate would have been interesting to see, though the way Picard stuck it to them with his Grisellan arbitration gambit was classic. The Titan novel "Fortune of War" did depict how badly the Federation would have been beaten by the Husnock Star Kingdom (basically intelligent Cephalopods) were it not for the intervention of the Douwd being known as Kevin Uxbridge. It seems like the Federation has a non-stop conga line of god-like beings looking out for them (Uxbridge, the Bajoran Prophets, the Caeliar, etc., and their own ASI, "Control").
How about the Sheliak come from one of those rogue planets not orbiting a star? This would fit them being in a dark environment. Perhaps in the area of a supernova remnant with strong radiation belts?
Nice idea! Would also tie into their need for and use of radiation shields, as a rogue planet would be bombarded by cosmic rays (without the protection of a parent star’s magnetic field). Definitely wanna see the Sheliak return at some point!
A master of diplomacy is Picard.
They remind me of Armus for some reason ...
This episode gave me one of my favorite picard moments
Los Sheliaks se parecen a Armus, la criatura que mató a a Tasha Yar.
Seems like a missed opportunity. Maybe they will be bigger villains in Legacy.