I know that they actually have a bit on trek canon that most life in the galaxy was preceded by a progenitor race, which explains why all the aliens look like humans with junk glued to their heads.
But my head canon has always been that in Star Trek, there are actually innumerable alien species of all sorts of body plans and configurations. Hell, we meet plenty of non-humanoid aliens in the series. (Any number of floating energy creatures, plus some number of non-bipedal creatures, aquatics, etc.) What we see on screen is simply not a representative sample of the galaxy’s denizens.
My head canon is that the Federation deals primarily with humanoid species. They’re not racist; they’ll happily let in non-humanoids and treat them with full equality and respect. But the truth is that when working with aliens, the more alien they are, the more difficult it is to find common ground. And further, there’s just less reason to form complex diplomatic relationships.
Imagine a species of nonhuman aliens that can only exist in the crushing depths of the atmospheres of gas giants. They communicate primarily by passing radio waves between each other, they are completely blind and deaf, and they have a communication structure that makes the Darmok problem look simple.
It would be very difficult to see such a species joining the Federation. First, they can’t communicate effectively. There aren’t even auditory sounds for the universal translator to translate. Second, there’s little reason to communicate. This is a species that has zero interest in the Earthlike terrestrial worlds inhabited by most Federation species. This species and the Humans and Vulcans aren’t competing for the same real estate and resources. There’s no need to carefully negotiate territories and access. Such a species could operate their own independent federation right on top of Federation territory. Two parallel interstellar empires could be operating out of the same systems and yet barely need to interact with each other.
This is my head canon for why most aliens in Start Trek are humanoid. The truly alien aliens? There’s just not much to negotiate over. There’s little need for diplomacy. If your minds are so alien that your cultures mean nothing to each other? If your biology is so different that you’re not even competing for the same resources? If you have trouble telling if the alien entity you’re interacting with is even sentient? Then no, there’s just very little reason for such a species to join the Federation.
We do sometimes see non-humanoids in Star Trek, but these are likely the outliers. The most gregarious of non-humanoid species. They get involved with the Federation simply because they want to. They’re naturally curious and want to understand these weird humanoid aliens, even if there’s little practical reason to do so.
What’s your point though? Did you think I meant that non-humanoids don’t exist in Star Trek? They clearly do.
Yes, they exist, but look how much difficulty the Federation had in even reaching the most basic level of understanding with 8472. They illustrate my point exactly. 8472 inhabitants an entirely different universe - fluidic space. There’s no real competition between humanoid species and them. And they also have radically different morphology and communication. In fact, if it weren’t some very unique circumstances involving the Borg, 8472 and the Federation never would have
I mean, I don’t hate your head cannon, but I have always felt it was more just a limitation of the show and my head cannon is that we just aren’t seeing the diversity that exists on screen.
For most of shows it was more expensive (or impossible) to have a CG character rather than a human played one. So for instance in Enterprise, we see the human adjacent Xindi species far more often than the Insectoids or the Aquatics and the only real reason is that they were expensive to animate.
Your point is well demonstrated when we see Archer on an Aquatic’s ship later in season 3. But that would suggest to me that we just aren’t seeing the Aquatics at Starfleet Academy, not that they aren’t there.
Luckily every sentient species in the galaxy has close to the same height and sits in the same position…
I know that they actually have a bit on trek canon that most life in the galaxy was preceded by a progenitor race, which explains why all the aliens look like humans with junk glued to their heads.
But my head canon has always been that in Star Trek, there are actually innumerable alien species of all sorts of body plans and configurations. Hell, we meet plenty of non-humanoid aliens in the series. (Any number of floating energy creatures, plus some number of non-bipedal creatures, aquatics, etc.) What we see on screen is simply not a representative sample of the galaxy’s denizens.
My head canon is that the Federation deals primarily with humanoid species. They’re not racist; they’ll happily let in non-humanoids and treat them with full equality and respect. But the truth is that when working with aliens, the more alien they are, the more difficult it is to find common ground. And further, there’s just less reason to form complex diplomatic relationships.
Imagine a species of nonhuman aliens that can only exist in the crushing depths of the atmospheres of gas giants. They communicate primarily by passing radio waves between each other, they are completely blind and deaf, and they have a communication structure that makes the Darmok problem look simple.
It would be very difficult to see such a species joining the Federation. First, they can’t communicate effectively. There aren’t even auditory sounds for the universal translator to translate. Second, there’s little reason to communicate. This is a species that has zero interest in the Earthlike terrestrial worlds inhabited by most Federation species. This species and the Humans and Vulcans aren’t competing for the same real estate and resources. There’s no need to carefully negotiate territories and access. Such a species could operate their own independent federation right on top of Federation territory. Two parallel interstellar empires could be operating out of the same systems and yet barely need to interact with each other.
This is my head canon for why most aliens in Start Trek are humanoid. The truly alien aliens? There’s just not much to negotiate over. There’s little need for diplomacy. If your minds are so alien that your cultures mean nothing to each other? If your biology is so different that you’re not even competing for the same resources? If you have trouble telling if the alien entity you’re interacting with is even sentient? Then no, there’s just very little reason for such a species to join the Federation.
We do sometimes see non-humanoids in Star Trek, but these are likely the outliers. The most gregarious of non-humanoid species. They get involved with the Federation simply because they want to. They’re naturally curious and want to understand these weird humanoid aliens, even if there’s little practical reason to do so.
Species 8472
The Undine arent native to our galaxy though.
Or the Q
What’s your point though? Did you think I meant that non-humanoids don’t exist in Star Trek? They clearly do.
Yes, they exist, but look how much difficulty the Federation had in even reaching the most basic level of understanding with 8472. They illustrate my point exactly. 8472 inhabitants an entirely different universe - fluidic space. There’s no real competition between humanoid species and them. And they also have radically different morphology and communication. In fact, if it weren’t some very unique circumstances involving the Borg, 8472 and the Federation never would have
Yes I was naming an example…
Ah. Your comment didn’t indicate that.
I mean, I don’t hate your head cannon, but I have always felt it was more just a limitation of the show and my head cannon is that we just aren’t seeing the diversity that exists on screen.
For most of shows it was more expensive (or impossible) to have a CG character rather than a human played one. So for instance in Enterprise, we see the human adjacent Xindi species far more often than the Insectoids or the Aquatics and the only real reason is that they were expensive to animate.
Your point is well demonstrated when we see Archer on an Aquatic’s ship later in season 3. But that would suggest to me that we just aren’t seeing the Aquatics at Starfleet Academy, not that they aren’t there.
Eh. I like to create in-universe explanations for things I observe in shows. Obviously the real answer comes down to filming. But who wants that?
Except for that one Klingon.