One of my favorite aspects of Science Fiction is the exploration of speculative biology in the form of extraterrestrials. Not just the sophont, starfaring species but the curious alien animals one might find on the multitude of exoplanets beyond our Earth.

Alien creatures in Star Trek have an interesting history and as such a distinct place in the setting quite different from that of other major Space Adventure franchises.

It all starts with their onscreen depictions in the original Star Trek series, as most Star Trek things do. More accurately, the lack there of. For the sake of completeness however, I am alluding to every onscreen appearance of space beasties in Star Trek, including all live-action shows, animated series, all the way through to modern times.

My first observation: There is a lot more viewable Star Trek than there is practically any other televised Science Fiction franchise.

My second observation: There are a lot fewer extraterrestrial critters seen in Star Trek than there are in many of its fellow Outer Space settings.

I’ve noticed over the years that when running other kinds of SF/Space Adventure many Narrators, myself included, freely use alien animals for everything from obstacles to allies and resources to local color. Star Wars games, for example, see animal/creature encounters fairly often. Wampas attack those hiding in frozen caves, Mynocks chew on power cables, and lumbering Dewback lizards are ridden into the double sunset, etc.

In Star Trek, otherworldly critter encounters are few and far between, a reflection of both TV show budgets and the fact that Star Trek is more about moral quandaries and social issues. The protagonists of a Star Trek series or film are more likely to be engaged with beings who they can communicate with and understand and vice versa. Also, a good deal of Star Trek sees stories and action scenes that take place aboard starships or on space stations, as well as in the cities of new and ancient civilizations. You are as likely to see a Mugato on your Excelsior Class vessel as you are a live Grizzly Bear on a modern naval battleship.

You do hear about them though. Quite often in fact.

Star Trek is very fond of mentioning alien animals even if they are actually seen rather rarely. People are described as blind as Tiberian Bats or they jump around like a Tarcassian Razorbeast but unfortunately, we actually see such things far too infrequently. This have certainly improved over time, with newer series and animated shows having the special effects budget and technical capabilities to give us more creatures today than the majority of all previous incarnations combined!

In the end, what is the purpose of such creatures in a Star Trek RPG? Why should we, as Star Trek fans and gamers, do anything differently from the shows and films? That is to say, do we need to inject beasties into our games anymore than the producers of Star Trek inject them into the movies and episodes?

Need? I am not sure. But we can and in my opinion, we should.

As noted at the start of this article, aliens are among my favorite elements of Sci-Fi. I am also an avid animal lover who has forever been fascinated by our furry, feathered, and oft four legged friends. My dog for example constantly amazes me. There is, in my home at this very moment, a 45 pound carnivorous, hunter/scavenger descended from forest dwelling pack predators. That’s incredible when you think about it? Would you let a wolf or coyote sleep in your bed? No, probably not, but how far away is the family dog from just that? Not that far at all genetically and even historically speaking as measured by Humanity’s total time on Earth.

Although I hope I’m wrong, I think it highly unlikely that we will find any living, extraterrestrial organisms during my lifetime. It would not surprise me if they were found within the lifetime of my nephew or his children. When they are found, they will very likely be what we would call animals. I’m not expecting us to encounter sentient or starfaring beings but rather something akin to or not unlike a worm, insect, or tiny fish. Whatever is it, it will be far closer to the Corvan Gilvo than to an Andorian.

Alien animals should be, in my opinion, seen a lot more in Star Trek. If the mission is to seek out new life forms and new civilizations, certainly animals are a more abundant and well adapted life form than any two-legged, tool using being. New civilizations may have greater contact and understanding of their natural surroundings and live in harmony with animals in a way we would find incredible, enviable, or even unsettling.

Beaming down to a world like James Gurney’s Dinotopia or taking a shuttlecraft to Wayne Barlowe’s Darwin IV would be totally in keeping with the spirit of Star Trek, even if it’s not exactly what we’ve seen in the past. Remember, your special effects budget is essentially unlimited.

The occasional alien monster-creature is also in keeping with the style of Star Trek as an Action-Adventure narrative set in space. Sure, Star Trek is more cerebral than most other Space Opera media but it also includes phaser fights and space battles. Sometimes alien critters the size of whales come barreling out from beneath the snow to chase you across a frozen wasteland. It happens. We’ve all been there.

The view I want to put forth is they such beasts aren’t just monsters. They can be a lot more than opponents for a scary engagement. Alien creatures could very well be as relevant and commonly encountered in the futuristic universe of Star Trek as they are in our own but even better treated, with a more beneficially relationship and connection being these animals and civilized societies.

Imagine a world of remarkable cleanliness, whose cities are free of any refuse or harmful bacteria because the people have domesticated garbage eating mollusks. Said mollusks would’ve died out if not domesticated because of changes in their planet’s environment over the centuries. Picture a comparatively primitive society so in-synch with a species of flying repto-mammals that alert the native culture of approaching danger through complicated cries the locals have learned to interpret.

There are so many ways to use creatures in Star Trek Adventures games beyond them just being a threat. Doctor Phlox was on to something I say. Would Star Trek be as rich and entertaining as it is without Tribbles? I don’t believe so.

What do you think? Have you any great creature encounters in your Star Trek Adventures games? As a player, have any of your PCs had a memorable run-in with an interesting critter? Can you think of ways to make beasties more common in a Star Trek campaign?

Maybe the real trouble with tribbles is figuring out where they belong.

AD
Barking Alien