User blog:Pikapi/Humanoid aliens and other modern inconsistencies justified


 * THIS BLOG POST IS A WORK IN PROGRESS!!!

The wonderful world of Star Trek was conceived in the mind of a brilliant, progressive thinker a great-many decades ago, and since, has captivated our imaginations. I think we can all agree that the franchise was very advanced for its time, during the mid-to-later half of the twentieth century. In the modern era, however, someone who actively follows the latest avancements in scientific fields such as cosmology and genetics can't help but to look back question their favorite series. A fan fiction author might wonder how he or she is supposed to be inspired by such a series, that when tested against modern knowledge, falls short, even if not by much. If you know what I'm talking about, I'm sure you too have lost many hours of sleep desperately searching for loopholes and ways to justify the few, but tantalizing faults in the Star Trek continuity, like: "why are all of the alien races essentially human with funny-looking heads, or the much more intricate than we can ever image, all-powerful and omniscent  beings?" or "Could our galaxy really be so ripe with similar life?"''

If you haven't yet considered these shortcomings, I suggest you read my argument immediately to prevent loss of sleep (and your life outside of the internet!). Before we begin, please keep in mind that this post is not intended to criticize Star Trek or the fanbase, only to help put the minds of like-minded fans at ease by providing a number of alternatives to consider, many of which are rooted in both Star Trek canon what facts are now considered true in the real-life universe.

Obviously, I already consider my alternative suggestions to be canon in my expanded universe, but you can feel free to borrow these ideas under the condition that you be willing to attribute them to me if you are ever asked!

Humanoids in Star Trek
First, I'd like to explore the lack of physiological diversity in alien races. Put much more simply, the vast majority of species inhabiting the Milky Way look all-but identical to humans except for having different skin-tones and/or crested foreheads? Just to put this out there, the proper term to generalize human-like aliens is, so throughout the rest of this post, I will refer to them very simply as "humanoid species".

Now we all know that The Original Series was very-low budget. Don't get me wrong, they pulled it off, but that could very well be why Vulcans, Romulans, most notably Klingons, and an uncountable number of aliens were depicted as being distinctly humanoid in form. Can you see past this? Don't decide just yet. Modern science has it that humans are roughly ninety-eight percent genetically identical to chimpanzees. Humans and chimpanzees possess a number of similarities in terms of appearance, but in general, do humans and chimpanzees look much alike? I don't think so. With this in mind, imagine how genetically similar humans must be to Vulcans, Romulans, or Klingons. What Earth's native lifeforms teach us is that if two species look even remotely similar in their outwards appearance, that they must be astoundingly similar on a molecular scale.

Clearly, this is an issue. I am not ready to blame this on Gene Roddenbery's lack of creativity just yet, however. After all, he was the visionary, not the set designer, and we all know that The Original Series was a very low-budget production. If Star Trek was envisioned in a more modern time period, I am confident that they would have put greater effort into diversifying the aliens in Star Trek. My guess is that in Roddenbery's mind, the Klingons might have some resemblance to their Halo universe counterparts, the proud, intelligent and somewhat barbaric Sangheili. I'm very partial to the Sangheili because they possess more exaggerated physiological features such as their staggering height, their digitigrade legs, oddly-jointed hands, mandibles, and distinctly reptillian or evolutionary pathway. Alien life would have probably developed very differently from life on Earth, therefore, life that evolved on another planet would obviously appear very different, and would not be so genetically similar to humans either.