Since I'm unable to work on my usual projects (long story, don't ask) I decided to burn some time by starting a fun, speculative thread about what a Tholian might look like. There has been a thread or two in the tech forum discussing just that, but now I'm challenging people to put their ideas to paper and/or pixels. Anyone is welcome to join in with sketches, 3d renders, smeared doodles scanned from the back of a beer mat, anything! Quality is not an issue, the more ideas the merrier.
So to kick things off, here is the result of fiddling about for 15 min on PSP 7.
I should probably add that the only requirement for a design should be that it reasonably match the appearance of the only Tholian ever glimpsed at on screen.
Ok kids, get cracking!
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Weird crystaline arachnidoids would be my entry, if I could draw. Lots of grasping appendages.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Woody Woodpecker: The Next Generation.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Oh come on. Can't anyone come up with anything better than my crap sketch? I know I'm not the only artist here! Perhaps I should have posted in the competitions forum. Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
Well, if anyone cares, one of the new Lost Era novels deals with the Tholians and in it they're described as giant crystalline scorpions.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Well... can someone post some screen grabs from "The Tholian Web" - I always miss that episode - or only catch the end of it.
I LOVED the eerie sound of the Tholians on Enterprise - rather... chilling.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Really, the Tholians are so cool because we know next to nothing about them. Kinda like how Boba Fett used to cool be before we found out he's just a lousy clone of his headless merc "father".
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
If I had the inclination to take the time to draw something, it would look like a humanoid in faceted full-body armor and helmet.
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
Rewatched "Future Tense"... You'd almost say the Tholians speak the same language as the Aqua-Xindi...
And on an aside, it's a bit strange that all the mystery and urgency of the Temporal Cold war displayed in these episodes seems to have utterly dissapeared from the minds of our heroes...
So yeah... Tholians.
The Tholian ambassador, TOS style. It's a redress of the Viian costume 8)
Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
quote: Well, if anyone cares, one of the new Lost Era novels deals with the Tholians and in it they're described as giant crystalline scorpions.
And the new Peter David novel "Gods Above" speculates that they look like bunny rabbits in pink tutus.
It also features Santa Claus in a central role. I *warmly* recommend it.
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
quote:Originally posted by Timo: And the new Peter David novel "Gods Above" speculates that they look like bunny rabbits in pink tutus.
It also features Santa Claus in a central role. I *warmly* recommend it.
Really? I really need to read that book, and soon!
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by Timo:
quote: Well, if anyone cares, one of the new Lost Era novels deals with the Tholians and in it they're described as giant crystalline scorpions.
And the new Peter David novel "Gods Above" speculates that they look like bunny rabbits in pink tutus.
It also features Santa Claus in a central role. I *warmly* recommend it.
Timo Saloniemi
Further proof taht New Frontier has become the very abyss of Trek. Worse than Shatner's crap even. Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Harry, your drawing is agood start...although it kinda looks like the main Cylon from Battlestar Galactica.
Tholians would definitely nedd either some kind of limbs or really fuctional telekinesis to have a spacefaring society or to have evolved naturally.
Mabye Tholians are themsves a powersource (or focusing source for a power system) for a exo-skeleton with manipulator arms.... It would give them lots of adaptability by switching "bodies" to fit a specific task. Kinda War of the Worlds, I know, but it could be cool. They'd still need some TK though. That way we could use Revrend's really cool rendering. Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :
Rev, you've just given me the idea I need for the pumpkin, thanks....
Harry, you've just given me the idea on my son's holloween custome, Darth Tholian Vampire....
Thank you both....
Now, if I had even a bit of drawing talent I may contribute, but since I don't I won't....
Posted by Toadkiller (Member # 425) on :
quote:Originally posted by Timo:
quote: Well, if anyone cares, one of the new Lost Era novels deals with the Tholians and in it they're described as giant crystalline scorpions.
And the new Peter David novel "Gods Above" speculates that they look like bunny rabbits in pink tutus.
It also features Santa Claus in a central role. I *warmly* recommend it.
Timo Saloniemi
Finnish humor or does it really?
Posted by Paladin181 (Member # 833) on :
I was thinking that maybe since the Tholians spin webs that they may either be akin to crystal spiders or that they inhabit a world with arachnid species. If the second is true I would say that they are hands-free, but have a symbiotic relationship with the arachnids who act as their hands and feet while the Tholian acts as the brain. I would post an image but I don't want to go through the task of finding space.
Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :
What in the world makes you think Tholians themselves spin webs? "Tholian Silk" is just silk from Tholia....just like there's probably "Terran Root Beer". If you're basing the "webspinning" thing on their ships capabilities, you must also think Romulans are invisible bird creatures. Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
quote:
quote: And the new Peter David novel "Gods Above" speculates that they look like bunny rabbits in pink tutus.
It also features Santa Claus in a central role. I *warmly* recommend it.
Finnish humor or does it really?
To be completely truthful, the rabbits in tutus speculation is merely by one of the characters. (To spoil a little, it's by the generally level-headed Shelby. The resident level-head-in-chief Soleta is busy having sex with a baboon. Or a guy with the head of an ibis bird, depending on whether you believe Peter David or Daniel Jackson on this. Perhaps it is for the best that the novel is not a graphic medium.) The book gives no absolute confirmation about the tutu thing one way or the other.
But yes, Santa is decisive to the outcome of the plot. The deeper theological message of the book seems to be that disbelieving in gods is the way to ultimate triumph, as long as Santa remains on your side.
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by Spike (Member # 322) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: What in the world makes you think Tholians themselves spin webs?
"The Sundered" probably.
Posted by Paladin181 (Member # 833) on :
I'm not assuming Tholians spin webs themselves, or have anything to do with spiders, I'm just following a line of thought that has possibility. Since we've seen Romulans I now know that they aren't cloaking bird creatures... but before seeing them couldn't the possibility go through someones head. That's the problem with todays Trek aliens, they're all humaniod and you can always assume that when you see some ship cruise up to the Enterprise, or Voyager, or DS9 they'll have ridges on their nose and stand on two feet. I'm just trying to think beyond these suppositions. Tholians are not humanoid so they must interact with their world differently, maybe they have enslaved every species of their world or completely obliterated everything. Each of these theories speakes to what the Tholians could look like.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I agree that Tholians should not be humaniods but I really hate the idea of aliens being intilligent earth animals more. It's just poor imagination to think "I know what's really radical: Spider creatures! Cat Creatures! Dog Creatures! Wow! Best of all! Dinosaours were intelligent and went into space! Duh. There's plenty of possibilities that have never been done on Trek before resorting to animal shapes and characteristics. Posted by Capped in Mic (Member # 709) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: I agree that Tholians should not be humaniods but I really hate the idea of aliens being intilligent earth animals more.
a bug that thinks!? i find the very concept insulting..
but having the tholians be crystalline, and spinning material isnt much like any terran creature.. i find it more distasteful that the tholians are one of trek's few non-humanoid spacies, and having people try and theorize that maybe they are humanoid after all (like the DC comics where they had crystal heads as seen in TOS, but with little crystal arms and legs).. i prefer the shane johnson worlds of the federation 'floating crystal' appearance better, but even more favorable is something other than those two.. (possibly a crystal multiple 'spider leg' setup or some sort of wind chime looking support base are my favorites.. for some reason i alway liken the tholian's appearance to the description of k't'lk the hamalki from duane's novels, a big crystal spider/wind chime hybrid)
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
I share Mic's distaste for animalised aliens, it's a very lazy and unimaginative approach.
However, if a Tholian does have legs, this is what it might look like. I did my best not to make it look too spidery, or crabby, but some of that is unavoidable with a design like this.
Maybe next I'll draw an encounter suit version for the Ambassador that visited DS9.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Not only does that look cool as hell but he's the ultimate breakdancer!
Great Job, Rev!
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
One Tholian Ambassador in his enviromental suit, comming right up!
Posted by Masao (Member # 232) on :
Oooh! Nice work on those pleats. Did you draw them?
Posted by Middy Seafort (Member # 951) on :
You can almost hear the ambassador from Tholia spouting cryptic lines like "truth is a spun web, if you are not carefull you could get intangled."
or
"Do not go to Nimbus III or you will die."
Jokes aside, good work. I like the green coloring of the ambassador.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I can see the Tholian Ambassador ending all his sentences with "....or you will die." Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
quote:Oooh! Nice work on those pleats. Did you draw them?
Yup. They're not really that complicated, just a bunch of overlapping boxes with the corners slightly rounded. The secret is in the gradient.
I am aware of the blindingly obvious similarities to the Kosh suit and I'd be lying if I said it was entirely unintentional. For a while I was thinking about making the suit blue, but I decided that a metalic green would look better and more Tholian somehow. Don't ask me why, perhaps because the Tholian silk was a metalic green colour.
Posted by Makotokat (Member # 1041) on :
Who needs legs?
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Neato Frito!
Sooooo cool but making Tholians crystaline in nature means that Starfleet had no direct contact with Tholians prior to the TNG episode with the scilicate lifeforms on the desert planet.
...on the other tenticle, we also saw the Voyager crew shocked and gawking at an artifical singularity power source when the Romulans had been using them for years.
Posted by Makotokat (Member # 1041) on :
From StarTrek.com
Tholians Episode: Life Support
Origin: Tholian space. A highly advanced sentient � apparently crystalline species, non-humanoid in appearance and extremely territorial in disposition. They hail from a hot planet by Human standards, probably not Class-M. Together, two Tholian ships can literally spin a web of energy in space in order to trap an enemy vessel, after which the web is then drawn together, constricting and finally destroying the vessel inside. On stardate 5693.2, the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 made first contact with this species. Tholians are a hive-mind and known for their punctuality. One of the independent border races that could have been dragged into a Klingon civil war, due to their proximity.
During a period of renewed conflict with the United Federation of Planets (UFP) in 2253, they attacked a starbase and killed the entire complement � except civilian advisor Kyle Riker, who refused to give up survival. In a battle simulation during his Academy days, Riker figured out the sensory blind spot of a Tholian ship and hid there.
Tensions have eased enough for the Tholians to send an ambassador to space station Deep Space Nine.
End Quote
I always thought Tholians were crystaline. I also gave them one glowing eye as opposed to two humanoid eyes. When I read this topic I got my 3D program rendering.
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
AFAIK, there is NO direct evidence for hive-minds, first contact and being crystalline. I don't know who writes those STARTREK.COM articles, but they can ocassionaly be plain wrong.
Posted by Makotokat (Member # 1041) on :
Well then what is a tholian?
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
We don't know. I was just saying that STARTREK.COM != The Truth.
Posted by Makotokat (Member # 1041) on :
Yeah they kinda change their minds a lot!
Posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim (Member # 646) on :
"The Tholian Web" was most definitely NOT the first contact with the Tholians, and this was never the intention. The crew was familar with the species' habits and boundaries in the episode, and what's more, there's also ENT "Future Tense" to consider on top of that.
Just in case anyone is interested, I posted a review of the different Tholian concepts presented in historical Trek literature some time ago.
-MMoM Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
The only version worse than the "Tholian Draydel" is the idiotic "humanoid with giant heads" version from the DC comic.
Both versions on this thread are far superior in both idea and execution.
Tholians need limbs to have evolved into a ship-building, spacefaring civilization but should'nt be humanoid either.
The things from the comic look like they're patterned after Dark Helmet. "I bet she gives great Tholian!" Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Holy shiy, MoM! There's some funny stuff in that old thread you've dug up!
Revrend actually speculated on "planet sized fart pockets".
I called Psyliam "Crystal boy"...
Posted by Makotokat (Member # 1041) on :
Maybe there are ways around limbs......like magnetism or telekinesis
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Nothing like a spot of thread necromancy to brighten one's day.
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
