posted
Not at all- just ot household pet related: the Xindi had aquatic species that were very well handled, and the Gorn are not big versions of Earth animals either (neither were the Xindi reptillians). A species can have evolved in or from a particular environment- making it avian, reptillian, aquatic, etc.- without it being a "(insert animal)-Man".
So, while the gorn might be a cool alien, a giant talking turtle-man would be pretty stupid. While an avian Xindi would have been cool to see, a humanoid with a proportionate canary head would be awful.
As long as it stays clear of the hybridization of Dr. Moreau, it's fine- the Kzinti do not. Those books are chock full of cat-references and thewy even made catnip a narcotic to this (supposedly) alien species. Even the best-possible representation of Kzinti (the one made up for STIII) was pretty lacking, and the one from TAS was laughably bad.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
The Gorn looked like a guy in a bad T. rex suit. And, by "looked like", I mean "was".
If you draw a distinction between "looking like a lizard" and "looking like a housepet lizard", then the Kzinti should be fine, shouldn't they? After all, they looked more like tigers than house cats.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Smack yourself- no amount of nostalgic rationalecan make a humanoid cat-man in a pink jumpsuit anything but lame.
quote:If you draw a distinction between "looking like a lizard" and "looking like a housepet lizard", then the Kzinti should be fine, shouldn't they? After all, they looked more like tigers than house cats.
Should But does not: mainly because of all the idiotic baggage tied with the Kzin- purring when content, catnip narcotics, etc.- pretty much every lame-ass cat-owner cliche' was tacked onto them as the popularity of the Man-Kzin books grew and the author kept churning them out Stephen King style.
quote:ek III? Do you mean the two Caitians in the Federation Council scenes from Star Trek IV?
They were cupposed to be Caitians? mmmm...still pretty bad, but I suppose you could work something less lame than the Kzin with them...kinda dumb to see something with fur wearing clothes though....by TNG it could be holographic, but still... You'd have to do away with any of the (really really bad) Peter David stuff he did with that TAS Caitian character- all the cat cliche nonsense but far worse than Niven.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
M'Ress. And those guys could be static masks as they were meant to be seen only in passing. Never underestimate the degree of corner-cutting that goes on in movies. *heh* M'Ress was portrayed simplistically in TAS, but I thought the character had potential. I disagreed with the anthropomorphisation (i.e., if she had any noticable breasts, she'd probably have six, in accordance with her felinoid ancestry), but it's understandable in context. I tend to think of the Caitians as being more Kilrathi/Hani in appearance and demeanor. And even though they have fur, clothes are a sensible convention -- especially if it is a uniform for an organisation to which your world belongs and in which you serve.
And as much as I like Peter David, he's done some things with New Frontier that bug me.
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: Smack yourself- no amount of nostalgic rationalecan make a humanoid cat-man in a pink jumpsuit anything but lame.
From Memory Alpha-
The pink uniforms for the Kzinti came to be because the director, Hal Sutherland has a kind of color blindness. Usually, the art department would revise his color schemes, but the animators received his original instructions and gave the Kzinti pink uniforms.
Registered: Feb 2005
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"I disagreed with the anthropomorphisation (i.e., if she had any noticable breasts, she'd probably have six, in accordance with her felinoid ancestry)..."
Assuming, that is, that Caitians are descended from Earth cats, for some reason, and not from some alien creature that just happens to look superficially like an Earth cat.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
And Hal Southerland apologized profusely for making the Kzin have pink uniforms.
Since TAS is not considered canon, there's never been any canon background for the Kzinti to contradict.
I've liked the idea of the Kzinti since I played Star Fleet Battles years ago. I've been waiting to see them included in offical Trek canon. I think they would have been pretty cool.
Either Kzinti or adapt one of the other species such as the Caitans. I've also read where the Tzenkethi were supposed to be a cat like race.
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
Bad enough there's a thousand species that "just happen" to look like humans in every way save their skull shapes.
Besides, there's so much that can be done with the energy and time required to somehow make a cat-person even mildly believable (or any anthropomorphing of Earth animals for that matter)...we could probably get a fantastic (and intresting!) new species instead. Hell, even the Remans are a better idea. (sorry MMoM, but it's true)
All this debate aside, that ship is pretty bad- it's a nice render of an escapee from Flash Gordon (which also had a race of cat-warriors, as I recall).
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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