1 00:00:03,080 --> 00:00:06,120 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:09,800 --> 00:00:12,000 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the 3 00:00:12,039 --> 00:00:14,920 Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow 4 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:19,560 Speaker 2: Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. 5 00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:27,440 Speaker 2: Star Trek Week continues here on the show, and I 6 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:30,280 Speaker 2: want to turn our attention to a classic monster from 7 00:00:30,320 --> 00:00:34,720 Speaker 2: the original Star Trek series, the Mugatos of the Planet Neural. 8 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:38,760 Speaker 2: The Mugato is a white gorilla like creature with a 9 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:43,280 Speaker 2: dorsal spine, a tail, and a cranial horn. In the 10 00:00:43,320 --> 00:00:47,120 Speaker 2: original season two Trek episode A Private Little War, we 11 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:50,800 Speaker 2: see that the creature is highly aggressive and given its strength, horns, 12 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:55,240 Speaker 2: and spines, it's already a fierce opponent for any humanoid 13 00:00:55,880 --> 00:00:58,560 Speaker 2: who happens to encounter one. But we learn that the 14 00:00:58,600 --> 00:01:02,840 Speaker 2: creature also boasts a venomous bite that can prove lethal 15 00:01:02,920 --> 00:01:06,560 Speaker 2: if not treated. The Magato bites Kirk with its venomous 16 00:01:06,600 --> 00:01:09,760 Speaker 2: things in the episode, shortly before doctor McCoy is able 17 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:12,720 Speaker 2: to blast it with his phaser. What do we have 18 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:15,760 Speaker 2: in the natural world to make sense of the Mugato? Well, 19 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:20,920 Speaker 2: we of course have actual gorillas, which lack the horns, spines, tails, 20 00:01:21,319 --> 00:01:26,120 Speaker 2: and carnivorous diet of the mugato. Great apes, which include humans, 21 00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:29,240 Speaker 2: lack all of these things, and primates in general sometimes 22 00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:33,240 Speaker 2: have tails and diets that include meat. Spines and horns, however, 23 00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:37,320 Speaker 2: are right out. The black horned capuchin monkey, for instance, 24 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:40,760 Speaker 2: is only so named because a pair of hair tufts 25 00:01:40,760 --> 00:01:43,600 Speaker 2: on its head sort of look like a pair of horns. 26 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:48,000 Speaker 2: But what about venom, Well, we do have something similar 27 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:52,320 Speaker 2: in the pygmy slow lores of Southeast Asia. The creature 28 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:55,480 Speaker 2: is able to secrete a toxin from modified sweat glands 29 00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:58,640 Speaker 2: near its elbows. When threatened or alarmed, the lors can 30 00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:02,880 Speaker 2: lick these glands, mixing the secretion with its saliva. The 31 00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:05,840 Speaker 2: toxin then coats the tiny monkey's teeth in order to 32 00:02:05,880 --> 00:02:10,040 Speaker 2: power up a venomous defensive bite. In addition, a few 33 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:13,200 Speaker 2: other species of monkey and lemur are known to anoint 34 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:17,320 Speaker 2: their fur with toxins obtained from plants or millipedes for 35 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:20,720 Speaker 2: medicinal or pest control purposes, but they do not create 36 00:02:20,800 --> 00:02:24,799 Speaker 2: the toxic substances themselves. As far as the mugato goes, 37 00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:27,359 Speaker 2: it's difficult to imagine why a creature like this would 38 00:02:27,400 --> 00:02:31,799 Speaker 2: evolve so many offensive and defensive capabilities, a horn, spine, 39 00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:35,560 Speaker 2: and venom on top of its already large, powerful body. 40 00:02:35,639 --> 00:02:39,239 Speaker 2: Each of these is a costly investment from an evolutionary standpoint. 41 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:42,320 Speaker 2: A mountain gorilla doesn't need venom because it's already large 42 00:02:42,320 --> 00:02:46,240 Speaker 2: and powerful. A slow pygmy loris does need venom because 43 00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:49,359 Speaker 2: it's incredibly small. But of course the demands of the 44 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:53,559 Speaker 2: Mugato's environment might be quite different. While large and intimidating 45 00:02:53,600 --> 00:02:56,360 Speaker 2: by human standards, perhaps it's quite small and weak by 46 00:02:56,440 --> 00:03:01,560 Speaker 2: planet neural standards, thus requiring the evolution of multi defensive strategies. 47 00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:05,000 Speaker 2: As we never see the creature actually gore anyone with 48 00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:08,320 Speaker 2: the horn, we might also hypothesize that this and perhaps 49 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:11,839 Speaker 2: the dorsal spines as well, serve some other purpose, such 50 00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:16,520 Speaker 2: as communication or thermal regulation. In the Star Trek episode 51 00:03:16,520 --> 00:03:18,920 Speaker 2: in question, the creature is brought to life, of course, 52 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:22,560 Speaker 2: via an augmented gorilla suit, and in this case the 53 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:26,200 Speaker 2: man inside the suit was Hungarian American stuntman and former 54 00:03:26,240 --> 00:03:31,760 Speaker 2: circus performer Janus Prohaska, who donned ape, alien and other 55 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:35,520 Speaker 2: creature suits on such classic TV series as The Outer Limits, 56 00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:39,400 Speaker 2: The Monsters Lost in Space Land, of the Giants Gilligan's Island, 57 00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:41,840 Speaker 2: and then he also pops up in the nineteen seventy 58 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:45,320 Speaker 2: one movie Escape from the Planet of the Apes. I 59 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:48,680 Speaker 2: love a good gorilla suit and performance and a production 60 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:52,800 Speaker 2: as it centers the physicality of the monster around a 61 00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:56,440 Speaker 2: distinct natural role body plan the gorilla and caters to 62 00:03:56,480 --> 00:04:01,960 Speaker 2: an equally distinct physical performance by the actor. Tune in 63 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:04,720 Speaker 2: for additional episodes of The Monster, Fact the Artifact, or 64 00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:07,920 Speaker 2: Animalius to Pendium each week. As always, you can email 65 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:19,440 Speaker 2: us at contact It's Stuff to Blow Your Mind dot com. 66 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:22,520 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 67 00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:26,400 Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 68 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:28,280 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.