1 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:06,439 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:12,160 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb, and this is the 3 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:14,920 Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow 4 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:20,520 Speaker 2: Your Mind, focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. 5 00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:26,800 Speaker 2: In this episode, I'd like to begin a series on 6 00:00:26,960 --> 00:00:31,120 Speaker 2: various aliens and creatures from the Star Trek universe. Now, 7 00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:33,120 Speaker 2: first of all, I will be the first to admit 8 00:00:33,159 --> 00:00:35,879 Speaker 2: that I am not an expert in Trek lore, but 9 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:38,640 Speaker 2: I very fondly remember as a kid in the nineties 10 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:42,519 Speaker 2: watching reruns of Star Trek The Next Generation every weeknight 11 00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:46,000 Speaker 2: at nine PM. I also fondly remember a book that 12 00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:48,960 Speaker 2: I had a special order from the local bookstore, Star 13 00:00:49,080 --> 00:00:52,720 Speaker 2: Trek The Worlds of the Federation, written and illustrated by 14 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:57,960 Speaker 2: Laura Johnson writing as Shane Johnson. This was an encyclopedic 15 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:02,200 Speaker 2: collection of alien profiles. Think of it as a monster manual, 16 00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:05,920 Speaker 2: if you will, covering thirty two different Federation member alien species, 17 00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:08,960 Speaker 2: as well as a number of neutral and hostile aliens. 18 00:01:09,560 --> 00:01:12,440 Speaker 2: This was a nineteen eighty nine publication, so it's far 19 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:16,160 Speaker 2: from current and is not considered part of current Trek canon. 20 00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:19,320 Speaker 2: And I'm to understand some Trek writers took issue with 21 00:01:19,480 --> 00:01:22,080 Speaker 2: some of the entries. Still, it's a book that meant 22 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:23,960 Speaker 2: a lot to me as a young Treki, and I 23 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:26,280 Speaker 2: suspect it meant a lot to others from this time 24 00:01:26,319 --> 00:01:27,880 Speaker 2: period as well, So I'm going to go ahead and 25 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:30,720 Speaker 2: cite it along with some other sources, with the caveat 26 00:01:30,760 --> 00:01:33,880 Speaker 2: that again, it's not canon much in the same way 27 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:37,119 Speaker 2: I cited the Dune Encyclopedia in some of my Dune 28 00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:40,880 Speaker 2: related entries. With all of that in mind, let's turn 29 00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:46,319 Speaker 2: to the Andrians. These blue skinned, white haired, antinny equipped 30 00:01:46,360 --> 00:01:51,040 Speaker 2: aliens are iconic original series aliens, but they were rather 31 00:01:51,120 --> 00:01:54,720 Speaker 2: exotic for me, as they're virtually absent from both Star 32 00:01:54,760 --> 00:01:57,360 Speaker 2: Trek the Next Generation and Star Trek Deep Space Nine, 33 00:01:57,400 --> 00:02:01,760 Speaker 2: which constituted my prime Trek viewing. The reasoning for their absence, 34 00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:06,600 Speaker 2: according to the excellent Memory Alpha, was largely twofold. First 35 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:10,680 Speaker 2: of all, Trek creator Gene Roddenberry preferred that many original 36 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:13,880 Speaker 2: series aliens be avoided in favor of new ones on 37 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:18,640 Speaker 2: the next generation. Secondly, the makeup was allegedly difficult to 38 00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:23,240 Speaker 2: get right and avoid looking silly. They overcame these hurdles 39 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:26,040 Speaker 2: and subsequent shows, and in the current Star Trek Strange 40 00:02:26,040 --> 00:02:28,880 Speaker 2: New World series, which I'm enjoying quite a bit, we 41 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:33,359 Speaker 2: encounter an albinos subspecies of Andrians known as the Nar, 42 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:37,440 Speaker 2: as well as an Andrian Special Forces officer, and neither 43 00:02:37,520 --> 00:02:41,079 Speaker 2: of these aliens looks remotely silly. But let's come back 44 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:44,400 Speaker 2: to the biology of the Andorans. The Worlds of the 45 00:02:44,440 --> 00:02:48,560 Speaker 2: Federation describes them as a mix of mammalian and reptilian features, 46 00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:52,120 Speaker 2: with both an indoskeleton and a limited exoskeleton, and the 47 00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:56,000 Speaker 2: antennae are described as enhancing otherwise colorblind vision with a 48 00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:59,800 Speaker 2: quote complex matrix of light sensitive cones in addition to 49 00:02:59,880 --> 00:03:03,160 Speaker 2: auditory functions. All of this together would amount to an 50 00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:06,680 Speaker 2: enhanced sense of sight and smell. Fair enough obvious sense 51 00:03:06,760 --> 00:03:12,320 Speaker 2: organs do sense organ things. Antenny interrestrial organisms remember very greatly, 52 00:03:12,360 --> 00:03:18,360 Speaker 2: and depending on the species, may utilize senses of touch, air, motion, heat, vibration, smell, 53 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:22,560 Speaker 2: or taste. But again, The Worlds of the Federation came 54 00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:25,880 Speaker 2: out in nineteen eighty nine before a particular nineteen ninety 55 00:03:25,919 --> 00:03:29,280 Speaker 2: three episode of the Next Generation shed a great deal 56 00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:32,680 Speaker 2: of canonical light on the biology of Star Trek. The 57 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:36,960 Speaker 2: episode titled the chase, which I specifically remember from my childhood, 58 00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:40,800 Speaker 2: reveal the reason so many Star Trek alien species are 59 00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:44,760 Speaker 2: humanoid and resemble each other, often with minor alterations to 60 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:48,680 Speaker 2: facial and cranial features. All of this via a revelation 61 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:54,320 Speaker 2: of ancient intentional pan spermia via a single advanced progenitor 62 00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:57,760 Speaker 2: humanoid species. In other words, all of these Trek species 63 00:03:57,840 --> 00:04:00,240 Speaker 2: look similar not because they are all humans in make up, 64 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:04,000 Speaker 2: but rather because a single ancestor species spread their own 65 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:08,440 Speaker 2: DNA among the various worlds to seed them. I've always 66 00:04:08,440 --> 00:04:10,640 Speaker 2: found this to be a clever way of addressing the 67 00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:13,680 Speaker 2: seeming lack of biological diversity in many of the core 68 00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:20,720 Speaker 2: Tract civilizations. Now you might reasonably wonder, okay, fine, but realistically, 69 00:04:21,640 --> 00:04:25,200 Speaker 2: with these distantly related species still look so similar to 70 00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:29,000 Speaker 2: each other well. Susan and Robert Jenkins explore this question 71 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:31,600 Speaker 2: in their book The Biology of Star Trek, published in 72 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:34,560 Speaker 2: nineteen ninety eight. They point out that, based on what 73 00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:38,080 Speaker 2: we know about evolution, it's not at all unreasonable. The 74 00:04:38,120 --> 00:04:41,599 Speaker 2: evolutionary clock runs slowly, they write, and it has a 75 00:04:41,680 --> 00:04:46,200 Speaker 2: built in bias against major overhauls because speciation is brought 76 00:04:46,200 --> 00:04:49,240 Speaker 2: about by multiple random changes in DNA, and the changes 77 00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:52,920 Speaker 2: must allow the organism to survive and reproduce. Small changes 78 00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:56,240 Speaker 2: are favored over large ones. Small changes are less likely 79 00:04:56,320 --> 00:05:00,480 Speaker 2: to compromise the tested survivability of the original. Given this constraint, 80 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:03,920 Speaker 2: two species that start out alike remain similar over a 81 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:08,760 Speaker 2: rather long time, even under different sets of environmental pressures. 82 00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:12,359 Speaker 2: They add that particular environmental pressures would of course have 83 00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:15,640 Speaker 2: their impact, and a trend towards facial symmetry would likely 84 00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:18,480 Speaker 2: stay in place. They go into greater detail in this 85 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:22,000 Speaker 2: great book about not only the speculative biology of all 86 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:24,960 Speaker 2: of this, but also the connections between human facial cues 87 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:28,359 Speaker 2: and the way we imagine the facial features of treks aliens, 88 00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:32,599 Speaker 2: and they do get around to considering the Andorians. They 89 00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:35,360 Speaker 2: point out that while nothing resembling a human with antennae 90 00:05:35,400 --> 00:05:37,760 Speaker 2: exists in the natural world, we of course do have 91 00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:41,360 Speaker 2: mammalian species with enhanced whiskers, and I would point out 92 00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:44,920 Speaker 2: that we have other things like the unique probosis of 93 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:47,400 Speaker 2: the star No's mole and the twin feelers of the 94 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:51,400 Speaker 2: tentacled snake to get into the reptile world. For the Andrians, however, 95 00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:55,640 Speaker 2: they propose an interesting notion, perhaps the Andorian home world 96 00:05:55,680 --> 00:06:01,000 Speaker 2: contains multiple atmospheric variations, and this results in various micro climates, 97 00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:06,039 Speaker 2: requiring enhanced sensation of atmospheric content, temperature, and pressure for 98 00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:10,440 Speaker 2: any species that regularly travels outside of a narrow region 99 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:13,480 Speaker 2: or microclimate. They even go so far as to discuss 100 00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:18,000 Speaker 2: how tissues in human embryos might develop into antennae under 101 00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:22,040 Speaker 2: the right survival pressures. Quote. Human embryos have several segments 102 00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:25,880 Speaker 2: called embryonic pharyngeal arches in what will become the head 103 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:29,040 Speaker 2: and the neck. They supply the developing tissue for jaws 104 00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:33,320 Speaker 2: and some neck organs. In fish, however, the pharyngeal arches 105 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:36,640 Speaker 2: develop into gills because these structures have been adapted for 106 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:39,720 Speaker 2: very different purposes. They might evolve to provide the organ 107 00:06:39,800 --> 00:06:43,520 Speaker 2: substrate for the nervous tissue in an antenna like organ. 108 00:06:44,279 --> 00:06:47,120 Speaker 2: More broadly, they point out that added sense organs could 109 00:06:47,120 --> 00:06:50,320 Speaker 2: potentially detect any number of factors in a given environment, 110 00:06:50,400 --> 00:06:54,160 Speaker 2: provided there was an evolutionary incentive to do so. Memory 111 00:06:54,160 --> 00:06:57,160 Speaker 2: Alpha provides little canonical data on all of this, as 112 00:06:57,160 --> 00:06:59,599 Speaker 2: far as I could tell, but it does point out 113 00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:02,719 Speaker 2: that we know that Andoran and Kenny can be moved 114 00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:06,720 Speaker 2: independently via voluntary muscle control that they regenerate if they 115 00:07:06,720 --> 00:07:11,280 Speaker 2: are injured or blasted off, and they also seem to 116 00:07:11,280 --> 00:07:14,760 Speaker 2: play a role in balance and gesticulation and of course 117 00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:19,040 Speaker 2: therefore communication. I think all of this is quite reasonable. Now, 118 00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:22,200 Speaker 2: coming back to Star Trek's Strange New Worlds, the nar 119 00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:25,040 Speaker 2: character Himmer in that show is depicted as having been 120 00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:28,240 Speaker 2: born sightless, but is more than able to make up 121 00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:30,720 Speaker 2: for his lack of sight in part due to his 122 00:07:30,800 --> 00:07:34,720 Speaker 2: other senses as a member of an antennae equipped and 123 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:39,880 Speaker 2: Dorian subspecies. Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact, 124 00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:43,720 Speaker 2: The Artifact or Animalius Stupendium each week. I'm going to 125 00:07:43,760 --> 00:07:46,880 Speaker 2: try and press on with more Trek selections for The 126 00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:51,320 Speaker 2: Monster Fact, so please send in your recommendations and that 127 00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:54,040 Speaker 2: may help me figure out what the next three or 128 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:56,760 Speaker 2: four of these will be. As always, you can email 129 00:07:56,880 --> 00:07:59,320 Speaker 2: us at contact at Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 130 00:08:09,920 --> 00:08:12,480 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio. 131 00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:16,800 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 132 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:18,680 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.