Even the Borg Fear These Aliens...

hey guys tyler here when it comes to alien species and star trek most tend to take on a familiar humanoid form sure they may be differentiated with forehead ridges or nose makeup maybe even pointed ears or blue skin but for the most part they look a lot like us there have been some attempts at portraying non-humanoid aliens throughout the franchise including notably the horta the thulians the sheliak and many many more but one of the most unique alien designs in star trek appears in the spin-off series voyager given the borg designation species 8472 these aliens real name is never revealed on screen in the game star trek online however we learned that they are called the undine another name for water nymphs such as mermaids which in universe translates to groundskeepers a tripedal race that inhabits an extra-dimensional realm called fluidic space hence the association with water elementals the undines serve as one of the greatest threats to galactic stability even the borg fear their true power that's right the borg in this video i'd like to examine the biology history culture and technology of the undine and attempt to answer the question how could something like this evolve let's find out [Music] first things first i just want to clarify for the sake of brevity i will be using species 8472 and ending interchangeably throughout this video with that out of the way let's establish what sets the species apart in terms of their physiology and believe me there's a lot undines stand about three meters tall making them one of the tallest intelligent species the federation has encountered as i mentioned earlier they have three tripod oriented legs which arguably makes their locomotion more stable than us lowly bipeds who often lose our balance their pupils are also cruciform which could help them filter incoming light more efficiently much like earth animals whose pupils contract horizontally they do not appear to require oxygen or any atmosphere to survive and they can walk without the aid of gravity able to cling onto surfaces undine also do not have discernable mouths ears or nostrils in their native form they are only known to communicate telepathically though they can produce some rudimentary shrieks hisses and growls they can initiate mental contact with other telepathic species though the recipients can find such experiences overwhelming oh and just like the jim hedar undine do not require sleep as far as their internal chemistry each of their cells contains over a hundred times the dna of a human cell their dna has a triple helix structure get it because it's three instead of two that as of 2374 is the most densely coated of any life form known to federation science the species may also have as many as five sexes undine also possess an incredibly powerful immune system capable of immediately destroying almost any foreign agent thus rendering them immune for example to borg assimilation their bodies generate a bioelectric field that can penetrate force fields and withstand otherwise lethal quantities of weapons fire starting to sound a little op they are also capable of regenerating themselves from the brink of death and it's at this point that my script editor subraxis wanted me to also put they might as well be shipping diamonds and gold the undine also have genetic engineering techniques that rely on isogenic injections which can be revealed through a microcellular scan while in these mimicked forms undine are effectively a member of the target species and are subject to all of said species biological requirements and limitations it's this genetic engineering technology that honestly makes them almost as powerful as the changelings when it comes to posing as members of other species though the changelings shape-shifting being a fundamental part of their biology arguably makes them superior in this regard that said given everything we've just gone through it's easy to understand why the borg would call species 8472 the apex of biological evolution species 8472 considers anything but themselves to be impure and weak and importantly a threat to their existence if species 8472 is so perfect though they must have genetically engineered themselves to fit into their native environment right the reason i ask is because when voyager enters the undine's native realm of fluidic space effectively a pocket dimension with different space-time properties than the normal universe the ship's sensors detect no stars or planets so it seems rather improbable that anything could have evolved there that said undine anatomy suggests that fluidic space must have some solid surfaces to walk on we don't really know much about fluidic space other than it is green it's filled with a strange organic fluid biomatter and that it's accessible through interdimensional rifts caused by quantum singularities star trek online also shows clusters of giant coral-like organic structures in fluidic space and it's hypothesized that it's impossible to create a warp bubble in fluidic space two members of my audience who've asked me to make a video about fluidic space well again there's just not that much to go on or is there [Music] i do think it's interesting that the unding originate from a space-time realm that has subtly different physical laws and is more sparsely populated when it comes to familiar celestial bodies indeed regarding the history of our universe many elements considered essential for life including carbon and oxygen were only produced in abundant amounts after an old generation of stars went supernova billions of years ago newer metal-rich stars called population 1 stars are commonly found in the spiral arms of the milky way and similarly structured spiral galaxies the sun is one such example of a population one star and it like many others in its age range of about 5 billion years was formed from the gas cloud remnants of ancient supernovae that released elements heavier than hydrogen and helium data from the kepler space telescope has helped us figure out that while metal-rich stars may be more conducive to hosting gas giants more metal poor stars can still have rocky planetary systems as well by the way in astronomy the word metal is used for any element heavier than helium anyway population 2 stars more common in the bulge near the center of spiral galaxies have more elements like oxygen and neon relative to iron which is more common in population 1 stars population 2 may have been formed from the remnants of type 2 supernovae which result from the collapse of stars between 8 and 40 times the mass of our sun characterized by a higher ratio of hydrogen in their spectra type 1a supernovae which are a key part of the process of metal enrichment probably came at a later stage in the universe's development these supernovae generally involve binary systems consisting of at least one white dwarf and it's one of the supernovae that likely released ejecta that eventually made it into what would later become our solar system and population 3 stars are a hypothetical population of stars that may have existed in the very very early universe their existence is inferred from physical cosmology but they have not been directly observed it's admittedly a stretch but if fluidic space is indeed a parallel universe that's younger than our universe or is perhaps smaller and has a different distribution of matter that could explain its weird properties such as low star formation we're never given any indication that time itself runs differently in fluidic space but the undine being among the only known native species to fluidic space suggests this realm may have begun at a different date than our big bang nearly 14 billion years ago we do know that very early in our universe's existence millions of years after the matter produced by the big bang started to cool down the universe's ambient temperature was much higher than it is now about room temperature versus the near absolute zero of today thus liquid water may have been rather abundant and life may have evolved on plentiful rocky worlds or possibly out in the cosmos itself this is of course entirely hypothetical speculative and something for which we have no evidence since life as we know it needs specific chemicals and conditions to evolve given the undine's radically alternative biochemistry they would certainly have to have evolved in an environment completely unlike anything we've ever considered possible and to answer the question of whether they genetically engineered themselves to be better suited for fluidic space well we really have no way of proving or disproving that but we are told several times throughout voyager that the undine are in fact native to fluidic space given that they are likely the only sapient beings to have evolved in this realm for the ending the concept of other intelligent species was completely alien to them for a long time this resulted in them being hostile intolerant paranoid during their encounters with species from our universe despite their extremely xenophobic outlook some undine later happened to gain a better appreciation for the experiences and world views of humanoid species as a byproduct of assuming their form this change of heart semi accidentally occurs after an undeen attempt to gather intel on starfleet's military capabilities and plans by training themselves for an elaborate invasion of the ufp within one of their pterosphere facilities containing high fidelity holographic recreations of starfleet academy and starfleet headquarters select unbeaten genetically alter themselves to resemble various alpha quadrant species as part of this reconnaissance mission one such agent who adopts the identity valerie archer expresses fondness for various works of federation art literature and music it's this very ability to connect emotionally with the experiences of other cultures that eventually allows voyager to broker a ceasefire with the undine who had initially believed mistakenly that a federation attack was imminent the two parties even exchanged that said while some ending do find elements of adopting the humanoid form pleasant others find it extremely uncomfortable [Music] as far as undine technology we see that they make use of highly advanced organic machinery their bioships are made of the same material as themselves and thus share the same resistance to weapons fire again kind of op eight bioships working in unison with a dactylus class vessel could refocus energy into a devastating beam that could field enough firepower to obliterate an entire planet by now again it should certainly be clear why species 8472 biological and technological capabilities have made even the borg see them as a threat indeed according to seven of nine species 8472 was the first species to offer the borg quote unquote true resistance in the long history of their current incarnation upon realizing the undine's genocidal intentions as we see in scorpion catherine janeway allies with the borg in order to stop the undine from invading the delta quadrant this is accomplished by using modified borgnano probes to infect the endine and their bioships these nanoprobes being their only apparent weakness ultimately however it's these very modified nanoprobes that are one of the technologies that voyager trades with the undeem after the ceasefire in exchange for ending secrets as seen in the episode in the flesh it's easy to see why species 8472 is a fan favorite they're incredibly unique in their design and they're an early star trek villain portrayed using cgi that right there is quite revolutionary given that voyager was produced in the 90s when the technology was still relatively youngish species 8472 was even featured on the cover of the fourth issue of lightwave and magazine named after the animation software used to bring them to life it's also no surprise that the undine have been featured in numerous apocrypha playing a prominent role for example in star trek online a triple non-humanoid species from another dimension that has reached the so-called apex of biological evolution and master genetic engineering technology is certainly one of the most compelling aliens in star trek thank you all so much for watching if you enjoyed this be sure to leave a thumbs up down below and don't forget to share it that stuff really helps me out if you haven't subscribed yet be sure to do that as well so you won't miss future uploads and click the bell icon to receive all notifications if you want to support my work even further becoming a patron or a member is a great way to do so links to those as well as my social media and merch store are in the description and big thanks to hero and hong kong for becoming my new top patron by joining the 50 tier great to have you on board that's all i have for this week live long and prosper [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: OrangeRiver

Views: 1,187,929

Keywords: orange river, orange river productions, anim8orkid, tyler pilkinton, orangeriver, species 8472, star trek, trek, voyager, undine, star trek online, alien, aliens, biology, astrobiology, exobiology, astronomy, science, evolution, genetics, genetic engineering, mutation, fluidic space

Id: 7WTyg9wteKs

Length: 15min 21sec (921 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 01 2022