The Complex History of Star Trek's Cat People

hey guys Tyler here Star Trek is known for many things among them the seeming ubiquity of humanoid aliens throughout the Milky Way while many of these species possess distinctive characteristics such as pointy ears forehead bumps or unique skin coloration they nevertheless retain the prototypical humanoid body plan but there are some Star Trek races that do at least take some more creative Liberties even if they're still reminiscent of familiar Earth life among these are Star Trek's various cat people including vacations and their supposed cousins the cousin tea long time members of the United Federation of planets vacations are fairly common throughout Starfleet and there have been multiple named cation characters in the franchise the kazinti on the other hand are a recurring antagonist species though there are now also a few cuisentian Starfleet 2. in this video I'd like to examine what we know about both of these species comparing them to our expectations about aliens in real life let's get started [Music] [Applause] according to Trek lore cations began attending Starfleet academy by at least the 2250s if not earlier Star Trek 4 the Voyage Home confirms the acacian Homeworld has a seat on the Federation Council by 2286 but even before this in the late 2260s acacian Lieutenant Morris serves aboard Kirk's Enterprise in the Animated Series biologically the occasions exhibit feline-like features with short faces triangular ears large usually yellow eyes with slit pupils whiskers fangs and a tail they have a variety of fur colors and in some instances a digital grade foot structure though some are shown possessing a plantagrade structure and they are shown possessing either four or five fingers on each hand including their thumbs some more human-looking aliens have been identified by production sources as being allegedly cations but to be honest I don't really agree with this assessment as others have instead identified them as dralaxians unless oh God they're caitian human hybrids when cations need to move quickly they can switch to a quadrupedal Locomotion demonstrating typical feline agility and reaction times they have sharp claws on their hands and feet with some preferring to forego Footwear the voices of some female occasions have a soft purring quality with agitated occasions capable of a variety of cat-like hisses and yells cations experience hormonal cycles that include the need to be intimate once a year which can be alleviated using a libido post thanks lower decks oh look at these claw marks they're like from her horny great grandma that Jenny my name is Jeremy I'm an important cultural sex toy from the past please I can't believe you're leaving oh my God I'm touching it with my bare hands put it back put it back vacation Homeworld is called Kate and it has long been associated with a binary star 15 lenses get it links a non-canon biography of Lieutenant Morris published by Lincoln Enterprises in 1974 describes Kate as having an atmosphere gravity and mass all similar to Earth so in other words Class M this is consistent with the occasions mammalian biology the 15 lenses system itself is located approximately 178 light years away from Earth and it consists of a g-type giant star with an F-Type companion according to astronomers the primary star has exhausted the hydrogen at its core which has caused it to expand to eight times our sun's radius it emits 40 times the Luminosity of our sun with an effective temperature of 5164 Kelvin the the two stars orbit each other with a period of 262 Earth years nearly 10 times the orbital period of Saturn thus the acacian Homeworld which they call farasa could theoretically orbit either member of the binary pair or even both Stars the former Arrangement is called an S-Type orbit and is stable only if a planet's distance to its primary does not exceed about one-fifth the closest approach of the other star the latter Arrangement is called a p-type or circum binary orbit and is only stable if the planet's distance from the stars is about two to four times the binary separation ultimately the reference book Star Trek Star Charts suggests that ferrasa orbits 15 lenses B whose Stellar classification of f85 indicates it is roughly 20 percent larger than our sun seven percent hotter and nearly twice as luminous thus to retain an Earth-like climate ferraso would probably orbit around two astronomical units from 15 lenses B [Music] of course we're told by various tie-in media that Kate AKA farasa is not in fact the caitian's native Homeworld Lieutenant maressa's biography also claims that the occasions and more warlike kazinti share a common ancestor much like the Vulcans and romulans the non-canon reference book the worlds of the Federation further theorizes that the cations are descendants of an ancient kazinti Colony according to Star trek.com the cations retain a fierce Warrior side of their personalities having extremely close family units but Pride themselves on their artistic and philosophical accomplishments the kazinti are very unique and that they are one of the few Star Trek antagonists originally created and developed for another work of fiction prior to the 1973 television production that is the known space universe created by sci-fi author Larry Niven starting in 1964 4. his kazinti-centric story the soft weapon was bought by Gene Roddenberry and adapted by Niven for the Animated Series upon the recommendation of DC Fontana the kazinti are Ambiguously said by Hikaru Sulu to have fought four Wars with Mankind in the late 21st century having lost all of them according to the Animated Series episode the slaver weapon based upon niven's work some kazenti tasted human meat during these conflicts while the original the soft weapons storyline suggests the first of these wars was fought with sublight vessels Star Trek first Contact indicates Earth's first recognized encounter with extraterrestrials occurs with the Vulcans after zefram cochrane's 2063 warp flight it's possible that in the Star Trek continuity the Vulcans helped Humanity defend the soul system from kazinti Raiders these conflicts ended with the Treaty of Sirius like likely ratified during the 2070s which severely restricted the kozinti's access to weapons technology as it's somewhat problematic to reconcile this claim with the rather well-established Prime Universe chronology it's likely that these four wars were brief and spread out over a short time span the first conflict probably took place sometime after USB's launch of the Friendship one probe in 2067 when mankind still had no clue of what dangers lay ahead in deep space and the last conflict probably occurred in the mid-2070s or so there are of course numerous examples in our history of very brief Wars like the six day war between Israel and the Coalition of Arab states in June 1967. alternatively to paraphrase the sentiment I shared in my video about Star Trek the Next generation's portrayal of the trill versus deep space nines let's just say that well maybe some of the lore coming out of the Animated Series doesn't fit with a timeline anymore it's okay to admit it the cousins head of state is called the highest of kazin and their government is called the patriarchy and indeed the species is very sexist in nature their females are considered dumb animals that lack intelligence leading cuisenti males to similarly underestimate the females of other species they are strong aggressive and carnivorous and they stand over two meters tall with broad hunching shoulders their internal anatomy includes vertical ribs and multiple Hearts traits that these slender occasions might or might not possess as well because empty are also distinguished from their cousins by their ears that superficially resemble bat wings some male cuisenti are telepathic though the effort to read minds is extremely taxing to them and takes time to recover from the kazinti place great importance on individual honor and seeking Revenge before calling for help they consider being wounded and left alive as the ultimate in insult only remedied by combat to the death the kazinti have superstitious legends about mythical storied weapons like those of the long extinct slaver empire being haunted by their deceased owners despite their being disallowed Advanced Weaponry besides armed police vessels by the Treaty of Sirius many get around this by Leading a life of piracy however other much more noble Pursuits in which the kazinti engage include archeology and astronomy not much is known about the kazinti Homeworld called kazin though it is identified on Star Charts seen in various Star Trek Productions while kazen's parent star is identified in niven's works as 61 ursaima joris canonically this is the primary of Archer IV a planet named after Jonathan Archer according to the Enterprise episode in a mirror Darkly that said 61 or Simon joris is a g-type yellow star like our sun meaning kazin's primary might be as well star charts and Stellar cartography the Starfleet reference library depict causinty space as being a few sectors coreward or north of core Federation territory from a top-down perspective near the alpha beta quadrant border while we don't know everything about kashin and kazinti biology history and culture they are at this point staple species of the Star Trek universe while a race of cat people might seem kind of silly from an alien biology standpoint as real aliens would most likely look nothing like that in the context of Trek cations and cuisenti are still some of my favorite background species various non-canon Works fleshed them out even further such as the series of tabletop miniature War Games set in the alternate reality of the Starfleet Universe indicating both species are active in sectors of the galaxy far beyond their respective home worlds even in the animated series kozinti are shown patrolling space near beta lyrae AKA sheliak 960 lighters away and the Star Trek novel The Buried age indicates the cations have a colony karisha near the alpha Persei cluster 570 light years away and close to Carnelian space another species name dropped in the Next Generation episode Legacy hopefully this video has served as a sufficient overview of the occasions in kazinti with that thank you all so much for watching if you enjoyed this video 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 you can become a patron at patreon.com Orange River Link in the description or become a YouTube member by clicking the join button on my channel Page by becoming a patron or member you get access to awesome perks like behind the scenes photos and videos Patron and member only polls naming the credits merch discounts and more speaking of merch links to my store as well as my social media are in the description as well that's all I have for this week live long and prosper [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: OrangeRiver

Views: 34,742

Keywords: orange river, orange river productions, anim8orkid, tyler pilkinton, orangeriver, star trek, the animated series, tas, m'ress, caitian, caitians, kzinti, lower decks, t'ana, alien, aliens, biology

Id: hnALccqdQ5k

Length: 13min 43sec (823 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 30 2023