First Space-Faring Aliens

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2004-12-14 12:34pm

Darth Wong wrote:Why don't we restrict this to spacefaring civilizations that currently still maintain an active civilization in the Alpha Quadrant? That cuts out the Q and wandering freak one-episode species. The Romulans and the Vulcans and the Klingons all seem to have had space travel for thousands of years, at the very least (which makes one wonder why they aren't more advanced, unless technological progress slows to a snail's pace once you achieve a certain level).

Too bad it removes the Chodak as well, ofcourse their canonicity is under question, which is too bad since they where possibly the most original ST species I've seen, one I actually liked too(from the game final unity which I actually own, not much gameplay wise but one helluva plot).

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2004-12-14 01:13pm

it was a PC-CD ROM game called "a final unity"

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2004-12-14 01:35pm

What about aliens in another galaxy entirely? Not just the 4 quadrants in the Milky Way.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2004-12-14 01:41pm

DarkSilver wrote:earliest known Trek Race (non-Godling) which acheived spaceflight was the Preservers, who seeded various planets throughout the galaxy.

Next would most likely be the Voth, who has had it for at least 65 million years (Late Triassic Period unless I'm mistaken)

I think you mean the Cretaceous period. The last era of the Dinosaurs, from which the Voth are supposedly descended.

JME2 · Post by **JME2** » 2004-12-14 01:51pm

Superman wrote:What about aliens in another galaxy entirely? Not just the 4 quadrants in the Milky Way.

The Kelvans?

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2004-12-14 02:55pm

The Shadow wrote:It was more like 4 billion years ago rather than 1 billion years. And they seeded something like 19 worlds instead of millions or thousands.

Picard in "The Chase" :
So four billion years ago, someone scattered this genetic material
into the primordial soup of at least nineteen different planets across the galaxy

I suspect it was many more then that. They would have to recognize that species would develop independently at different rates and have regional power. They would also have recognized that life might not survive on all the planets they seeded. I think they repeated this little treasure hunt all around the Galaxy. They wanted people to know their history, thats a safer way to go about it.

Bellator · Post by **Bellator** » 2004-12-14 04:12pm

Are you referring to the aliens from the ST:TNG Sega Genesis game or something entirely different?

They were in Final Unity, as well as Birth of the Federation if I recall correctly. Both PC games.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-12-14 04:29pm

The Progenitors story arc is so fucking stupid that words simply can't describe it. I would prefer to interpret it as some sort of recently-perpetrated hoax which Picard never wised up to. The people who dreamed up this genetic "coded message" idea obviously didn't understand how evolution works. Or DNA. Or the biological reproduction process. Or chemistry. Or pretty much anything more complicated than "how to operate a keyboard".

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2004-12-14 04:43pm

Bellator wrote:just looking at current AQ/BQ civs, then the Vulcans (and their Romulan offspring) are one of the earliest space faring travelers. They've been in space for 3000 years, at least. The Founders (I know, GQ) have been in space for 2000 years. The Vissians (Ent) for at least a 1000. Unsure of the Klingons, but at least several hundred years. Ditto for the El-Aurians. And even the Bajorans.

The El-Aurians have been around for a long time. Guinan visited Earth in the time of Mark Twain, which is like 500 years before the "present" of ST. That indicates they've been spacefaring for much longer.

Bellator · Post by **Bellator** » 2004-12-14 04:49pm

The Progenitors story arc is so fucking stupid that words simply can't describe it. I would prefer to interpret it as some sort of recently-perpetrated hoax which Picard never wised up to. The people who dreamed up this genetic "coded message" idea obviously didn't understand how evolution works. Or DNA. Or the biological reproduction process. Or chemistry. Or pretty much anything more complicated than "how to operate a keyboard".

At least it is an in universe explanation. Most other franchises don't even try to explain why species look so much alike. Also, this thread isn't about what people think of certain story arcs.

One question (again), since you didn't answer it earlier. Where was it stated that Klingons have been in space for "thousands of years, at the very least"? I don't recall it ever being explicitly stated (unlike with other races such as the Vulcans or Founders), though I may just have missed or forgotten it.

The El-Aurians have been around for a long time. Guinan visited Earth in the time of Mark Twain, which is like 500 years before the "present" of ST. That indicates they've been spacefaring for much longer.

Exactly. And the Bajoran sailing ships flew in space back in earth's 17th century, if I recall correctly. Both species didn't really capitalize on their head start though. The Bajorans never really developed UFP-level warp drives, and were dominated by the Cardassians for a while (who were rather backwards compared to the Bajorans in olden days) and the El-Aurians fell to the Borg.

Bellator · Post by **Bellator** » 2004-12-14 05:09pm

of course it can't be true

a common in universe explanation (in various series) about compatible software: universal translator idea. Those programs are so advanced, that they can figure out what kind of commands the system uses, and adept oneself accordingly. In a sense, they write their own emulators to run on. And indeed, it does make no sense whatsoever.