The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Please explain your choice.

I see someone has voten. Please, explain your choice or I will reset the vote count to 0.

The most original race? Earthlings, hands down.

The most original SC race? That would be:

1) Chmmr: I have seen plenty of silicon-based crystalline lifeforms and even more cyborgs, but never a cybernetic fusion between an exotic lifeform and machinery. These are the most original.

2) Ur-Quan Kzer-Za: Almost more Annelid than Arthropod, they seem like they are a more original villain than most.

3) Zot Fot Pik: What the hell are they? I don't the hell know.

Hello,

I chose the Chmmr, because of their philosophies.  They wanted to single-handedly fight the Ur-Quan, so they crossbred to combine their powers, which would take hundreds of years to actually complete.  They have the combined crystalline structure of the Chenjesu, with the calculated logic of the Mmrnmhrm.  They're more than just crystals and machinery alone; they're an entirely new species!  When you see a Chmmr, you see vast structures that look like skyscrapers, and realize that they are in fact, the Chmmr themselves.

Also, I'm always a fan of the robotic/cyborg species, and they were a great addition to the series for me.

I vote Utwig, because they look so cool, the idea with a mask for every occasion is amazing (and amusing), the names of the masks are hilarious, their solemn&ceremonious culture is pure genius, I like the mystery surrounding how their faces look, I like that rough skin...
And I love the Ultron.
And I love their background - the "rosette" and the fog. And their fonts are superb.

I picked the ZFP, theyre just a very interesting combination and seem quite original.

I was giong to pick the Chmmr, because a mix of machine and crystal super intelligence seems
pretty "out there". However, I picked the Ur-Quan. Their bodies are unusual, their ideas on
life and existance are fasinating. I love their history and stories and some of the best quotes
form the game come from them. While in SC1 they were clearly the Bad Guys, in SC2 they
become the less or two evils and that change (and conflict) is excellently done.

Mr. Umgah voter, perhaps you will consider to explain your choice, as is stated in the first topic?!...

Why, the Orz, of course! Their language, their funny view of war... and their *finger*-al nature. And mystery.

I would've voted Taalo if it was on the list. That's because I never heard of aliens made of ROCK before. So instead, I choose Chenjesu. That's because I never heard of aliens made of crystals before.

XD

The mycon; virtually anything else has appeared in other SF canon before or since.  But AFAIK our fungal terraforming friends are unique.  (I am taking some of the SC3 mycon ideas on board here.)

I voted Slylandro.  My reason being, I'm not much of an SF reader, but they have always seemed quite unique to me!

It was a tough choice though, a couple of others like ZFP and Utwig seem one of a kind!

And Slylandro have the best theme music too

I dismissed the Mycon as a completely self-centered alien race bent on destroying everyone else, which is rather common in SF.

Admittedly, making that race be all fungi and giving them built-in genetic engineering is rather interesting...

Slylendro - sorry for excluding the Taalo, how could I forget!
Never mind, since you were the only Chenjesu voter, I renamed the Chenjesu entry to "Taalo" and made a new one for Chenjesu.
Now it's OK.

My initial thought was the chenjesu.  Who's seen a talking crystal.  Then I remembered that somewhere in the depths of my mind, I've encountered one.

I can't say I've ever seen a show that features gaseous aliens.  The idea of a race living in a gas giant is pretty neat, and I enjoyed the dialog explaining their lives.

-Kwamp

In fact, gaseous alien lifeforms (gasbags) were explored a bit (there was a documentary on Discovery Channel about potential alien lifeforms that included such things; also in Space Empires there exist the "gaseous" choice for your species' type) but not much.
But curious gasbags that are stuck on their planet and feel lonely because they can't quit their world... yes, it's quite original.
Although there are many original SC races, if we think of it - on the first place there should go:
The Slylandro, the Utwig, the Umgah (strange anatomy, interesting culture - a species of pranksters), the Thraddash (blasted back into the Stone Age multiple times, innovative culture advancement system), the Keel-Verezy (I'm surprised no one voted them - "don't want to frighten us by showing themselves"!!!) and the ZoqFotPik.
All on the 1st place.

I like the story and motivation of the Mycon.  None of the other non-Urquan races had as much determination to survive at the expense of other races as the Mycon.  Their regeneration ability makes them a perpetual threat, but their plasma blasts can also kill them.  What tragic irony!

Plus the idea of intelligent fungi kind of freaks me out because I could see it happening for some reason.

wml, I said not to take the ships into account.
But anyway, there are plenty of reasons to vote Mycon, indeed.

Hehe, the ship is just an added bonus.   ;D  But it's not the ship that's interesting to me, it's the fact they have to take the good with the bad.  They can be their own worst enemy.

What about the Yuptar?
(just kidding)

Man, it's a tough tough choice. So many good options! But I can knock 'Precursor' off the list. That's been done. Same with Mmrnmrhrm. And Syreen. And of course Arilou.

Had to go with the Spathi...I can’t say I’ve ever heard of a cowardly, space-faring, one-eyed, mollusk.

Though I had to give the Ur-Quan consideration. And the Slylandro too…I really liked their Carl Sagan’s Cosmos feel.

Definetly not unique, but their campyness made them fun :P

Orz: Lovecraftian Übermonster or confused extra-dimensional being(s)? Who knows?

I'd say confused. They don't look too informed as to what really they did to the Androsynth or stuff like that. Plus, this makes them more original.

By the way, why did nobody vote Keel-Verezy?

I don't really think of them as a star control race. I mean they are mentioned a few times by Greenish, but for me, without seeing them it just doesn't do it for me

I didn't vote for them, but close second goes to Chmmr for me.  Love the backstory and the nobility of their parent races.  Also love the fact that the offspring are "imperfect" and unintended.  A hybrid race from crystalline and mechanical beings?  Wow.

I voted Slylandro, but Zok-Fot-Pik would have been my next choice. The Slylandro's explanation of things kept me fascinated for hours, the first time I saw it.

Me too. I mean, when I found them - I had already completed the game for some time when I stumbled across them. I was so excited - and so were the Slylandro.

Tough call.

ZFP, Orz, Spathi, Chmmr, Slylandro probes, Slylandro gasbags all seem like the best answers.

Slylandro probes are just Von Neumann probes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft#Von_Neumann_probes).
And why didn't the Umgah and the Utwig make it on the list?!

I voted for Supox. They're just friends of the Utwig, and little is told of their culture.

Orz is the strangest thing I have ever talked to. I voted for the "one with many *fingers.*"

Umgah got mine because they're just funny little buggas

As i'm not overly familiar with Sci-Fi literature i'm probably not in the best position to offer a vote on originality. But too bad because I voted Zoq-Fot-Pik. I thought it was a neat idea to have 3 races represented as one.

Wow, that's a hard choice, but my winner's the Zoq-Fot-Pik!  Nowhere else have I seen a union of three seperate races like that.  The Chmmr are close, by their crystal/technological build, and the Thraddash, with their taking combat as lessons.  Slylandro, also, but I think it was Heinlein that beat TFB in creating a gaseous race.

I don't understand, what this poll's question 'most original' means. (?)

The most interesting, and, at the same time, un-used before. I believe you call it "alkuperäinen" or "omaperäinen", but since I don't know Finnish, I can't be sure.

Melnorme gets my vote, cycloptic orange trader aliens decended from the Mael-Num of the Milieu, obsessed with colour, friendly and cool, love biology, have interstellar knowledge of the past, present (and perhaps the future) through various sources in space and time, are a complete mystery, the masters of interstellar trade through 'credits' who trade for biological data and their own studying obsessions, and who have a load of technology.

The straight translation is 'perinteinen'.

http://efe.scape.net/index.php (http://efe.scape.net/index.php) translates "perinteinen" as "traditional". Humph.

I voted Mmrnmhrm. They're some odd machines produced in the millions by some gigantic ship that came out of nowhere, and they just seem to have this mysteriousness surrounding them. Plus, they merge with a crystalline race. Awesome to me.

In this context it really means 'omaperäisin'.

Does the Dnyarri count even though they are represented by proxy? There is just somthing so innocent yet heinously evil about them. I think they'd have been just as good as the main nemisis to the story plot.

And I disagree about the Utwig.. Perhaps original, but to me they're the worst, most boring aliens in the entire game.

Argh, how could I forget the Dnyarri? Added them, anyway.

The Utwig - boring? Maybe because of the voice, but if you turn it off or something, it'll be much better. Their dialogue, and their ship, and remixed music ("The Mask of Ultimate Embarrassment and Shame") are brilliant. Anyway, if this is your opinion...

I don't know what to vote for.

The most characteristic to SC is Spathi and Kzer-Za, imo. My personal fav is the ZFP blue battery thing.

But original, as in ... out of the blue? It would seem a lot of SC races are translations of StarFlight designs. Makes me wonder where the StarFlight designs came from...

Ok, the Syreen were not SF, they're clearly from greek mythology.

Orz and Androsynth (Kraftwerk in space) are somewhat original to SC I think. Maybe the Ilwrath too, I didn't like their visual design but their character was... memorable, clacking of mandibles etc. Slylandro are an interesting take on gas giant life. Melnorme... I'm not sure, I thought they were kinda dull.

You know, in Pringles crisps there's the 'original' taste, in Finland it's as 'perinteinen'.  :)

Only the name. The race's design and characteristics are a fairly obvious spoof of a common old-school sci-fi TV gimmick: The blue (or sometimes green) skinned alien woman whose allure cannot be resisted by any man. Star Trek's original series did this to death (I think the first one was even in The Cage), and I can think of at least a few more sources that used the same concept.

Yeap... if we look at the alien design section of Influences and References (http://uqm.stack.nl/wiki/Influences_and_References), we can see that, amongst the non-stereotypical races, the most original ones are:
1) Zoq-Fot-Pik (who would have made such cartoonish characters into alien races, if not TFB?)
2) Slylandro (a well exploited idea)
3) Pkunk (parodies of mediums and other "paranormal" people)
4) Thraddash (a bit like cavemen, though)
5) Druuge (though they're inspired by Accolade)
in that order.

Only the name? The Sirens in greek mythology lures crew from their ships by hypnotising them with a lovely song (a sound). I would say that it's exactly what the syreen does aswell. Ok, so they're bird-anthros, but people have been painting them as nude pretty women for ages.

I can see the skincolor coming from either Orion Slave Girls (Trek) or maybe Twi'leks (SW), or possibly Drow elfs.

ZFP are probably an elaboration of SF's "Natracch" (a pic of 3 fungoid creatures).

Some of the Thraddash behaviour would come from SF's G'Nunk (fight them to earn respect).

The Pringles' translator translated word 'original' "wrong", because 'perinteinen' sells probably better than 'alkuperäinen', which would have been the "right" translation in this case.

Zoq-Fot-Pik, and possibly Umgah. I've ran into races somewhat similar to everything else whilst reading Sci-Fi books, be it in biological or psychological form.