Talk:Sheliak

Humanoid?
Is "vaguely humanoid" an on-screen description from the episode, or might Non-humanoid be a better choice here? -- Cid Highwind 11:03, 14 Jan 2004 (PST)


 * Well, it was actually a guy in a dress, so it might be 'vaguely humanoid'. Or simply leave it out. -- Harry 12:04, 14 Jan 2004 (PST)


 * We don't know if they are "vaguely humanoid" or non-humanoid because they hide under a lot of clothes... I think that non-humanoid should be better. Dornik


 * The first line says they are "non-humanoid", and the last line says "Unlike most humanoids" (which seems to imply they are humanoids or why compare it that way.). Which is it? --141.149.185.130 21:05, December 30, 2009 (UTC)


 * They are non-humanoid. Preferring body-temperature environments is unlike what most humanoids prefer. The implication is not that Sheliak are humanoids, but that some humanoids also prefer body-temperature environments, and the Sheliak are more like those humanoids than other humanoids. 68.93.104.178 11:44, November 24, 2012 (UTC)

the membership
The article says that they refer to themselves as "the membership" but I think only the ones carried on the colony ship are the membership. The sheliak director said "we carry the membership" so maybe just the members of the new colony. I dont think all the sheliak were on the one colony ship. or something. --216.254.231.2 06:56, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree with you, "the membership" is probably just their formal way of saying "colonists". Their language was very different from English, remember?  Zsingaya  Talk 08:01, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Silicon
Does anyone have any information on the mysterious "R3" designation,is it supposed to indicate that the Sheliak are some form of silicon based life like the Horta or Excalbians or the Tholians ? Wejvagh 01:31, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
 * No explanation has been given in canon. --OuroborosCobra talk 01:38, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Removed
Removed from the article, as it looks like it should've been put here:


 * I am not sure if the Sheliak species is either mammalian or humanoid. The costume worn by actor Mart McChesney suggested a sort of land-dwelling cephalopod to me. Nothing like that--a terrestrial cephalopod--has evolved on Earth, but there are terrestrial snails(gastropods, also a type of mollusc) on lawns and in gardens across the United States. The idea of an intelligent--and sapient--cephalopod species has always intrigued me. Molluscs are very different from vertebrates in many ways. Among other things, the eyes of squids and octopus are highly developed and as functional as mammalian eyes, but they develop from different embryonic layers(a different embryonic development stems from a different evolutionary path). Real marine cephalopods(octopus) have been credited with "complex behavior bordering on active intelligence" and on some other planet they might have done way better than their analogs here.


 * The 1957 film "The Crawling Eye" with Forrest Tucker starred some alien visitors with a nasty streak(and a preference for cold temperatures) who appeared to be terrestrial cephalopods.


 * Another intriguing idea in this episode is the Sheliak approach to language. With all due respect to our Japanese, Isei, Nisei or Sansei viewers, contributors and Star Trek fans, it strikes me as being like the very human Japanese approach--only much more so. Remember the "mokusatsu" response of the Suzuki Cabinet to the Potsdam Declaration in July, 1945? The Japanese language(I only know American English and a little German myself), as I understand it, is quite complicated and involves many convoluted linguistic conventions and idioms.

It was written and added by Cyber-steve. -- sulfur 16:19, 8 August 2009 (UTC)