Jörg Hillebrand
In #StarTrekTOS' "The Trouble With Tribbles", Korax calls Kirk a "Denebian slime devil". The species is never referenced again in any later #StarTrek episode (except for the re-used #TOS footage in #StarTrekDS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations"). Now, what exactly does it look like? Let's find out! 🧵 1/7
Mar 7 at 6:47pmWeb
Show threadJörg HillebrandMar 7
We find out for the first time in 1977 in the excellent "Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual" by Eileen Palestine, Geoffrey Mandel, Doug Drexler and Anthony Fredrickson. What a wonderfully alien (and ugly) creature it is! We also get a cool cross-section of the slime devil! 2/7
Show threadJörg HillebrandMar 7
Then, in 1989, "The Worlds of the Federation" by the late Lora Johnson was released and featured two new illustrations of the Denebian slime devil, wholly based on its appearance in the Medical Reference Manual, and a gorgeous colour painting of the creature by Don Ivan Punchatz. 3/7
Show threadJörg HillebrandMar 7
2002, finally, saw the release of "The Starfleet Survival Guide" by David Mack. This book featured illustrations by Timothy Earls, including one of of a Denebian slime devil, based on the painting by Punchatz. But this is all non-canon, you say? But wait...! 4/7
Show threadJörg HillebrandMar 7
In #StarTrekDS9's "A Man Alone"⬅️ and "The Nagus"➡️, Keiko O'Brien's classroom on Deep Space 9 features a large "Comparative Xenobiology" display. This display includes illustrations of several creatures and aliens from the Medical Reference Manual, including the Denebian slime devil. 5/7
Show threadJörg HillebrandMar 7
We get a better look at the graphic in "The Making of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine". All the text is fully legible there, confirming that the creature on the bottom right is indeed the Denebian slime devil, making the creature's appearance canon. 6/7
Show threadJörg HillebrandMar 7
And in case you're wondering why I'm covering all of this now: #StarTrekScouts recently featured an episode with an adult and a juvenile Denebian slimevark (from the Deneb star system), a much cuter creature from the same star system as the slime devil! ;-) 7/7
Show threadFloaty BirbMar 7
for any sightless people, I would probably describe the denebian slime devil as kind of shaped like an eyeless frog with a hard horned frill and a mouth of sharp teeth in front with a liver shaped body trailing behind.
Show thread60sRefugeeMar 7
@gaghyogi49 Incidentally, casually tossing out Deneb because it's a bright well-known star rather trashes the canonicity of ST travel speeds because it's conservatively 2600 light years (800 parsecs) from Sol.
Show threadGosunkugiMar 8

@60sRefugee @gaghyogi49 What's that at warp 6? Eleven years? Blimey.

I suppose if you do warp 9 for three years straight through all three seasons you could do it without breaking things :)

Show threadMichael VilainMar 7
@gaghyogi49 I stopped following the current iterations of Star Trek after DISCOVERY. BRAVE NEW WORLD was a refreshing reminder of what TOS was albeit uneven. I'm wondering what "alien designer" came up with the Cardassians. It's obvious such a race would never survive making a lane change on the 405 Freeway during rush hour and would have to rely on Tesla's Autopilot.