Zar - Son of Spock and Zarabeth - Life Before the Enterprise

Appearance/Capabilities
Zar was born in the Sarpeidon Ice Age, and was the son of Zarabeth and Spock - making him one-quarter Vulcan. Despite being one a quarter Vulcan, his appearance was distinctly Vulcanoid, with a marked resemblance to Spock. His eyes were grey, and he had dark hair. His hearing was exceptional, but although he had the Vulcan inner eyelid, his vision was barely outside human range. His blood type was different than anything the Doctor had ever seen before - a greenish-grey mix. He had spectacular muscle tone from living and hunting in the wilderness, with wide shoulders. McCoy made an observation while Zar was in the Enterprise that at a proper weight, Zar would easily mass more than Spock. Zar also had large keloid scars from an attack by a Vitha - one running along the right forearm from his wrist to his elbow, and another from the outside of his right thigh running nearly to his knee. The only noticable features that belonged to his mother were his jaw and mouth.

Zar was highly intelligent and had amazing telepathic abilities, being able to project strong emotions such as hunger or fear onto other beings. Doctor McCoy also found that when pinching a nerve on Zar's arm, they could both feel the pain. Zar also experienced premonitions, and could pick up on the feelings of those around him.

From the cover of "Yesterday's Son" - click to enlarge

Early Life on Sarpeidon
Zar lived with his mother Zarabeth until she died after falling into a crevasse when he was 19 summers old. Unable to properly bury the body, he placed it underneath an ice sheet in a cave. From that time until he was 25 summers old he lived in complete solitude. To fend off the cold when in the wilderness, he wore a face shield, hood, and furs. Underneath this he wore a leather tunic, under which his emaciation was severe (despite his muscle tone, strength, and endurance). When Zar had 15 summers, he had studied himself in a mirror that his mother had, and then he painted his face on the cave wall along with hunting pictures. After his mother's death, he would sometimes talk to to this face.

He would hunt animals for food, the only real nourishment being meat in the ice age. Because of his ability to mentally project intense feelings, he was able to stop an animal for long enough to capture and kill it.

When Zarabeth was living, Zar found that he could tell what his mother was thinking - but was told that it was not polite to do so without permission. Zarabeth also taught him to read, and would often correct his grammar - before she was exiled to Sarpeidon, she was a teacher. Zarabeth also spoke fondly of Spock to Zar, telling him that he was always loving and caring.


There will be a post about Zar's life on the Enterprise, and afterwards.

Q

Q is for... Q!

The Q are often known as an "omnipotent" and immortal species with a great deal of control over space, matter, and time. The Q have been known to travel through time, create alternate timelines, move asteroid belts and stars, change universal states of nature, and teleport with great ease. They have also been able to transfer their powers to other life forms, and have their powers removed by a higher authority in the Q Continuum.

There are, however, concerns about the Q's omnipotence. In the Voyager episode "Death Wish", Q (who later named himself Quinn) informs the crew that the Q are not, in fact, omnipotent:

"You mustn't think of us as omnipotent, no matter what The Continuum would like you to believe. You and your ship seem incredibly powerful to lifeforms without your technological expertise! It's no different with us; we may appear omnipotent to you, but believe me, we're not!"

The Q later known as Quinn - Deathwish

It is in this episode that we are also made aware that the Q had been influencing human history since (at least) the time of Isaac Newton, and that the Q can be made mortal and die/be executed (backing up Quinn's claim that the Q are not entirely omnipotent).

There are also concerns about the initial state of the Q - is has been suggested (both by Q) that they had evolved over countless centuries into the "ultimate form of evolution", and that they had always been as they were, without a beginning.

Q judges - Q2

Being immortal and seemingly omnipotent, the Q soon fell into a sort of stagnation. Having seen, done, and said all that there was, they found no reason to speak to one another or to venture outside of the Continuum. To correct this stagnant state, the Q known as Quinn committed suicide in an attempt to create unpredictable social consequences that would force the Q to interact. Unfortunately, his suicide brought on a civil war within the continuum between the traditional Q and the "Freedom Faction", political idealists led by Q (John De Lancie). These two factions created weapons that could affect even the immortal Q, which resulted in serious damage being done to subspace to such a degree that the Q outside of the Continuum lost their immortality and powers, and many stars were going supernova.

Mating Q - Q and the Grey

The civil war is ended when Q (John De Lancie) mates with a female Q (by touching fingers) and produces a child, something that has not been done in the continuum for over ten millennia. Of course, we know that this child grows to be quite the troublemaker.

Quite accidentally, I have only included pictures from Voyager (the Q appeared in three VOY episodes), and  most of the information gathered for this post is from Voyager as well - this is merely because the Q race was explored more deeply in this series. Q first appeared in the TNG pilot, "Encounter at Farpoint", and the Q appeared many times later - in 8 TNG episodes, and one DS9 episode.

Fun fact: I had always thought that Trelane (TOS The Squire of Gothos) might be a Q - a fact backed up by a book I recently read - Q-squared by Peter David.

Daleks - A Brief Overview of their Uncertain Origin

D is for Daleks!

The Daleks are one of, if not the most celebrated Doctor Who villain. They have faced every one of the Doctor's incarnations except for the Eighth - the Daleks did, however, have a cameo in the Eighth Doctor's television movie, and their voices were heard.

But the Daleks were not always the metal-encased creatures we see on Doctor Who. In fact, they were once absolutely humanoid...

Daleks,  Susan and the Doctor in the 1963/64 serial "The Daleks" - the Daleks' first television appearance.

Both the Kaled/Dal race and the Thals originated and evolved on the planet Skaro. According to Thal records (which consisted of passed down legend and historical documents, beginnning approximately a half million years in the past) the Kaleds/Dals were honored teachers and philosophers. They were also extremely xenophobic, and would stop at nothing to destroy the Thals - an imperfect race. The Thals, at this, time, were warriors, with blonde hair as opposed to the Kaled dark hair. Aproximately 1500 years before the Doctor landed on Skaro, a highly degenerative war occured between the Kaleds/Dals and the Thals. Davros, the leading Kaled scientist, gave the Thals the information needed to get passed the Kaled dome. When the Thals attacked using this information, this gave Davor a proper reason for letting loose his newly created Daleks. This war was ended when the Thals exploded a neutron bomb.

Due to the radiation caused by the weapons used during the war (which may have been one thousand years, or merely a quick neutronic war), both the Kaleds and the Thals mutated very quickly. According to the Thals, they mutated in a kind of full-circle - they went through stages of mutation which eventually brought them back to humanoid form, and made them perfect beings. They became nearly extinct, and became pacifists. The Kaleds, however, mutated in a different matter.

One of the Thals from the 1963/64 serial "The Daleks"

I will write no more on the Thals at this time.

During the war, the Kaleds mutated rapidly and irreversibly due to the increasing radiation. Davros thus turned his research from that of weapons and winning the war to the Kaled survival. Davros did experiments on the Kaleds in order to find their final mutated form, and then devised a protective casing. Soon he did not wish merely for survival of the Kaled race, but for utter supremacy - to wipe out all other life on Skaro. Davros continued to manipulate the genetic structure of the mutants, and isolated and removed "weaknesses" such as compassion and morality. These mutations were then housed in a "travel machine", and named Daleks (dalek being an anagram of kaled). These Daleks needed radiation to live, and operated on static electricity. With the help of the Doctor, the Daleks' power source was disabled, and the Daleks were left lifeless in their city.

There would, however, come a time when the power was reactivated, and the Daleks would learn that there were worlds outside of theirs to be exterminated - as they were designed to destroy all life and be loyal only to the Daleks (many were not even loyal to Davros, as he was not a Dalek).

Davros as seen in his first television appearance in the 1975 serial "Genesis of the Daleks"

The Daleks have since evolved many times, and in many designs -  each time stonger and more agile. Every time the Doctor wipes out the Daleks, they manage to return...

Fun fact: In the 1975 episode "Genesis of the Daleks" the Doctor finds himself on the planet Skaro near the end of the war, attempting to stop the creation of the Daleks. This may have been one of the factors eventually causing the Time War.

Note: There are actually many different accounts of the Dalek's history and creation - certain episodes contradict others, and many details remain unclear. For other accounts, visit here.

Primitive Vulcan - Early in a Physical and Cultural Evolution

A little while ago I was reading Spock's World by Diane Duane - a book which covers not only an interesting plot involving the TOS characters, but the evolution of Vulcan as well. In one chapter I was reading about the early, "primitive" Vulcans who were trying to breed into their children "the eye" - a gene causing the inner eyelid which then allowed the child to see clearly in the daytime. While I was reading this, I wondered what these primitive Vulcans might look like. Taking inspiration from African and Amazonian aboriginal culture, I came up with this:

I realize that they would not have the modern Vulcan script for Logic carved into their jewelry - that was just my getting carried away. I did, however, include many features that are said to have occurred in early human evolution, while altering classic Vulcan features to appear slightly more "savage". And thus, this drawing came to be.

Media: India ink, water color pencils. Sadly, the scanner mangled the colors.