Caitian

2005-11-24T18:18:53Z

83.129.10.226: memoryalpha:Caitians-->memoryalpha:Caitian (main entry)

[[Image:Caitians.jpg|thumb|right|A couple of Caitians on the 'prowl' (art by [[Neverwench]])]]
'''Caitians''' are a fictional [[:Category:Species|species]] first featured in ''[[MemoryAlpha:Star Trek: The Animated Series|Star Trek: The Animated Series]]'' (abbreviated as ''TAS''). Modeled after African lions, Caitians stand bipedally on [[digitigrade]] feet. They also have excelllent hearing and night vision, although their facial structure and vocal biology make it difficult to speak English properly. Their [[felines|feline]] appearance includes a mane and tail which match their lion counterparts.

[[M'Ress]], the Caitian officer in the series, remained popular for years after the end of the show, and was the unofficial inspiration of [[Freighter Tails]] and stories by [[Paul S. Gibbs]]. M'ress, with her cat-like voice patterns and her [[anthropomorphic]] features represents one of the first "furry" [[character]]s shown on TV, one that was neither a person with cat ears nor a talking cat.

There are various data sources for this species available, although they were never considered [[Wikipedia:Canon (fiction)|canonical]] in the Star Trek universe and probably never will. There is still debate on whether they are canon or not, as people claim the furry characters seen at the end of ''[[MemoryAlpha:Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home|Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home]]'' were intended to be Caitians.

[[Image:mress1.png|thumb|left|[[M'ress]] at the communications console of the Enterprise]]Other references made in ''[[MemoryAlpha:Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'' and ''[[MemoryAlpha:Star Trek: Enterprise|Enterprise]]'' seem to indicate an acceptance of this species slowly becoming a canon one. This acceptance is hinted primarily through the TAS episode ''[[MemoryAlpha:Yesteryear|Yesteryear]]''. In this episode, [[MemoryAlpha:Spock|Spock]] had to jump back in time to save his child self and had allowed more background information to be added to the character. This information was accepted as canonical as far as Spock's character was concerned and the rest of the episode was omitted. As a general rule of thumb by [[Wikipedia:Paramount Pictures|Paramount]] however, only the events that have taken place within the live action episodes or movies are considered canon. This is still being debated among the Trek community.

The Caitian race is unofficially related to the [[Kzin]]ti (see also [[Wikipedia:Kzin|Wikipedia]]), though one of the few pieces of information relating to the species [http://www.danhausertrek.com/AnimatedSeries/MRessBio.html states] that they are a Kzinti decendant. The Animated Series had one episode that also featured Kzinti as a seperate species, ''[[MemoryAlpha:The Slaver Weapon|The Slaver Weapon]]'', written by [[Wikipedia:Larry Niven|Larry Niven]] based on an older work.

This crossover between Star Trek and Niven's [[Wikipedia:Known Space|Known Space]] is one of the reasons The Animated Series is non-canon; reconciling the two universes would make for messy bookkeeping, and would cause licensing issues. Furthermore, at the time Paramount was introducing the new Star Trek Movie universe, they did not want to deal with the huge realm of loosely monitored associated properties; for simplicity, the word from above became that only live action Star Trek was canonical.[http://www.comicboards.com/psiphiboards/notstartrek/view.php?rpl=040926154541] (Originally, some people at Paramount only wanted movie-era imagery and continuity to be the new offical Star Trek, to have even tighter control, but this proved impossible.)

A few [[furries]] who enjoy Star Trek are particularly fascinated by this race, and some even play a Caitian on any Trek MU* that has them. However, the Star Trek TV series have very few species with fur and in fact, only two movies featured such furred characters.

== See also ==

* [[memoryalpha:Caitian|Caitians]] on [[memoryalpha:|Memory Alpha]]

[[Category: Species]][[Category:Alien species]]

WikiFur - User contributions [en]

Caitian