From Wikipedia, “A practical effect is a special effect produced physically, without computer-generated imagery or other post-production techniques.”
Some of my favorite practical effect species are from TOS. There’s the Horta from TOS “The Devil in the Dark” s1e25. I was about 9 years old when I first saw the Horta episode. Old enough to know it wasn’t real, but young enough to be utterly fascinated by something that looked like an angry chunk of hot lava making its way around on the ground.
TOS’s the Salt Vampire’s look scared little kid me. Truth be told, the way it looks still gives me the creeps.
The Gorn (TOS “Arena” s1e18) didn’t scare me, but I thought it was intimidating. Sure, it looks like somebody in a lizard man suit. But, that Gorn had a knife! And, was trying to kill Kirk! Bonus points for the Gorn’s sparkly, stylish armor.
I think tribbles are just adorable.
Well fuck, i read the question lol
I thought the vidiians were cool
Timeless.
Voyager crashes on the icy planet.
There is a video out there talking about how they did it
The Vidiians are the true body horror aliens of Star Trek.
I can’t say that I personally enjoyed them, but with the unsuccessful Kazon dominating the first two seasons, it was necessary to have genuinely alien and disturbing aliens to make the risks and threats of the Delta Quadrant convincing.
Maybe a boring answer but Armus from TNG’s Skin of Evil creeps me out with his voice and the music. But i’ve watched only TNG
No such thing as boring for ones personal preferences. 'Cause they’re personal. Reading up on how the practical effects of Armus were done gives me goosebumps. “Hold your breath while we lower you into a large pool of goopy Metamucil dyed black.” Yikes.
I always thought Enterprise really nailed Andorians. They weren’t the most extreme in terms of makeup and prosthetics, but they were convincingly alien and unique. I think the most impressive part was that the design made it believable that there were different Andorians who looked different. I suppose we quite literal saw this with the Aenar, which helps.
The use of animatronics for the antennae was a major factor in the impact of Enterprise’s Andorians.
While SNW is now experimenting with puppetry and animtronics, there really hasn’t been the same willingness to embrace the potential in other shows.
