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MA LD delta Warning!
This page contains information regarding Star Trek: Lower Decks, and thus may contain spoilers.

Balok's species were a humanoid race from the Alpha Quadrant and members of the First Federation. In his initial appearance to the crew of the USS Enterprise, Balok, a member of this species, appeared to be a bluish, cat-eyed alien. In his true form, he resembled a Human child.

Members of Balok's species were small, about the height of a Human child, and usually bald, with hair mainly on their eyebrows. Their ears were different from Humans, shaped similarly to that of Vulcans, except they were smaller and had a more flat point on top. (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver")

In 2381, the information broker at Mudds on New Axton appeared to be a puppet from this species as well. However, Sam Rutherford's cybernetic components allowed him to see the interior of this "puppet," and he could see that he had a skeletal system, and that he was indeed alive, and not a puppet. (LD: "The Inner Fight")

In a development memo of "The Corbomite Maneuver" research notes from Kellam de Forest to Gene Roddenberry on 9 May 1966, de Forest twice referred to Balok's species as "Fesarian", in reference to their space craft. However, that species name wasn't included in the final draft nor the second revised final draft of the script (dated 3 May and 20 May 1966, respectively).
Balok's species was referred to as "Fesarian" in the Cold Equations novel Silent Weapons.
The Face of the Unknown establishes that "Fesarian" was just a placeholder name that the Federation used before learning their real name. They are actually called the Linnik (β), and the puppet's species is the Dassik (β), in reality a closely related species that once fought with Balok's people. In contrast to the information broker from the later Lower Decks episode, the Dassik are depicted as being very tall in stature, aggressive predators by culture, and not having 360-degree neck rotation.

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