The Efrosian helmsman
The Efrosians were members of the United Federation of Planets, serving both in Starfleet and Federation government in the 23rd century. In 2293 an Efrosian served as the Federation President. Efrosian males have cranial ridges and are generally seen wearing long white hair and flowing mustaches. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home; Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
People
The Efrosian President
- See: List of Efrosians.
Appendices
Background information
The name for this species never appeared in any script, dialog, or production graphic. It was noted, however, in Paramount's initial publicity photos for Star Trek IV.
The name "Efrosian" was invented by Kirk Thatcher, an associate producer on Star Trek IV, in honor of unit production manager Mel Efros. Probably based on the publicity photos the name was then picked up and used in the Star Trek IV Sourcebook Update to the FASA role-playing game system to describe the species. Although never formally adopted by Paramount beyond the publicity photos (the Star Trek Encyclopedia, for example, goes out of its way to avoid using the name) the name has been popular with fans.
In 2003 Decipher issued a book for their role-playing game called Aliens in which the species name was given as "Atreonid". There has been unconfirmed speculation that this was at Paramount's request, although the name "Atreonid" has not appeared in any Star Trek productions.
In the DVD commentary of the Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (Special Edition), Nicholas Meyer states that the Federation President is blind. This would seem to be inconsistent with the necessity of having visual aids for a briefing to the president by Colonel West, although the president is seen to use special glasses to read the briefing notes of Operation Retrieve. He has vivid blue irises and the other Efrosian, the USS Saratoga helmsman of Star Trek IV, has white-colored irises, leading to non-canon fan speculation that vision impairment is common among Efrosians.
Apocrypha
In several novels published after 1986 the name for this species was Deltan though differing from Lieutenant Ilia. The description of a long-haired male Deltan was introduced in Vonda N. McIntyre's novelization of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and was applied to the Federation President's race in J.M. Dillard's novelization of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. More recent novels, such as In the Name of Honor and Articles of the Federation, use the name Efrosian. They are now said to come from a planet called Efros Delta (in the Titan novel, Taking Wing).
External link
- The truth about Efrosians - trivia article about Efrosians by Ian McLean