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The M-113 creature

The M-113 creature was the sole surviving member of an otherwise extinct species. Its name was derived from the catalog name of the planet it lived on, M-113. Proper names of both this creature and its species are unknown. In 2266, the crew of the USS Enterprise encountered this creature and later killed it in self-defense.

History

In 2266, the USS Enterprise visited M-113 for routine medical checks of the two scientists working there. At that time, they encountered what was, according to Professor Robert Crater, the last of the M-113 creatures. This particular creature evidently saw Humans chiefly as food. As there was no opportunity to question it, it is unclear if this attitude arose from desperation or if it was the natural outlook of the species. Either way, the creature proved highly dangerous.

In 2264 or 2265, it murdered the real Nancy Crater, an act that almost drove Crater to destroy it. In the end, the fact that it was the last of its kind, or perhaps its ability to assume any form, stayed his hand, and he lived with it for a year or more.

At the time the landing party arrived in 2266, the Crater expedition was dangerously low on salt, the creature's natural food. The creature's hunger drove it to murder crewmen Darnell, Sturgeon and Green on the surface of M-113; as Nancy Crater, it blamed Darnell's death on ingestion of a Borgia plant. Impersonating crewman Green, it returned to the Enterprise, where chance saved Yeoman Janice Rand from becoming its next victim. It followed her when she brought Sulu his dinner, and might have murdered both officers except that Beauregard, a curious plant in Sulu's botany collection, scared it off.

An encounter with Uhura, as a crewman drawn from her mind, also proved frustrating for it. Seconds from killing her, it was distracted by Sulu and Rand. It later murdered an engineering technician named Barnhart on Deck 9.

Around this time, Kirk and Spock found Professor Crater on the surface of M-113, and returned to the ship with him. The creature, then impersonating McCoy, sat in on a staff meeting at which it learned that Crater knew how to identify it. Before Crater could reveal, or be made to reveal, how this might be done, the creature murdered him, attempted to feed off Spock, who survived, presumptively due to the differing composition of Vulcans' blood salts, and fled to McCoy's quarters. Kirk found it there, and attempted to lure it to him with salt. In the resulting scuffle, it overpowered Kirk and began to feed on him. It wasn't until the creature dropped its hypnotic projection, and Kirk began to scream from the pain of salt extraction, that McCoy shot and killed the creature. (TOS: "The Man Trap")

File:M-113 creature, The squire of Gothos.jpg

The creature in Trelane's mansion

Another individual of this creature was stuffed and on display in Trelane's castle. The landing party of Enterprise (especially McCoy) reacted in surprise. It was later destroyed by Trelane with a phaser. (TOS: "The Squire of Gothos")

Physiognomy

File:M 113 Hand.jpg

Detail of M-113 creature's hand

The surviving creature as observed in 2266 stood a little over one and a half meters tall. It had brownish skin with purple highlights. The face had a series of sagging folds that, together with the cast of the yellowish eyes, gave it a saddened appearance. The mouth was a kind of inverted snout, within which were several extremely sharp teeth. The body was covered with string-like, whitish hair. This creature also wore a brown, net-like garment and had the proportions of a typical humanoid with two arms and two legs, each hand having three thick fingers.

Each of the three fingers had three sucker-like feeding organs. The creature used these to extract salt from its prey; a process that was painful and left a reddish, ring-like mottling on the skin. The creature could also ingest pure salt through its mouth. While the creature could feed on Humans, it either could not, or did not wish, to feed on Spock. He theorized that his copper-based blood salts were unappealing or not nourishing. (TOS: "The Man Trap")

Capabilities

M-113 creatures were very strong, stronger even than Vulcans. A single backhanded slap from one was sufficient to throw Spock across the room; by contrast, he hit the creature several times with double-handed punches, without any observable effect.

M-113 creatures were also highly intelligent, capable of carrying on conversations with other intelligent beings. A form of telepathy enabled them to draw an image from the mind of someone near; this image was usually of someone trustworthy or appealing. This image, in turn, enabled the creature to approach prey easily. Furthermore, the M-113 creature could even simultaneously appear as a different image to each individual who stood in the same room: When the USS Enterprise's landing party first encountered it, each member saw a different woman even though they were looking at it at the same time.

This fact seems to suggest that the camouflage was not a physical transformation, but rather a mental projection to people nearby

At very close range, the creature could fascinate or mentally paralyze its prey, preventing the prey from escaping even if it saw the creature's actual form. The creature could feed equally well in its natural form, or while projecting one of these images. (TOS: "The Man Trap")

Forms assumed by the creature

Appendices

Background information

The creature was portrayed by Sharon Gimpel in its true form, as well as by Jeanne Bal, Francine Pyne, Bruce Watson, DeForest Kelley, and Vince Howard when it posed as other characters.

According to Startrek.com, the M-113 creature's ability to shapeshift was based on a similar ability for cellular mimicry as possessed by the Changelings. [1] The creature was designed and built by Wah Chang. (Star Trek Encyclopedia 2nd ed., p. 281) The authors of Star Trek: The Original Series 365 (p. 047) note that the creature was given a seemingly sad face, contrasting strongly with its otherwise horrific appearance. Behind the scenes, this creature was commonly referred to as the "Salt Sucker". (Star Trek Encyclopedia 2nd ed., p. 281) Among fans, it is popularly known as the "Salt Vampire". (Star Trek Compendium 4th ed., p. 36)

In "The Squire of Gothos", a "stuffed carcass" of this creature appears and upon first encountering it, a landing party reacts with surprise to it, with McCoy most notably affected, as music from "The Man Trap" is briefly dubbed in. Afterward, the "creature" (along with the Gorn and some other "monsters" of the series) found a new home in Robert Justman's office. (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story paperback ed., p. 215)

In an interview in 1998, Michael Westmore said he would have liked to use the M-113 creature in an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine or Star Trek: Voyager, but this never came to fruition. (Star Trek Monthly issue 46, p. 83)

Barney Burman's salt vampire — The salt vampire cut from *Star Trek*

Barney Burman and his company Proteus Make-up FX Team created a "salt sucker" alien as an homage to the M-113 creature for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, in which the alien was intended to be shown in an ultimately deleted scene involving Rura Penthe. At least one conceptual sketch of the creature was illustrated. The alien was also one of two sculptures which the movie's key sculptor, Don Lanning, worked on whenever he got some down time while assigned to the film, the other being the Gorn. "The Salt Vampire was a real challenge," Lanning recalled, "to take something that was maybe a bit hokey and turn it into something really organic, but we certainly gave it a real try. In the end, it never made it into the movie, but to tell you the truth, I'm kind of glad." (Star Trek Magazine 2013 Special Edition, p. 137)

Apocrypha

In the Star Trek Online mission "Mine Trap" (a reference to the TOS episode title), players must cooperate to defend Romulan colonists from an invasion of M-113 creatures while an evacuation is arranged. The creatures are resistant to handheld weapons fire, can change their appearance to infiltrate crowds of colonists, and use psionic attacks against their enemies.

External links

Template:NCwiki
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-[[File:M_113_Creature.jpg|thumb|The M-113 creature]]
+[[File:M 113 Creature.jpg|thumb|The M-113 creature]]
+The '''M-113 creature''' was the sole surviving member of an otherwise [[extinct]] species. Its name was derived from the catalog name of the planet it lived on, [[M-113]]. Proper names of both this creature and its species are unknown. In [[2266]], the crew of the {{USS|Enterprise|NCC-1701}} encountered this creature and later killed it in self-defense.
-[[File:M_113_Hand.jpg|thumb|Detail of M-113 creature hand]]
-The '''M-113 creature''' (also known as the '''salt vampire''') was a name given to a now-[[extinct]] species that once lived on [[M-113]].
+== History ==
-== Description and capabilities ==
+In [[2266]], the USS ''Enterprise'' visited M-113 for routine medical checks of the two [[scientist]]s working there. At that time, they encountered what was, according to [[Professor]] [[Robert Crater]], the last of the M-113 creatures. This particular creature evidently saw Humans chiefly as [[food]]. As there was no opportunity to question it, it is unclear if this attitude arose from desperation or if it was the natural outlook of the species. Either way, the creature proved highly dangerous.
-The creature stood a little over one and a half [[meter]]s tall.  It had brownish skin with purple highlights.  The face had a series of sagging folds that, together with the cast of the yellowish eyes, gave it a saddened appearance.  The mouth was a kind of inverted snout, within which were several extremely sharp teeth.  The body was covered with string-like, whitish hair.  This creature also wore a brown, net-like garment and had the proportions of a typical [[humanoid]] with two arms and two legs, each hand having three thick fingers.
+In [[2264]] or [[2265]], it [[murder]]ed the real [[Nancy Crater]], an act that almost drove Crater to destroy it. In the end, the fact that it was the last of its kind, or perhaps its ability to assume any form, stayed his hand, and he lived with it for a year or more.
-{{bginfo|This is the description of the single observed specimen and may not apply to all members of the species.}}
+At the time the landing party arrived in [[2266]], the Crater expedition was dangerously low on salt, the creature's natural food. The creature's hunger drove it to murder crewmen [[Darnell]], [[Sturgeon]] and [[Green]] on the surface of M-113; as Nancy Crater, it blamed Darnell's death on ingestion of a [[Borgia plant]]. Impersonating crewman Green, it returned to the ''Enterprise'', where chance saved [[Yeoman]] [[Janice Rand]] from becoming its next victim. It followed her when she brought [[Hikaru Sulu|Sulu]] his dinner, and might have murdered both officers except that [[Beauregard]], a curious [[plant]] in Sulu's botany collection, scared it off.
-Each of the three fingers had three sucker-like feeding organs.  The creature used these to extract [[salt]] from its prey; a process that was painful and left a reddish, ring-like mottling on the skin.  The creature could also ingest pure salt through its mouth.
+An encounter with [[Nyota Uhura|Uhura]], as a crewman drawn from her mind, also proved frustrating for it.  Seconds from killing her, it was distracted by Sulu and Rand. It later murdered an [[engineering]] [[technician]] named [[Barnhart]] on Deck 9.
-M-113 creatures were very strong, stronger even than [[Vulcan]]s.  A single backhanded slap from one was sufficient to stun [[Spock]]; by contrast, he hit the creature several times with double handed punches, without any observable effect.
+Around this time, [[James T. Kirk|Kirk]] and Spock found Professor Crater on the surface of M-113, and returned to the ship with him. The creature, then impersonating McCoy, sat in on a staff meeting at which it learned that Crater knew how to identify it. Before Crater could reveal, or be made to reveal, how this might be done, the creature murdered him, attempted to feed off Spock, who survived, presumptively due to the differing composition of Vulcans' blood salts, and fled to McCoy's quarters. Kirk found it there, and attempted to lure it to him with salt. In the resulting scuffle, it overpowered Kirk and began to feed on him. It wasn't until the creature dropped its hypnotic projection, and Kirk began to scream from the pain of salt extraction, that McCoy shot and killed the creature. ({{TOS|The Man Trap}})
-M-113 creatures were also highly intelligent, capable of carrying on conversations with other intelligent beings.  Some form of [[telepathy]] enabled them to draw an image from the mind of someone near; this image was usually of someone trustworthy or appealing.  This image in turn enabled the creature to approach prey easily.  At very close range, the creature could fascinate or mentally paralyze its prey, preventing it from escaping even if it saw the creature's actual form.  The creature could feed equally well in its natural form, or while projecting one of these images.  When the {{USS|Enterprise|NCC-1701}}'s [[landing party]] first encountered it, each member saw a different version of [[Nancy Crater]], although they did not realize this.
-The M-113 creature could feed on [[Human]]s, but either could not, or did not wish, to feed on Spock.  He theorized that his [[copper]]-based [[blood]] salts were unappealing or not nourishing.
-{{bginfo|The presence of a mouth is evidence that salt may not have been this creature's sole means of sustenance. It may also have eaten food with its mouth but evolved a mechanism to directly absorb salt, perhaps because salt was (or became) scarce in its native environment or because it had a high biological (possibly metabolic) need of salt.}}
-== The ''Enterprise'' encounter ==
 [[File:M-113 creature, The squire of Gothos.jpg|right|thumb|The creature in Trelane's mansion]]
+Another individual of this creature was stuffed and on display in [[Trelane]]'s castle. The [[landing party]] of ''Enterprise'' (especially McCoy) reacted in surprise. It was later destroyed by [[Trelane]] with a [[phaser]]. ({{TOS|The Squire of Gothos}})
-In [[2266]], the ''Enterprise'' visited M-113 for routine medical checks of the two [[scientist]]s working there. At that time, they encountered what was, according to [[Professor]] [[Robert Crater]], the last of the M-113 creatures.  This particular creature evidently saw Humans chiefly as [[food]].  As there was no opportunity to question it, it is unclear if this attitude arose from desperation or if it was the natural outlook of the species.  Either way, the creature proved highly dangerous.
+== Physiognomy ==
-In [[2264]] or [[2265]], it murdered the real [[Nancy Crater]], an act that almost drove Crater to destroy it.  In the end, the fact that it was the last of its kind, or perhaps its ability to assume any form, stayed his hand, and he lived with it for a year or more.
+[[File:M 113 Hand.jpg|left|thumb|Detail of M-113 creature's hand]]
+The surviving creature as observed in [[2266]] stood a little over one and a half [[meter]]s tall. It had brownish skin with purple highlights. The face had a series of sagging folds that, together with the cast of the yellowish eyes, gave it a saddened appearance. The mouth was a kind of inverted snout, within which were several extremely sharp teeth. The body was covered with string-like, whitish hair. This creature also wore a brown, net-like garment and had the proportions of a typical [[humanoid]] with two arms and two legs, each hand having three thick fingers.
+Each of the three fingers had three sucker-like feeding organs. The creature used these to extract [[salt]] from its prey; a process that was painful and left a reddish, ring-like mottling on the skin. The creature could also ingest pure salt through its mouth. While the creature could feed on [[Human]]s, it either could not, or did not wish, to feed on Spock. He theorized that his [[copper]]-based [[blood]] salts were unappealing or not nourishing. ({{TOS|The Man Trap}})
-At the time the landing party arrived in [[2266]], the Crater expedition was dangerously low on salt, the creature's natural food. The creature's hunger drove it to murder crewmen [[Darnell]], [[Sturgeon]] and [[Green]] on the surface of M-113; as Nancy Crater, it blamed Darnell's death on ingestion of a [[Borgia plant]].  Impersonating crewman Green, it returned to the Enterprise, where chance saved [[Yeoman]] [[Janice Rand]] from becoming its next victim. It followed her when she brought [[Hikaru Sulu|Sulu]] his dinner, and might have murdered both officers except that [[Beauregard]], a curious [[plant]] in Sulu's botany collection, scared it off.
+== Capabilities ==
-An encounter with [[Nyota Uhura|Uhura]], as a crewman drawn from her mind, also proved frustrating for it.  Seconds from killing her, it was distracted by Sulu and Rand. It later murdered an [[engineering]] [[technician]] named [[Barnhart]] on Deck 9.
+M-113 creatures were very strong, stronger even than [[Vulcan]]s. A single backhanded slap from one was sufficient to throw [[Spock]] across the room; by contrast, he hit the creature several times with double-handed punches, without any observable effect.
+M-113 creatures were also highly intelligent, capable of carrying on conversations with other intelligent beings. A form of [[telepathy]] enabled them to draw an image from the mind of someone near; this image was usually of someone trustworthy or appealing. This image, in turn, enabled the creature to approach prey easily. Furthermore, the M-113 creature could even simultaneously appear as a different image to each individual who stood in the same room: When the {{USS|Enterprise|NCC-1701}}'s [[landing party]] first encountered it, each member saw a different woman even though they were looking at it at the same time.
-Around this time, [[James T. Kirk|Kirk]] and Spock found Professor Crater on the surface of M-113, and returned to the ship with him.  The creature, then impersonating McCoy, sat in on a staff meeting at which it learned that Crater knew how to identify it.  Before Crater could reveal (or be made to reveal) how this might be done, the creature murdered him, attempted to feed off Spock (who survived, presumptively due to the differing composition of Vulcans' blood salts), and fled to McCoy's quarters.  Kirk found it there, and attempted to lure it to him with salt.  In the resulting scuffle, it overpowered Kirk and began to feed on him.  It wasn't until the creature dropped its hypnotic projection, and Kirk began to scream from the pain of salt extraction, that McCoy shot and killed the creature. ({{TOS|The Man Trap}})
+{{bginfo|This fact seems to suggest that the camouflage was not a physical transformation, but rather a mental projection to people nearby}}
-{{bginfo|The sole surviving creature encountered by the ''Enterprise'' crew may not be a good example of the behaviors of the rest of its race. The creature was intelligent and was able to recognize intelligence in other species. It was also able to form [[emotion]]al attachments to other intelligent beings. On top of all this, it had a food source available that did not involve preying on other beings; yet it began to, despite how it seemed to understand (as McCoy stated during the briefing) that killing was wrong. It could be theorized that this particular creature was a sociopath, possibly due to its long isolation.}}
+At very close range, the creature could fascinate or mentally paralyze its prey, preventing the prey from escaping even if it saw the creature's actual form. The creature could feed equally well in its natural form, or while projecting one of these images. ({{TOS|The Man Trap}})
-==Forms assumed by the creature==
-<gallery captionalign="left">
+<gallery caption="Forms assumed by the creature" perrow="5" widths="110px">
-File:Nancy McCoy.jpg|M-113 creature in guise of Nancy Crater
+File:Nancy McCoy.jpg|Nancy Crater
-File:Unrealmccoy.jpg|M-113 creature in guise of Leonard McCoy
+File:Nancy Darnell.jpg|A woman from [[Wrigley's Pleasure Planet]]
-File:Uhuras_crewman.jpg|M-113 creature in guise of unnamed Enterprise crewman
+File:Green.jpg|[[Crewman]] [[Green]]
+File:Uhuras crewman.jpg|An [[Unnamed illusory people#Uhura's crewman|imaginary crewman]]
+File:Unrealmccoy.jpg|Leonard McCoy
 </gallery>
+== Appendices ==
-==Actors portraying creature==
+=== Background information ===
-*[[Sharon Gimpel]] in creature's true form
+The creature was portrayed by [[Sharon Gimpel]] in its true form, as well as by [[Jeanne Bal]], [[Francine Pyne]], [[Bruce Watson]], [[DeForest Kelley]], and [[Vince Howard]] when it posed as other characters.
-*[[Jeanne Bal]] when creature posed as Nancy Crater
-*[[DeForest Kelley]] when creature posed as [[Doctor]] [[Leonard McCoy]]
+According to [[Startrek.com]], the M-113 creature's ability to shapeshift was based on a similar ability for cellular mimicry as possessed by the [[Changeling]]s. {{st.com|M-113|}} The creature was designed and built by [[Wah Chang]]. (''[[Star Trek Encyclopedia]]'' 2nd ed., p. 281) The authors of ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series 365]]'' (p. 047) note that the creature was given a seemingly sad face, contrasting strongly with its otherwise horrific appearance. Behind the scenes, this creature was commonly referred to as the "Salt Sucker". (''[[Star Trek Encyclopedia]]'' 2nd ed., p. 281) Among fans, it is popularly known as the "'''Salt Vampire'''". (''[[Star Trek Compendium]]'' 4th ed., p. 36)
-*[[Vince Howard]] when creature was confronted by [[Uhura]]
+In {{e|The Squire of Gothos}}, a "stuffed carcass" of this creature appears and upon first encountering it, a landing party reacts with surprise to it, with McCoy most notably affected, as music from "The Man Trap" is briefly dubbed in. Afterward, the "creature" (along with the [[Gorn]] and some other "monsters" of the series) found a new home in [[Robert Justman]]'s office. (''[[Inside Star Trek: The Real Story]]'' paperback ed., p. 215)
+In an interview in {{y|1998}}, [[Michael Westmore]] said he would have liked to use the M-113 creature in an episode of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' or ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'', but this never came to fruition. ({{STM|46}}, p. 83)
-== Background ==
 [[File:Barney Burman's salt vampire.jpg|thumb|The salt vampire cut from ''Star Trek'']]
+[[Barney Burman]] and his company [[Proteus Make-up FX Team]] created a "salt sucker" alien as an homage to the M-113 creature for [[J.J. Abrams]]' {{film|11}}, in which the alien was intended to be shown in an ultimately [[deleted scene]] involving [[Rura Penthe]]. At least one conceptual sketch of the creature was illustrated. The alien was also one of two sculptures which the movie's key sculptor, [[Don Lanning]], worked on whenever he got some down time while assigned to the film, the other being the [[Gorn]]. "''The Salt Vampire was a real challenge,''" Lanning recalled, "''to take something that was maybe a bit hokey and turn it into something really organic, but we certainly gave it a real try. In the end, it never made it into the movie, but to tell you the truth, I'm kind of glad.''" ([[Star Trek Magazine 2013 Special Edition|''Star Trek Magazine'' 2013 Special Edition]], p. 137)
-* The M-113 creature was designed and built by [[Wah Chang]]. (''[[Star Trek Encyclopedia]]'' 2nd ed., p. 281) The authors of ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series 365]]'' (p. 047) note that the creature was given a seemingly sad face which contrasts strongly with its otherwise horrific appearance.
-* In {{e|The Squire of Gothos}}, a "stuffed carcass" of this creature was on display in [[Trelane]]'s castle. Upon first encountering it the landing party reacts with surprise to it, with McCoy most notably affected, as music from "The Man Trap" is briefly dubbed in. Trelane later destroyed it with a [[phaser]]. It is unknown whether this creature was actually on display or merely an illusion created by Trelane.
+=== Apocrypha ===
-* Afterwards, the "creature" (along with the [[Gorn]] and some other "monsters" of the series) found a new home in [[Robert Justman]]'s office. (''[[Inside Star Trek: The Real Story]]'')
+In the ''Star Trek Online ''mission "Mine Trap" (a reference to the TOS episode title), players must cooperate to defend Romulan colonists from an invasion of M-113 creatures while an evacuation is arranged. The creatures are resistant to handheld weapons fire, can change their appearance to infiltrate crowds of colonists, and use psionic attacks against their enemies.
-* In an interview in {{y|1998}}, [[Michael Westmore]] said he would have liked to use the M-113 creature in an episode of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' or ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]''. (''[[Star Trek Monthly issue 46]]'', p. 83) This never came to fruition, however.
-*[[Barney Burman]] and his company [[Proteus Make-up FX Team]] created a "salt sucker" alien as a homage to the M-113 creature for [[J.J. Abrams]]' {{film|11}}. Unfortunately, the creature was part of a [[deleted scene]] involving [[Rura Penthe]].
+=== External links ===
-{{featured|date=February 2005|id=78910}}
+* {{NCwiki}}
+* {{Startrek.com|m-113-creature}}
 [[de:M-113-Wesen]]