Skagaran

Draysik, a Skagaran male (2153)

The Skagarans were a warp capable humanoid race, also pejoratively known as "Skags".

Physiology

Skagarans appeared nearly identical to Humans with the exception of distinguishing red protrusions above each eyebrow, on their throat, and in front of each ear. They also have red blood, like many humanoid species, and their body had a higher tolerance to alcohol than a Human body. They were similar enough to Humans to produce children with them.

Society and culture

Although some Skagarans believed in the concept of Hell, they did not practice burial ceremonies to dispose of their dead. As of the 19th century, they practiced slavery of other sentient species.

Technologically, the Skagarans achieved warp drive by Earth's mid-19th century. They possessed weapons which were probably phasers or disruptors ("guns which emitted a beam of light") and, reportedly, had transporter technology ("they could move through thin air from one place to another"). Their starships were also capable of penetrating the thermobaric clouds which surrounded the Delphic Expanse.

Skagarans have their own kind of alcohol, Skagaran whiskey.

Language

The word Rokdar translates to "butcher". This was a name that the Skagarans used to describe Cooper Smith.

Skagaran history

Enslavement

During the 19th century, Skagarans were establishing colonies and were in need of workers. One Skagaran ship was sent to Earth. The vessel's crew abducted several thousand Humans from America's western rocky desert regions (as well as horses and cattle) and took them as slave workers to help the Skagarans start a colony on a planet with a similar climate.

It is possible the slaves were taken from Missouri, as that state was mentioned in a document pertaining to the colony translated by Ensign Sato.

Cooper Smith

According to the Human account, Cooper Smith was a folk hero who overthrew their Skagaran masters. However, the Skagarans recorded a slightly different version of events, calling Cooper Smith "Rokdar", which meant "butcher." According to the Skagarans, Smith and his men burned the Skagarans' ship, destroying their weapons and murdering most of them, including entire families. To make sure that the Skagarans could never enslave the Humans again, Smith wrote the first laws that kept the Skagarans from going to school, owning property or marrying. By the mid-22nd century, the Skagaran population was less than a thousand and most lived in settlements, one of which was named "Skagtown" by the Humans. At this point, at least some Skagarans no longer shared their ancestors' attitude toward slavery, calling it a great crime.

Based on Bethany's lesson about the Wright brothers' first powered flight, we can assume that the Humans were abducted sometime around 1864, nearly forty years before this historic event.

Enterprise

A Skagaran colony

In 2153, the NX-class starship Enterprise NX-01 visited a planet inhabited by Humans and Skagarans in the Delphic Expanse. When an away team beamed to the surface of the planet, T'Pol and Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker discovered the wreckage of a Skagaran ship which the Skagarans had used three hundred years earlier to transport Humans to the planet. In the ship's data module, T'Pol and Tucker found small crystalline formations, which contained Skagaran log entries. The Skagaran logs were brought aboard Enterprise, where the crew learned that the Skagarans had suffered many disciplinary problems. Six months after the Skagaran ship had arrived, there were no more logs made. Although Enterprise was too small to carry the six thousand Humans who lived on the planet back to Earth, Captain Jonathan Archer planned to return to the planet and provide aid to the inhabitants. Archer believed that when Starfleet was eventually able to send ships to the planet, the crews of those vessels would find that the Humans had changed some of their laws.

Skagaran treatment

Although some Skagarans, such as Draysik, were employed in saloons, they were not allowed to drink with their Human masters and therefore reacted badly to alcohol. Skagaran whiskey was illegal, but a barber named Henry was allowed to keep a bottle for pulling teeth.

A dead Skagaran, after being hanged for murder

If a Skagaran killed a Human, it was considered a hanging offense, even if the Skagaran was acting in self-defense.

Legally, Humans were not encouraged to harass the Skagarans, though a Human who defended a Skagaran from other Humans could possibly be arrested. It was deemed illegal for a Human to teach Skagarans and the minimum punishment for doing so was ten years in jail. However, some Humans, such as Bethany, taught Skagaran children outside at night. A subject that Bethany taught her students was mathematics, including the study of multiplication and long division. The students who Bethany taught wrote on slates. Some of her students were called Yral, Kret and Taliyah. Bethany herself was one-quarter Skagaran. When the starship Enterprise left the Skagaran planet, Bethany had been allowed to legally teach Skagaran and Human children together. One of the subjects she taught was Earth history, including the study of the first airplane. (ENT: "North Star")

List of Skagarans

Named

• Bethany (¼ Skagaran, ¾ Human)
• Draysik
• Kret
• Taliyah
• Yral

Unnamed

• Unnamed Skagarans

Background

When it came time to design the look of the Skagarans, it was deemed appropriate for their makeup appliances to not seem too alien. This was because Skagarans were to be established as capable of interbreeding with Humans and producing offspring that could be mistaken for being Human. (ENT: "North Star" audio commentary, ENT Season 3 DVD)

Executive Producer Brannon Braga once referred to the Skagarans as "a poignant little metaphor for the Native American Indians." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 151, p. 30) In fact, the plot point regarding the criminality of teaching Skagaran children was thought up as a way to make the aliens' predicament slightly more sympathetic than originally conceived. (ENT: "North Star" audio commentary, ENT Season 3 DVD)