The Excalbians were non-humanoid carbon cycle life forms native to the planet Excalbia. Prior to the discovery of this species, the notions of intelligent life on Excalbia were considered little more than "old space legends".
In 2269, the USS Enterprise was sent by Starfleet to investigate Excalbia, but found little outside a poisonous atmosphere and a molten lava surface. Sensor readings of Excalbia indicated the presence of artificial power generation on the planet that registered "in factor seven quantities," indicating the presence of "a considerable civilization there."
Though the condition of their planet should have deemed the planet's inhabitants' existence as scientifically impossible, they nonetheless registered as carbon-cycle lifeforms. On the Enterprise's final orbit, the Excalbians scanned the ship, including the minds of the crew, via deep probe scanning technology, noted as being "incredibly swift." Moments thereafter, they initiated first contact through a re-creation of Abraham Lincoln, one of James T. Kirk's personal heroes.
Prior to beaming "Lincoln" up to the Enterprise, sensors described the being "almost mineral" and "like living rock with heavy fore-claws", before finally registering as Human. Spock later observed the Excalbians appeared to possess the "ability to control matter and to rearrange molecules in whatever fashion was desired." This allowed them to create other beings, who appeared or registered as humanoid, by "using their fellow creatures as source matter." These forms taken by Excalbians truly believed and behaved like the person they portrayed.
In their natural form, Excalbians appeared as a simple rock formation that possessed glowing eyes, a distinguishable head and two arm-like appendages. Also in their natural form, Excalbians radiated extreme body heat.
During the interactions with the crew of the Enterprise, through Lincoln, the Excalbians became intrigued by the Human notions of good and evil. They staged a drama, or play, between the two concepts, using Kirk and Spock and recreations of notable galactic historical figures, enacted on an Earth-like stage on Excalbia's surface.
Then it was announced that countless spectators were there because Excalbians learned by "observing such spectacles," by offering Kirk and Spock the honor and opportunity "to become our teachers by demonstrating whether good or evil is more powerful. Representing "good" were Kirk, Spock, and recreations of Abraham Lincoln of Earth and Surak of Vulcan; representing "evil" were recreations of Kahless the Unforgettable of Qo'noS, Genghis Khan and Colonel Green of Earth, and Zora of Tiburon."
When it was determined by the Excalbians that the stakes were not high enough to evoke the response they sought, they demonstrated their ability to disable the Enterprise, by slowly forcing it to operate on battery power alone, before causing the breakdown in the shielding between the ship's matter and antimatter.
Though "good" was victorious in the end, the Excalbian Yarnek felt that Kirk and Spock "failed to demonstrate to me any other difference between your philosophies." When Kirk asked them, "[w]hat gives you the right to hand out life and death?" Yarnek replied, "The same right that brought you here. The need to know new things." (TOS: "The Savage Curtain")
An Excalbian (upper right corner)
The Excalbians, or their planet, were presumably involved in one way or another in the illusory Excalbian Campaign. (TNG: "Future Imperfect" okudagram)
Information about Excalbians was displayed on a computer graphic in Keiko O'Brien's classroom on Deep Space 9 in 2369, as a part of her lesson on "Comparative Xenobiology". (DS9: "A Man Alone", "The Nagus" okudagram)
The skeletal remains of several Excalbians, including the duplicate of Abraham Lincoln, had become part of Kerner Hauze's collection by 2381. Ensign D'Vana Tendi knew that when sufficient friction was applied, Excalbian bones broke down and became acidic. She and Ensign Sam Rutherford used the bones to cut through the wall paneling and evade the automated defenses aboard Hauze's ship. (LD: "Kayshon, His Eyes Open")
Individuals[]
- Named
- Unnamed
Appendices[]
Appearances[]
- TOS: "The Savage Curtain"
- ST: "Ephraim and Dot"
- LD: "Kayshon, His Eyes Open" (skeletal remains)
Background information[]
The Excalbians were not identified by name on screen or in the script. The name is generally sourced to several reference works, including the Star Trek Encyclopedia, Star Trek Chronology, Star Trek: Star Charts, and StarTrek.com. On the Comparative Xenobiology chart, they were referred to simply as "carbon cycle lifeform from Excalbia". The name, however, does appear in an okudagram which references the "Excalbian Campaign".
According to the first draft of the script, this species was described as insectoid with a "hard-shell body, heavy fore-claws."
Apocrypha[]
In the comics "Errand of War!" and "Deadly Allies!", the Excalbians expand their studies of good and evil by manipulating the Federation and Klingon Empire to engage in a devastating war and imprisoning the Organians to prevent interference. Kirk and Kor manage to convince the Excalbians that instead of manipulating other races, they should enter the contest themselves in a fight against the Organians who would be cast as the "evil" side. As the fight begins, both species disappear from the galaxy, allowing the Federation and Klingons to make peace.
The Pocket TOS novel Savage Trade has the Enterprise encountering a group of Excalbian refugees led by Yarnek, now trapped in the form of George Washington, who wish to apply for asylum status in the Federation. The novel provides a lot of information about Excalbian history and culture. Yarnek reveals that the ancestors of the Excalbians evolved on the surface of Excalbia, but eventually migrated inward, into the mantle. This heated up the planet, causing volcanic eruptions that wiped out all other life on Excalbia and turned the planet into a molten rock. After the Excalbians learned to use their matter manipulation powers to create anything they wanted, Excalbian culture became extremely solipsistic and the Excalbians began to view themselves as the only truly real things in the universe. As such, concepts of good, evil and morality were forgotten. When the Excalbians detected the minds of the Enterprise crew passing through their system, they decided to stage a contest. The contest was not so much to learn the concepts of good and evil, but to find out if the Enterprise crew were actually real and not the product of some Excalbian's imagination. With the results of the experiment proving to be inconclusive, the Excalbians continued abducting starship crews to stage more gladiatorial fights. After Yarnek came to realize this was morally wrong, the Excalbian council forced him to assume human form and stripped him of his shapeshifting abilities, doing the same to any like-minded Excalbians. Yarnek and a group of other dissidents were eventually able to escape. The refugees have taken the form of many historical figures including Confucius, Marie Curie, Leonardo da Vinci, Cyrano de Bergerac, Francis Drake, Queen Elizabeth I, Michael Faraday, Henry Ford, Benjamin Franklin, Galileo Galilei, Mahatma Gandhi, Johannes Kepler, Horatio Nelson, Oda Nobunaga, Marco Polo, Sacajawea and Harriet Tubman.
Despite being trapped in human form, the Excalbians still had a non-human biology. Severed appendages regenerate completely within hours and even items of clothing like gloves grow back if taken off. The Excalbians' matter manipulation powers still worked on an unconscious level: when Excalbians were placed into a room, standard Federation furniture gradually transformed into four-poster beds, wardrobes, tapestries and other period furniture.
It is eventually revealed that Excalbia has been destroyed. The main faction of the Excalbians had captured a spaceborne entity called the Demiurge to fight in their latest contest, but the Demiurge proved too powerful to control. It consumed and enslaved the Excalbians before consuming the planet itself, leaving few survivors.
In Star Trek: Lower Decks, Issue 2 (2024), the Excalbians are depicted as bored, eccentric aliens who rely on staging fights to the death to learn any new concept. In this case, they pair up the Cerritos crew with evil versions of Jadzia Dax, Kathryn Janeway, Jean-Luc Picard, Montgomery Scott and T'Pol in order to understand the concept of mentorship.
External links[]
- Excalbian at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works