The appearance of the Shroomies was an eerie moment on “Enterprise”. With their crab-like eye-stalks and bubble helmets, they had a wonderful 1950’s feeling that I would have like to have seen more of. Alas, we never found out what they were up to.
John Teska is known far and wide as being one of the top CG wizards in this and all known parallel dimensions. One day Dan Curry came in with a special project for him…. a departure for Star Trek… an alien-alien sporting a tad more than a bumpy forehead! You couldn’t pick a better guy for the job… in fact, John was responsible for Species 8472 and the Borg Queen assembly sequence on Voyager.
(Above) Species 8472 – Another startling Teska creation from Star Trek:Voyager.
(Above) Reference render’s of Trek’s most offbeat and mysterious alien… the Shroomies
John is currently busy up at ILM, and we all miss him down here in LA! I spoke to him the other day and asked if he could find a minute in his busy schedule to jot doen a couple of Shroomie memories. Here is what he had to say…
“Some fans out there must know the name of the mysterious aliens from “Silent Enemy”, but I’ll only know them as ‘the Shroomies’. These lovely bulbous-headed beauties appeared in first season “Enterprise” and were featured in several shots sneaking around the ship and scanning an unconscious human. I recall Dan Curry brought these sketches and we discussed ways to make their appearance and actions non-human – there should be no mistaking them for actors in costume. I had fun fleshing them out in 3D from the pencil drawings. The skin surface had layers of organic texture as if their heads were filled with organs. You probably would not enjoy eating dinner with one if you were invited… which is very rare indeed. ” — John Teska
(Below) Dan Curry’s Shroomie concept.
Screen caps coutesy Jörg
Oh boy, what a great post, thanks for showcasing the aliens Doug, John and Dan! I love those few really alien aliens we had on Star Trek. And the Shroomie mouth looks much scarier in those “orthos” and Dan Curry’s sketch!
Oh man! These things gave me the creeps with the whole mood of the episode and the way they moved. It was great to see that retro alien look and wished that we could have had more aliens like these guys! Great models, John!!
Yikes … those things are scary! I might be sleeping with the light on tonight
Like the aliens in “Conspiracy”, I really wish more work had been done with these guys. I’d hate to know too much about them, but having them show up out of no where now and then would have been great. I wonder if they were supplying the Romulans or Tholians with intel on the humans.
It was always neat to see aliens on Trek that truly looked alien. I know Roddenberry wanted us to be able to see ourselves in most of them, but the “bumpy forehead” aliens got so very, very tired after three series
I suppose in this case it was more important for us *not* to identify with them, so the idea was turned on its head and allowed for something weird like this.
And lets not forget a PERSONAL favorite
of mine, those UBER COOL looking SHADOW CREATURES !
LOVED that design !!!
Sorry, didn’t mean to derail the Enterprise critters..;)
I like po-ta-tos…
Trunpy…? Is that you, Trumpy…?
Oh ’sroom-heads. Neat.
Great work, eh.
LLP,
deg
Yay you finally were able to do the Shroomie post
Love the ’50s pulp Sci-Fi vibe!
Looking at them in the top image, the first thing that came to mind was Species 8472 and lo and behold John was also responsible for them as well, it all makes sense…
These were creepy and great fun to see; however, I loved seeing Species 8472. I think there are a couple of reasons for that. We got to see them just enough to be a bit familiar with them, and they were scary, telepathic SOB’s that sent chills when seen or mentioned!
Now THAT’S an alien! VERY cool!
Hey Doug, you guys ever on your free time decide to make CGI’s of the Animated crew, like Lt. Arex or M’Ress?
Also, CGI Borg? Surely having these bad boys would save some poor souls from hours of make-up time.
For some reason those guys always made me think of the “skinnies” from Starship Troopers (the book, not the film.) I liked how their walk animation made it look as though they were labouring a little, as if they weren’t in their native gravity.
I really wish Trek had been imaginative with it’s depiction of aliens over the years. Even TOS had it’s fair share of pretty alien looking designs, given the limitations of the time, but TNG always seamed to lean on the bumpy foreheads of funny spot pattern.
That’s something I liked about B5 too, while most of the alien’s were essentially make-up appliances, they made the effort so that even the minor races were distinct.
I remember watching DS9 and being very disappointed that they never showed the Tholian ambassador they kept mentioning. I mean how hard would it have been to build a Tholian encounter suit?
Just a great shame we never saw more of them. Perhaps the folks at Pocket Books will make use of them in the Enterprise novels.
My all time favorite Episode of Enterprise….awesome post guys.
That was one creepy episode… really.
By a weird coincidence, this episodes is next up in my viewing of ENT. Just done “Cold Front” yesterday.
The first time I saw this I speculated they might’ve been our glimpse of a Gallamite. Dax often spoke of a Captain Boday with a transparent skull on DS9, but we never saw him.
I loved how these guys moved on screen. Very freaky! What with their green ship and all, it would’ve been fun if they were in league with the Romulans. Maybe paid to go check out this new Human starship they were hearing so much about.
The shroomies mouth sure look lika a vagina…
I don’t think I like where this is going.
I do.
…Oh God, I said that out loud.
I thought it was a great idea to have a mystery race that was not too terribly threatening but didn’t look too terribly concerned about the crew either. Almost a futuristic version of our current alien abduction lore, transplanted into the future. It would have been neat to see them once every season, or every other season, even if only make a mysterious background appearance; just to remind us how dangerous and mysterious it is out there!
THE DC
Daniel :
“The shroomies mouth sure look lika a vagina…”
Err…what women have you been dating????
[shuddering, uncomfortably]…
The DC
I remember those guys! They gave me the willies! Nice artwork!
BTW, Doug, I love your avatar!
Shroomies are freaky. I like them, betcha the ones pictured in the corridor are called Sally and Mary, scouting for hot guys on the NX-01.
Love that shot where the aliens were lit by flashlights.
After recently uncovering these “Next time on Enterprise” on British home video releases, I thought I’d just like to share them with you.
The first one is especially appropriate, as it brilliantly previews “Silent Enemy”, those Shroomies and their slinky walk. :p
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIx7pYY1pYM
Hopefully YouTube won’t have pulled them, so you can see them.
Best wishes from a massive NX-01 fan,
Chris
Thank you for a very enjoyable 10 minute break from my homework, from one massive NX fan to another!