Most badass civilization/species in sci-fi?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

Poll question: Most badass civilization/species in sci-fi?

[strategery blunder]

1. Your poll is inaccurate

The Galactic Empire was from Star Wars, not Star Trek.

[Deja Q]

2. The Federation

(Blake's 7. :7 )

The Norn, from what I've seen so far, are pretty cool too... (Babylon 5)

[DRoseDARs]

4. Narn, not Norn

And not really. They got their asses handed to them, what, three times by the Centauri? :P

[Deja Q]

16. Ah. Forgive me, I'm a n00B to B5...

Still, I'll watch anything with Andreas Katsulas in it. :D

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

6. Sorry, don't know B5 or B7

Then again, I'm nearly certain everybody who voted for the Borg hasn't seen the "Scorpion" two-parter in Voyager.

[DRoseDARs]

8. It's B5 and yeah, Species 8472 definitely trumps Borg. Hell, Tribbles...

...trump the Borg and they're just cute little furballs. :)

[Deja Q]

19. Both are great series... as for Species 8472,

nice idea but they seemed like a cheap one-up on the Borg and nowhere near as cool.

[Kellanved]

18. well,

<geek>
The badasses in Bab5 were the shadows, later the drakh.
Due to the rushed conclusion of the main story line in season 4, they were never allowed to ascend (descend?) to the badass throne.
</geek>

I've never understood while the B5 DVDs here are cheap, while they cost a fortune in the UK and the US :shrug:.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

47. The Narn. It's pronounced Narn.

And I stand corrected.

[DRoseDARs]

3. Tribbles...

...No other race can woo so many and at the same time strike fear into the hearts of Klingons. :scared:

[RevCheesehead]

5. Borg = Fox News

you will be assimilated...resistance is futile.

But even against the undefeatable, the federation struggles, fights, and defeats.

Sorry - I just watched "Outfoxed" and I'm still shaking.

:mad: :mad: :puke:

[NewHampshireDem]

7. The Idirians from Banks's Culture novels

They are big and badass!

Oh, found this which you might like:

http://kier.3dfrontier.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=4

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

11. Wow. The nerdiness OOZES! Like it! (nt)

[Screaming Lord Byron]

9. Daleks, fella.

[underseasurveyor]

10. *Tribbles*

:evilgrin:

[miss_kitty]

12. how about the original "resistance is futile" group?

the Daleks? pretty badass and the Cybermen? BBC cheese style BADASSES

i personally go Borg and Species 847-whatever

[Deja Q]

20. the Borg are pure, repetitive, stale cheese

"Resistance is futile" got boring by the 2nd time they said it, yet alone the 109,836th...

At least the Cybermen (particularly during the 1980s) had some decent dialogue, with "Earthshock" easily being the best-ever story that does what no Trek borg episode could possibly do while not making the revelation so obvious early in the story. :D (the Cyberleader/Doctor confrontation in episode 3 has far more defending of humanity than any TNG episode could dream of having. And all they could do was call it "Hugh" and have the characters change4 their personalities to fit the (awful) story...)

[miss_kitty]

24. the thing i think that cripples the daleks and the cybermen though

is the sheer cheesiness of the special effects...the borg are scary (imho) because they are dressed up good. yeah and some of the TNG crap is poorly written...no argument there


"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

[Deja Q]

27. Excellent point, I...

stand corrected. :D

Yes, the special effects weren't always the greatest. Pre-star wars combined with no budget in the first place made that difficult, but even with post-star wars, Dr Who had a low budget.

I shouldn't entirely dis TNG as some of it really is well written ("Elementary Dear Data" being one such example of putting creativity to its pinnacle). But the Borg got tiring after "The Best of Both Worlds" (great story despite the obvious giveaway in part 1 as to what was to happen). A catchphrase is one thing, but it did ultimately render the Borg laughable.

The Borg did look most convincing, that's for sure.

[Huckebein the Raven]

13. I vote the Wraith from Stargate: Atlantis

It means something when you kick the Ancient's collective asses and force them to ascend to a higher plane of existance.

In the Star Trek Universe, though, I have to go with the Dominion from DS9.

[BlueHandDuo]

14. The Alliance...

...from Firefly and the upcoming movie Serenity.

[Magrittes Pipe]

17. This is the correct answer.

[PittPoliSci]

45. good choice!

loved that show!

[Magrittes Pipe]

15. The Vogons

For the love of God, just listen to their poetry! :cry:

[CanuckAmok]

21. "Death's too good for 'em"

n/t

[CanuckAmok]

22. Oh, please, there'd be none of those without....

...the Daleks!



The original neo-fascist uber-robots. Note the upturned right...er...plunger salute.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

23. It's a design classic.

[miss_kitty]

25. "THE MOST TERRIFYING PLUMBER'S HELPER IN THE UNIVERSE"

[CanuckAmok]

26. Don't even ASK what the one on the left is for! n/t

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

42. Locking

No sex threads

[Lovecrafty]

28. THE THING!!!!!

The John Carpenter version! Probably the most destructive alien EVER in film history! If it had managed to make it to a population center it could have infected all the lifeforms on this planet in a matter of months! The fact that it can be ANYTHING(a dog, a man, ect) makes it all the more terrifying!

[CanuckAmok]

29. Yeah, that's true...

...isn't it made up of intelligent single-cell organisms which are hive-minded?

My microbiologist girlfriend recently told me that there are proteins recently discovered to have a collective intelligence, and that can theoretically evolve to behave the way the Thing did.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

30. Of those listed I'd have to say Species 8472.............

Interdimensional travel, fluidic universe, c'mon! Those guys would whup up on the Daleks and Cybermen combined. Of those not listed, I'd have to say Larry Niven's Pak.

[Chovexani]

31. What, no Herbert fans?

Drop each and all of the listed people in the desert, and the Fremen would kick their asses. Then take their water.

Worm food, yo.

[WoodrowFan]

32. the Borg

no one else comes close. The Dalleks took a few centuries to even learn to manage stairs!

[Screaming Lord Byron]

33. Yeah, but the Borg are just a rip-off of the Cybermen.

[WoodrowFan]

35. nawwww

they were originally supposed to be insects, but the producers couldn't get the special effects to look real so they were with the cyborg instead. As much as I loved Dr. Who the cybermen were lame IMHO. The Dalleks and the master, now THOSE were a challenge.

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

34. Totally the Borg

The hive mind is just scary

[WoodrowFan]

36. kind of like Limbaugh listeners (Smile)

I agree, VERY scary.


welcome to the DU! :7

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

39. Oh, were you guys talking about Star Trek?

I was confused, I thought we were talking about Limbaugh listeners all along. :D

[St. Jarvitude]

37. How could you leave out... THOSE DAMN DIRTY APES!

Totally bitchin'.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

38. Naw, the creators of the Riverworld...

Farmer's Riverworld, not the super cheesy SciFi Channel movie.

[bmbmd]

40. Humans are to HeeChee

as HeeChee are to ASSASSINS!!!

[slutticus]

41. What about the lizard people from "V"?

You guys remember "V" right?

[chenGOD]

43. If they weren't so damn benign...I'd say...

The Ramans from Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee's magnificent Rama trilogy. Lucky for us they just want to catalogue spacefarers.

Otherwise: The Predators. Look at how much damage just one of them did. Imagine an army of those guys.

[DS1]

44. Borg voters should be slapped

What a boring bunch of assmonkeys they are :eyes:

"You will be assimilated" OOhhhh, scary!

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

46. If you're talking villains, The Shadows from B5.

Quite possibly the creepiest race of conquerors in sci-fi, seconded only by the Drakh, and the Dominion from DS9.

As for the most badass "heroic/not just a soulless conqueror" races:

The Narn
The Minbari
The Vorlons
The Klingons
The Centauri
The Drazi

[Swede]

48. The Vang were a pretty bad bunch.

Author Christopher Rowley.

[Dogmudgeon]

49. The Draka

From an S. M. Stirling mil-Sci-Fi trilogy.

They were right-wing Dutch Nazis/proto-Boers in an alternative time line who took over nearly the entire world.

Very good writing and world-building, light on the gun fetishism and strong on character depth.

The name "Draka" is, of course, one of the many variations on "Dragon", but in the stories it was derived from Francis Drake. For some reason.

--bkl