Tholian

A Tholian.

Tholians are a species that feature in Star Trek.

History

Tholian Commander Loskene.

The Tholians were a mineral-based crystalline race of non-humanoids who developed an interstellar civilisation. (ENT: In the Mirror Darkly) They came to form a government known as the Tholian Assembly. By the mid-22nd century, it was noted that the Vulcan High Command had only limited contact with the Tholians. (ENT: Future Tense)

They came to be participants in the Temporal Cold War that was being waged in the 22nd century and had been aware of it. In 2152, Tholians made an aggressive claim for a mysterious 31st-century timepod discovered by the Earth Starfleet vessel NX-01 Enterprise. They first intercepted the Enterprise far outside their usual territory and demanded the immediate surrender of the future vessel, claiming it posed a danger due to 'temporal radiation'. When Captain Archer refused to comply, a Tholian ship briefly locked onto the Enterprise with a tractor beam but withdrew after Archer threatened to destroy the pod while it was still in his launch bay. However, the Tholians soon escalated their efforts by intercepting and disabling the Vulcan combat cruiser Tal'Kir, which had been sent to rendezvous with Archer’s crew. When the Enterprise arrived at the scene, the Tholians used coordinated weapons fire to disable the starship's warp engines, weapons, and hull plating, effectively trapping them. As the Suliban Cabal arrived to claim the same prize, the Tholians engaged them in a fierce battle and successfully destroyed the Suliban fleet. In the chaos, the Tholians successfully disarmed a booby-trapped warhead that Archer had placed inside the pod and attempted to tow the vessel away. Their victory was short-lived, however, as the activation of a temporal emergency beacon caused the pod and its contents to dematerialize and return to the future, prompting the Tholians to finally depart the area. (ENT: Future Tense)

It was noted that there were continued occasional conflicts between the Tholian Assembly and the Federation over the course of the next century. In the 2250s, the Tholians attacked Berellium leaving Thira Sidhu and her husband as the only survivors. A few years later, Starfleet simulated a Tholian attack on Starbase 28 as part of a test of Cadet Sidhu. (ST: "Ask Not")

In 2268, a Tholian commander named Loskene attacked the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) for violating Tholian territory while on a rescue mission to investigate the disappearance of the USS Defiant. (TOS: The Tholian Web).

In 2353, Tholians attacked a United Federation of Planets starbase and killed its entire complement, except for a civilian named Kyle Riker, father of William Riker.

In 2355, simulated Tholian battles were part of Starfleet Academy training.

In 2367, there was concern that the Tholians might get involved in the Klingon Civil War.

In 2371, a Tholian ambassador visited Deep Space 9.

In 2372, a Tholian observer was present at a conference in Antwerp, Earth, when a bomb destroyed the conference hall. Shortly after, the Tholians signed a non-aggression treaty with the Dominion.

In 2379, the Romulans had diplomatic relations with the Tholians.

Overview

In appearance, Tholians were a non-humanoid race possessing a crystalline body that consisted of two arms and six legs. Non-humanoid in form, Tholians have crystalline bodies, two arms, and six legs. They dwell in an environment of extreme heat by human standards, their comfortable living environment being 480 kelvins (207 °C). Temperatures below 380 K (107 °C) was capable of killing a Tholians causing them to shatter into tiny crystalline shards. (ENT: In a Mirror, Darkly)

Each Tholian had both male and female sexual organs. (ENT: In a Mirror, Darkly)

Tholians communicated primarily through a series of shrill squeals, clicks and chirps with this being difficult to parse through a universal translator. (ENT: Future Tense) They were also naturally able to emit various forms of radiation, which they could modulate. Tholians could communicate over short distances in this fashion. (ENT: In a Mirror, Darkly)

Tholians have little tolerance for deception and were insistent on punctuality. (TOS: The Tholian Web)

Tholian silk was highly prized item and was difficult to obtain. (DS9: The Way of the Warrior)

Besides utilizing standard offensive weaponry, Tholian ships can also work in concert to emit an energy field shaped much like a web, which will trap any space vessel inside and drain its energy. When more ships are available, a web takes much less time to construct; several Tholian vessels working in concert can spin such a web in under a minute (as seen in "In a Mirror, Darkly"), while two vessels might take hours ("The Tholian Web").

The Tholians appear to actively explore the science of inter-spatial rifts and time travel. Tholians from both the regular Trek universe and the Mirror universe are depicted as engaging in missions to capture future technology, ostensibly to use the advanced technology to further their own agenda.

Members

• Loskene :

Notes

• Tholians were created by Judy Burns and Chet Richards where they featured in the setting of the Star Trek universe.
• The non-canon Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual (1977) claimed that the Tholians had a hive culture as well as mind and were divided into a caste-based society with those primarily being seen were part of the warrior caste.
• In The Worlds of the Federation (1989), their home planet was identified as Tholia which was the second planet in the Tholian system with this world possessing a searing hot methane environment.

Alternate Versions

• In the Mirror Universe, the Tholians appear to be more cunning and treacherous: in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "In a Mirror, Darkly", the Mirror Tholians are said to have intentionally caused the 'interphase', the rift in space (and, as it turns out, in time) depicted in the original Star Trek episode "The Tholian Web". The Mirror Tholians detonated a high-yield explosive device, which caused the interphase to form. They then planted a false distress signal in the hopes of luring a ship from the other universe into their own (presumably with the intention of capturing the ship and using it as the vanguard of an invasion force). The USS Defiant answered the fake distress call, becoming trapped in the interphase and eventually winding up in the Mirror Universe. The Tholians captured the Defiant and attempted to steal its technology before it was commandeered by agents of the Terran Empire.

In other media

Video games

• In Star Trek: Klingon Academy, the Tholians appeared as antagonists in the setting of the video game.
• In Star Trek Online, the Tholians appeared in the setting of the MMORPG video game.

Novels

• In Star Trek: The Next Generation: Vendetta, the Tholians appeared in the setting of the 1991 Pocket Books novel written by Peter David. It was shown that another Doomsday Machine came to be activated which had entered into Tholian space with the U.S.S. Enterprise in pursuit. Whilst in Tholian space, they came to encounter Commander Loskene who despite 90 years having past came to believe that the Starfleet vessel was the same Enterprise he had encountered before and inquired if there was a 'lying Vulcan named Spock' on-board. It was explained that Tholians perceive linear time differently from most other humanoids, alluding to their more heightened sense of "interphasic" four dimensional space/time.
• In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Millennium, Book I: The Fall of Terok Nor, the Tholians were mentioned in the setting of the 2000 Pocket Books novel written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. A large mural in Quark's bar depicted Tholian Admiral Alkene who was noted for being an enemy of Gul Dukat.
• In Star Trek: The Lost Era – The Sundered, the Tholians appeared in the setting of the 2003 Pocket Books novel written by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin. This book claimed that they had exceptionally short physical lifespan of only six to eight months, yet they maintained a functional immortality by passing their entire consciousness and ancestral memories to the next generation through a 'crystal memory upload'. This rapid generational cycle and the resulting constant access to a shared memory archive known as the Lattice explained their renowned obsession with punctuality and their perspective that organic, long-lived species were 'simpler' and untrustworthy. Events set in 2298]] showed the the Tholians engaged in unprecedented peace talks with the Federation aboard the U.S.S. Excelsior, commanded by Captain Hikaru Sulu. These fragile negotiations were quickly imperiled as the Tholians were revealed to be embroiled in a brutal conflict with a mysterious extra-galactic enemy known as the Neyel. The Tholians acted with their characteristic territorial aggression, weaving energy webs to trap and attack those they perceived as threats, which ultimately thrust the Excelsior crew into a larger war. Their actions were driven by a long-standing Devil War against the Neyel, whose origins as time-lost humans threatened to ignite a wider conflict between the Tholian Assembly and Earth itself.
• The 2003 novel The Sundered suggests that Tholians have a short lifespan.
• In J.M. Dillard's novel Star Trek: Recovery, Admiral James T. Kirk and Dr. Leonard McCoy oversee the test of the rescue ship "Recovery" at Zotos IV before the Klingons, Romulans, and Tholians. Both the fully automated ship and its designer, Myron Shulman, go mad under the influence of the vengeful Tholian Lokara, who makes the Recovery attack the other ships. Commander Lokara of the Skotha seeks revenge on Kirk and Starfleet, because Lokara's breeding partner Lanra was crippled aboard Loskene's ship during the battle against the Enterprise four years earlier (Star Trek: The Original Series episode The Tholian Web). Lokara is later killed by the Klingons.
• The 2005 novel Star Trek Vanguard: Harbinger is focused on a region of space - the Taurus Reach - close to the Tholian and Klingon frontiers, and includes several postulations on Tholian technology and society.
• The 2006 novel Star Trek Vanguard: Summon the Thunder continues the story of the Taurus Reach. Taking place in 2265, there is more insight into Tholian society, including its possible linkages to ancient technological ruins found on several planets in this region of space. They were also responsible for the destruction of the U.S.S. Bombay.
• In the New Frontier novel Gods Above, a Tholian vessel comes to the planet Danter seeking a sample of the "ambrosia" provided to the Danteri by the Beings. The Beings (the life-forms who influenced Greco-Roman, Norse, and Egyptian myths on Earth) promptly destroy the Tholians.

Appearances

• Star Trek: The Original Series: "The Tholian Incident"
• Star Trek: Enterprise: "Future Tense"

External Links

• Memory Alpha Wiki Entry

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