How is the lack of Suliban accounted for in the timeline after Star Trek: Enterprise? I have to ask because it didn't make sense to me that a new species would be introduced in a prequel without an explanation as to why they are absent in the future timeline of the Star Trek universe. I referenced Detained episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, but wasn't able to resolve the question.
asked Jan 26, 2012 at 21:24
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3Likewise, where did all the Xindi races go?– XantecCommented Jan 26, 2012 at 21:58
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The same place where they all came from - that is, nothingness. Oups, wrong universe :)– DVK-on-Ahch-ToCommented Jan 26, 2012 at 22:58
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Suliban: (theory) Wiped out by those who were angry with their meddling. @Xantec Xindi: Picard mentioned a Xindi ambassador, with no indication that they'd actually joined the Federation by that point. Denobulan: Absolutely no idea.– IzkataCommented Jan 26, 2012 at 23:43
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As a reference relating to this question, this list of which series every Star Trek species appears in may be of interest...– IzkataCommented Mar 4, 2012 at 4:26
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1@ValekHalfHeart It was an offhand mention unrelated to the episode's plot, IIRC, so I have no idea. I remember doing a double-take and having to listen to it again to be sure.– IzkataCommented Jun 24, 2013 at 1:13
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5 Answers
The focus of Star Trek, in all incarnations, was to show a diversity of life in the galaxy. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation series bible, Roddenberry states that the point is not to keep telling stories about the characters or descendants of the characters in the original show. He also made it clear that they were to tell stories about new aliens, not to focus on the same ones over and over.
His point was that there was a huge diversity of life in the galaxy and they didn't need to keep revisiting the same planets over and over. Also, there's no need to visit a planet where everything is going well.
Also, the Suliban had lost their homeworld and scattered to different planets. At first they were a problem, but even in Enterprise, after a while, we saw less and less of them.
This indicates that, as time passed, they either settled down and became less of a problem, or were more concerned with survival than interfering with other species, or they were dying out.
Putting these together, and taking into account that the Suliban became less noticeable in later seasons (and less interested in humans), even in the show Enterprise, interactions with the race was waning.
That leaves four possibilities:
1) They died out, probably due to the scattering
2) They settled down and worked on rebuilding their society
3) They were so fractured, they had to focus on just surviving in all their colonies
4) The Suliban that were seen by humans were the ones left over from the "scattering" of the race that didn't want to settle down in a colony and eventually they all either settled down or died out.
This is not addressed in canon anywhere or in Memory Alpha or anywhere else I could find, so I can't give you an authoritative answer, just the possibilities and likelihoods (and from what I could find, I consider #4 most likely).
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1I regret asking it. After I thought about a little longer I realized the number of repeated Aliens was fairly low aside from Romulans, Klingons, Vulcans and a few assorted diplomats. A +1 for paragraph two. Commented Jan 27, 2012 at 6:18
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@MajorStackings: For that 2nd paragraph, I really should have gone over to my bookshelf and hauled out the series bible and quoted it for the exact wording. Guess I was lazy!– TangoCommented Jan 27, 2012 at 6:21
The simplest way to "account" for it "in show" is to simply say "It's a big galaxy, and we never ran into them". Nothing more complicated required.
Just re-watched Storm Front. According to Silik, Vosk's faction went back in the Sulibans' history and prevented them from achieving sentience. Some Suliban, mostly those working with Silik, were spared the effects by Crewman Daniels's (Starfleet?) faction. But I doubt that would be a large enough gene pool to ensure the species' survival. Moreover, the preserved Suliban in question were genetically enhanced, which could have done gods-know-what to their ability to naturally reproduce.
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1Did he happen to mention if that was before or after when Vosk was on Earth? 'Cause if it was after, then Vosk's prevention of the Suliban gaining sentience should have been negated at the end of part two of Storm Front– IzkataCommented Jun 23, 2013 at 17:57
Star Trek Online answers this question. Not sure if it's counted as canon, but regardless, there are Suliban in Romulan space, relatively isolated from others. Since we rarely go over the neutral zone in the TV series and films, it makes sense that we wouldn't have seen them if they'd stayed there since Enterprise.
answered Apr 14, 2015 at 7:22
The in-canon explanation is most likely that the Suliban were either destroyed in the Temporal Cold war, simply died out over time, or just became a minor galactic power.
The real explanation is by the time they thought of the Suliban the other series were over.