The Young Naturalist #8

It's been quite some time since I did one of these Young Naturalist illustrations. But you just can't watch Enterprise without taking note of the many little critters inhabiting Dr. Phlox' lab. Hopefully, I'll get around to doing several more of these. For now, here's the Pyrithian bat mentioned in Fight or Flight and Dear Doctor and featured in A Night in Sickbay:

On another note, if you came here via Reddit: Treknobabble--Welcome! I'm glad you're here! 

If you're one of the people who's been posting my stuff there--thank you! 

As this year draws to an end, I find myself still surprised at the generosity and kindness that my readers have shown. Whether you're new to this project, you've been reading all year, or you're helping to spread the word about My Year of Star Trek, I appreciate you. 

The Young Naturalist #7

It's DS9--there's no way I can keep myself from continuing the Young Naturalist series with a Cardassian Vole:

Young Naturalist #6

In the last ten days I've been in Los Angeles, North Carolina, and Vancouver or, to put it in terms more familiar to me: Star Trek, American Gothic, and The X-Files. It was sunny, warm, and dry in LA when I left and storming when I got to my mom's house. Vancouver is misty, cool, and beautiful. We even got to take a walk through Vancouver's huge Stanley Park:

But the traveling seems to have caught up with me today. Not only do I have a mountain of work to catch up on, but I have a weird sore throat and a runny nose. All I really want to do right this moment is sit at the hotel desk, watch Star Trek, and eat soup. So that's what I'm doing.

While watching Season 3 of DS9, I FINALLY managed to got finished with another Young Naturalist post. This one features the Corvan Gilvo--a lizard species which, like phasmatodea, possess a naturally occurring camouflage which makes them indistinguishable from trees and foliage. The Corvan Gilvo can be first seen in the TNG episode, "New Ground." Remember? When Alexander gets himself stuck in the biolab and Worf saves him and then Riker saves the lizard because it's super endangered? Quark can also be seen stroking one in "The Nagus" because the best way to show your new status/wealth is to let everyone know about your new, super endangered pet.  Anyway, here's my vintage naturalist rendition of the Corvan Gilvo:

Young Naturalist: Serpent Worms

It's been quite some time since I've done a Young Naturalist post. Honestly, crazy creatures just aren't quite as plentiful in TNG as they were TOS and TAS. I've been thinking about doing the Crystalline Entity but, once I had the idea to draw serpent worms, I couldn't resist. So, here are the serpent worms of Qo'noS--otherwise known as Gagh.

And here's a picture of them from the series: 

I came this close (pretend you can see me holding my finger and thumb super close together) to drawing them with a knife and fork. 

The Young Naturalist #5

Great news: Today I had an article about the TNG 25th Anniversary Reunion on The Mary Sue. Go check it out. And, if you just came from there, welcome! 

It's been a while since I did a "Young Naturalist" post and, when I came across the first appearance of the Klingon targ in the TNG episode, "Where No One Has Gone Before," I knew I'd have to do a post about it. I'm not completely happy with the way the color turned out but, since I've never drawn a crazy space pig, I figure it's not too bad. 

The Young Naturalist #4

The whole time I've been doing these vintage naturalist illustrations of Star Trek creatures, I've intended to do a portrait of the Polygeminus grex or, as we all know them, Tribbles. This illustration took me a while though. Tribble hair is ridiculous. 

The Young Naturalist #3

Watched "A Private Little War" the other day and couldn't resist a zoological illustration of the Mugato creature which attacks Kirk.

According to Memory Alpha, the Mugato was an ape-like carnivore that inhabited the subtropical savanna regions of the planet Neural. You can see the Mugato in action for yourself here:

The Young Naturalist #2

The Horta from "The Devil in the Dark" 

I thought that the Horta from "The Devil in the Dark" would make a great entry for my "Vintage Zoological Illustrations From Star Trek" series. If you don't know what the Horta is, or, if you haven't seen the episode, you ought to go check it out.

I remember being a very young kid, watching this episode and it making a huge impact on me. The Spock/Kirk/McCoy stuff is great but, even more than that, this episode shows so much of what Star Trek set out to do, and what they did so well. That is--to show us a difficult, controversial topic in a simple, succinct way with tons of heart and a really sweet, childlike innocence. They might not have had much budget for this creature but as you watch, you forget that it's made out of foam rubber and trash bags. You just fall into the story. You let yourself learn the lessons you first learned as a child: everyone has feelings, not everything is what it seems, different doesn't equal bad.

The Young Naturalist #1

So, for some reason, I thought it would be an excellent idea to start doing vintage zoological illustrations of the creatures in Star Trek. Like, if Darwin had taken a trip on the USS Enterprise instead of the HMS Beagle. Anyway, this is the unicorn dog thing from "The Enemy Within."