wales@ucla-cs.UUCP (08/10/84)
It has been suggested that Farrendahl (the cat-like being in the
novelization of STIII) is one of the Vedala (the space-traversing race
featured in the animated Star Trek episode "Jihad"). I am not sure
this is so.
According to the novelization of "Jihad" in Alan Dean Foster's "Star
Trek Log Five" (this is my only source of information, since I did not
see most of the animated episodes), the Vedala were the oldest-known
space-traversing race, travelled around on recondition asteroids and
planetoids, and looked like aye-ayes (a lemur native to Madagascar --
a small, furry primate). The Vedala had politely turned down offers to
join the Federation, and generally kept to themselves except for situa-
tions (such as that in "Jihad") when a galactic crisis was at hand.
According to the novelization of STIII by Vonda McIntyre, Farrendahl
was a representative of an unidentified, space-faring, catlike race
which had been in space "thousands of years longer than any other known
species" and preferred exploration and hunting over colonization.
The only connection between the two that I can see is that both are
said to be the oldest known space-faring race. This is most likely
simply a flat-out contradiction between the two books. Those who can-
not live with the idea of a discrepancy in the Star Trek world (:-) may
hypothesize that Farrendahl's people were not known at the time of the
"Jihad" incident, but were discovered later and found to be even older
than the Vedala.
Note, by the way, that Farrendahl is the name of an individual being --
not the name of a species or a civilization.
--
Rich Wales
UCLA Computer Science Department
3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, CA 90024 // (213) 825-5683
ARPA: wales@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA
UUCP: ...!{cepu,ihnp4,trwspp,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!wales