Did Zald explode or something?

[Solstice]

I was reviewing the crew I made for my series and one of my favorite npc's is a Zaldan I made based on the Starfleet Operations Manual. Though a little cheesy on the stats and abilities, I found that race to be extremely refreshing, and I loved that my players had very little knowledge about Zaldans. I love that they can fill the 'social antagonist' role in a different way, while having what could be a really rich culture.

Aside from the race profile in the SOM (Book 3), it is as if the developers decided to forget that they existed, or else the planet exploded prior to Worlds coming out, as Zald (Dolium V) was not listed. As a matter of fact, they didn't even make the cut for Aliens (Book 4). Why would that be? There are dozens of Aliens in the Aliens book I could do without, but I was intrigued by Zaldans and would have loved to read more about them. They were cut. It didn't bother me much at first until I realized the SOM came out before both Aliens and Worlds.

Hell, canon vs non-canon aside, even the Centaurans' story made it into Worlds and Decipher continued to consider them separate from humans, and they didn't make it into Aliens either.

Any web searches of Zaldans that I have done have only yielded Rondon and nothing more. So, since there was very little put out regarding the world of my own favorite creation, I have been working it all up on my own. I can only assume that they were not very well received by fans as a PC or something. It wouldn't be the first time I liked something that nobody else did.

So, anyway, it is late and I tend to rant when it gets this late, but I just wondered if anyone else shared my opinions and if there were any fan-made resources out there, I would love to compare. I still think this race has great potential, even if only in my series.

My best to you all...

[PGoodman13]

To the best of my knowledge, Zaldans appeared in exactly one episode of TNG ("Coming of Age") for about a minute and a half. Nothing was established about them in the episode except that they hate courtesy, since it camoflages true feelings. The name of their homeworld never appeared, the fact they come from a watery world is only inferred from their webbed hands. The information in SOM is more information than was provided in the episode or their entry on startrek.com, so you're basically on your own.

As for why they didn't make Aliens or Worlds, well...I can't say for sure since I don't know what was even considered, let alone got developed and then cut. There's a lot in the galaxy, and there were probably other books planned before the Bad Things started happening.

[iltharanos]

Without giving too much away, the Zaldans play an important role in the latest Trek novel series post-Destiny.

[Solstice]

You are correct, Patrick. One episode (and a Wesley-centered one at that), and only for a moment. Decipher has taken quite a few of the races that appear in only the background shots and such, creating a backstory, stats, etc.

I did like what they did with the Zaldans, but it is a shame that they didn't follow through, especially after offering it up as a PC race. The good part is, I can do it justice in my series without worrying about contradicting any of the info out there.

Iltharanos mentioned the novels. I hardly ever read a Trek novel, but I have been considering it lately while working on my series as much as I have. I will probably give this one a try to get some background. You didn't mention whether it was a good set of novels. In your opinion, is it worth the read?

[iltharanos]

Iltharanos mentioned the novels. I hardly ever read a Trek novel, but I have been considering it lately while working on my series as much as I have. I will probably give this one a try to get some background. You didn't mention whether it was a good set of novels. In your opinion, is it worth the read?

I'm not much of a Trek novel fan myself, I usually just stick with the official t.v. episodes/motion pictures/etc. Having said that, I read through the entire Destiny trilogy as well as the post-Destiny novel "A Singular Destiny" and am still hungering for more. It was a well-written and entertaining novel series, and you can jump into it without having read any of the previous multitude of novels and not suffer entertainment-wise.