This is the cultural index where we look into various science fiction species to get a sense
of their lore and culture from both canon and speculation. This time, the viewer voted option
was the Star Trek species that looks for things they need to make them go, the Pakleds. Or as
the Borg designated them, Species 95012, wait the Borg assimilated a Pakled vessel?
Right off the bat, let’s start with the reputation for this species. They are generally considered to
be underdeveloped it the mind department, that is to say other species assume them to be harmless
idiots. Both of these assumptions however are not wholly accurate. They are not exactly as
dumb as they appear, and they are quite capable of being harmful. In main canon, there are only
two appearances of them as a central point of an episode, but they do make repeated background
cameos as well as numerous references. In apocrypha, we have a little more to add to them,
but there is still not a grand amount to go on. Their homeworld is named Pakled,
which usually irritates me when a species is named the same as their planet, after all,
we are not humans from humus, so why are Vulcans from Vulcan? But in the case of the Pakled,
I can imagine the conversation went something like this. “Pakled.” “Is that the name of your people,
your culture or your planet?” “…Yes.” The planet is described as M class and
mostly mountainous terrain from a very geologically active crust. Despite this
tectonic activity however, there are seldom full on volcanic eruptions, and the craggy expanses of
stone ranges give way to verdant and lush valleys between. It has seen few visitations, if any from
Starfleet or the Federation as it lies beyond the explored edge of the Alpha Quadrant for the UFP.
The species themselves are frequently described as rotund and harmless looking,
with passive expressions that border between benign and permanently dazed. Their blood
is a reddish-purple and their facial features are easily identifiable. They have long eyebrows that
grow upwards and most have a high hairline with ridges under the eyes and cheeks that curl down,
giving them an unfortunate droopy expression. Their reputation for being dumb comes from
several factors and while it is true that they are rather slow-witted,
if they were as lacking in intellect as they first appeared, then interstellar travel would be beyond
them all together. They do have rather limited communications skills which leads them to heavily
minimise their vocabulary and they are quite gullible and can be slow to pick up on things.
Yet they are a spacefaring species despite their shortcomings because they possess a practical
cunning and wiliness as well as a willingness to play up their reputation for their own gain.
They are primarily scavengers and likely obtained their first space vessels through commandeering
others. They spend much of their time exploring in a nomadic fashion on their vessels, searching
for further salvage, and when finding none, engage in deception and ambushes to obtain more.
Their native technological level is rather poor, but they are apt at salvage and combine
technologies from their collected spoils to improve their systems, sort of like …slow Borg.
Gear they obtain is roughly incorporated into their own systems, showing a decent level of
engineering knowhow, but because the majority of their technology was not developed by them,
it often breaks down. But they do learn. It’s just that rather than innovate new designs based off
reverse engineering, they’d rather simply find a shinier object to replace a failing system,
leading to the constant search for more “things to make them go”.
They generally pilot Mondor-class Starships, a presumed name, which itself is a rather
rudimentary transport ship with minimal armaments and no faster-than-light capability.
Yet they do have warp drive installed, from who knows where and no two vessels are alike
because of their accrued salvage adding to this eclectic mix of technology. By later
encounters, the Pakled had continued to accumulate different technologies,
crudely grafting ship components to their vessels, to the point where in 2380,
three ships were encountered complete with salvage or mining stations attached on the underside,
to scrap on the go, which I have a theory on that I’ll get to later.
This reluctance to innovate and develop for themselves is driven by a desire for instant
gratification and the need to accumulate powerful, better gear so that they can stand above other
powers. While it is easy to look at this species and underestimate them, doing so plays into their
hands because of their duplicity. A common tactic is to present themselves as weaker and dumber than
they appear, before attacking with previously hidden gear, such as Romulan shields, Klingon
disruptors and anything else that they salvaged from prior hulks or victims. They rely on the
element of surprise first and foremost and this would not be that big of an issue, if it wasn’t
for the fact that the Pakled continue to hold this reputation for being incredibly stupid. I mean,
they still kind of are, but they’re still cunning and this vexing level of intelligence continually
lures others into underestimating them, even 14 years after their initial first contact.
Speaking of, they were first encountered in 2365 while pulling one of their fake distress call
ambushes in order to kidnap Geordie LaForge in order to force him to create weapons tech for them
and leverage access to the Enterprise’s computer. They played up on their lack of understanding,
lulled the ship into thinking they were harmless idiots, then played their hand.
In 2380, the Pakled had become a much larger threat as they continued their gathering, creating
much more dangerous amalgamations of craft. This could be accounted for because of two factors.
Firstly, as speculated on in the episode, it’s because Starfleet continued to underestimate them
after its initial first contact and did not keep tabs on them. Secondly, there would have
been ample salvage for them to help themselves too, without the need for their ploys. Between
2365 and 2380, There had been the emergence of the Borg, the ramping up of Starfleet technology, and
several wars. The most notable being the massive Dominion War and therefore, expansive debris
fields across many systems, involving the wrecks of Klingon, Dominion, Federation, Romulan and
almost every other species in the two Quadrants. It’s no surprise then, that the Pakled salvagers
and their vessels of 2380 were much larger and incorporated much more powerful technology.
Evidence that even in this time, they still do not fully understand their tech can be seen twice in
“No Small Parts”, firstly when they arrive from warp, they bring with them the debris field of
a prior salvage, suggesting a warp bubble that encapsulated and did not filter out detritus
around the warping ship, an obvious navigational hazard, and their slow rate of transport
when they boarded the Cerritos, which is a sign of a struggling transporter system.
It’s also worth mentioning that not every Pakled has the same duplicitous
streak to them as many were seen frequenting Deep Space Nine and we have references that they often
were employed as cargo haulers and merchants. After all, if their goal is simply to acquire
newer and better gear as they go, then trade and working for money with species like the Ferengi
are more legitimate ways to go about this, that also earn fewer reprisals.
In 2409, there were even some within the ranks of Starfleet according to Star Trek Online.
The fact that they can find a place for themselves within Starfleet just goes
to show that they are capable of applying themselves learn and retain information.
Their names tend to be rather long but of simple, guttural syllables such as Grebnedlog, Jackabog,
Reginod, Bergnendul, Hopmikbud, Melangogg. Oh and Derf. In real life, many of these names are just
human names backwards, so it is a little hard to draw a simple rule for Pakled names because they
are derived from a myriad of human names. So all in all the Pakled are a species of
salvagers that will go to any length to aquire newer, better technology,
fuelled by a cutting-corners mentality. Ultimately this is their biggest weakness as they don’t fully
understand the specifics of the gear they have accumulated, just enough to cobble it together
and get it moving. So as things inevitably fail on them, they lack the know how to maintain or repair
so continue on with their nomadic accumulation of useful scrap. Pretty much a perfect example
of why Starfleet has a Prime Directive and doesn’t just give out its technology.
Thanks for watching this video on the Pakled. Honestly, they’re an easy species to poke fun at
at, but in reality, I don’t see how a culture like this could actually exist without its occasional
savants and there’s this constant paradox where we are expected to believe that they are dim enough
to be easily tricked, but smart enough Hodgepodge of technologies together, so they must have a
basic understanding of certain things like warp theory, or they’d have all blown themselves up.
Closest I can assume is that they are just slow to learn and adapt, but learn over a long period of
time. I dunno, they are difficult to quantify and no culture nor species in Trek is truly uniform,
it’s just easier for narrative’s sake. You can cast your vote for the next index
over on the community tab, or suggest one to look at in the comments section,
but the two options to choose from next are taken from runners up of previous indexes.
Either, the Tusken Raiders of Star Wars, because there were a lot of people saying that they would
still like to see them, or second place from last index, the artificial Geth of Mass Effect. Thanks
for watching again, I’ve been Ric and I’ll see you next time for another index video. Goodbye!