Hi, Ric here and one of the primary goals of the Federation, is to encounter new lifeforms
and explore which it does through its expansive fleet of Starships. Starfleet has catalogued
many strange new forms of life in its time and some of which are quite capable of existing
in the depths of space and are, quite frankly extremely large. So in this video, I thought
we could look at the largest lifeforms encountered in the Trek Universe and to begin with, let’s
define the parameters with a couple of honourable mentions.
First of as an honourable mentions is the Planet Killer, or Doomsday Machine encountered
by Commodore Matt Decker and the crew of the USS Enterprise in 2267 in sector L-374. This
was a pretty large construct, but there is the first criteria voided, it was a construct,
a sophisticated machine with a high enough level of computing power to navigate and target,
but it was not sentient. Plus we don’t have an exact length but estimates put it at around
2.7 Kilometres long from comparisons with the constitution class.
Another couple of honourable mentions are the Prototaxites Stellaviatori mycelial network
as researched by Paul Stamets throughout the 2250s. Technically a single organism because
of how differing colonies of fungus fuse, it does however lie beyond the realms of normal
space-time and, I suspect in an interphasic rift of some description. Either way, its
full boundaries have never been mapped and it plays host to an ecosystem of its own all
outside the “universe” but spans thousands of lightyears.
For this reason too, I’m not going to include Nagilum as it was encountered by the Enterprise
D in 2365 and originally I remembered it as a single organism, but on re-viewing the episode
found that the Enterprise was actually pulled into a hole in space in the Morgana Quadrant
where it exited from the standard reality and was then at the mercy of the immortal,
extra-dimensional, formless being. It’s mostly these last two factors that prevent
me from adding it to the list. So the creature needs to be “alive” and
exist within the confines of the universe. I’m also excluding non-corporeal beings
like the Q as if they really wanted to, they could probably manifest at the size of the
solar system for the LOLs. Also, the lower end of the spectrum is not a complete list,
but mostly to provide some scale for the latter enteries.
On the smaller end of the scale is the space whale creature encountered in 2367 in the
Alpha Omicron system. The young of this species absorbed energy and could do so from even
the hull of a Galaxy-class Starship and a full adult was only slightly smaller than
said vessel. It communicated through radio waves and was a strange form of plasma life
contained within a shell and could emit radiation and dampening fields when threatened. Unfortunately
even low powered phaser beams could cause fatal injury to the creature and Starfleet’s
first encounter was fraught with problems when they accidentally killed one. They were
able to at least save a child of the species, nicknamed Junior and delivered it to three
others of its species. In the first episode of Star Trek TNG, the
crew encounter Farpoint station and are alarmed to discover that it is in fact a creature
capable of matter-energy conversion and manipulation. The being was being forced into acting as
a base for its unwelcome inhabitants and soon joined by a second entity in search of its
mate. While in space, the beings resemble jellyfish but adopt a more artificial appearance
when needed for defensive purposes. They are able to feel complex emotions and act in a
manner that suggests sentience. The exact size is never stated, but they are approximately
twelve times the volume of a galaxy class Starship.
A strange and unique entry now is that of the Crystalline Entity. Unlike many of the
other beings on this list, it was capable of natural warp flight and was powered by
the consumption of organic matter. It would reach a planet and scour the surface with
energy collection beams, converting all living materials into energy then absorbing the resulting
power. This being was sentient in so far as it could communicate through resonating its
structure to produce electromagnetic frequencies, but the extent of its intelligence was never
truly discovered as it was destroyed by Doctor Kila Marr out of revenge. The being did not
seem to be malevolent, simply feeding and Starfleet would have preferred to find a way
to steer the creature away from inhabited locations than outright kill it. It was estimated
as hundreds of meters in size around 1.9 to 2 kilometres in length based on onscreen comparisons.
In 2257, the USS Discovery under the temporary command of Captain Pike encountered a sentient
sphere of organic and non-organic components some 565 km in diameter. This being was at
the end of its lifetime and was seeking to pass on its accumulated knowledge. The being
could emit many forms of radiation and exert immense fields of power and was originally
mistaken to be hostile when it tried to download its data into the computers of the USS Discovery.
The being perished moments after completing its transfer, throwing the Discovery clear
and preserving its experiences in the vessel. This was one of the largest information caches
discovered by Starfleet and was estimated to take centuries to sift through.
In the depths of the Delta Quadrant, 2375, the crew of the USS Voyager, like many vessels
before it succumbed to the telepathic manipulations of a bioplasmic lifeform. This being was an
immense 2000 kilometres wide and over 200,000 years old, as old as the Iconian Empire and
had been consuming ships throughout its life. It would reach out mentally to nearby vessels
and lure them over to it by displaying a person’s desires. Compared to a pitcher plant, its
Siren like behaviour marked an equally grizzly end to those who flew into the maw of this
creature. The energies inside it dissolved and fed of all biomatter and antimatter in
a vessel. A weathered lone survivor had taken it upon himself to patrol the area around
the lifeform and find a way to destroy it, it is unknown if he was ever successful but
during his time, he had tried to warn away many vessels from the trap, only to witness
them succumb to its telepathic manipulations and fly themselves into its depths.
In 2268, a single-celled Space Amoeba was discovered in the Gamma 7A system by the USS
Intrepid, however the negative energy the creature produced was lethal to humanoid life
as it seemed to drain power form mechanical and biological powers. It seemed to be non-sentient
in nature so communication was impossible. To further complicate matters, it was going
to divide and the Enterprise came to the conclusion that it needed to be destroyed to protect
all life as it had already killed the billions of inhabitants of the Gamma 7A sector. It
was an immense 17,700 kilometres in length though its negative energy field was far larger.
V’ger is considered one of the most extraordinary lifeforms encountered by the Federation as
it slowly marched its way across the galaxy gathering information. Despite being machine
in origin, the being developed a sentience outstepping that of a human mind and was considered
to be alive, if not organic. The probe itself was shrouded in an energy sheath that resembled
a nebulae formed by some energy field. This ambient field was over 2 AU in size matching
the orbital diameter of the Earth around the Sun. It could be traversed and within its
shroud lay the body of craft itself. Parts of it were comprised of pure energy while
other segments contained extra-dimensional readings of its accumulated knowledge. The
body of V’Ger was not measured in full but estimated to be around 78 kilometres in length.
So this size of this depends on whether or not the energy field is part of V’ger or
merely a by-product of its function. Meanwhile, across the universe, captain Janeway
is in dire need of caffeine and finds a Nucleogenic Nebula that contains high levels of omicron
particles which can be used to supplement Starship energy reserves. This nebula is a
untypically reserved on in scale, being only 7 AU in size, but unusually dense with hydrogen,
helium and other more complex materials inside it. On closer examination, the crew realize
that they had in fact traversed into a form of life when they noticed a myriad of reactions
that paralleled bodily functions. They had inadvertently shanked the creature with the
USS Voyager and left a gaping hole. The ship repaired the site of impact, suturing the
wound and departed the organism with a fresh reminder that life out there may be unfamiliar
and far more complex than it first appears. The immense size and more intangible nature
of this being makes hard to recognize as a lifeform and its was unknown what level of
thought, if any it possessed, but the being was most definitely alive making it the biggest
form of life encountered by Starfleet that dwelt within the confines of our universe.
…And Janeway stabbed it for coffee. So there we have it, a rundown of eight of
the biggest living creatures encountered by Federation vessels as well as a couple of
honourable mentions. Can you think of anything I missed, I think I was fairly thorough and
could not find anything larger than the Nucleogenic cloud creature but hey, there very well could
be. Again, I’m not counting the Mycelial Network itself as it lies mostly beyond the
universe with only its spore producing elements present in real-space, and I’m still confused
as to if a fungal network is classified as a single organism when it is grown from separate
colonies. Mushrooms are weird. Anyway, thanks again for watching and until
the next video, I’ve been Ric. Thanks again and Goodbye!