hello all rick here with a cultural
index looking today at a not so
prominent species of star trek the
barzan people of the alpha quadrant i
will be using canon information as well
as apocrypha to fill in some details
where appropriate but there really isn't
that much extra outside of the shows
this time so thanks for watching and
let's get started
according to my cutting edge research
skills the barzan is a 400 meter
container and cargo vessel and the first
of six eighteen thousand eight hundred
teu ships built for the united arab
shipping company and is one of the
largest way
that's the wrong one the barzan are from
a planet of the same name which i have a
theory is simply the universal
translator acting on a basic level to
assign a recognizable name
before we look at their biology let's
look at the planet itself the
classification of the planet is a little
vague as it is described as an m-class
world yet its atmosphere is toxic to
most humanoid life
seemingly invalidating the label as a
humanoid friendly world the planet's
atmosphere is very dense and a thick
greenish color which either hints at a
very different sun or perhaps the high
concentration of some gas such as
chlorine in the atmosphere this would
certainly make the atmosphere toxic to
most humanoid standard life forms
even if everything else was regarded as
habitable and its composition otherwise
included oxygen
the planet was orbited by more than two
moons although two were called arma and
polpra the biology of the barzan people
was adapted to their world so much so
that when they departed balzantu several
changes had to occur the first was a
cosmetic alteration of their eye color
when they spent long periods of time
away from their native atmosphere
presumably some reaction
the second was the addition of a
breathing device that would compensate
by introducing the gases that others
would find toxic directly into their
mouths so that they could continue to
breathe the mixture they were evolved
for
this shows that they didn't entirely
rely on a completely different
atmospheric composition as they still
metabolized the standard oxygen nitrogen
mixture just a bit spicier than most
humanoid life's tolerances
these breathing apparatus were either
worn on the face or surgically attached
if the barzan in question would be
spending a great deal of time away from
their planet
their blood was also black in color
evidence of their evolution to deal with
whatever the different gases were
a barzan without their breathers in a
standard m-class environment became
disorientated and short on breath and
would soon lapse into unconsciousness
but it was not immediately fatal
by the 32nd century their breathers were
far less intrusive
and there was always the option of
genetic modification
barzan 2 was a relatively resource poor
planet and although they had an
interstellar knowledge and capability
the barzan people lacked any sort of
manned space exploration program however
when they became aware of other species
it seems they established ties of trade
and commerce among them becoming quickly
reliant on outside imports to sustain
their population and way of living
beyond what their meager planet could
provide as of the mid 23rd century the
federation was aware of the barzan
people and had even enlisted at least
one individual into starfleet who served
on the uss enterprise in later discovery
this was not common however as barzan
was not a federation member world
although starfleet would have provided a
way for the barzan people to easily
piggyback on another interstellar
organization attention was drawn to
barzan 2 in 2366 when they discovered a
wormhole within their own system that
seemed stable and provided a link to the
gamma quadrant covering a hundred year
journey in seconds as they still lacked
a strong interstellar presence they
opted instead to sell the rights of the
wormhole to bolster the trade on which
they relied
this ultimately fell through as the
wormhole was revealed to be only stable
at the bar zone's end while the other
end flitted about the galaxy further
unfortunates are apparent when readings
reveal that even the more stable end
will eventually vanish too but at least
the barzans do open up some degree of
trade with the crusadians
despite this it shows the first early
signs of interest in the united
federation of planets from the barzan
people and they joined sometime in the
25th century
their government was the barzan
planetary republic and the name suggests
a single planet-wide unified government
coincidentally one of the requiring
factors in federation membership it
seems that despite their poor resources
the barzan people had managed to work
together to survive rather than
descending into opportunistic warfare
their elected leader was called the
premier
and responsible for the deals they
conducted among other powers
the sparse resources of their planet
created a cultural effect of loyalty
diligence and close familial ties as
they looked out for one another
it was a given understanding that a
person may be put through discomfort but
in so doing they might lessen the burden
on others and therefore share in the
hardship
this was a noted observation in the few
barzan met outside of their homeworld
that they carried this level of
responsibility and duty with them so
ingrained and it was
this made them suited for roles such as
security although they could apply
themselves to any field of study with
wholehearted dedication
the barzan language makes use of a lot
of ejective consonants which is all very
pretty sounding
r noises and their naming convention
seemingly had two names although the
only example we have of this is from the
aforementioned starfleet officer the
naam and we don't even know what the d
stands for so this could be something
she adopted for starfleet records or
something
other bars and names included topra
bahavani attis and amna and these were
the only terms used to identify an
individual and so we do not know if
there is a difference between a surname
and first names
and this is about it when it comes to
the bazaar people although i can make a
couple of guesses
it seems that they are very proud of
their home world barzan 2 despite its
tough living and resource poor status
even by the late 24th century they had
elected to issue expanding into other
colony worlds
in order to attempt to develop and
prosper their own and refrained from
exploration initiatives that many other
planets strived for
even though they would benefit greatly
from it
it could quite simply be that their
resources are so limited that they
cannot afford to invest in exploration
at all
but if that is the case then joining
something like starfleet and the ufps
seems like an obvious solution
yet again this is something they
refrained from doing for two centuries
despite being well on their way to
meeting the joining criteria and the
benefits they stood to gain i can only
assume that they quite simply did not
want to change who they were
and the struggle against the odds to
survive had unified them as a people and
instilled them with this innate level of
responsibility
so what would happen to them if that
burden was eased
well fortunately it looks like they have
a strong future ahead of them and that
joining the ufp didn't change who they
were culturally all that much so
as of the last votes for the next index
the belters actually did relatively well
with only a 10 difference between the
two and as someone commented if we take
into account the preference for trek
that this channel has then the belters
would have taken the lead easily so i
think i'm going to cover them next at
some point but i also want to do them
justice so they'll be up soon but in the
meantime here's a vote for another
potential choice for the next index
either a similarly sounding star trek
species the benzites
or
the boffins from star wars because they
also begin with a b
thank you for watching i've been rick
and i hope to see you back for another
video
goodbye
[Music]
you