Energy cloud

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An energy cloud or energy being is a shapeless lifeform supposedly comprised of pure energy, even though it usually appears like a cloud of smoke.

For some strange reason, many science fiction franchises, including Star Trek, seem to think that these "energy clouds" are the ultimate life forms; yet another annoying brain bug. Such beings have appeared since TOS and continued to be seen in Voyager.

Notable examples

TOS

  • Zefram Cochrane's "Companion" was stated to be electricity and ionized hydrogen.[1]
  • The Organians were said to have "evolved" into non-corporeal energy beings.[2]
  • Kirk once hunted an energy cloud that drained the blood of its victims and could only be destroyed by an antimatter explosion for some reason.[3]
  • A pure energy alien possessed several different people and the Enterprise's computer in the middle of a killing spree. This same alien was supposedly responsible for the murders of Jack the Ripper.[4]
  • Sargon and his race supposedly transformed themselves into formless beings of pure energy after they destroyed the surface of their world.[5]
  • The Enterprise is actually invaded by an "energy storm".[6]
  • The Enterprise crew is forced to engage in hand-to-hand combat with Klingons on board by a being that lives on "hate"[7]
  • The Enterprise transports a Medusan ambassador who has superior navigational abilities because of his non-corporeal (and madness-inducing) form.[8]

TNG

  • The Enterprise-D picked up such a being who eventually possessed Jean-Luc Picard and beamed both itself and Picard into the void of space to get back to its own people.[9]
  • A brilliant human scientist once implanted his "consciousness" into Data[10]
  • Deanna Troi was impregnated by such a being once.[11]
  • Q tormented a group energy beings known as the Calamarain, and they came back for revenge when he temporarily lost his powers.[12]
  • Zalkonians are supposedly in the middle of just such an "evolutionary transformation" (again, completely distorting the entire concept of evolution).[13]
  • The Paxans possessed Troi to get the Enterprise to leave them alone.[14]
  • An unnamed alien removed the "consciousness" from several hundred criminals and banished them to another planet that served as their prison. These "consciousnesses" could possess other living beings and even Data.[15]
  • Such a being seduced female ancestors of Beverly Crusher for many generations[16]

Voyager

  • The USS Voyager encountered a living cloud that the crew initially thought was a nebula.[17]

Babylon 5

  • The Vorlons are a race that is composed principally of energy.
  • Human telepath Jason Ironheart transformed into an energy being as a result of Psi Corps experiments.
  • In the B5 movie "River of Souls," an entire race spontaneously "evolved" to an incorporeal form in one generation.

References

  1. TOS "Metamorphosis"
  2. TOS "Errand of Mercy"
  3. TOS "Obsession"
  4. TOS "Wolf in the Fold"
  5. TOS "Return to Tomorrow"
  6. TOS "The Lights of Zetar"
  7. TOS "Day of the Dove"
  8. TOS "Is There In Truth No Beauty?"
  9. TNG "Lonely Among Us"
  10. TNG "The Schizoid Man"
  11. TNG "The Child"
  12. TNG "Déjà Q"
  13. TNG "Transfigurations".
  14. TNG "Clues"
  15. TNG "Power Play"
  16. TNG "Sub Rosa"
  17. VOY "The Cloud"