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Gral
Gral, a Tellarite male (2154)
Gav
Gav, a Tellarite male (2267)
File:Tellaritetextsample.GIF
Tellarite Script

Tellarites are a sturdy humanoid species with distinguished snouts from the class M planet Tellar Prime, located not far from the Sol system. In 2161, the Tellarites became one of the founding races of the United Federation of Planets.

Society

Tellarites are known to be an impatient people. (ENT: "United") They have a propensity toward strong emotion. However, they enjoy a good argument, which is even considered a sport on Tellar. (ENT: "Bounty") Tellarites often begin an interaction with a series of complaints, this is how they start arguments with someone they have recently met, if they have nothing to complain about they will simply insult the person. Because of their ability to argue, Tellarites make excellent politicians. (ENT: "Babel One")

Tellarites consider canine to be something of a delicacy. They sometimes take mud baths and they find human room temperature to be cold. (ENT: "Babel One")

One of Garak's suggested wedding dresses for Rom and Leeta was in the style of Tellarite modern. (DS9: "Call to Arms")

History

Tellarites were warp capable and involved in inter species communication as early as the 20th century. In 1957, a Tellarite freighter picked up the distress call of a Vulcan ship that had crash landed on Earth, near Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania. They passed this information onto the Vulcan High Command. (ENT: "Carbon Creek")

In April 2152, a passing Tellarite vessel directed the Earth starship Enterprise, suffering severe damage after an encounter in a Romulan minefield, to an automated repair facility. Subcommander T'Pol then stated, that Tellarites are generally considered trustworthy. (ENT: "Dead Stop")

In March 2153, the Tellarite bounty hunter Skalaar, working for the Klingons, captured the Human, Jonathan Archer, captain of the Enterprise. However, he later helped him to escape from the Klingon ship, he was turned over. Skalaar's brother, Gaavrin, who worked on a space station at that time, used to run a freighter, called Tezra, together with him. (ENT: "Bounty")

In November 2154, a Tellarite delegation lead by Ambassador Gral, was being transported to the planetoid Babel by the Enterprise to resolve a long standing trade dispute with the Andorians. The original conference agenda covered only trade regulations for the sector. However, a Romulan plot to destabilize the region, had the opposite effect and created a temporary Alliance among the Andorians, Vulcans, Humans, and Tellarites. The proceeding conference later helped bring peace to the strained Tellarite-Andorian relations. (ENT: "Babel One", "United")

In 2161, Tellar would become a founding member of the United Federation of Planets along with Earth, Andoria and Vulcan. (ENT: "Zero Hour") As a result the Tellarites held a seat on the Federation Council and served as Starfleet officers. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home; DS9: "Apocalypse Rising")

In 2267, the planet Coridan sought admission to the United Federation of Planets. However, due to the wealth of dilithium available on Coridan and the presence of illegal mining operations, Coridan's admission was a controversial subject between Tellarites and Vulcans. The Babel Conference was convened to settle the matter and ultimately approved Coridan's admission. Tellarite Ambassador Gav was among the delegates to the Babel Conference but was killed by an Orion infiltrator in Andorian disguise onboard the Federation starship USS Enterprise. On the conference, Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan was ultimately credited with achieving the consensus towards admitting the planet to the Federation. (TOS: "Journey to Babel"; TNG: "Sarek")

During the 2370s, Tellarite freighters would occasionally conduct trade through starbase Deep Space 9. (DS9: "Shadowplay")

People

The unnamed Tellarite who appeared in (TOS: "Whom Gods Destroy"), was played by actor Gary Downey.

Appearances

References

Background Information

Like the Andorians, the outer appearance of Tellarites changed over time. Beginning with clumsy masks in (TOS: "Journey to Babel") from 1968, which even allowed to see the actor under it through its lunettes, they received a completely new makeup in ENT: "Bounty" in 2003 due to improved makeup techniques as well as a greater budget. However, one thing missing in the Star Trek: Enterprise makeup are the three fingers the Tellarites had in Star Trek: The Original Series.

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