The Ornarans were a humanoid species native to the planet Ornara in the Delos system. They were a relatively technologically advanced civilization until a plague crippled their society in the 22nd century.
They, like their neighboring planet's species, the Brekkians, possessed the natural ability to generate electrical discharges with their bodies, possibly due to the unusually strong magnetic field of their sun. It could have a mild effect of inducing a stasis in another humanoid, or it could kill.
Starfleet report on Ornara and the Ornaran plague
In the 22nd century, a plague halted progress in the Ornaran society. It was found to be mitigated with the medication felicium from the planet Brekka. The originating plant could not grow on Ornara, forcing a continuing trade agreement between the two species. Unfortunately, felicium was later found to have powerfully addictive narcotic effects, with the result that all Ornarans had become addicted to the drug. The Brekkians exploited the situation, selling felicium to the Ornarans, while concealing from them the fact that the drug was no longer needed to control the plague. Over time, the Brekkians even refined the felicium to be even more addictive.
Generations of drug addiction resulted in loss of intelligence and technical knowledge, and by 2364, the Ornarans no longer had the ability to maintain their interplanetary freighters that they needed to transport felicium from Brekka to Ornara. As a result, the freighter Sanction was destroyed above Brekka when a electromagnetic coil malfunction made it impossible for the ship to maintain a stable orbit. Although the malfunction was fairly minor, the Ornarans' technical ignorance made the problem disastrous.
The Ornarans, along with the Brekkians, requested Federation assistance in repairing their remaining ships, but USS Enterprise-D Captain Jean-Luc Picard declined to render aid, citing Prime Directive considerations over the objections of Chief medical officer Beverly Crusher who was confident that she could have provided a more comfortable means to stop the addictions. This meant that the Ornarans would quickly start to withdraw from the drug, believing they were dying. Picard concluded that not repairing the ships was the only way to end the Brekkians' exploitation while not interfering with the Ornarans' ignorance, as the situation was drawing to that outcome anyway. (TNG: "Symbiosis")
Mural depicting the Ornarans' transition to a health-based society
After the departure of the Enterprise, Ornaran society descended into ten to fourteen years of mass panic and violence. However, they eventually recovered and embraced a culture centered on eating healthy and physical fitness, engaging in such activities as weight training and 10K foot races. They exercised to "quiet the voices in [their] heads," and cared little about quantitative results.
In 2381, the USS Cerritos visited the Ornarans as the first test case for Captain Carol Freeman's initiative, Project Swing By. Upon being briefed about the planet's last known situation, Freeman disapproved of Picard leaving them "cold turkey". However, the away team, who were welcomed warmly by local magistrate B'Nir and shown a mural portraying events after the Enterprise, learned that the Ornarans were grateful for Picard's actions and that they had neither the need nor the desire for further dealings with the Federation. (LD: "Trusted Sources")
Individuals[]
- Named
- Unnamed
- Unnamed Ornarans
Appendices[]
Appearances[]
- TNG: "Symbiosis"
- LD: "Trusted Sources"
Background information[]
The Ornarans were originally referred to as Aurelians in an early draft of the script. [1]
"ore-NAHR-uns" was the pronunciation for this species' name from the script pronunciation guide. [2]
According to an internal reference document listing all the aliens seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation, which was circulated around the time of the production of TNG Season 5 and later released by Roddenberry Entertainment, the Ornarans were given the description of "Largely humanoid except for a natural electric charge, usable as a weapon, and a laterally-wrinkled lower nose with a u-shaped band of skin across the bridge." [3]
Apocrypha[]
According to the background book The Worlds of the Federation, in the aftermath of the events of "Symbiosis", the Ornarans began to suffer withdrawal symptoms but did not die, finally becoming aware of their addiction to felicium and the Brekkians' exploitation of it. However, in spite of this awareness, they chose not to break their dependence on felicium and willingly continued trading with the Brekkians for it.