Spot was Lt. Cmdr. Data’s pet cat on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and much like Jonesy in Alien, Spot managed to pull of the remarkable feat of surviving — not only making it from the television series to the movie Star Trek Generations, but surviving the destruction of the Enterprise itself. By his own account, actor Brent Spiner did not like working with the cat who played Spot, but you can’t tell from Spiner’s performance. Not all felinoid races were as peaceful as the Caitians, such as this more warlike race of sentient, bipedal cats. Though they were originally introduced in Larry Niven’s non- Trek stories in the late 1960s, they’re best known outside of sci-fi book clubs from this single appearance in the animated Star Trek.

stunt double: DeForest Kelley (uncredited) / stunt double: Tige Andrews (uncredited) (2 episodes, 1967) model builder: Balok's ship and cube (uncredited) / model builder: Romulan Bird of Prey (uncredited) (2 episodes, 1966) stunt double: James Doohan (uncredited) / stunt double: Ned Romero (uncredited) / stunts (uncredited) (7 episodes, 1967-1968) stand-in: female guest star (uncredited) / stand-in: Grace Lee Whitney (uncredited) / stand-in: Grace Lee Whitney and female guest star (uncredited) (66 episodes, 1966-1969) stunt double: Leonard Nimoy (uncredited) / stunt double: Robert Brown (uncredited) (3 episodes, 1967)

In 2267, the alien Sylvia demonstrated the power to assume the form of a cat. She accomplished this feat with the aid of a device called the transmuter, which was the one element of her wardrobe that did not change shape. ( TOS: " Catspaw") Not getting nearly as much screen time was the cat Chester, who appeared in only one episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but he’s worth mentioning because he was a rescue. It’s reassuring to know that even in the 24th century, people are still fighting the good fight. A "Gorokian feline" was referred to in the first draft script of VOY: " Death Wish". However, this creature was renamed a Gorokian midwife toad by the time the episode was shot. Individual cats [ ]

A cat ( Felis catus) was a small predatory mammal from Earth, that were noted to purr when happy or content. A young cat was called a kitten. The novel Survivors by Jean Lorrah includes a brief portrayal of Tasha's childhood, including her cat. Cat" was one of numerous words Miles O'Brien used due to his infection of the aphasia virus. ( DS9: " Babel")What’s interesting is that this episode was intended to be the pilot episode for a new television series, about the adventures of Isis and her raised-by-aliens human companion Gary Seven on Earth, but it didn’t sell. More’s the pity. 3. Lt. M’Ress, Star Trek: The Animated Series The fearsomeness of the Kzinti in that episode is somewhat undone by their pink-and-purple uniforms, a result of director Hal Sutherland’s unfortunate color-blindness. stunt double: Barbara Baldavin (uncredited) / stunt double: Marianna Hill (uncredited) (2 episodes, 1966)

stunt double: DeForest Kelley (uncredited) / stunt double: Leonard Nimoy (uncredited) / stunts (uncredited) (3 episodes, 1966-1968) A couple of non- Star Trek cats from the fallow period between The Animated Series and The Next Generation bear mentioning. 5. Jake, The Cat From Outer Space stand-in: James Doohan and male guest star (uncredited) / stand-in: William Shatner (uncredited) (50 episodes, 1967-1969) Jenny Parks depicted characters from both TOS and TNG as cats in Star Trek Cats and Star Trek: The Next Generation Cats. The animated series fell out of favor (and out of the Star Trek canon) in the 1980s, particularly by the time Star Trek: The Next Generation hit the airwaves, but M’Ress always been significant for me. When I was very young in the late 1970s, the live-action as well as the animated Star Treks were in reruns, and I didn’t differentiate between them.The Human fourth grade student Gaby drew a cat in an environmental suit on her drawing " Vulcan" which was sent to Enterprise NX-01 in 2151. ( ENT: " Breaking the Ice") In 2366, Jeremy Aster used to play "Captain Patches" with his pet cat, pretending Patches was a captain flying through space. ( TNG: " The Bonding")

Indeed, there weren’t a whole lot of cats in science fiction until Star Trek came long; there’d been more of a fascination with monkeys, in movies such as Forbidden Planet and especially Robinson Crusoe on Mars, in which "Mona, the Woolly Monkey" got third billing in the trailer. Christine Chapel has no feline counterpart in the book. [19] The Alfa 177 canine, Cyrano Jones, Khan Noonien Singh, Korax, and the mother Horta have appearances.

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Because Star Trek wouldn’t have happened without the U.S. space program and all the hard work that led up to it, we can’t forget the real-life cats who paved the way: Weightless cats, Bioastronautics Research