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Even though it was a relatively low-budget TV show and visual effects in the 1960s were limited, Star Trek: The Original Series managed over the course of its three seasons to come up with some of the more decidedly weird alien races of the entire franchise.

While nowhere near as prolific in its production of monsters as its early ‘60s predecessor, The Outer Limits, which was mandated by its network to cough up a different boogeyman every week, Star Trek did turn out an interesting array of strange, creepy, or even psychedelic deep space denizens – although in classic Trek fashion, many of them were not the threats that their hideous surfaces hinted at, and were often more advanced than us humans in our bags of bone, flesh, and blood.

What makes this even more surprising is that the rest of this now-vast franchise didn’t push the notion of aliens...

The following contains mild spoilers for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4.

Star Trek gets weird sometimes. It's almost unavoidable after six decades' worth of Star Trek series and movies and counting. Every now and again, however, the saga takes a hard right into the truly bizarre, and the results -- both good and bad -- are invariably memorable. That especially applies to the various sentient aliens they encounter.

While humanoid species are the norm, their ranks also include numerous strange and unusual creations that help give the franchise its distinctive vibes. Here are the 10 most unusual aliens that have featured in various Star Trek series. Some are classics and some are just memorable misfires, but all of them are uniquely Star Trek.

Balok and His Puppet First Appearance: The Original Series Season 1, Episode 11, "The Corbomite Maneuver"

Star Trek: The Original Series takes a run at the finale from The Wizard of Oz,...

Clint Howard has appeared in five different Star Trek shows, making him the only actor to have appeared in both The Original Series and either Discovery or Strange New Worlds. Howard's iconic role as Balok in Star Trek: The Original Series showcased his talent at a young age, portraying a frightening alien with a surprising twist. His recent appearance in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds as Commander Buck Martinez highlights his versatility as an actor, as he portrays a no-nonsense Chief Medical Officer during the Klingon War.

Clint Howard's appearance in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds marks the fifth Star Trek show in which the actor has appeared as a guest star. Howard made his Star Trek debut at age seven on Star Trek: The Original Series, and would go on to appear in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Discovery, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

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As a new Star Trek TV show is planned for 2017, we select the show's top 25 episodes from its classic Original and Animated series...

The impact of Star Trek, a television series that altered the world's expectations and put an indelible mark on many cultures around the world, is often underestimated until you realise who it had an impact on and what they went on to achieve.

If you only ever watch 25 episodes or, rather, stories from the original(ish) run of Star Trek, these are they, at least in my opinion. The only rules in place being that this selection is drawn only from the series that just called themselves Star Trek (so that's what we now call Star Trek: The Original Series, or Tos and Star Trek: The Animated Series, or Tas), and two-part episodes count as one story... The more Trek-astute of you may realise...

Lidsville -Sid Krofft talked to me over the phone. That’s almost as wild and weird as the shows he created with his brother Marty that dominated the ’70s. Their live action Saturday morning series mixed puppets and people went perfect with the sugar rush from a fresh bowl of Count Chocula. This was like a weird childhood dream as I had so many questions that had puzzled me since childhood. Krofft was eager to give answers.

He was excited about Vivendi Entertainment’s recent release of H.R. Pufnstuf: The Complete Series Collector’s Edition. There’s also a normal H.R. Pufnstuf: The Complete Series. What’s the difference? A cool bobblehead of H.R. Pufnstuf. I’ve had little contact with the bobblehead since my two year-old has turned it into her new best friend. I told Sid Krofft how another generation has embraced the lizard hero of my youth.