Planet Of Hats / Star Trek

The Star Trek series are actually the prime examples of this trope, nearly every species having one defining trait. This was often subverted in the Expanded Universe, and occasionally in-show.

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• Sigma Iotia II from "A Piece of the Action" is interesting because the culture's true hat was mimicking others — their entire society had been built around a book about 1920s gangsters in Chicago.
  • In the final issue of the Marvel comic book series Star Trek Unlimited, after being visited by the Enterprise they experienced a cultural revolution and began dressing like Kirk and co., which the Enterprise-D discovered. The concept of revisiting the planet and discovering a similar effect was considered for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but dropped in favor of revisiting "The Trouble with Tribbles" instead.
  • Star Trek Year Five has the crew return to Sigma Iotia II and find that the Iotians had managed to access information about Earth's history from a communicator accidentally left by McCoy and devoted their culture to democracy.
• The Vulcans are all logic all the time. Vulcans show that there can still be diversity even if everyone wears the same hat: by Vulcan standards, Spock was a real hellraiser and Tuvok had a stick up his butt.
• The Klingons are all honourable all the time. They'd tell you they value honour for honour's sake, but not all Klingons put it into practice, to protagonist Klingon Worf's disillusionment... Part of the problem is that the appearance of being victorious in a glorious combat (and therefore claiming that as a show of honour) has often got better results than simply quietly doing the truly honourable thing. They actually are a reasonable representation of a society that runs on honour. They care about reputation, face, and glory a great deal, but the modern western concept of honour which is all tied up with ideals of chivalry, sportsmanship, and individual conscience means nothing to them. A prime example comes from "The Way Of The Warrior" where humans consider waiting cloaked near a disabled enemy ship to ambush any would-be rescuers to be cheap and cowardly and thus dishonourable, but some of the Klingons claim that "in war, nothing is more honourable than victory." Worf tries to be honourable, and must go with what his human adoptive parents taught him.
  • Klingons actually became this as a result of undoing Flanderization. Originally, they were just generic villains serving as Star Trek's analogue for the Soviet Union, until their depiction in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, which hinted at a rich culture who even enjoyed Shakespeare in his original Klingon form — this was the trope namer for In the Original Klingon, obviously. After the fall of the USSR, their Proud Warrior Race qualities were elaborated on, developing them more than just generic foes.
  • It falls under Planet of Copyhats, too, because the first Klingon episode has Commander Kor as its main villain, and he is very much like what Klingons will later become. Although a villain, he's genuinely Affably Evil, honourable in both senses of the word. He'll even sit down and politely have a drink with a Worthy Opponent before facing him in combat the next day, would rather be fighting in glorious battle! than subjugating those who are (apparently) unable to fight back. He hates how spineless the Organians (apparently) are and laments that "it is always the brave who have to die." When the Organians show their true colors and put a stop to their battle, not just here but everywhere for the sake of the galaxy, Kor says of the looming war that will now be put on hold, "A shame, Captain. It would have been glorious." In other words, he's exactly what the TNG/DS9 fan expects a Klingon villain to act like... and he'll be pretty unique until much later when the Klingons are a whole species of Commander Kors.
  • Moq'bara is the Klingon phrase for any martial arts practiced by Klingons everywhere, which literally translates as "smash fist". In curious contrast to the toughness and brutality of the Klingons' hat, most of the moq'bara training we see is very gentle and low-impact, resembling Tai Chi more than any other Earth style. (Worf does teach some soft judo-type throws in one moq'bara scene.)
  • Another hat for the Klingons might be violence. Even outside of the militaristic aspects of Klingon culture, it seems that violence permeates every aspect of their lives: religious, legal, ceremonial, and interpersonal. There are very few Klingon rituals seen that do not involve bloodletting or pain, legal disputes are more often than not resolved with sword-play, Klingon sexuality is always Destructo-Nookie, even their wedding ceremony—at least the long version seen in "You are Cordially Invited..."—involves a triumphant retelling of how the Kliingons killed their gods, followed by sword-play, followed by vows which include a promise to kill each other's enemies, followed by the wedding party attacking the bride and groom. In war or peace, the Klingons are always, always violent.
  • That isn't to say that we don't meet Klingons who are not Warriors. One episode of TNG makes reference to a Klingon Carpenter. On DS9 we meet a Klingon restaurant owner who plays a concertina-like instrument for his patrons. Many people enjoy Klingon operas, and there are many Klingon opera performers. We meet a Klingon lawyer on DS9. However, they all do share one hat, in that they all do what they do with a great deal of passion, treating every endeavor as a battle to be won; the Klingon lawyers view the courtroom as their battlefield, and in another episode a Klingon scientist considered their work as a form of fighting a battle against ignorance.
  • In the prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise, when Captain Archer is put on trial in a Klingon Court, his elderly lawyer compares legal debate to a combat.
• The Romulans are a Proud Soldier Race given their disciplined and strict way of life, as is only fitting for the Space Romans (with home planets named Romulus and Remus), but their primary hat is that they are all intrigue all the time. Romulan duplicity and secrecy applies from their Empire's borders, patrolled by cloaked warships, to even mundane aspects of Romulan daily life.
  • Laris mentions that calling the Tal Shiar the "Romulan Secret Police" is redundant, since the word "secret" applies to every aspect of Romulan society.
  • Romulans perpetuate lies about the true effectiveness of their technology to trick aliens.
    Picard: [Romulan forensic molecular reconstruction methods] are also unreliable, and the results are dubious at best.
    Laris: Ah yeah, that's exactly what we wanted you to think.
  • Narek trolls Soji in what is the most humorous exchange about Romulan secrecy in the franchise.
    Soji: Can I ask you a question?
    Narek: Sure, just don't expect an answer.
    Soji: Are we allowed to be sleeping together, or is that a secret?
    Narek: Very much the latter.
    Soji: Is everything Romulans do a secret?
    Narek: Ooh, I'm not at liberty to divulge that.
    Soji: Is your name actually Narek?
    Narek: It's one of them.
    Soji: So is there anything you can tell me about yourself?
    Narek: Yes. I'm a very private person.
  • Hugh is surprised that Soji has read Ramdha's Romulan dossier because he doesn't have access to it even though he's the Executive Director of the Borg Reclamation Project.
    Soji: Usually I find that if I ask people for help, they're happy to give it.
    Hugh: That has not been my experience, in particular with Romulans.
  • In Ramdha's pixmit card set, there's an image of a shaipouin, which is a false door.
    Soji: Traditional Romulan houses always have a false front door that's never used. You have to go around the back.
  • Narek mentions to Soji that:
    Narek: Terran passenger lists are a matter of public record, which is shocking for a Romulan sensibility.
  • Rios describes the Tal Shiar to Mr. Vup as:
    Rios: They are treacherous, violent, ruthless and subtle. Their concept of honour is rooted in their skill at deceit.
  • Withholding the truth is such an ingrained behaviour that Romulans naturally assume that everyone else must be doing the same thing.
    Soji: Romulans love secrets. You think everyone's hiding something.
    Narek: Everyone is hiding something. Whether they know it or not.
  • Romulans use different names depending on who they're with.
    Soji: Romulans have a name for outsiders, and a name for family, but your true name, you save for the one you give your heart to.
  • While this is less overt than their love for secrets, Picard also continues the theme that Romulan culture doesn't tolerate any form of weakness, and the most extreme example of this was revealed in the TNG episode "The Enemy", where Bochra informs Geordi that Romulan babies with birth defects are killed because they are a waste of resources.
    Narek: You find vulnerability and brokenness beautiful?
    Soji: Is that strange? To find beauty in imperfection?
    Narek: It's certainly not very Romulan.
  • Their original hat, while no longer dominant, hasn't been forgotten, and later productions expand on this. The Romulans were a Proud Warrior Race in the distant past (when they were still Vulcan) and some Romulans still continue the tradition of sword fighting (e.g. Nero and his men in Star Trek (2009)) and duels (e.g. Tenqem Adrev initiated one against Picard in Star Trek: Picard, and there are several Romulans carrying swords at North Station on Vashti). The Qowat Milat sisterhood is a relic from that era, being an order of warrior nuns who preach the Way of Absolute Candor and who may choose to bind their sword to a quest that they deem to be worthy (i.e. a lost cause).
• The Ferengi are all profit all the time, plus misogyny to the point of slavery. Culturally, money is part of at least two known Ferengi religions. Ferengi tourist sites on their homeworld include the Great Marketplace and their stock exchange, and they consider any remotely non-capitalist actions (including things like giving workers holidays and allowing them to form unions) either incredibly distasteful or crimes worthy of being shunned from being allowed to do business with any Ferengi for. As for the misogyny: It's as though nobody has ever made the argument that allowing half of their population to earn money and buy things will be an economic boost.
  • According to Quark's religion, upon death, the Blessed Exchequer weighs the profitability of your life and death to determine if you enter the Divine Treasury or are damned to the Vault of Eternal Destitution. Prayer involves inserting slips of gold-pressed latinum (their currency) into a hollow statue in his likeness and begins with the words, "Blessed Exchequer, whose greed is eternal, allow this bribe to open your ears, and hear this plea from your most devout debtor."
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fixed the misogyny. Quark's mother Ishka instigates a cultural revolution that begins to give women an equal place in Ferengi society using that very argument.
  • Nog, meanwhile, believes in the Great Material Continuum, that will bring what you need to you, as long as you bring what your customers need to them for the right reward. He also manages to escape the "all profit all the time" part by joining Starfleet. His rationale is this: some people just don't have "the lobes" for for making their profit from a business. His father Rom, for example, has a lot of technical knowledge, able to fix Quark's replicators and holosuites, often from scavenged parts. But his lack of business acumen keeps him from rising above the level of being a waiter/gofer for Quark. Nog thinks he doesn't have the lobes for business either, but knows he can make a very "profitable" life for himself if he joins Starfleet, therefore becoming a citizen of the post-scarcity Federation, able to produce almost anything he wants, practically at will. Even then, he still has belief in the Great Material Continuum and uses his great business sense in Starfleet, as he quickly becomes The Scrounger for Chief O'Brien in "Treachery, Faith, and the Great River".
  • Actually, the Ferengi themselves are victims of flanderization, in the opposite direction of the Klingons. When first presented, Ferengi Heavy Cruisers were on par with the Federation's Galaxy Class capital ships, and they had a disdain for what humans would consider soft, attractive features. In one episode of TNG, a group of Ferengi are seen commenting on the ugliness of Beverley Crusher, due to her pale skin and soft features. Compare this to the DS9 Ferengi, who are basically all about Where da White Women At? when they aren't concerned with profit. The decision to flanderize them into their current form was one done by Rick Berman, and is noted on Memory Alpha. However, even in their current flanderized form, their true hat is deception. Too bad the Romulans and Cardassians also wear this hat, arguably better. Also, while it's treated as more of a side-effect, the Ferengi are very good with numbers and math. This doesn't come up much on screen, but it's made pretty clear in Deep Space Nine between the robustness of Ferenginar's economy and the complexity of their Poker variant.
  • Their shift in depiction is due to the failure to make them the new Klingons. They weren't found very scary in their debut appearance, especially with their monkey-like mannerisms. Now, their devotion to personal gain was always there, but it went from "species of the super-deadly-dangerous Space Pirates" to "species of the used car salesmen." Even so, while there is more comedy to them, they can still be quite dangerous. While moving and talking as they do in DS9 instead of early TNG, they'll still loot your ship, or sell you into slavery, and not hesitate to deal with you via disruptor blast to the face if you get in the way or there's profit in it. Even Rom once came close to killing Quark but couldn't go through with it, and Quark was impressed that he'd come so far. A Ferengi who wouldn't sell his own mother for a few bars of gold-pressed latinum would probably leave said mother wondering where she went so horribly wrong, and that is Not Hyperbole. Don't expect them all to be as relatively huggable as Quark and his family just because they're not the new Klingons.
• The Cardassians are all service to the state all the time, in that Cardassians will always claim that whatever it is they're doing, it's for the good of Cardassia. By virtue of being the focus of Deep Space Nine (along with the Bajorans), we get a very rounded view of life within the Decadent Court of Cardassia. A significant number of Cardassians are all Magnificent Bastardry all the time because of this, while others are far more straightforward examples. Some, like Garak, are both. One guy even tried to shame his government into admitting the atrocities the Cardassians had committed against the Bajoran people during their occupation of the Bajoran homeworld...for the good of Cardassia (and another became a spy for Starfleet because he felt that was for the good of Cardassia). Although note that it's not clear whether this is an innate quality or something fostered by centuries of indoctrination by the military dictatorship that ruled them until DS9 season 4.
• Also from Deep Space Nine were Odo's people, The Founders, whose hat was essentially "order," both small and big scale. They were given a reason for it^note Essentially having been betrayed and shafted by "solids" in the past, making them extra-strength paranoid, but were pretty forceful in making others put the hat on too.

  • The Jem'Hadar are the soldiers who serve under the Founders. Their hat is that they're all Blood Knights, and their hat-wearing is justified because they're all genetically engineered to be. They have a ritual prayer before engaging in a fight.

  We are dead. We go into battle to reclaim our lives!

  • Similarly, the Vorta are the Founders' secretaries and diplomats, and were specifically genetically created (out of non-sentient forest dwellers) to have traits useful for this purpose, most notably duplicity, immunity to poison, and an ingrained instinct to revere the Founders as gods and obey them unquestioningly.

• The Wadi from the Gamma Quadrant are all about playing games. Making first contact with them proved to be exceptionally boring for Commander Sisko, because Quark proved to be a better host just because he had all the games. (Admittedly, as with other examples, these are the only Wadi we ever see, so it's hard to know if it's how their society is, or an eccentricity of these individuals.)
• The Orions, the go-to example of the Green-Skinned Space Babe, are all about Seduction. Their society is Matriarchal because females give off natural pheromones that allow them to easily "persuade" the weak willed - anyone attracted to humanoid females, from just about every alien species that exists.
  • They became more fleshed out into Mafia aliens and then even further into "Every man has his price" merchants. Or if you want a more positive twist, their hat maybe that they never let onto their real motives.
  • Basically, they are the Mafia IN SPACE!. The famed "Orion slave girls", who are actually the ones in charge, are simply a different tactic - the males go in for strong-arm tactics while the females use Honey Trap tactics aided by their pheromones. Since the one in "The Cage"/"The Menagerie" was an illusion, literally the only Orion we've seen who wasn't a villain is Uhura's roommate from one scene in the '09 movie.
  • Lower Decks, however, gives us D'Vana Tendi, a young woman from Orion who is part of Starfleet and does not fall into any of the usual stereotypes about Orions. Though she also lampshades this in the episode "Crisis Point" where she is being pressured in to playing the role of an Orion pirate and is deeply uncomfortable saying that: "Ok, stop! It is not MY whole thing. And for your information, many Orions haven't been pirates for over five years!"
    • It's ultimately revealed in season 3 that she is in fact an ex-pirate, and was deeply offended by a fellow Orion Starfleeter living down to all the stereotypes, only for him to reveal he was in fact faking it all (he's more like a lame version of Worf — this guy is from Cincinnati, Ohio) and was really just feeling forced to live up to expectations all his life, from bad holonovels and the like, much to Tendi's sympathetic surprise.
  • This is actually a major plot point in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode "Those Old Scientists" as Tendi believes a strange portal device was discovered by Orion scientists first despite Boimler claiming Starfleet found it first and that there's no way Orion scientists were around at the time ("Someone had to build the ships!", she countered). The truth is a little more complicated: The Enterprise did find it first, but Orion pirates stole it. Needing it to send the time-stranded Boimler and Mariner back to their time, Pike convinces them to let them take the glory of the discovery as Orion scientists. It probably helped that one of those pirates was Tendi's great-grandma. The Orion captain also states that "it's all I've ever wanted" about Pike's offer, suggesting that while he did conform to the hat he didn't really want to.
• Tellarites "do not argue for reasons, they simply argue." Spoken by a member of a species that apparently doesn't have such great relations with the Tellarites, but eventually understandable once we get to meet more. Negotiations are often opened by trading insults. Tellarites themselves explain that by arguing every side of every possible debate, they can be absolutely sure that what they eventually do choose is the best possible choice.
• Conformity as a Hat with the Borg, along with "efficiency". A complete lack of identity. They are comprised of members from tens of thousands of species across the galaxy, yet they are all altered into mindless zombie-like cyborgs, with only exceedingly rare drones like the Borg Queen or Locutus having even the appearance of personality, as a herald to interact with other species. They even lack a solid backstory from which one could draw defining characteristics. This is best summed up in the opening line of their standard "greeting:"

  "WE ARE THE BORG."

• Cheron in "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" is (or rather, was), supposedly, a planet of racists. (They are black on the left side. We are black on the right side!)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation brought in the Risians to wear the sex hat. Risa's hat is more accurately hospitality: "All that is ours is yours." Free and open sexuality is just a part of that; a part most aliens fixate on. It's to the point where the planet's form of government is described as a "hedony."
  • We finally meet a non-hat-wearing Risian in the person of Discovery 's Ruon Tarka, an Insufferable Genius with no visible hedonistic traits who disdains the people of his home world and their non-scientific priorities.
• The El-Aurian hat is "listening,". We've only met three members of the species. One (Guinan) specializes in listening, and enjoys the role, but one (a con man in a Deep Space Nine episode) hated it. A fellow prisoner tried to come up to the con man and tell him his life story in jail, without any prompting, whereupon he responded by begging the guards to take the guy away from him. And the last one was a mad scientist, who was still quite effective at listening. He would listen to Picard trying to talk him out of his mad scheme to blow up a star, and then repeatedly No-Sell a Patrick Stewart Speech because of it. Plus Guinan literally does wear some awesome hats.
• Taking place clear across the galaxy from these others, Star Trek: Voyager has its own hat species, such as the Kazon (society revolves around infighting between the various rival groups), the Vidiians (society revolves around medicine and organ-stealing due to the disease they have), the Hirogen (society revolves around "the hunt"), and Species 8472 (society revolves around eradicating lesser, "weak" species.)
  • In the case of the Hirogen, there's a slight Deconstruction when one of their leaders comes to realize that wearing their hat is causing their species to devolve. There was a point where they were a highly developed species, even developing the enormous communications array, but as hunting dominated their entire culture they became a nomadic race with no homeworld who just hunted various parts of space before moving on. Hunting Voyager causes them to realize how far they've fallen and they soon attempt to use Holodeck technology to become less nomadic and more stable as they rebuild the civilization.
• Want to do a Green Aesop in Voyager? Then it's time to wheel out the Malon, whose hat is, of all things, pollution. They're saved from being an entire race of Captain Planet villains because they're not polluting just for the sake of it — it's simply that they've never bothered to invent "clean" technologies as long as the waste is transported a long way from the homeworld. To make matters worse, they know that they can use clean technologies without any hassle, but making the switch would have devastating effects on their own society. The exporting of industrial waste is the backbone of the race's entire economy.
• In a similar fashion to the Hirogen mentioned above, the Gamma Quadrant features the Tosk, who are also obsessed with hunting. The key difference, though, is that they specifically breed members a race that appears to be a Jem'Hadar variant just to be the hunted target ("Tosk" may actually just refer to the hunt target, but if so the main race is given no name). To be the hunted is the greatest honor anyone of their species can ever be given. They live just to be hunted, give a good chase, try to outsmart them for as long as possible, and eventually be killed. Being captured is the greatest dishonor imaginable.
• In the Gene Roddenberry days, humanity's hat was "being perfect." In the 23rd century humans have finally solved all the problems previously endemic to their nature, and now live in a society of absolute abundance, perfect equality, and total freedom. The only thing humanity has to deal with is all those other species still struggling with what humanity has already overcome. In the Roddenberry days, this was played completely straight: humanity acted better than everyone because they were better than everyone. Roddenberry intended this to be aspirational, but later writers found it patronizing, boring, or unrealistic, culminating in the Deep Space Nine era, when the hat "Humanity is Perfect" was rudely yanked off, set on fire, and thrown into a wood chipper. Perhaps because of this, from the perspective of other species humanity's hat is "condescension." Every non-Federation character seemed to find humans in general and Starfleet officers in particular insufferably arrogant.
  • On Star Trek: Enterprise, Vulcan Ambassador Soval complains at length about humanity's lack of a Hat:
    Soval: Of all the species we've made contact with, yours is the only one we can't define. You have the arrogance of Andorians, the stubborn pride of Tellarites. One moment you're as driven by your emotions as Klingons, and the next, you confound us by suddenly embracing logic!
    Admiral Forrest: I'm sure those traits are found in every species.
    Soval: Not in such confusing abundance.
  • Soval goes on to explain that pre-logic Vulcans were similarly hatless in a way that now scares them.
  • In the original pilot, the Human Hat was a hatred of captivity—even pleasant, benevolent captivity.
  • Knowledge/Exploration could be the human hat. Most of the other races explored the galaxy, but for profit, power or domination.
  • The modern novels often suggest that humanity's hat is creativity. In one novel, a Tellarite says creativity defines humans as logic defines Vulcans. This creativity expresses itself in various ways, including the formation of a vast variety of cultures, religions and nations that outnumber those of most other species, making the apparent lack of a hat actually a part of our hat.
  • Another possible hat for humans is freedom. Several episodes have someone telling an alien how humans hate imprisonment (even if it is paradise) or how they require a challenge to truly live.
  • In Star Trek: Enterprise, Archer (however unintentionally) proposes that humanity's hat is diplomacy; humans know when it's time to put aside their differences and look at the bigger picture. This is perhaps the primary reason every other galactic power is an empire of some sort, while the Federation is a coalition.
  • There's also a lot of evidence that Humans Are Warriors is in play. Despite the massive number of races in the Federation, Star Fleet and the officer corps in particular is overwhelmingly human (with Vulcans a distant second). This led a Klingon diplomat in Star Trek VI to sarcastically call them a "Homo Sapiens only club" and make a crack about Inhumanable Alien Rights.
    • In "The Siege of AR-558," Quark has a memorable speech in which he asserts this about humans in duress.
      "Let me tell you something about Hew-mons, nephew. They're a wonderful, friendly people – as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts… deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers… put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time… and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people will become as nasty and violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon."
  • The case could be made that Humanity's hat is "curiosity." A theme in every Trek series is that humans are driven to not only solve the mysteries around them, but to actively seek out new mysteries to solve. Many characters (some of them human) have pointed out that curiosity tends to get humankind into trouble more often than most species.
    • Online speculation suggests that the hat of humanity is "Hold my beer, I've got this."
  • Humans in the 24th century seem to own hemp vests with V-neck shirts underneath, and nothing else.
• On the flip side of the Federation (pun definitely intended) is the Terran Empire of the Mirror Universe, whose hats are Treachery and Subjugation. Ever since Nazi Germany took over the world in World War 2, Humans have developed to conquer and enslave all who stand in their way. Tellarites? Slaves. Andorians? Slaves. Vulcans? Slaves AND corrupted to a point where they see the logic of conquering others, and agree with it. In sharp contrast, Cardassians and Klingons aren't too different than their normal universe selves, but they're allied with each other just to fight against the Terran Empire, making them the good guys in the grand scheme of things.
  • An official rule for being in service of the Terran Empire is that if you assassinate your ship's captain, YOU become the new captain, regardless of your previous rank and standing among the crew.
• The Star Trek Expanded Universe novel How Much for Just the Planet?, by John M. Ford, features a world whose hat is comedy routines. It eventually turns out that they're just putting it on to keep their visitors off-balance.
• An alien on Voyager once used this trope to describe different species — his own species' hat was an inherent understanding of languages (they are living Universal Translators, capable of learning any language- written, spoken, or computational- just by hearing or seeing a few words or numbers) while humanity's was "a great generosity of spirit." However, it turned out he was buttering the Voyager crew up so he could get revenge on them for indirectly causing his own species' extinction.
• The episode "Patterns of Force" has the Nazi Planet. (Not their native hat, it was imported by a Well-Intentioned Extremist historian from Earth).
• Taken to the point of near-parody in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Twilight." Reed detains a freighter captain and comes to the conclusion that he's selling intelligence to humanity's enemies solely because, according to the records of the Vulcan High Command, "Yridians are all information dealers." This is apparently the only thing he knows about the species, and the phrasing makes it sound like he just read those records that same day. In any realistic context Reed (and the Vulcan High Command!) would come across as paranoid, irrational, and extremely racist, but this being Star Trek, the line is accurate and the Yridian freighter captain he stopped really was selling information to the Xindi.
• The Redeemers are all religious fanatics.
• The Bretheren are another "hunt" race, but they don't like it when they lose. They're aligned with the D'Myurj, whose hat is "enlightenment." Except for one, who believes that life itself will destroy the multiverse.
• As noted above, there are actually several episodes with planets whose inhabitants made their hat by copying something from Earth — gangsters, Nazis, ancient Greeks...
• A Star Trek spinoff novel lampshaded this one by explaining that on most planets, war and oppression and genocide have had a homogenizing effect on sentient species. Humans figured out how to live together peacefully before that happened to them. As a result, Earth has a far greater range of cultural and ethnic diversity than can be found on most other planets.
• While the Bajorans are one of the most varied races in Star Trek, they do have two hats, they're all deeply religious (but not fanatics, mostly—the ones who are cause comment) and they're mostly ex-freedom fighters (understandable, as they just finished fighting a war against the subjugation of their whole planet), or at least ex-refugees and the like. In general, the ones in the religious hierarchy have a calm spirituality (even Kai Winn is good at faking it) and the rest are quick to anger.
  • Bajoran religious leaders do tend to have a degree of political power that would make the Medieval Catholic Church blush, although some exert it more than others. Kira notes in "Emissary" that Bajorans' spirituality make them tend to look to their religious hierarchy as a source of leadership and unity, and it's stated elsewhere that their spiritual leaders were crucial to keeping them alive as a culture during the Cardassian occupation. As the Emissary of the Prophets, Captain Sisko reluctantly finds himself invested with similar influence.
• The Pakleds all act like they have serious developmental problems, coming across as mentally and socially retarded, and in the words of Data's... actually stunted brother, "they are fat." Originally, having featured in only one episode of Star Trek (apart from some non-speaking extras on DS9), there was debate over how much of this was Obfuscating Stupidity versus actual stupidity, and whether it represented a racial trait or just those three bozos. Over 30 years later, Star Trek: Lower Decks brought them back as an Arc Villain, canonizing their stupidity (made even stronger to fit the show's cartoonish tone) as their hat.^note As a bonus, they are also a literal Planet of Hats, with Captain Freeman's brief visit to their homeworld revealing that Pakleds recognize authority solely based on the size of a leader's headpiece. At the same time, the Pakleds were also made more credible as villains. They've upped their game on the "fake distress signal" trick to the point that their Space Pirate ships are conglomerations of patched-together ship components and weapons from dozens of different races that can effortlessly curbstomp standard Federation ships. Still not advanced technology of their own, but for comparison the main example of O'Brian and Rom's technical genius on DS9 was that they could get components from three races working together. The show's animated Art Evolution also changes their physical size to de-emphasize obesity in favor of brute strength.
• In "The Mark of Gideon," Kirk was kidnapped by a race whose universal pro-life tendencies had led to horrible overpopulation, to the point that they tried to start a pandemic with germs from Kirk (who had been exposed to meningitis in the past).
• The Caldonians in "The Price" are a race of scholars who are so dedicated to pure research they don't want to be distracted by administrative tasks.
• The Breen's hat in DS9 is basically "mysterious and enigmatic," to the point that no-one knows anything about them, including what they look like under their refrigeration suits, and whether they really need the suits in the first place. In the Star Trek Novel 'Verse, their hat is "anonymous egalitarianism"; they're a multi-species society who wear the suits so that each person is judged entirely on their merits and not as a member of whatever species they are (only one of which really needs the refrigeration properties). It's suggested that each race in the Breen Confederacy has their own hat, but given the above, they try to keep quiet about it.
• The planet Freecloud from Star Trek: Picard is Space Las Vegas, a den of hedonism which provides numerous forms of entertainment, including casinos and luxury hotels. Its motto, "Freecloud keeps your secrets," is similar to "Whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."
• Star Trek: Lower Decks:
  • The Gelrakians. base their entire social structure around crystals. Their planet is so rich in this substance that giant crystalline deposits dot the whole landscape, their symbol of peace is the honor crystal, the people wear crystal jewelry, their weapons are made out of crystal, their space ships feature enormous crystals that jut out from the top and the bottom, and a humongous adjudication geode is used as a method of execution. The Gelrakian boarding party covers the Cerritos in "crystal graffiti," and a few invaders demand crystals when attempting to break down the doors to the bridge.
  • The inhabitants of Mavok Prime are described as a wood-worshipping civilization. Their fertility totem is a piece of wood.
  • The Hysperians are a human culture described as "Ren Faire" types who colonized a planet with a native population of dragons. Their civilization is based on a theme park version of medieval culture, complete with a monarchy and eating mutton while referring to all their futuristic technology with fantasy terms.
• And finally: The Tamarians communicate exclusively in metaphors involving their race's mythology, making them a Planet of Tropers.

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