[Captain Tom Coughlin]

There were some good aliens in the film, longface at the bar being my favorite.

[horatio]

I'd say that the alien with the strange eyes from the medical stuff of the Kelvin as well as one alien aboard the bridge of the Kelvin were also interesting. I didn't notice a lot of background aliens, i.e. no alien crowd scene like in the end of TVH or TUC.
ST09 seems a bit like TMP in this respect, quite some interesting designs but the background aliens were put a bit too far into the background.

[TheTrekkie]

Originally Posted by kevin

Oh please - how many full and in depth culture bio's did we get for all the races seen during the Federation Council scene in The Voyage Home? Aliens seen in the background during years of DS9?

You're scraping the barrel now, big time.

However implicitly he gets one point:

Why do they always use these great, oscar winning make-ups (among other things) for unimportant background guys you barely see more than a few seconds and never for any of the main characters?

To bring Star Trek on a new level you have to be courageous enough to use innovative ideas not only in the background, but to put them in the center of a movie/TV show (no matter if it is mainstream or not). That's what characterizes greatness.

[Saquist]

Phantom menace got some series accolades for the Queen Amidala make up...

[kevin]

Originally Posted by TheTrekkie

However implicitly he gets one point:

Why do they always use these great, oscar winning make-ups (among other things) for unimportant background guys you barely see more than a few seconds and never for any of the main characters?

To bring Star Trek on a new level you have to be courageous enough to use innovative ideas not only in the background, but to put them in the center of a movie/TV show (no matter if it is mainstream or not). That's what characterizes greatness.

I think personally Star Trek would have to do more than just have some innovative foreground make-up to take it to a 'new level' of greatness because to be honest I'd normally be far more interested in the character/purpose in question than solely the make-up on their face.

Innovative make-up does not accomplish 'greatness' alone. It's a part of the whole, but not the only part.

As Saq's observation assists in proving. In Star Wars and the prequels an entire universe is depicted as teeming with life and it's highly varied varied in it's depiction of that? Yep, and a big thumbs up for doing so. Because it makes you believe in the scale of the Universe that exists beyond the main story playing out among the main characters.

Does it make the prequels 'Great'? I think not.

[Enterprise Captain]

Unfortunately in a 2 hour film format there's not a lot of time to really explore alien characters origins or the histories of their species unless it is crucial to the main plot. That type of character exploration is much better suited to a television format where you can devote a 1 hour episode to that type of story. When you look at the original Star Wars how many of the aliens you now know and love actually had theirs stories told on screen? Most of the information for those characters came from expanded universe material.

[kevin]

Originally Posted by Enterprise Captain

Unfortunately in a 2 hour film format there's not a lot of time to really explore alien characters origins or the histories of their species unless it is crucial to the main plot. That type of character exploration is much better suited to a television format where you can devote a 1 hour episode to that type of story. When you look at the original Star Wars how many of the aliens you now know and love actually had theirs stories told on screen? Most of the information for those characters came from expanded universe material.

Indeed, we could list dozens of Trek races that have appeared but that we know actually very little about and many more than that which have been referred to in dialogue but never even seen onscreen.

As with all the previous Trek films, the focus is on the main characters and the new ones particularly relevant to said story.

[TheTrekkie]

Originally Posted by kevin

I think personally Star Trek would have to do more than just have some innovative foreground make-up to take it to a 'new level' of greatness because to be honest I'd normally be far more interested in the character/purpose in question than solely the make-up on their face.

Innovative make-up does not accomplish 'greatness' alone. It's a part of the whole, but not the only part.

As Saq's observation assists in proving. In Star Wars and the prequels an entire universe is depicted as teeming with life and it's highly varied varied in it's depiction of that? Yep, and a big thumbs up for doing so. Because it makes you believe in the scale of the Universe that exists beyond the main story playing out among the main characters.

Does it make the prequels 'Great'? I think not.

I was not only talking about make-up (among other things).
Make-Up just won the oscar, so it was a good example, but you can say the same about every other aspect of the movie including its story.