Energy cloud
An Energy cloud or Energy being is a formless lifeform supposedly comprised of pure energy, even though it usually appears like a cloud of smoke.
For some strange reason, many Science fiction franchises, Star Trek in particular seem to think that these formless clouds are the ultimate life forms; yet another annoying brain bug. Such beings have appeared since TOS and continued to be seen in Voyager.
Notable examples
TOS
- Zefram Cochrane's "Companion" was stated to be electricity and ionized hydrogen[1]
- The Organians were said to have evolved into non-corporeal energy beings.[2]
- Kirk once hunted an energy cloud that drained the blood of its victims and could only be destroyed by an antimatter explosion for some reason.[3]
- A pure energy alien possessed several different people and the Enterprise's computer in the middle of a killing spree. This same alien was supposedly responsible for the murders of Jack the Ripper.[4]
- Sargon and his race supposedly transformed themselves into formless beings of pure energy after they destroyed the surface of their world.[5]
- The Enterprise is actually invaded by an "energy storm"[6]
- The Enterprise crew is forced to engage in hand-to-hand combat with Klingons on board by a being that lives on "hate"[7]
TNG
- The Enterprise-D picked up such a being who eventually possessed Jean Luc Picard and beamed both itself and Picard into the void of space to get back to its own people.Cite error: Closing
</ref>missing for<ref>tag - Deanna Troi was impregnated by such a being once.[8]
- Q tormented a group energy beings known as the Calamarain and they came back for revenge when he temporarily lost his powers.[9]
- Zalkonians are supposedly in the middle of just such and "evolutionary transformation" (again, completely distorting the entire concept of evolution).[10]
- The Paxans possessed Troi to get the Enterprise to leave them alone.[11]
- An unnamed alien removed the "consciousness" from several hundred criminals and banished them to another planet that served as their prison. These "consciousnesses" could possess other living beings and even Data.[12]
- Beverly Crusher had such a being stalking the female members of her family for many generations[13]
Voyager
- The USS Voyager encountered a living cloud that the crew initially thought was a nebula.[14]