Evora

File:Evora delegation, Insurrection.jpg

A group of Evora, including Regent Cuzar (2375)

The Evora were a humanoid species of small stature, with a population of three hundred million. They were fond of eating flowers, and enjoyed chrysanthemums. A traditional Evoran greeting was "Yew-cheen chef-faw", to which the receiver would respond by placing a beaded headdress on the greeter's head. It was also traditional for them to dance at celebrations.

In 2374, the Evora achieved warp drive. A year later, they agreed to become a United Federation of Planets protectorate; the process was expedited as the Federation needed to compensate for its losses from the Battle of Sector 001 and the Dominion War. A welcome reception was held aboard the USS Enterprise-E, attended by Evoran leader Regent Cuzar, who formally met the starship's commanding officer, Captain Jean-Luc Picard. (Star Trek: Insurrection)

Later in 2375, an Evora was aboard Deep Space 9 shortly after the signing of the treaty that ended the Dominion War. (DS9: "What You Leave Behind")

In 2376, an Evora who was doing business on the Markonian outpost visited engineering aboard the USS Voyager. (VOY: "Survival Instinct")

It is not known how the Evora made it to the Delta Quadrant.

At least one Evora was assimilated by the Borg and became a member of Unimatrix Zero. (VOY: "Unimatrix Zero")

People

• Cuzar
• Unnamed Evora

Background information

In the script of Star Trek: Insurrection, the Evora were physically described simply as "extremely short aliens". [1] This species is not named on screen; their name was only devised after the making of the film. (Star Trek: Insurrection - Official Movie Souvenir Magazine, p. 50) During the movie's development, the species was routinely referred to as "small aliens", such as in a memo by Unit Production Manager Marty Hornstein and a memo by Michael Piller, the latter of whom worked as Co-Producer on the movie as well as writing its screenplay and co-writing its story in collaboration with Producer Rick Berman. (Fade In: From Idea to Final Draft, The Writing of Star Trek Insurrection) The notion that the Evora were intended to be diminutive aliens obviously affected the selection of the performers who were cast to portray them. "We used very short people. They were not quite five foot tall," noted Make-Up Supervisor Michael Westmore. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 30, No. 12, p. 31)

The make-up design of the Evora was created a relatively long time before its initial Star Trek appearance. It was designed by make-up artist Scott Wheeler, a member of Michael Westmore's make-up team. Wheeler later recalled, "I had an idea for an alien that I sculpted a couple of years ago. We made a mold of it and it sort of sat around, and Mike said, 'Eventually we'll use it for something when it is appropriate.'" (Star Trek: Insurrection - Handbook of Production Information, p. 14) Westmore himself explained, "I didn't want to use it on the series unless something came along that was really good, where it could be used for more than somebody who was just going to be on screen for five minutes. So we held back on it." (Star Trek: Insurrection - Official Movie Souvenir Magazine, p. 50) Concluded Wheeler, "It worked out that this particular head had a good look for this particular character. We sat down and talked about how the face should work with them." (Star Trek: Insurrection - Handbook of Production Information, p. 14)

For Star Trek: Insurrection, separate prosthetic head and face pieces for each Evora were devised by Michael Westmore and his team. (Cinefex No. 77, p. 77) Westmore himself observed, "They have different heads, and a little nose piece on. They almost look a little 'froggy,' with long ears." The make-up staff began applying the make-up by putting it on the film's only principal Evora-playing actor, Peggy Miley, then continued with the rest of the group. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 30, No. 12, p. 31)

Creating the Evora costumes was perhaps the easiest and certainly the most fun assignment that Star Trek: Insurrection Costume Designer Sanja Milkovic Hays had for the film. She made the Evora uniforms extremely wide, to make their wearers seem ever smaller. "The idea, or rather the joke, was that they were little and Picard has to stand with their regent, so one of the ways to make them look smaller was to make them look wide and in proportion make them even shorter. We all felt that they should be far out – too alien. So they are kind of small and their heads are just out there, and the costumes are very geometric." The Evora immediately proved extremely popular. Due to this and because they appeared in a scene that was shot early in the production schedule, Hays was initially somewhat concerned that she would be able to match their quality in the film's other costumes, but doing so turned out not to be a problem. (Star Trek: Insurrection - Official Movie Souvenir Magazine, pp. 54 & 53)

Although Michael Westmore realized Evora could reappear in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine following their introduction in Star Trek: Insurrection, he was careful to wait until after the film's theatrical release before bringing them onto space station DS9. (Star Trek: Insurrection - Official Movie Souvenir Magazine, p. 50)

According to the reference book Star Trek: Star Charts, on the star chart "United Federation of Planets I", Evora was listed as a member planet in 2378. On the star chart "United Federation of Planets III", Evora was located in the Beta Quadrant. This planet orbited a red dwarf.

External link

• Evoran at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works