Hamlet
- Full name
- Hamlet
- Rank
- Crewman
- Post
- Mechanic
- History
His homeworld is officially called Riverside and is rich in razor-sharp red rocky crags and boiling pits of sulphur and the like—with sky-topping pointed towers of brass being the dominant architectural style in the few, scattered cities. Starfleet personnel are under strict orders never to refer to it as Hellworld or any variation thereof.
He owns a trident that was a joke gift from a human friend who did not know that as the 23rd son of the Duke of Denmark, Hamlet’s traditional ceremonial weapon is an obsidian-tipped, golden, three-pronged spear. Hamlet does not much discuss his position in Riverside’s intricate social hierarchy with his fellow crewmen.
- Notes
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Hamlet is another member of the engineering team Echo.
Carneleians are a species made up for this strip.
Hamlet’s skin feels like warm stone. His ‘wings’ are not really wings but are part of his thermal-regulation system. His internal body temperature has a weird carbon–sulphur–silicon metabolism that runs much hotter than most species, though strong insulation of his under-skin keeps his external temperature close to that of humans. He can operate comfortably in temperatures high enough to kill humans, but the flip-side is he needs to wear a respirator on planets where air temperature approaches or falls below freezing. His tail is expressive but not prehensile or otherwise useful.
The joke here (if it was not already obvious) is (1) Star Trek has already revealed that the Greek gods and suchlike were actually aliens, so why not devils, and (2) sf and fantasy in general tends to cleave to the idea that evil people look evil and good people look good (poor misunderstood Darth Toad being the saddest example). Hamlet literally looks like a devil but is mild-natured and curious and helpful.
