Heck, even before you take into account differing xenobiologies, this has precedent on earth; different cultures are often unused to how other cultures smell.
this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2023
135 points (89.9% liked)
Star Trek
10571 readers
67 users here now
r/startrek: The Next Generation
Star Trek news and discussion. No slash fic...
Maybe a little slash fic.
New to Star Trek and wondering where to start?
Rules
1 Be constructive
All posts/comments must be thoughtful and balanced.
2 Be welcoming
It is important that everyone from newbies to OG Trekkers feel welcome, no matter their gender, sexual orientation, religion or race.
3 Be truthful
All posts/comments must be factually accurate and verifiable. We are not a place for gossip, rumors, or manipulative or misleading content.
4 Be nice
If a polite way cannot be found to phrase what it is you want to say, don't say anything at all. Insulting or disparaging remarks about any human being are expressly not allowed.
5 Spoilers
Utilize the spoiler system for any and all spoilers relating to the most recently-aired episodes, as well as previews for upcoming episodes. There is no formal spoiler protection for episodes/films after they have been available for approximately one week.
6 Keep on-topic
All submissions must be directly about the Star Trek franchise (the shows, movies, books etc.). Off-topic discussions are welcome at c/quarks.
7 Meta
Questions and concerns about moderator actions should be brought forward via DM.
Upcoming Episodes
| Date | Episode | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 11-07 | LD 5x04 | "A Farewell to Farms" |
| 11-14 | LD 5x05 | "Star Base 80?" |
| 11-21 | LD 5x06 | "Of Gods and Angels" |
| 11-28 | LD 5x07 | "Fully Dilated" |
| 12-05 | LD 5x08 | "Upper Decks" |
In Production
Strange New Worlds (2025)
Section 31 (2025-01-24)
Starfleet Academy (TBA)
In Development
Untitled comedy series
Wondering where to stream a series? Check here.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
I remember a Chinese friend, in jest mind you, said that white people smell of slightly sour milk.
oh that's just the daily sour milk skincare routine
load more comments
(1 replies)
I'm sensitive to smells and perfumes so any culture that uses them often is difficult for me. Hey are there scent suppressants I can buy or is that future tech?
There would so be a market for it, although I'd rather have the artificial odor market be killed off instead. Saves a lot of waste as well. (as the air pollution, those smells... yuck)
I knew a guy who couldn’t smell anything for weeks after smoking weed. As a maintenance worker for an apartment complex, he kept that up for years.
Hey I'm a condo maintenance guy! I swear Snelling garbage and bad smells all day has destroyed my sense of smell. If someone's wearing strong perfume it bothers me, but I can't smell bad smells or notice them
Covid renders many people unable to smell or taste things.
It's possible since I got COVID last year, but I feel like it's been going a while for me
T'Pol says so in ENT
the EMH says so in voyager
Everyone has a smell. Everything has a smell.
You're more likely to find smells you're unfamiliar with potent and obvious.
So, yeah, humans stink, most humans usually smell somewhat like the foods they typically eat, big surprise!
So Vulcans probably stink, too, just differently.
Wonder if it has to do with how many of us eat meat, Vulcan are vegetarian aren't they?
Yeah, I imagine the body odor of meat eaters to strict vegetarians is particularly... noticeable as it's something totally alien to their diet.
I'm mostly vegetarian. But the dishes that I tend to eat are heavily spiced. Curry is so good. Also garlic. Hah
Still, the farts of someone who mostly survives on processed meats are something else and can clean out a room.
It wasn't me, I swear!
load more comments
(1 replies)
Yes! Have you met humans?
My pet theory on this is that it's because most vulcans are vegan or vegetarian, and many humans still eat meat and other animal products. The diet thing is confirmed canon, but I can confirm being able to smell... meat smell(?) on people who eat it.
The meat Federation citizens eat isn't really an animal product. In the Orville, it's actually made explicit that killing an animal for food is regarded as tantamount to murder in the Union.
The reality is it wouldn't matter if it's synthetically produced meat, it's still going to have the same proteins and chemicals as it would if it came from an animal, which is what people (myself included) can smell on people who have consumed them. Eating garlic makes you smell like garlic, eating dairy makes you smell like dairy, eating meat makes you smell like meat.
I think the implication that we're smelling the concept of sin is very funny though.
I think the fact that we're made of meat makes us smell like meat
Just because it's replicated doesn't mean it's not meat, right?
“Cannibals love this one easy trick!”
HuFu.
well presumably if there's some specific compound in meat that makes us smell, that could simply not be replicated
Those compounds would be the proteins that make meat taste and feel like meat.
except we have vegan meats made from various vegetable proteins that are basically equivalent at this point, and they most certainly don't have the same proteins as meat.
Do you eat meat? The vegan meats like impossible and beyond are not "basically equivalent." They are fine, but easy to distinguish from meat.
been eating meat my whole life and vegan nuggets are impossible to tell apart, and vegan ground meat is sufficiently close that you wouldn't notice being served it in a sauce instead of real meat.
I think we're arguing two different points. Chicken nuggets taste like breading, not chicken. And you can throw anything in sauce or chili and it's going to taste like the sauce.
Saying "if you cover meat substitutes in curry sauce or dip them in ketchup you can't taste the difference" is not the same as "meat substitutes taste the same as meat."
Impossible Meat was pretty good until twenty minutes later when I discovered my rare blood disorder makes me deathly allergic to the fake heme they use to synthesize blood. Seemed dead on identical to a Whopper, even the second and third and forth time I tasted it (from all the barfing).
I've had maybe two fake beefs that tasted dead on since then, and a bunch of fake chicken. I think since we have come this far in making fake meat, it's conceivable that there's a future tech that can craft a meat that doesn't cause the negatives of meat consumption.
I think it's also safe to presume that in the ultra future tech advanced society of Star Trek, they can remove the bacteria that causes body odor in humans.
I'm throwing in with the person who said that it might be cultural. Like how some people hate when I sweat garlic. And maybe Vulcans were too polite to tell humans about the unpleasantness of our odor since they logically know they shouldn't comment on this aspect of culture.
And also they seem to really get off on feeling superior, so why tell humanity there's something unpleasant about them? Those barbaric humans. I bet it's their illogical obsession with emotion that makes them smell (since certain emotions do in fact cause hormonal changes that make smells). "It's a biological side effect of unchecked emotion."
Of course, if that's the case, I bet they can smell Pon Farr. And you are welcome if you haven't had that idea yet, fanfiction smut people. (This is a joke. Y'all are a million steps ahead of me. You can see in my comment history I only this past week realized how homoerotic Q's obsession with Jean Luc has been all these years.)
Wait, is it still homoerotic if Q is a being beyond gender? I have so many questions and zero interest locating the people who can answer them.
I think it's also safe to presume that in the ultra future tech advanced society of Star Trek, they can remove the bacteria that causes body odor in humans.
A lot of odor-causing bacteria are actually beneficial for us though. And what causes Vulcans to experience that "odor" might not be coming from bacteria to begin with.. for all we know it might be one of the thousand of compounds that leak into the air we exhale directly from our lungs.
Virtually every gas or volatile liquid is susceptible to cause odor. The only reason we interpret pure water as odorless/tasteless is because water is everywhere so our senses evolved in a way that it doesn't trigger a response. There are many other compounds we don't really perceive because we are used to them at the concentrations that exist in our breath.
If let's say an alien species is not used to having 78% Nitrogen in their atmosphere, and they happen to have receptors sensible enough, then being in a ship with breathable air similar to Earth might just make them puke in disgust after having a sniff of what we might consider "clean air".
I'd argue it'd make more sense for everyone to wear the equivalent of a high tech mask (supressants?) rather than having to re-engineer the biology of the species every time they encounter an alien that might have a different set of compounds they might find unpleasant.
I support your mask theory! Well said!
They kinda imply they eat real meat in enterprise. When do they phase out animals as food?
Probably aroumd the time replicators became widespread, so, during The Lost Era.
it's not a theory, it's fact: the smell is rotting flesh (and dairy for most) and animals on earth rely on it to know if something is nearby them.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Dude you literally grew up with a human mother get over yourself
I think Worf mentioned this in TNG
I think you have it reversed.
Is that... lilac?
I remember reading that some astronauts have reported needing to get used to the smell of Earth again after being in space for a while. Apparently the planet just always smells faintly like shit and we've been ignoring it.
We mostly smell like hair styling products.