Star Trek

I can understand the general shape as there is a functionality to it, but they are too similar in most sci fi venues.  Star Wars at least has a wide range of looks and heights.  There are species of very short stature like Jawas and very tall like Wookiees.  Babylon 5 did a pretty good job with several of the races in not limiting the differences between species to just a few square inches on the forehead and had at least 2 insectoid species.  Star Trek tends to just go with some lumpy forehead variation in most cases for new species.  Even when there is some mention of a species preferring a different temperature range, there is very little if any attention paid to it.  The Cardassians like it hotter thatn Humans do, but did a Human ever sweat while on a Cardassian ship or their homeworld?  Andorians come from a very cold place, but Archer & T'Pol seemed comfortable when they were on Shran's ship.  Yes, I do realize that the Andorians lived underground to take advantage of geothermal energy, but Shran seemed to enjoy the cold air when he & Archer went looking for the Aenar so it seems likely that they would have their cities that much warmer.

I've been reading Allen Steele's interessting series about Coyote in 47 Ursae Majoris.  ON that planet, the native species--including some primitive hominids--tend to have catfish-like whiskers on them.  I thought that was an interesting twist on planets' individual "preferences" for lifeforms.

They probably look like spammers