Starfleet Academy's School Mascots Are References To Legendary (And Not-So-Legendary) Star Trek Aliens

Spoilers for "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" episode 3 ahead.

"Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" has delineated Starfleet's exploration mission and the Federation's military needs more than ever, as SF Academy has a neighboring school: the War College. Speaking with /Film's Jacob Hall, co-showrunner Alex Kurtzman suggested the war college exists to give SF Academy cadets a rival school for team sports and such. 

That's exactly what episode 3 is about, as it focuses on athletics sparking tensions between the schools. (Apparently, the War College's curriculum includes training for a prank war.) It also reveals the schools' mascots. Fittingly, the War College's mascot is a vicious predator, the mugato, while Starfleet Academy's is "Lappy," a lapling — a "defenseless," cat-sized animal with fly-like compound eyes and a nested, Y-shaped mouth. 

The fictional sport they're playing, Calica, even involves the mascots. The game is basically a war simulation where players use phasers to transport their opponents into a penalty box. (Think really intense laser tag or a death match in a shooter video game like "Halo," only played physically.) In addition, a player from each team dresses as their mascot and protects an end-of-field target that the opposing team needs to hit. The low-tech mugato and Lappy costumes are fitting, seeing as the mugato and lapling were originally brought to life with a simple ape suit and a puppet, respectively.

Paramount

The laplings debuted in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode, "The Most Toys." There, unscrupulous "collector" Kivas Fajo (Saul Rubinek) owned a lapling, claiming it was the last living specimen of a thought-extinct species. (Either the population has recovered or the Academy hasn't changed mascots in a millennium.) Meanwhile, the Yeti-like mugatos go back to the "Star Trek" original series episode "A Private Little War."

The mugatos come from the planet Neural (a likely play on "Neutral," since the world is home to a pre-warp civilization caught in the crossfire of the Federation and Klingon Empire's cold war). They resemble an albino gorilla, but with claws, a venomous bite, and a rhino-like horn on their head that precedes more horns running down their back, all the way to a small tail — unlike real great apes, which are tailless.

The original mugatos in "Star Trek" were brought to life with a suit worn by actor Janos Prohaska, who played many other costumed aliens on "Star Trek" (as well as the gorilla on "Gilligan's Island"). As far as simian makeup goes, the mugato certainly fell short of "Planet of the Apes."

Similar to the original Gorn on "Star Trek," though, the mugato is remembered fondly even in spite of the low budget hokeyness of its costume. The self-referential animated "Star Trek: Lower Decks" (which didn't have to worry about costumes) brought the mugato back for its season 2 episode "Mugato, Gamuto." There, the U.S.S. Cerritos runs afoul of Ferengi poachers hunting mugato for their horns. By the late 24th century, when "Lower Decks" took place, the mugato are apparently an endangered species, but "Mugato, Gamuto" ended with the establishment of a reserve for them. If they're still prevalent enough to be school mascots in the 32nd century, it looks like that conservation effort worked.

"Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" is streaming on Paramount+, with new episodes arriving on Thursdays.