Sehlat

Synonyms:
See also:
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The Sehlat is a "teddy bear"-like animal from Vulcan. They do have however large fangs and wild ones are dangerous. Domesticated sehlats are kept as pets especially for Vulcan children. Spock's pet sehlat is mentioned in TOS canon by his mother. Named I-Chaya, this pet appears onscreen in the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode, Yesteryear. A CGI version of a sehlat is shown in Star Trek: Enterprise.

The Fanon Sehlat

title page of Concerning Sehlats

Influential Sehlat Fanworks

cover of Scandals of Shikahr, a sehlat-centric zine

• An article from one zine, Spockanalia #5 published a piece that was both influential and an example of the fourth wall. From Boldly Writing: "Spockanalia 5 [1970] ran an important article, 'Concerning Sehlats' by Lee Burwasser. In this piece, the author looks at precedents in nature to see what sort of animal would have six-inch fangs. The author concludes, 'And so our portrait of the sehlat: a carnivore or just possibly tushed omnivore, general shape that of a giant panda, size on the order of an Alaskan brown bear, highly intelligent, and despite the six-inch fangs, of a patient and gentle disposition.... Question: did the sehlat belong to Spock, or was Spock in the care of the sehlat?' The Star Trek production staff read this article, and animators incorporated many of the suggestions into the drawing of the sehlat I-Chaya in the animated episode, 'Yesteryear'."

• The zine Scandals of Shikahr focuses on a bonded Kirk and Spock and their pet sehlat, Mutt.

Some Sehlat Fanart

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  from the back cover of a 1984 issue of Communications Console, artist: Annette Taylor -- "You ain't nuthin' but a sehat..."

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  from Beyond Antares #22, back cover, Katnue Tenneti, "Happiness is a thing called a Sehlat"

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  illustration from IDIC #5, the zine that first published the Sahaj series about Spock having a son, here with a pet Sehlat

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  from Despatch #38, artist is Diane Klingbeil (1979)

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  back cover of IDIC #5

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  front cover of Vault of Tomorrow #9

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  cover of The Sehlat's Roar #1

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  art by Monica Miller from Interphase #3

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  cover of The Sehlat's Roar #2

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  cover of The Sehlat's Roar #3

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  cover of The Sehlat's Roar #4

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  back cover of The Sehlat's Roar #5

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  cover of the last issue of Star-Fleet Communications, artist uncredited

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  Sternreisen

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  Sternreisen

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  front cover of Clipper Trade Ship #13

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  front cover of He Who is Close to Nature

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  back cover of He Who is Close to Nature

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  cover of Those Who Believe

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  cover of Empathy News

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  Interior art in Archives #1

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  back cover of Maine(ly) Trek #4

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  front cover of Spock #22 -- "Even Sehlats have to go Walkies."

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  art from issue #20/21 of The Halkan Council, by Elizabeth Marshall

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  cover of Neutral Zone Outpost #1

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  cover of Neutral Zone Outpost #3

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  inside art from Babel #3

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  inside art from Sehlat's Roar #5, by Clare Bell

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  art by Teegar from The Propagator #17

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  art by Martynn from Rigel #3

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  cover of Data #52, by Sakura Allison

Sehlat costumes and crafts

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  Fern Marder at the 1974 Star Trek Lives! convention in her award winning sehlat costume, photos used with permission.

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  Fern from another angle. She later "wore it on Amherst campus on Halloween and to the campus Trek club party... and totally horrified my department head..."

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  Stuffed plushie sehlat created by a fan, Francine Ellison, 1983.

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  "His heart where his liver should be." Plushie sehlat by Francine Ellison, 1983.

Links

• Sehlat on Memory Alpha