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Star Trek's unicorn dog is adorable. Help us identify him.
A tribute to the greatest space dog ever, the Alfa 177 canine from "The Enemy Within."
While perhaps not the greatest episode of Star Trek, "The Enemy Within," the fifth episode of the first season, is certainly one of the most memorable, the most meme-able. Poor Sulu nearly freezes to death. Spock delivers his first ever Vulcan nerve pinch. And, of course, Captain Kirk is split in two, Good Kirk and Evil Kirk, giving William Shatner ample opportunity to flex his fantastic Shatnerisms. You can catch it tomorrow on MeTV.
Star Trek
- 11/23 11:00PMThe Enterprise Incident"Captain Kirk becomes increasingly erratic and orders the Enterprise into Romulan space where the ship is captured by a beautiful Romulan commander."
- 11/30 11:00PMThe Paradise Syndrome"Stardate 4842.6: Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to a planet to inform any inhabitants that they must evacuate the planet due to an approaching asteroid's imminent collision. A society similar to Native American Indians has arisen on the planet, but near their villages, the landing party finds a strange obelisk whose design and construction is far beyond the capabilities of the planet's natives. Kirk finds that the monolith can be opened by the combination of sounds found in the order "Kirk to Enterprise," but when he enters the obelisk, he is attacked by waves of energy that erase his mind. With no time to spare, Spock and McCoy have to return to the Enterprise without Kirk, and begin trying to use the ship's tractor beam to divert the asteroid. Meanwhile, Kirk becomes the tribal chief, takes a wife and even expects to become a father, but the Enterprise may not be able to save her former captain's future."
- 12/7 11:00PMAnd the Children Shall Lead"The Enterprise travels to a planet where a scientific team has killed themselves except for the children, who began to act oddly."
Yet Kirk is not the only character divided into Jekyll and Hyde halves. There is also unicorn dog. Adorable unicorn dog. Poor unicorn dog.
The Alfa 177 canine (he's a literal Alfa dog) has inspired Tumblrs, memes and Halloween pet costumes, yet he has not quite reached the level of Internet lore deserved. It's Star Trek. It's a cute animal. It's the Internet. He should be up there with Tribbles.
There is one big problem. Nobody seems to know his name, or breed. After digging around online, we could not find what kind of dog was under that fur suit, horn and antennae, nor what the little actor's name was. We know that Higgins played "Dog" on Petticoat Junction. It's time to give this Star Trek guest star his due.
Someone out there must know. A superfan, a crew member, a cast member.
Take a moment and look at what a good dog she (he?) is. Everyone seemed to want a shot to hold him!
Dog flyer image courtesy of Thinkstock.
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