Cheron was a formerly inhabited Class M planet in the Beta Quadrant. This was the homeworld of the Cheron natives, an extinct warp-capable humanoid species that destroyed itself in internecine warfare. The planet was located in the southern region of the Milky Way Galaxy, near the Coalsack Nebula.
History[]
Prior to stardate 5730.2, this planet and its inhabitants were unknown to the United Federation of Planets. In 2268, first contact was made with two of this planet's inhabitants.
But unfortunately, in the course of that year, when the USS Enterprise scanned the planet, its instruments revealed large uninhabited cities, extensive traffic systems that were now barren of any traffic, and lower animal lifeforms and vegetation encroaching on the cities. There was no sign of sapient life, and there were vast numbers of unburied corpses in the still burning ruins of the cities. The entire Cheronian civilization had evidently totally destroyed itself in a war generally fueled by racism, and specifically fueled by hate. The Enterprise left the last two surviving members of the species, Bele and Lokai, behind on this world, to which Bele had forced Kirk to return him and Lokai. (TOS: "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield")
As Bele and Lokai were the last known survivors of their homeworld, they were well-known for many years following the war on Cheron. In fact, a photograph of Lokai was hanging on the wall of a bar at Starbase 25. (LD: "An Embarrassment Of Dooplers")
Stellar cartography[]
Cheron labeled in stellar cartography (top)
In 2371, the location of Cheron was labeled in the star chart Data and Picard were studying in stellar cartography on the USS Enterprise-D. (Star Trek Generations okudagram)
Appendices[]
Background information[]
The quadrant of origin for this planet was inferred from its nearness to the Coalsack Nebula, which was located in the Beta Quadrant.
In the script for "Blood Oath", Cheron was listed in the pronunciation guide, where the term was pronounced as "CHE-ron". However, Cheron was not mentioned elsewhere in the final script and the pronunciation used throughout the actual shooting of "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" was "sheh-ROHN."
The Star Trek Encyclopedia, 4th ed., vol. 1, p. 137 classified Cheron as a class M planet.
Apocrypha[]
In the reference book Star Trek: Federation - The First 150 Years, Cheron was the planet where the Battle of Cheron of the Earth-Romulan War took place.
In the novels The Buried Age, Kobayashi Maru, and To Brave the Storm, the planet Cheron was the fifth planet in the 83 Leonis B star system, and was the site of the Battle of Cheron in 2160. Cheron was a strategically important planet for the Romulan Star Empire and was occupied with a military outpost at the time. Cheron was also where a Romulan fleet of 81 ships massed in preparations for an all-out attack on Earth. The fleet was defeated and forced to retreat by allied starships. After the war, Cheron remained on the Federation side of the Romulan Neutral Zone.
In the novel No Time Like the Past, the Enterprise briefly returned to Cheron, with scans revealing that Bele and Lokai have now set up bases for themselves on different sides of the planet; a time-displaced Seven of Nine noted that, even in her era, the Federation avoided Cheron due to the unpredictable power and life span of the surviving natives. The novel also revealed an attempt by Bele's side to create a virus that would infect only their enemies resulted in the virus being released during an enemy assault before it was ready, and both sides were destroyed (although Kirk and Seven, temporarily trapped in the past, were unaffected by the virus).
External links[]
- 83 Leonis at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
- 83 Leonis B at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
- 83 Leonis B V at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
- 83 Leonis at Wikipedia
- Planets in TOS and TOS Remastered at Ex Astris Scientia