Your entire species is male, isn't it?" "That is correct, sir." "So, there's probably not a lot of arguments about leaving the toilet seat up and that kind of thing, right?— Ed Mercer and Bortus[1]
The Moclans are a single-gender humanoid race affiliated with the Planetary Union.
Moclans possess light brown skin. Their most distinct feature are the cranial ridges that run along the sides and top of their head. They reproduce by laying eggs, which suggests that Moclans may be reptilian in nature rather than mammalian. Their gestation period is remarkably brief for such an advanced life form and requires the parent to sit on it until it hatches. This period lasts for approximately 21 days.
While they are declared as a single gender species, a female Moclan is born, on rare occasions, every 75 years. The physiological differences between the two sexes are unknown, at least to the Planetary Union.
They are also revealed to be able to eat anything, due to the species having evolved to draw nourishment from a large variety of organic and inorganic matter. Their digestive system is apparently quite advanced. Not only are their bodies able to digest an impressive array of substances, they produce minimal waste byproducts, urinating just once a year.
The Moclan language and writing script can be found throughout the planet Moclus or spoken by native Moclans. Several words of the Moclan language are known to crew members of the Orville: gomaskah, which translates to first date; 'first date,' latchcomb, a popular party game, and oppsada, a favorite Moclan beverage.
Names tend to be single, without a second name denoting tribe or ethnicity, or simply to distinguish the referent from other people of the same first name. The author Gondus Elden is an exception, though one of those names may in fact be a title or adjective.
The Moclan writing system was reprinted with an English transcription by Jeff Bond in the book The World of the Orville.[2] The consonants more or less correspond with English's, with two added letters; however, their phonological values are undetermined: a, b, c, ç, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, ñ, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z. The vowels have plain and umlauted versions (except for the unusual letter ǽ), and are undetermined phonologically as well: a, ä, ǽ, e, ë, i, o, ö, u, ü. Additionally, there are characters for ? and . as well.
Peter Macon (Bortus) revealed that Moclans are an all-male species at the San Diego Comic Con on July 22.[3]
Trivia
A concept sketch of a Moclan soldier by the show's wardrobe designer Joseph Porro and illustrator Luca Nemolato. Note the older spelling of Moclan as Moclam used during development.
In the original script, the name of the species was Moclin and later Moclam.
In Old Wounds it is revealed that Moclans only urinate once per year.
