Mintaka III
Mintaka III was the inhabited third planet orbiting the primary Mintaka. This was the homeworld to the Mintakans, a  pre-warp proto-Vulcan humanoid species. It was also home to the non-sentient hornbuck. 

According to Terran emperor , she and Captain  wiped out the Mintaka III of the mirror universe sometime prior to 2257. ()

By 2366, the Federation had been covertly observing the Mintakans on the planet for several years. That year, the existence of the anthropological team recording their behavior was exposed to the Mintakans when the hologram generator hiding their duck blind malfunctioned. As a result, the team suffered several injuries and two fatalities, and during the course of their retrieval by the  the cultural contamination was worsened when several Mintakans witnessed the Federation's use of their advanced technology which they assumed was the power of the god they called 'The Picard'. ()

Later that same year, when Captain Jean-Luc Picard was kidnapped and held along with three other individuals of other species, one of which was actually one of the kidnappers posing as a Bolian Starfleet cadet named Mitena Haro. Her knowledge of the Enterprise-Ds visit to Mintaka III led him to realize she might be an impostor; due to the recentness of the visit it was unlikely a cadet would have known of it. Picard confirmed his suspicion when she claimed to know of the Enterprise-Ds mission to Cor Caroli V to cure an outbreak of the Phyrox plague, an incident which Starfleet had classified as "secret." ()

Appendices

Background information 
The original non-remastered planet model for Mintaka III was later used for Betazed in  as well as for Barkon IV in .

The  and StarTrek.com classified Mintaka III as a class M planet.  In a note in the Star Trek Encyclopedia to the planet's entry, it was noted that the exterior scenes, of the planet's surface, were filmed at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park.

According to StarTrek.com, the Mintaka ( ) system was located about 1,500 to 2,350 light years from Sol. 

According to Star Trek: Star Charts ("United Federation of Planets II"), the Mintaka (Delta Orionis) system was located in the Beta Quadrant.

External links 
 
 

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