The Ur-Quan are a fictional race of predatory alien caterpillars in the Star Control series of video games, created by Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford.

Reiche and Ford developed the Ur-Quan based on the concepts for unique spaceships in Star Control; their insectoid appearance was inspired by a National Geographic photo of a caterpillar.

Eventually, as they began the exploration of their own solar system, they were discovered by an alien race known as the Taalo - members of a loose collection of space faring civilizations known as the Sentient Milieu - and offered membership.

[9] After devastating losses, the Kzer-Za eventually triumphed through the discovery of an enormous ancient battleship created by a lost alien civilization called the Precursors.

[1] The original Star Control is an action-strategy game, telling a simple story about a war between two alliances, with the Ur-Quan seeking to enslave Earth and its allies.

[11] Star Control II greatly expands on the fiction and characters from the first game,[11] allowing the player to learn the Ur-Quan's deeper history and motivations.

[20] One large spaceship had the ability to launch fighters, and this ship led the designers to a creative conclusion – since these aliens had command over others, they should be a powerful ancient race that plays the role of the lead antagonist.

[20] Reiche had previously created a mantis-inspired race called the Thri-Kreen for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and the mantis continued to inspire the creation of Star Control's insectoid species.

[20] Reiche attempted to humanize the Ur-Quan, based on his own "relationships with people who had experienced significant childhood abuse and how those traumas produced distinctly odd behaviors in adults.

[26] The team describes this writing process as imagining justifications for past creative decisions, building logically on details about the Ur-Quan's history, artwork, and game abilities.

[23] The Ur-Quan theme music for Star Control II was created by fantasy artist Erol Otus, who first composed the song on a synthesizer before it was re-sampled and exported to MOD file format.

[31] Richard Cobbett of Rock, Paper, Shotgun declared them a "galactic threat better than basically any science fiction role-playing video game that came after", praising the writers for developing the antagonist's motives and justifications.

Club included the Ur-Quan in their 2021 list of best aliens in pop culture, describing them as "tremendous sci-fi villains, importing heady old-school concepts into Star Control’s relentlessly fun space-based action".

[34] AllGame hailed the game as a "masterpiece" for its story, explaining how "the Ur-Quan, ostensibly the major villains, [...] become more sympathetic than most of the friendly-but-fluttery allies populating your own fleet.

Kurt Kalata of Hardcore Gaming 101 described how the music of Star Control II gives each alien race a stronger personality, particularly the Ur-Quan's foreboding theme.

[36] John Szczepaniak of Retro Gamer praised the Ur-Quan's voice acting and dialog, including the "absolute dread caused by hearing in-depth explanations of what it's like to wear a 'pain excruciator'".

With several Star Control II fans at Paradox Interactive, their space strategy game Stellaris offers the ability to encase a planet in a slave shield, and references the Ur-Quan's battle thralls as a policy option.