Sorry for the lateness of my reply; 4th of July vacation and all.

Yeah, let's just stick with 'hew-mons' for this one, though I still like the idea of an isolated mix of races, perhaps ones naturally opposed to one another like in the "[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthright_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)]Birthright[/url]" two-parter.

Oh, man, I would totally endure a shitty remake of that movie just to have Liam Neeson in the lead role. XD

Some blasted stomping grounds of the world-bound coronals that serves as a rite of passage site for the descendants' children sounds great. d(^_^) Perhaps one can be the religious devotee I mentioned before who likens the encounter to facing a demon.

Wow, I [i]totally[/i] overlooked the part much earlier where you had the idea these things use the natives as hosts! It could be cool to do, though I'd want to know why they do it (better way to absorb more stellar rays, have difficulty living on the planet without doing this for... some reason, etc.). But if that's the case, the host could show all kinds of neat symptoms. Unnaturally hot to the touch, weird bursts of energy/light if the host is in danger of being injured, lack of normal routine (eating, sleeping, seeking sunlight at the expense of all else, etc.), starting to look drawn, prematurely aged, organ failure, burns, cancerous symptoms, starting to wither to a husk and/or seem to 'fall apart.' It could get pretty ghoulish by the end; maybe once the coronal departs, the host just collapses into a pile of spent ashes or something. Of course, all these traits could be chalked up to 'possession.'

Re: population, I asked because, realistically, it'd probably be impossible for any small group to propagate an enduring society. Everyone would be getting it on with everyone else, women would have to birth a swarm of babies and incest would be almost inevitable... I was looking for some flimsy justifications for their survival. One idea that occurs to me, though, is perhaps the research vessel had some sort of plant- or culture-breeding laboratory implements that the people reconfigured after they crash-landed in order to  procreate artificially somehow. This butts heads with the science/faith divide, but maybe it's another example of the church's sneaky use of technology, or one of the few concessions the faithful give the scientists to excuse their existence. Just something to consider.

Have you seen the TNG episode "[url=http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Price]The Price[/url]"? It's one of the early Troi eye-rollers where she has a sort of brief, melodramatic fling with an oily Betazoid negotiator who uses his empathic abilities (and some old-school flim-flam) to manipulate talks. Anyway, the actor had this shit-eating politician/used car salesman quality that would be pretty great for a church figurehead (cf. your average televangelist). I also like the idea he's youngish (mid-late 30s or early 40s or some equivalent) and smooth-talking, while the 'leader' of the scientific faction (probably much more splintered à la the Democratic party) is an old and sort of curmudgeonly man or woman without much rhetorical savviness.

Also, I got a kernel for another 'episode' idea down the road involving difficulties the [i]Enterprise[/i] has in convincing some non-Federation spacefaring race to share some new whiz-bang tech or maybe a vital curative or resource with them as opposed to a company of Ferengi merchants. I feel like the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maquis_(Star_Trek)]Maquis[/url] or maybe some pirates could also get thrown in the mix somehow.