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Michelle Yeoh will feature in Discovery, possibly as lead

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Holy crap, listening about that stunt with the matress was, wow. She got so lucky she wasn't permanently disabled.

Can't wait to see her in the Captain's Chair.
 
Apparently in the UK Royal Navy the average age to make CAPT is 43.
If you're going to. "Average age to captain" doesn't mean everyone who joins at 20 will be captain by 43, or even on average they will, it means most Officers who did get that far were in that rank by 43. It doesn't apply the other way around. There are 260 Captains in the RN, out of 6000 officers (as we're complaining about the number of ships at the moment these stats are available to hand). It could never logistically work that all officers doing 25 years service or so can expect to have four stripes or quit to make way for others. The same in my profession - although the average age of an Inspector (third rank) is probably under 40, most officers still do their 30 years as constables or sergeants. As in every job, there are far more jobs for grunts than supervisors.

In this particular case, I still think they'll cast someone young as the lead, they seem to be aiming for more of a Julian Bashir than a Ben Sisko for our main part. Plus, it's TV, and diverse cast or no, a female lead is going to be young and attractive. but it isn't inherently ridiculous that an old person could hold a middling rank.
 
What is it with Starfleet? We've got a ship with a Chinese name, better make a Chinese woman captain!

Seriously, wtf? That's not how it should work.
Does anyone get the joke with the name "Han Bo".
A 'Hanbo' is a martial arts weapon.

Hanbo.jpg
 
Okay, it makes as much sense as having a captain in his early twenties then. Anything can be justified as an exception; it's just not plausible. In the U.S. Public Health Corps or the U.S. Navy you can expect to make LCDR in 9 to 12 years. Apparently in the UK Royal Navy the average age to make CAPT is 43. In most organizations that I know of using such rank there's pressure to retire if you spend too much time in grade; they don't want people filling up those positions forever, they're in other folks' way.

On Trek I suppose you could have a 50 year-old Starfleet cadet, but it would be silly nonetheless.
Why would it be silly? In the ST universe humans live way pass 100, so a 50 year old cadet would be no big deal for a human, if you're a Vulcan or any other long lived species, being 50 is like being a 20 year old human.
 
What is it with Starfleet? We've got a ship with a Chinese name, better make a Chinese woman captain!

Seriously, wtf? That's not how it should work.

Who said Starfleet did it was on purpose? Maybe the Captain herself put out a request for the command because of her Heritage?

In real life though, it seems intentional on the part of the writers.
 
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Why not? There's no upper age limit for any rank, and it is a fairly senior rank, equivalent to a major.
Star Trek fans seem to operate on a belief that you just rank up as you get older until you eventually retire an admiral. Lots of people in real life militaries, paramilitary organisations and police services spend careers in the middling ranks and we've seen that on Star Trek too. How old was Geordi when we last saw him?

I started watching...damnit forgot the title. The one that guest stars Tasha's sister Ishara Yar (and her outfits.) and the ensign at the conn, with excellent face acting for the crisis in the teaser, looks to be in his forties. He could pass for being of an age with Picard.

Also. Yeoh. Awesome.
 
What is it with Starfleet? We've got a ship with a Chinese name, better make a Chinese woman captain!

Seriously, wtf? That's not how it should work.

Well, statistically speaking, more humans are Chinese than any other single nationality, so the odds of both the ship and the captain having Chinese names by chance should be higher than the odds of them both having English names, all else being equal. If anything, the improbability in the past has been the vast overabundance of English/European names and individuals in the Trek universe.

Although it should be pointed out that, although Michelle Yeoh is ethnically Han Chinese, she's actually Malaysian by nationality and is not a native speaker of Chinese (she knows Cantonese, but she had to learn her Mandarin dialogue in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon phonetically and apparently spoke with a heavy accent).

Shenzhou, by the way, is the name of China's current manned spaceflight program. Which makes it a good fit with ships named Enterprise and Discovery, the names of American space shuttles.
 
What is it with Starfleet? We've got a ship with a Chinese name, better make a Chinese woman captain!

Seriously, wtf? That's not how it should work.
It is a particularly dumb thing indeed. Look out for Captain Yamato of the USS Banzai, Captain O'Connor of the USS Guinness and Captain Bush of the USS YeeHaw!
 
What is it with Starfleet? We've got a ship with a Chinese name, better make a Chinese woman captain!

Seriously, wtf? That's not how it should work.

Yeah, but think of it this way. Every Asian character in Star Trek has pretty much been really Asian-American. Even exotic-sounding Hoshi Sato was yet just another Yank ;)

If Han Bo is supposed to be authentically Chinese, then having her ship be called the Shenzhou is more of an honor than a slap. And I agree with Christopher; I've always hated that Starfleet ships mostly seem to have American names when we're supposed to be running an interstellar organization here.
 
Well Vulcan ships had Vulcan names with Vulcan captains....
Star Trek assumes all alien cultures are monolithic except humanity. After all Vulcans speak Vulcan and humans speak err... Human.?
 
What is it with Starfleet? We've got a ship with a Chinese name, better make a Chinese woman captain!

Seriously, wtf? That's not how it should work.

I'm curious to know why it is any more strange to have an American captain (Kirk) commanding a ship with an American name (Enterprise). Really...I want to hear it.

:shrug:

Seriously, people over-think this shit sometimes. Everyone needs to take a stress pill and relax.

ARGEGEGGHHHHGEGEGEGHH!!!! TOO OLD FOR A COMMANDER AND CHINESE LADY ON A CHINESE SHIP. BAAADDDDD!!!!!!!
 
What is it with Starfleet? We've got a ship with a Chinese name, better make a Chinese woman captain!

Seriously, wtf? That's not how it should work.
I think it's an extension of the pattern with new shows and movies. I think it's has good intentions like even animated shows now will have voice actors of the same ethnicity as the character. Or Wonder Woman has a woman director and Black Panther has a black director and often writers as well. Jessica Jones will have all women directors next season and so on. I wonder sometimes if it doesn't sort of set up a "separate but equal" situation while trying to be inclusive and culturally appropriate.

The first thought I had though was are they trying to appeal to the Chinese market? That might have more and more of an impact on shows/movies going forward.
 
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