The lack of national diversity in the Discovery cast...

[Christopher]

Then if you say about pretend, why limit only to the accent? Don't you think that it is pointless?

This isn't a conversation about what accents actors use. It's about whether the characters are portrayed as all-American or as globally diverse. There are plenty of Trek characters who speak with American accents but are overtly not from America -- Uhura (US of Africa), La Forge (Somalia), Yar (Turkana IV, with Russian ancestry), Chakotay (Trebus, with Native/Latin American ancestry), Seven of Nine (Tendara colony, with Scandinavian ancestry), etc. Accents can be one way of coding a character as non-American, but they're not essential for doing so. And thus they aren't the point of this conversation at all.

So if you really care about the character from Russia, then let him / her speak Russian with Russian native accent. Not American Russian Accent. If not, why still need to bother?

Because they don't exist in isolation. They're serving on the same crew, so obviously they're using a shared language. They could certainly use their native languages when speaking with their family members, but then code-switch to the standard/official Starfleet language when they're on duty or conversing with their crewmates, because that's how bilingualism works. And it's not unreasonable that the shared language would be English. It's the most widely spoken second language on Earth, and it's the international language of space travel, science, and engineering, so it's a plausible choice to become the lingua franca of humanity in space. Sure, theoretically it could be supplanted over the next 2 or 3 centuries by Chinese, say, but obviously that's not going to happen in a show made for English-speaking audiences.

 

[Ithekro]

Well since fortune cookie production is an American business, Lorca being an American would be reasonable.

As for Ash Tylor....his backstory as being an American, but having a shaky accent could be just another clue to him not really being who he claims to be.

Captain Georgiou has a Greek surname.

Burnham is an English surname.

 

[eschaton]

But it's not set in America. It's set in a conjectural future where Earth is a united, global society. So it's implausible if its portrayal of that unified, globalized humanity looks exactly like 20th- or 21st-century America.

In the original series, only Kirk and McCoy were clearly American. Spock was from Vulcan, Scott was from Scotland, Uhura was from the United States of Africa, Chekov was from Russia. Sulu would be established in the movies as American, but he was conceived in TOS as a "pan-Asian" character of non-specific origin, albeit culturally Westernized. So there was a definite attempt to portray a globally representative crew. The later shows did it to some extent with their Earth-native characters -- Picard was from France, La Forge was theoretically from Somalia according to his personnel file, Tasha was of Russian ancestry, O'Brien was from Ireland, Bashir and Reed were English, Sato was Japanese, etc.

Yes, this gets at the heart of my issue with the characters on Discovery seemingly all being American.

I mean, as an American, I am really disturbed by the idea that Starfleet is not just dominated by humans (which doesn't fit with all federation members being equal) but that it's some Pax Americana. It implies that maybe there is a hierarchy and lots of people in the Earth of the 23rd century don't actually have real power.

While the lack of many aliens in Starfleet can be excused to some extent by real-life production issues (budgetary requirements meaning you can't have over half the cast require extensive makeup) that excuse doesn't hold for actors of non-American background. Hell, Discovery is filmed in Toronto - the exact same city as The Expanse, which as I noted has a very multinational cast. And as was noted, Americans could always play foreign characters without even feigning an accent.

 

[Christopher]

Yes, this gets at the heart of my issue with the characters on Discovery seemingly all being American.

Except for Detmer, who's German according to the first novel, and Owosekun, whose name and accent are Nigerian. But they're both minor characters so far.

 

[indranee]

So, rather than looking at foreign origin actor / actress in a ST show, I want to see Americans in the show. Where is the white people? Where is the American Hispanic? Where is the American other races? They can diverse, but what I expect to see are Americans. Not Spanish, British, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian, Middle Eastern, Africa, etc. So who care about the accent? Just be yourself.

Are you fricking serious with this or are you trolling? You think "America" is only white people?! #smh

 

[indranee]

Yes, it can be work. But why do they speak English in an environment that has a very powerful universal translator that can translate everything? Earth official language is English? Or Starfleet use only English? What prevent a character, where in the world that universal translator can translate a non human language with ease, to speak in their own native language and translated into English via universal translator? So why still care about the accent?

It's called STANDARD in the 23-24th century, not ENGLISH.

I think you're conflating the TV show for what it's always tried to show -- a diverse yet united Earth reaching out to the stars hand-in-hand with the diversity we then encounter once we're out of Terra.

I am not a "white American" (although I've spent most of my life here since I was a kid) and I have no problem with the series using American accents or actors in key roles, but it's STAR TREK dammit. And having watched from TOS onward, I at least expect a nod toward that kind of diversity in the characters in Discovery.

Anyway, I think this is a bit of a futile topic. It's what it is and we'll have to accept it. But I still had a bit of a frowny moment when they replaced one South Asian with an Anglo-American name with yet another South Asian with an Anglo-American name. What gives, TPTB?!

 

[marsh8472]

and I thought I was nitpicky I never thought about this. It could be used as an additional argument to what I was saying about how adding a character to the series would help the show but more specifically someone that has a foreign accent.

 

[indranee]

In my world, if I like a show, I nitpick the hell out of it

 

[indranee]

Discovery is filmed in Toronto - the exact same city as The Expanse, which as I noted has a very multinational cast. And as was noted, Americans could always play foreign characters without even feigning an accent.

I visited and also lived in TO (Toronto) as my ex was from there, and it's truly one of the MOST multinational cities in North America. They could easily find people to fit this bill if they wanted to (although I'm really ignorant about SAG rules so I dunno)...

 

[marsh8472]

 

[indranee]

Stealing

 

[MakeshiftPython]

IIRC Jason Isaacs independently decided to give Lorca a southern accent, but he might have been instructed to play as American regardless. I think he pulls off the accent flawlessly, so I can't complain

Yeah, he made the decision so that he wouldn't be compared to another famous British actor that once played a starship captain.

 

[Brainsucker]

Are you fricking serious with this or are you trolling? You think "America" is only white people?! #smh

Are you serious or are you trolling? Did I said only White People as American?

It's called STANDARD in the 23-24th century, not ENGLISH.

I think you're conflating the TV show for what it's always tried to show -- a diverse yet united Earth reaching out to the stars hand-in-hand with the diversity we then encounter once we're out of Terra.

I am not a "white American" (although I've spent most of my life here since I was a kid) and I have no problem with the series using American accents or actors in key roles, but it's STAR TREK dammit. And having watched from TOS onward, I at least expect a nod toward that kind of diversity in the characters in Discovery.

Anyway, I think this is a bit of a futile topic. It's what it is and we'll have to accept it. But I still had a bit of a frowny moment when they replaced one South Asian with an Anglo-American name with yet another South Asian with an Anglo-American name. What gives, TPTB?!

Now you call it Standard, and not English. so what is the point of having the accent then?

 

[midnightz]

Yeah, he made the decision so that he wouldn't be compared to another famous British actor that once played a starship captain.

That is a shame because there really is no comparison in the two captains' characters. Would have been great to have a British accent.

I can understand why there are so many American accents on the show but agree it would have been preferable to have a crew that didn't seeimgly all herald from different American states.

 

[Satron]

Yup, and due to it being stuck in the past I won't support it.

Check your internet/network settings if it gets stuck.

 

[BillJ]

You can wish for it if ST Discovery is a 100 million budget show, but it's not.

Umm... $8.5 million dollars per episode times 15 episodes gives it a $125.25 million dollar budget. They could've easily shaved some off of set construction and special effects if they had want to bring in international actors.

 

[Boomer359]

So basically the Earth official language is English? Too arrogant. But it's okay. it's an American TV show anyway. Who care about it.

It's called STANDARD in the 23-24th century, not ENGLISH.

It certainly seems to be the official language of the show. Whether that's the case in-universe is another question. The characters don't often name the language they're speaking unless it's something other than English. For a non-English-speaking audience, any reference to Standard would just be the language into which the show was dubbed. In fact, I think the only time I can recall them referencing "English" was just a few episodes ago on Discovery when Lorca remarks to L'Rell that he's impressed with her English.

 

[BillJ]

In fact, I think the only time I can recall them referencing "English" was just a few episodes ago on Discovery when Lorca remarks to L'Rell that he's impressed with her English.

In the franchise, Spock references English in "Bread and Circuses".

SPOCK: Complete Earth parallel. The language here is English.

***

SPOCK: Never. Colloquial twentieth-century English. An amazing parallel.

 

[Cake]

Umm... $8.5 million dollars per episode times 15 episodes gives it a $125.25 million dollar budget. They could've easily shaved some off of set construction and special effects if they had want to bring in international actors.

Actually casting foreign actors wouldn't have cost more. So many of them try their best to get roles in U.S. series. They easily could have found many willing to play a role on DIS without having to pay them more. That said there is no reason why U.S. actors can't play characters from different countries.

 

[BillJ]

Actually casting foreign actors wouldn't have cost more. So many of them try their best to get roles in U.S. series. They easily could have found many willing to play a role on DIS without having to pay them more. That said there is no reason why U.S. actors can't play characters from different countries.

While in and of itself it isn't a deal breaker, I do find the casting disappointing being this was the first Star Trek show built with international distribution in mind.