The Monocultures of Trek

[valkyrie013]

In trek history, not many species have been delved into concerning there cultures. Even with well established species like Vulcans, klingons etc. They seem to have 1 overriding culture.
Everybody on the planet prays to this 1 god, everybody has bowl haircut. There's no differences, no regional dialects

What brought up this topic for me is the it extends to starships. Only see Romulans in Dderix or valdore ships, or Cardasian in Galor class.
Where the federation has dozens of different classes of ships.

So, a starting question would be , how do we fix this? How do we introduce diversity into trek species?

Some dedicated episodes? Not just featuring there planet bit going around to different cities on the planet. Bring some members of that species as characters and explore? ( Tellerites come to mind). Thoughts?

 

[Orphalesion]

I think the biggest reason as to why Alien cultures in Trek tend to be "mono-cultural" is that they aren't at the centre of the narrative enough to enable the shows to develop multiple cultures per species.

I think for the writers to develop distinctive cultures within a species there would have to be a show that is primarily about that species, with at least the largest part of the main characters hailing from that species.
Like if they made a show that is set on a ship that is primarily manned by Vulcans, there'd be many more opportunities to explore different Vulcan cultures than you have with, say, Spock being the only Vulcan main character on SNW.

 

[The Wormhole]

I think the biggest reason as to why Alien cultures in Trek tend to be "mono-cultural" is that they aren't at the centre of the narrative enough to enable the shows to develop multiple cultures per species.

Pretty much this. Outside of bringing in a species who is going to be the sole focus of an entire series that lasts seven seasons, every alien race is always going to be a monoculture. Simply put, it just isn't feasible to develop an alien race in further detail unless they are the sole focus of a series. And even then there are no guarantees, based on how prevalent monocultures are throughout science fiction.

 

[Markonian]

Could’ve tried that with the Bajorans.

 

[fireproof78]

I think the biggest reason as to why Alien cultures in Trek tend to be "mono-cultural" is that they aren't at the centre of the narrative enough to enable the shows to develop multiple cultures per species.

Indeed. Even in ENT Soval rattles off singular traits of other races but then Vulcans can't figure out humans. And the only way to fix that is to create variables from the jump.

 

[Shawnster]

What brought up this topic for me is the it extends to starships. Only see Romulans in Dderix or valdore ships, or Cardasian in Galor class.
Where the federation has dozens of different classes of ships.

At least TOS-R showed a mix of Romulan ships in The Enterprise Incident

 

[at Quark's]

Could’ve tried that with the Bajorans.

For all we know, 85% of the Bajorans is as unspiritual and secular as other species. Those simply never came to the station, or didn't visit to 'holy sites' on Bajor. But yes, if so, we never saw them.

 

[Sakonna]

One of DS9's greatest contributions to the franchise was establishing that, to the aliens, humans are also a monoculture -- the relentlessly cheerful try-hards of the galaxy.

Of course, to my great frustration, subsequent Trek has mostly tossed this stroke of brilliance aside. I think the low point was this Enterprise bit...

Even in ENT Soval rattles off singular traits of other races but then Vulcans can't figure out humans. And the only way to fix that is to create variables from the jump.

I could have thrown a hammer into the TV. Out of all the shit writing in Enterprise, here we have the single most insufferable segment.

 

[Sci]

For all we know, 85% of the Bajorans is as unspiritual and secular as other species. Those simply never came to the station, or didn't visit to 'holy sites' on Bajor. But yes, if so, we never saw them.

No, "Emissary, Parts I & II" made it very clear that the overwhelming majority of Bajorans followed the Bajoran religion and that allegiance to the Kai was the only thing that every major political faction had in common.

 

[Forbin]

I think it stems from the narrative technique of commenting on a trait of human behavior by making an alien culture that exaggerates that one trait in order to examine it from a distance, and show the rest of us how it's either wrong or noble. The story only requires us to look at ourselves in this one light, so that's the only light they're shown in.

 

[Forbin]

One of the worst misuses of the monoculture, IMHO, is the fuss over the physical appearance of Klingons. We had to go through that ridiculous augment virus crapola to explain the forehead evolution, when all they had to do was realize that the Klingon Empire is made up of many different planets and peoples. The simplest explanation of all was that Kirk only encountered Klingons from a certain planet where they had smooth heads; in later years maybe that planet fell out of grace and Klingons from a ridge-headed planet came to the fore in their military service. Look at the US armed forces, where we have people whose ancestry and ethnicity hails from all over the planet serving together.

 

[Starbreaker]

Picard has certainly fixed this with the Romulans and I think the Klingons are shown to be pretty well diverse too.

 

[Deks]

Indeed. Even in ENT Soval rattles off singular traits of other races but then Vulcans can't figure out humans. And the only way to fix that is to create variables from the jump.

Maybe not.
What we do know of Trek history shown thus far is that various alien species being 'mono cultural' may have been the driving factor behind those species achieving Warp capability and becoming part of the larger galactic community faster than humanity.
Think about it... less cultural diversity means that most of the time they might not have had nearly as many issues as humanity did.
Or, what those cultures did is go through various stages of change and education earlier where they figured out that maybe they shouldn't be treating others of their kind differently solely on account of them coming from a different region of the planet or having slightly different physiological differences.

As such, having a unified global educational system would have resulted in types of people who end up sharing more similarities than differences.

From there, I guess each species 'adopted' a certain physiological trait to possibly make it a point of common interest - a unifying factor on a species level of sorts (if that makes sense).

Remember that for humans, going over cultural barriers comes down primarily to education... learning that at the core, we're basically all human and that discriminating against each other for 'minor' things is utterly senseless and mainly stems from lack of exposure/environment and bad educational practices.

Humanity also went through WWIII, and immediately after that suddenly ended up having FC with Vulcans. This followed massive amounts of socio-economic and educational reforms on Earth which ultimately paved the way for more evolved humanity... who then took it even further and started breaking down barriers between species and resulted in UFP.

On a galactic level, humans seem to have achieved certain levels of advancements faster than some other species (such as the Ferengi). And given the opportunity, even if they started off as 'behind' most species... by just observing more advanced technologies of others, they were able to develop those by themselves in much less time.

One of the primary requirements for a planet/species to join UFP would be to have a unified and functional global government and no major internal issues - aka, a global society.

In this sense, think of it like this... even if other alien species did have divisive cultures at one point in their history, by creating a globalised society (before humanity achieved Warp) that's inclusive and having 'melting pots' where technology would also help interconnect everyone... a new type of global culture would probably emerge.

No one says that there isn't 'diversity' in alien species, but they DO seem to share various traits inherent to their homeworlds... each of which could have singular globalized culture on the planet that stemmed from having a unified world to begin with (earlier than Humans).

 

[valkyrie013]

@Deks
Lets look at Enterprise, on the bridge you had a British Tactical officer, Southern Engineer, Korean communications, boomer helm. All different cultures, but 1 ship.
Even in Tng, when Obrian and Keiko got married, she was in a traditional Kimono.

Looking further out, in Babylon 5, you still had nation states, but a singular government. Think of it as the United States, individual states, but a central government.

Looking at my history, in school, i was tought World history, then American history, and then State history, even some county, city history. The traditions get passed on.

With Trek, you go down the "Stereotype" rabbit hole. Say your Typical Vulcan. bowl hair cut, logical. But that Vulcan is still from a certain part of Vulcan, Instead of a city in the desert, there from a city thats by one of there oceans/seas. They would have a different history, say like Japan from Austria. They may even look different, like Ridgeless Romulans are from the north. They would be tought Vulcan history, but they would also be tought local history, and most would practice logic, but its not Illogical to learn and practice local customs and traditions.
Example would be, someone calling out a Vulcan for being from the Zenkethi province, based on there accent, and robe colors.

Mono Culture is basically, the Stereotype of that species, the " majority" as you will. However, as long as the traditions and historys of certain areas, hell even certain planets if that species has colonies, yes there will be stereotypical majority, but would still be differences.

 

[Nyotarules]

In trek history, not many species have been delved into concerning there cultures. Even with well established species like Vulcans, klingons etc. They seem to have 1 overriding culture.
Everybody on the planet prays to this 1 god, everybody has bowl haircut. There's no differences, no regional dialects

What brought up this topic for me is the it extends to starships. Only see Romulans in Dderix or valdore ships, or Cardasian in Galor class.
Where the federation has dozens of different classes of ships.

So, a starting question would be , how do we fix this? How do we introduce diversity into trek species?

Some dedicated episodes? Not just featuring there planet bit going around to different cities on the planet. Bring some members of that species as characters and explore? ( Tellerites come to mind). Thoughts?

1. Show more than one Vulcan, Klingon, Betazoid on the T.V bridge and get rid of all those humans. Love SNW but too many human staff on the show, I like Enterprise but even the Admiralty and the politicians suffered from 'White American male' syndrome for a 22nd century United Earth
2. Write a Trek novel where you can go to town on fictional alien diversity (e.g The Titan series, the New Frontier series)
3. Write and complain to the present day Trek producers. "we want more alien crew! Increase the make up budget!"

 

[Mojochi]

One of DS9's greatest contributions to the franchise was establishing that, to the aliens, humans are also a monoculture -- the relentlessly cheerful try-hards of the galaxy

Exactly how I've always interpreted things. It's perspective, & it's not exactly unrooted in our own real tribalisms & prejudices about our varied human cultures, which to many, for a very loooong time, were thought of as monoculture by others

I actually enjoy that DS9 take on humanity from the outside too. There's even a small bit that showed up on TNG, where Lwaxana gives a toast to Earth Men, "who despite their faults, have that unique ability to charm women of all races, in all corners of the galaxy."

To everyone else, that's who humans are, the charmers, & when you include that into your head canon, a LOT of things make more sense, like Why Earth is a focal point of the UFP, & why starfleet ships are overwhelmed with humans comparatively, or why TONS of treaties are struck by the humans etc...

Where Vulcans have logic, & Klingons have honor, & Ferengi have profit, Humans have zeal & charm as their calling card

 

[Orphalesion]

2. Write a Trek novel where you can go to town on fictional alien diversity (e.g The Titan series, the New Frontier series)

But see, that was one of the aspects that rubbed me wrong about the novelverse. We suddenly have crews with a huge number of exotic, often non-humanoid aliens as bridge officers that, apparently, were always just hiding off-screen during every tv episode.
One of the smaller things I really like about Lower Decks is that they didn't go as crazy as they could with the alien bridge officers/main characters. It makes it feel more in-tune with the other tv shows.
(and I say that as somebody who loves alien characters)
And even so Lower Decks managed to give us a very unconventional Orion, a Caitian who is *very* unlike the last Caitian shown and a pretty good look at how different Vulcans and Klingons can be from each other in that episode where they looked at the other ships.

 

[XCV330]

Star Trek is storytelling on the macro level. They have to use a broad brush when alien of the week gets less than an hour of screen time, and even the more commonly used species still are just one in a large collection. Each one stands for some magnified human trait, for good or for ill, normally the latter.

Or maybe humans were so successful BECAUSE they were so diverse compared to most other species. They're IDIC put to the crucible, whereas Vulcanians split into two distinct species based on past histories and cultural/ideological differences. I would like to think there's room to differentiate the Andorrians. Despite what Soval said (and he was hardly objective), there hasn't been that much known about them. If we think of Andorrians as militant, it might be because virtually everyone seen has been in a uniform on a starship or otherwise fighting someone.

Our two best known Andorrians at this point are Shran and Jennifer, and the two are very different, so there's that.

 

[UssGlenn]

No, "Emissary, Parts I & II" made it very clear that the overwhelming majority of Bajorans followed the Bajoran religion and that allegiance to the Kai was the only thing that every major political faction had in common.

Even so, it also showed that there was different sects within the Bajoran religion. It's like how Christians, Jews, and Muslims, all worship the same God, and the next "Pope" could be Muslim or Jewish.

 

[fireproof78]

No one says that there isn't 'diversity' in alien species, but they DO seem to share various traits inherent to their homeworlds... each of which could have singular globalized culture on the planet that stemmed from having a unified world to begin with (earlier than Humans).

Potentially, but one would expect variation, even minor, which is not always present in presentation of aliens, even well known ones.