You can forgive The Tholian Web as he was under the influence of that area of space. But he should have been written more like he was in The Gamesters of Triskelion in The Galileo Seven. Offering criticism, but not condemnation.
McCoy a racist?
- Thread starter Frontis
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I'd say that sedating Spock in "The Empath", so the Vians horribly tortured him instead of Spock (despite the Vians having stated that McCoy was the most likely to die) was, in fact, very nice of him. At least I hope I don't need to ever go to such extents to be perceived as "nice".
But that's a different topic altogether, than two friends poking fun at each other.
Back in the 70s and 80s, my Dad was a member of our town VFW, ambulance corps, and Lions Club. Our area of NJ, not far from NYC, was yer basic melting pot of 2nd/3rd gen Dutch, German, Italian, Scottish, Polish, etc immigrant descendants. Sit in on one of those meetings and you heard one hell of a repertoire of ethnic jokes, playfully bandied about.
Nice shoutout to Little House on the Prairie
No, McCoy's not racist. And I'm sick of people saying he was, even as a joke.
They’re fictional. I might be more offended if they existed. But fiction likes to use shorthand for aliens to give us the gist of what they’re about. Especially in a medium like television.
Well, we met some quite racist species but this doesn't mean there are no racist thoughts in the Federation. Once again, I don't think McCoy is a racist but some of his comments are. Also Archer could be interpreted racist sometimes f.e. Generally I think racism will never die and this is sad of course.
T'Pau came by it honestly.
Fiction is quite capable of nuance. Does 'shorthand' have to mean "They're all the same cardboard cutouts"? A few species evolved over time to individual members, and a few planets have two - never more than two - distinct cultures, which are at odds, which makes the plot - but none can have disparate cultures like Earth does. Aliens have hair, wear skirts if they're female, are all pretty similar in attitude and have a single planetary government. Is that probable?
Of course it's capable of nuance. No one said otherwise. But the level of nuance is going to governed by many factors. Nuance is easier in an unlimited format like prose, with unlimited "budgets", the time to spend on details and internal thought. Can it be done on screen? Sure, but again shorthand. The cultures seen in the Expanse are much more nuanced than what got to the screen. But the use of shorthand conveys a lot.
Alien, if and when we meet them will not be played by humans in makeup and costumes. They very may well have cultures as disparate as Earth. Fiction though is not required to be "probable".
It is, by many viewers and readers, required to be somewhat plausible, or we can't relate to it. Makeup and costumes can be more imaginative and dialogue might be a little more varied. If they could do that for Klingons, they could do it for other races. The rigid stereotyping isn't due to constraints of screen size, budget or run-time. There is no good reason an entire species has to be mercenaries or merchants or war-mongers. I'm not sure what it's due to, but I can't help suspecting prejudice, which is redeemed, the writers and/or producers believe, by the further absurdity of mixing a few dark-skinned actors into every white alien crowd. I rather like the blue ones, though.
A topic that has been addressed by the shows. Most recently by Lower Decks
Prejudice is a pretty far leap here.
I appreciate that, ever since that wholly absurd episode in the original series with the black/white guys. At the time, the point needed to be in-your-face obvious.
It's just that by the second one, I had hoped it would mature more.
Oh well, "You can't always get what you wa-ant..."
Second one?
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