Cast the Characters of Trek Literature

[Sci]

Personally, I think when the character keeps being mistaken for a VULCAN, demanding a Chinese actress play the part is absurd. <SNIP> Perhaps the writers should make more of a point about her Chinese looks, and stop having people think she's a Vulcan.

Is there any particular reason the characters would react to or make note of her Chinese-Human heritage more than her Vulcan heritage? I mean, looking like you come from Asia probably means nothing to the people in the STU -- it probably doesn't really register with them in the same way that being Vulcan or being Andorian or any other given species would register. Take away the pointy ears and eyebrows, and they wouldn't look at T'Rys and say, "She looks Chinese," they'd look at her and say, "She looks Human."

 

[Aaron McGuire]

I pictured Grace Park and T'Ryssa for a while.

And you may say to me "Aaron, Grace Park is Korean," to which I say that it wouldn't be the first time that Star Trek mixed up their Asians. After all, Garret Wong is Chinese and played someone of Korean decent and Linda Park played a Japanese woman.

Aaron McGuire

 

[Christopher]

^And Sulu has now been played by a Japanese actor and a Korean actor.

 

[DevilEyes]

I pictured Grace Park and T'Ryssa for a while.

And you may say to me "Aaron, Grace Park is Korean," to which I say that it wouldn't be the first time that Star Trek mixed up their Asians. After all, Garret Wong is Chinese and played someone of Korean decent and Linda Park played a Japanese woman.

Aaron McGuire

And an Englishman played a Frenchman, and a Canadian and an Englishman both played a Scotsman, and an American played a Russian. So I suppose Star Trek "mixes up" their Europeans, as well.

It would be pretty silly to limit actors to always playing exclusively people of their own nationality and ethnic group. As long as they can visually pass as the character's ethnicity, and as long that there are no jarring moments like speaking their "first language" with a strong foreign accent or doing a very bad imitation of a certain accent that their character is supposed to have, I see no problem.

 

[captcalhoun]

you mean like a Canadian who can't do Scots or an American who can't do Russian?

 

[DevilEyes]

you mean like a Canadian who can't do Scots or an American who can't do Russian?

Sort of like that.

Funny how these characters ended up being quite popular despite that?

 

[Captaindemotion]

^You saw the wink smiley, didn't you? He was being sarcastic, listing some of the most egregiously and offensively bad attempts by Caucasians to play Asians in the movies.

Thank you for pointing that out. I can't believe anyone took me seriously - even without the smiley, it should have been evident ...

 

[JD]

Sorry, even in reality I can't always read sarcasm.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ No worries and anyway, you weren't alone in your interpretation.

This keeps happening to me. A few weeks ago in a West Wing thread, someone suggested a behind-the-scenes show at the UN. I suggested that it would be like a non sci-fi Babylon 5, then someone else pointed out that for it to be like B5, the UN would have to do various nasty power-grabbing things, like happened in B5, which the UN wasn't capable of doing. I replied something like 'Well, unless the Michigan Milita are right', thinking it was so evidently ridiculous that it didn't require a smiley. Buuuuuuut .... - well, guess the rest.

 

[Sci]

^ No worries and anyway, you weren't alone in your interpretation.

This keeps happening to me. A few weeks ago in a West Wing thread, someone suggested a behind-the-scenes show at the UN. I suggested that it would be like a non sci-fi Babylon 5, then someone else pointed out that for it to be like B5, the UN would have to do various nasty power-grabbing things, like happened in B5, which the UN wasn't capable of doing. I replied something like 'Well, unless the Michigan Milita are right', thinking it was so evidently ridiculous that it didn't require a smiley. Buuuuuuut .... - well, guess the rest.

Yeah, that was me. My bad.

In my defense, that same thread had someone spouting paranoid nonsense about how the United Nations Charter has provisions allowing for the U.N. to raise its own army. (It does not.) So hopefully my miscomprehension of your statement is somewhat understandable in that context.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ I know (I remembered that it was you, but didn't like to name you, by the way!). And as I'm beginning to discover (even after nearly a decade on the BBS) is that there is no viewpoint or statement so ludicrous that there still won't be someone on the boards to believe it. So I can see why you assumed I was another one of the crazies (thanks mate!).

 

[snakespeare]

Personally, I think when the character keeps being mistaken for a VULCAN, demanding a Chinese actress play the part is absurd. <SNIP> Perhaps the writers should make more of a point about her Chinese looks, and stop having people think she's a Vulcan.

Is there any particular reason the characters would react to or make note of her Chinese-Human heritage more than her Vulcan heritage? I mean, looking like you come from Asia probably means nothing to the people in the STU -- it probably doesn't really register with them in the same way that being Vulcan or being Andorian or any other given species would register. Take away the pointy ears and eyebrows, and they wouldn't look at T'Rys and say, "She looks Chinese," they'd look at her and say, "She looks Human."

I'm sure it's not for the people of the STU that the casting is aimed at, but the present day people in the theatre if it were a movie. And in that light, clearly, Christopher wants the character to have high cheekbones and epicanthic folds, so that we, the viewers, know she's half-Chinese.

 

[justcorbly]

Anyone else think Allison Mack might make a good Federation caption? In the style of Ezri Dax. And, assuming that de Boer isn't available, or has aged more than Ezri in the interim. (She's 40, and Ezri isn't.)

I know she played as a high school kid in much of Smallville, but recently she's dropped the adolescent voice and attitude and begun acting as an adult.

 

[snakespeare]

Anyone else think Allison Mack might make a good Federation caption? In the style of Ezri Dax. And, assuming that de Boer isn't available, or has aged more than Ezri in the interim. (She's 40, and Ezri isn't.)

I know she played as a high school kid in much of Smallville, but recently she's dropped the adolescent voice and attitude and begun acting as an adult.

I think Nikki De Boer has aged well. She was 29 years old playing Ezri in Season 7. Ten years have passed in her life, five have passed in the novels. At 40 she looks great and could easily play a character who is in her early 30s.

A Starfleet Captain has to look more grown-up than she did in Season 7, so the aging is a good thing, IMO.

Allison Mack still looks too young to be a convincing Starfleet Captain, I think.

 

[Garm Bel Iblis]

Counselor Hugh Laurie Gregory House Cambridge

the stubbly beared, the unkempt uniform, the acerbic attitude, the fact that he's British. I'm definitely getting a Doctor House vibe from Voyager's new counselor...

Was that intended by the author?

 

[Paris]

Re: Counselor Hugh Laurie Gregory House Cambridge

Yes.

 

[JD]

Re: Counselor Hugh Laurie Gregory House Cambridge

I think his name and background are even Easter egg references to Hugh Laurie.

 

[LightningStorm]

Indeed Hugh Laurie attended Cambridge University.

 

[Herbert1]

Funny, when I think of Hugh Laurie I picture him as Bertie Wooster, the Prince Regent, or Lieutenant The Honourable George Colthurst St. Barleigh and not Dr. Gregory House, MD.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^Same here. Always tickles me when people associate him with sarcasm and grouchiness instead of upper-class twittery.