pookha said:
Cary L. Brown said:
Something to consider... it may seem "politically correct" to put all variety of aliens together, but it's not necessarily PRACTICAL.
First off... we know that although in TOS times they can replicate some materials (basic foodstuffs, for instance) they aren't down to replicating all variety of complex molecules... like, say, medicines.
Translation... if you have one species on board, you need to carry medicines for that species. If you have 430 individuals, all from different species, you need medicines for each and every one of them.
we saw bones come up with medicines to treat a number of aliens that they met so i dont see that as a big objectionn.
climate may be bigger but the andorians ect didnt seem to have a lot of trouble in babel.
it just makes sense to have more aliens mixed .
not a huge number but something like we saw in tas.
Well, if there ARE non-humans on board the ship, it would need to be justifiable. I'm not saying it's IMPOSSIBLE to have a largely mixed crew, after all, just that it's far more DIFFICULT than to have a homogenous crew.
Spock was the "first Vulcan in Starfleet." Obviously he was forced to serve among people who weren't Vulcans. (Eventually, it seems that a group of serving Vulcans were given Starfleet commissions and assigned, en-masse, to the Intrepid... probably as an effort to really bring Vulcans into the Starfleet system).
We know that Vulcans find the scent of Humans to be offensive... per ENT (which I can accept) but that eventually they become "used to it."
Perhaps we can also accept that Caitians and Edoans are also biologically/environmentally close enough to Humans that the potential concerns would be minimized. That is... both species share the same visual, auditory, and olefactory characteristics as Humans, are largely biochemically compatible, and are culturally (and yes, "body-odor-ally") both non-offensive to Humans and find human characteristics non-offensive.
The trick is still to realize that it's just EASIER to keep a homogenous crew. So having mixed crews would inevitably be more likely based upon either socio-political engineering, or upon absolute necessity.
Sociopolitical engineering,here, means "people are complaining about segregated starships... we need to demonstrate that this isn't our goal." Put a few basically-compatible non-humans on a human-majority ship... or put a human or two on a Caitian-majority ship... or whatever else... just to prove that "We're an equal opportunity Federation."
Abolute necessity is either of the following two circumstances:
"The only really qualified person, or by far the BEST qualified person, is not of the same species as the majority of the ship's population, and we're willing to make that EXTRA EFFORT because that individual is worth the extra work."
OR...
"We have a ship that wasn't supposed to launch for several months, still, but we really need to send it out ahead of schedule because a 'Mysterious Unknown Force (tm)' is approaching Earth and we need a crew... FAST!"
So, it's reasonable to assume that Arex is both biochemically and culturally non-offensive to humans, and the converse applies as well, AND that he's able to eat the same foods humans do, AND that he was far more qualified for the job than anyone else who was available at the time, AND that there was a political incentive for putting him on board (possible as the first Edoan in Starfleet?)
Similar things would apply to M'Ress... but I hesitate to even start talking about "biological compatibility" considering some of the ... oh, how can I put this... "above PG-rated" thoughts some folks here seem to have re: this character!
