An Alien Series Lead

[Bry_Sinclair]

So far only Prodigy has finally done away with the need for a human as the main character of a Trek show (a pity it's not on a platform I'm already paying for, but I digress), but would a live action show ever take that "risk" and give us an alien lead?

Time and again, I've always found alien characters to be far more interesting and compelling than the dull generic humans on a Trek show, so I'd love to see a series with only 1-2 token humans in supporting roles.

Anyone else fancy it?

 

[wayoung]

Well, to be pedantic, the lead in

Spoiler: Picard season 1 spoiler

Picard Seasons 2 & 3 isn't a human, it's an Android with a human's memories.

 

[Qonundrum]

Any actor with a strong lead presence... heck, we've seen CGI replacing TOS Enterprise's bridge with the actors doing their thing. We've seen older actors looking like their younger selves. Replace Picard's head with that of a gigantic rhino or three-eyestalked snail or something else and it'd work just as well. Stewart could sell just about anything, even some of TNG season 1's worst outings are rendered better because he's there. And that was no easy task that few actors can achieve... granted, it might be cheaper to plop a latex mask as all that rendering time takes a bit of time and wattage and stuff... but the good old days where acting and the story had to do the gruntwork started to vanish after, say, 1977 where revolutionized effects took center stage...

 

[C.E. Evans]

If you look at PROD, even though the crew is mostly alien, their mannerisms by and large are quite Human. An audience can still relate to them because they have strengths and weaknesses just like the rest of us. Their alienness is mainly confined to their individual appearances and backgrounds, but they don't really define them.

Take a look at Spock. A Vulcan-Human who embraces the repressed emotional traditions of his alien half. And yet, he is also relatable because we know of people who are reserved and aren't good at parties.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

If you look at PROD, even though the crew is mostly alien, their mannerisms by and large are quite Human. An audience can still relate to them because they have strengths and weaknesses just like the rest of us. Their alienness is mainly confined to their individual appearances and backgrounds, but they don't really define them.

Take a look at Spock. A Vulcan-Human who embraces the repressed emotional traditions of his alien half. And yet, he is also relatable because we know of people who are reserved and aren't good at parties.

Right, that's why I think it would be anti-climactic to have an alien captain if they're basically human in every way except appearance. There could be other ways they could make it interesting, but overall, I doubt it would be a significant shift. Still, seeing some additional variety would be nice within the diverse Federation. So give it a go.

 

[wayoung]

Right, that's why I think it would be anti-climactic to have an alien captain if they're basically human in every way except appearance. There could be other ways they could make it interesting, but overall, I doubt it would be a significant shift. Still, seeing some additional variety would be nice within the diverse Federation. So give it a go.

Well we had an

Spoiler: Disco spoiler

Alien captain of the hero ship in Discovery, just wasn't the series lead.

 

[Orphalesion]

If you look at PROD, even though the crew is mostly alien, their mannerisms by and large are quite Human. An audience can still relate to them because they have strengths and weaknesses just like the rest of us. Their alienness is mainly confined to their individual appearances and backgrounds, but they don't really define them.

But isn't that true for all major Alien characters in Star Trek? Aren't Kira, Quark, Worf, Tendi etc. very "human" characters? Maybe sometimes more so than the human ones?

So I see nothing wrong with an alien series lead, as long as they still touch on some aspect of the "human" condition.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

My favorite captain, the Martian?
Captain Mork, from Ork?
Captain Alf?

Ugh. (Just trying to recollect TV series that were in any way successful that had an extraterrestrial character as the lead or top-billed.)

All comedy, by the way.

 

[Orphalesion]

My favorite captain, the Martian?
Captain Mork, from Ork?
Captain Alf?

Ugh. (Just trying to recollect TV series that were in any way successful that had an extraterrestrial character as the lead or top-billed.)

All comedy, by the way.

Well if we go by strictly "non-human"...how about the Lord of the Rings? In fact until we reach Rohan there's only one ordinary human in the story and he dies in the first book.

Watership Down?

Call of the WIld?

I'd say the Last Unicorn, but most of that book is really about how the human characters interact with the unicorn.

Those are not scifi, but if it can be done in fantasy/xeno-fiction, I suspect it can be done in scifi too.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Well if we go by strictly "non-human"...how about the Lord of the Rings? In fact until we reach Rohan there's only one ordinary human in the story and he dies in the first book.

Watership Down?

Call of the WIld?

I'd say the Last Unicorn, but most of that book is really about how the human characters interact with the unicorn.

I was talking TV series. I think I mentioned that.

The distinction is a material one, unless we're talking limited series. Films tend to have a beginning, middle, and end, to tell one story. In a TV show, the premise has to lend itself to focusing on multiple stories.

Perhaps I should add Loki to the list, though. A second season is reported to be in development.

 

[Orphalesion]

I was talking TV series. I think I mentioned that.

But if it can be done in a book, it can be done in a tv series.

Plus, there is a Watership Down TV series (it's a cartoon, admittedly, but it exists)

 

[C.E. Evans]

But isn't that true for all major Alien characters in Star Trek? Aren't Kira, Quark, Worf, Tendi etc. very "human" characters? Maybe sometimes more so than the human ones?

That's exactly my point. These alien characters all tend to have something very Human that audiences can relate to. Most alien races in Trek represent an aspect of Humanity--either past or present--for good or for ill.

So I see nothing wrong with an alien series lead, as long as they still touch on some aspect of the "human" condition.

I would argue that an alien series lead will probably have to carry a major aspect of the Human condition. It doesn't matter if the character is Vulcan, Klingon, or Nashiran. there's probably going to be a lot in that character that we see in ourselves or maybe even want to be in real life.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Plus, there is a Watership Down TV series (it's a cartoon, admittedly, but it exists)

Ah, OK. Although fantasy rabbits aren't really the same as extraterrestrials, there's clearly an enormous overlap. And we're not talking fantasy rabbits interacting with a lot of human characters, are we?

But if it can be done in a book, it can be done in a tv series.

I edited in a few additional remarks to my previous post that address this point. I can't agree that this necessarily follows, because the premise of a TV show must be sustainable over multiple episodes, except in the case of a limited series, in a way that a movie's need not be.

 

[Orphalesion]

That's exactly my point. These alien characters all tend to have something very Human that audiences can relate to. Most alien races in Trek represent an aspect of Humanity--either past or present--for good or for ill.

And I see nothing wrong with that, and it would make them excellent series leads.

I would argue that an alien series lead will probably have to carry a major aspect of the Human condition. It doesn't matter if the character is Vulcan, Klingon, or Nashiran. there's probably going to be a lot in that character that we see in ourselves or maybe even want to be in real life.

I know I would watch the hell out of a Kira series.

Ah, OK. Although fantasy rabbits aren't really the same as extraterrestrials, there's clearly an enormous overlap. And we're not talking fantasy rabbits interacting with a lot of human characters, are we?

Nah, the rabbits in Watership Down were fairly rabbit-like and never interacted with humans, though the show, from what I remember, did kiddify them a bit more and well...there are some mild fantasy elements (such as precognition) in all incarnations of the franchise. They, for example, couldn't get their heads around why a boat could float on the water and they never used technology or anything like that. And humans were always portrayed as this unknowable force who's actions are difficult to interpret for the rabbits and other animals. The most human aspect of the rabbit characters is probably that they have religion. But again, the aliens in Star Trek are very "human", more so than the Rabbits in Watership Down, I'd say.
Also I never said that there was overlap between rabbits and extra-terrestrials, just that narratives carried by non-human characters are possible.

I edited in a few additional remarks to my previous post that address this point. I can't agree that this necessarily follows, because the premise of a TV show must be sustainable over multiple episodes, except in the case of a limited series, in a way that a movie is not.

Maybe not with everything in a book, that is true, but I think an alien lead after the fashion of most alien Star Trek characters would be more than doable. As I said, I would watch a show with Major Kira in the lead.
Or a Data series, for that matter, I sure as hell can relate a lot more to Data than I can to Riker, a character I can't relate to at all.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I would watch a show with Major Kira in the lead.

I absolutely would. I would like to see that perhaps even more than a Seven of Nine series, and I love Seven of Nine.

Kira fits the bill of a character who is essentially human and only technically alien. Her conception as a loyal and religiously faithful member of an ancient but oppressed people and her backstory as a resistance fighter are all interesting and relevant to today's real world. She's one of the few examples in Star Trek of a complex three-dimensional character. Most don't go beyond two dimensions, and many stop at one.

To do Kira justice would require a bold approach, in my view, something that would depend upon those attributes of hers that set her apart from most of the other characters in the franchise.

 

[C.E. Evans]

And I see nothing wrong with that, and it would make them excellent series leads.

They'd basically would be Humans then.

 

[fireproof78]

So far only Prodigy has finally done away with the need for a human as the main character of a Trek show (a pity it's not on a platform I'm already paying for, but I digress), but would a live action show ever take that "risk" and give us an alien lead?

Time and again, I've always found alien characters to be far more interesting and compelling than the dull generic humans on a Trek show, so I'd love to see a series with only 1-2 token humans in supporting roles.

Anyone else fancy it?

Sure. Why not?

 

[JoaquinSlowly]

I’m all for it.

I thought of several other other series where some of the leads or co-leads have been aliens:
Alien Nation
Roswell and its remake/2nd adaptation, Roswell, NM
Resident Alien
3rd Rock from the Sun (a show about aliens that included an important figure played by Shatner himself)
Defiance
People of Earth
Farscape
The Neighbors
Out of this World
The Adventures of Superman, and its many subsequent iterations & sequels like,
Superboy
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Superman the Animated Series
Smallville
Supergirl
Krypton
Superman & Lois
Legion of Superheroes
And currently coming from Trek’s own Alex Kurtzman, a television sequel to the film starring David Bowie of the same name, The Man Who Fell to Earth

 

[CorporalCaptain]

*smacks forehead* Do'h, Superman and Supergirl, of course.

 

[Komutan]

How about a completely unhuman lead? An insectoid Xindi or a Gorn?