Characters You Would Have Liked to See!

[MeanJoePhaser]

Someone like Johann Kraus from HELLBOY 2. A creature that was just gas but was encased in a suit.

How about a symbiotic life form that uses non-sentient hosts. Any excuse for a talking dog or a chimp.

A chick with 3 breasts (hey, TNG had the actress from Total Recall once).

A humanoid with no gender. Not that THE OUTCAST species, but one with no gender identity or discernable organs.

 

[Wonderlust King]

A Gorn in Starfleet.

 

[Timewalker]

TNG or VOY should have had a Horta regular. I loved the character of Naraht in Diane Duane's novels!

 

[Red Ranger]

TNG or VOY should have had a Horta regular. I loved the character of Naraht in Diane Duane's novels!

Me, too, Timewalker. A lot of the novel characters were fascinating. One of my favorites was Mandala Flynn, the hot-tempered red-head security chief who first appeared in Vonda McIntyre's The Entropy Effect. She was created years before the hot-tempered Tasha Yar and before Vasquez in Aliens. -- RR

 

[The Wormhole]

I want a Romulan serving in Starfleet who is rude, sarcastic, and a bitter, miserable bastard.

 

[Red Ranger]

I would love to see a hot Cardassian doctor, a bit like Tracy Scoggins' Cardassian who thinks O'Brien was flirting with her! -- RR

 

[enan]

I always liked Arex the three legged/armed navigator from the animated series, but the cost of a CG character like that week in and week out would never have let them use him as a regular, but maybe a movie cameo sometime.

 

[prometheuspan]

Satyrs. Fairies. Elves. Dragons. Centaurs. Just to start.

The thing i notice most about trek is theres not enough diversity. Everybody
is talking about species already seen on trek. In real life if there was that much life in the galaxy it would be a hundred times more diverse. Each type of sentient thinks in a different way and so the smart thing for starfleet to do is
to mix it up. I'd like to see CGI characters with six arms and three heads,
and antennae stalks with eyes. Blobular slime sentients with no appendages,
just blobulated temporary extensions of their blobbyness.

Sentients based on the concepts of terrestrial animals; cats, dogs, frogs, mice, wolverines, bears, birds, bees, deer, horses, ferrets, snakes, etc etc.

Seriously, humans by picards era should be a minority on any federation starship.

 

[Red Ranger]

Satyrs. Fairies. Elves. Dragons. Centaurs. Just to start.

The thing i notice most about trek is theres not enough diversity. Everybody
is talking about species already seen on trek. In real life if there was that much life in the galaxy it would be a hundred times more diverse. Each type of sentient thinks in a different way and so the smart thing for starfleet to do is
to mix it up. I'd like to see CGI characters with six arms and three heads,
and antennae stalks with eyes. Blobular slime sentients with no appendages,
just blobulated temporary extensions of their blobbyness.

Sentients based on the concepts of terrestrial animals; cats, dogs, frogs, mice, wolverines, bears, birds, bees, deer, horses, ferrets, snakes, etc etc.

Seriously, humans by picards era should be a minority on any federation starship.

Hmmm. To your last point, would that be seen as a message to the majority in the U.S. that it's time to wake up and realize that in a generation or two, they'll be in the minority, so get ready? Just kidding, but statisticians project that by 2042, Americans of European descent will be outnumbered by other ethnic and racial minorities, primarily Hispanics. I am working on a story treatment that comments on that, with humans and ETs used as proxies, respectively, for white Americans and ethnic minorities. Tell me, have you read any of the Titan ST novels? Diversity is the core of those books. -- RR

 

[prometheuspan]

uhm, no. i had no political undertones or sub texts at all intended or implied.

You raise an interesting point, tho

 

[captcalhoun]

the Titan novel series explores that point, humans being a minority on the crew.

it's stated a big reason why the aliens tend toward the minority and humans the majority is largely due to problems in putting a number of vastly different races on ships together. like 3-ft tall aliens along side 6' humans having trouble reaching controls, big spider/crab type aliens having trouble walking down a corridor, water-breathers needing to wear special suits outside their quarters...

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

I'd like to see a cast that has characters with a natural sense of humor. Characters whose personalities may clash with each other (but this doesn't always lead to conflict). Characters with in-jokes with each other. Give them the little things that give them life.

And for once in Trek, can we have a sarcastic, quippy character? Must everyone be so stiff?

I would like to see a character duo where the first officer (Who is more experienced) is passed up for command of said ship and ends up being the first officer, while the captain of the ship seems to be there for political reasons (and indeed her promotion as well) and isn't particularly experienced or well-suited to the task. So there would be a tension between the captain and first officer, where they'd be constantly disagreeing on issues and number one would be bitter about being passed up for command.

And just for fun, let's throw in a crewmember from a species who reproduce asexually or are cloned and doesn't "Get it".

And a Ferengi running the bar/lounge, perhaps?

 

[captcalhoun]

try the New Frontier novels. except for the Ferengi bit, they gotcha covered.

 

[prometheuspan]

the Titan novel series explores that point, humans being a minority on the crew.

it's stated a big reason why the aliens tend toward the minority and humans the majority is largely due to problems in putting a number of vastly different races on ships together. like 3-ft tall aliens along side 6' humans having trouble reaching controls, big spider/crab type aliens having trouble walking down a corridor, water-breathers needing to wear special suits outside their quarters...

All problems with which I am both familiar and of which I can see easy remedies.

The simple solution is to create several parallel habitats which are slightly
different to accomodate a cluster of species. This might not be feasible in
a constellation size ship, but a galaxy class could be retrofitted with 4 or 6
sections in the saucer hull, esp if you drop the number of residents down from 3000 to 1000 or so.

Many of the fan created ships are significantly larger than a galaxy class
ship.

Yes there are problems, but Star fleet seems to get the IDIC principle,
and it wins against species such as the Borg Via the assorted differences
of thought of different species and perspectives. This is not merely theory
or good drama, it is simple systems theory fact. Any different species will have different neurological pathways and different brain structures, and will think in different ways. The combined intelligence of a group is fundamentally based on the diversity of that group. 2800 humans and 100
aliens on a Galaxy class ship is simply a dumb way to use the sentient resources of different species. I understand how and why star trek as entertainment was forced to cut corners, but the simple reality is that the larger the the diversity the smarter the group intelligence and thus the more powerful its problem solving skills.

For this reason, the factual reality of a star trek like civilization would be that they would mix it up as much as possible. Certainly it is true that some species would simply not go well together, either for psychological or ecological reasons, but it is just as true that in a galaxy with thousands of different sentient species haling from as many different worlds that there would be many species who would be likely to be comfortable or nearly so in Human standard ecological conditions.

 

[Red Ranger]

the Titan novel series explores that point, humans being a minority on the crew.

it's stated a big reason why the aliens tend toward the minority and humans the majority is largely due to problems in putting a number of vastly different races on ships together. like 3-ft tall aliens along side 6' humans having trouble reaching controls, big spider/crab type aliens having trouble walking down a corridor, water-breathers needing to wear special suits outside their quarters...

All problems with which I am both familiar and of which I can see easy remedies.

The simple solution is to create several parallel habitats which are slightly
different to accomodate a cluster of species. This might not be feasible in
a constellation size ship, but a galaxy class could be retrofitted with 4 or 6
sections in the saucer hull, esp if you drop the number of residents down from 3000 to 1000 or so.

Many of the fan created ships are significantly larger than a galaxy class
ship.

Yes there are problems, but Star fleet seems to get the IDIC principle,
and it wins against species such as the Borg Via the assorted differences
of thought of different species and perspectives. This is not merely theory
or good drama, it is simple systems theory fact. Any different species will have different neurological pathways and different brain structures, and will think in different ways. The combined intelligence of a group is fundamentally based on the diversity of that group. 2800 humans and 100
aliens on a Galaxy class ship is simply a dumb way to use the sentient resources of different species. I understand how and why star trek as entertainment was forced to cut corners, but the simple reality is that the larger the the diversity the smarter the group intelligence and thus the more powerful its problem solving skills.

For this reason, the factual reality of a star trek like civilization would be that they would mix it up as much as possible. Certainly it is true that some species would simply not go well together, either for psychological or ecological reasons, but it is just as true that in a galaxy with thousands of different sentient species haling from as many different worlds that there would be many species who would be likely to be comfortable or nearly so in Human standard ecological conditions.

Prometheuspan: Yes, you should read the Titan novels. Several of your recommendations are put into practice on the Luna-class vessel Captain Riker commands. I think you'll be pleased, as I definitely agree that Starfleet would be crewed by many different life forms. And since in TOS, they did establish an all-Vulcan crew on Intrepid, surely there must be other vessels crewed by one race alone, or several sharing similar environmental conditions, say, methane-breathers, water-breathers, etc. -- RR

 

[captcalhoun]

you've got an over-inflated opinion of the complement of a Galaxy-class starship, prometheuspan.

the complement (including civilians) is only 1,014...

 

[prometheuspan]

cptn calhoun;

oh,? hmm? i don't know what happened. I thought it was 3000? I don't know
how that happened, i could have sworn i remember some exchange between riker and picard to the effect of it being 3000. Hmmm. Thanks for putting me straight.

Prometheuspan: Yes, you should read the Titan novels. Several of your recommendations are put into practice on the Luna-class vessel Captain Riker commands. I think you'll be pleased, as I definitely agree that Starfleet would be crewed by many different life forms. And since in TOS, they did establish an all-Vulcan crew on Intrepid, surely there must be other vessels crewed by one race alone, or several sharing similar environmental conditions, say, methane-breathers, water-breathers, etc. -- RR

Thanks, maybe one of these days I'll take a break from trying to save humanity, herding folks over to my site, trying to start the real starfleet-
and go read a novel or 3. Sounds like a series.

Is this after or before TNG?

 

[pookha]

i like temis idea of having a medusan navigator.

an andorian captain during the tos era.

and considering the kzinti have shown up a peirsons puppeteer.

 

[captcalhoun]

cptn calhoun;

oh,? hmm? i don't know what happened. I thought it was 3000? I don't know
how that happened, i could have sworn i remember some exchange between riker and picard to the effect of it being 3000. Hmmm. Thanks for putting me straight.

Prometheuspan: Yes, you should read the Titan novels. Several of your recommendations are put into practice on the Luna-class vessel Captain Riker commands. I think you'll be pleased, as I definitely agree that Starfleet would be crewed by many different life forms. And since in TOS, they did establish an all-Vulcan crew on Intrepid, surely there must be other vessels crewed by one race alone, or several sharing similar environmental conditions, say, methane-breathers, water-breathers, etc. -- RR

Thanks, maybe one of these days I'll take a break from trying to save humanity, herding folks over to my site, trying to start the real starfleet-
and go read a novel or 3. Sounds like a series.

Is this after or before TNG?

Titan is set post-NEM, after Riker's assignment to the ship in NEM...

 

[prometheuspan]

okay, I'm sold.
as soon as i have time, i will go look for it.
thanks!