Could we have an alien Captain?

[Sjaddix]

Then u will be taking a Human.

 

[Yevetha]

I don't think counting Nu Kirk is fair. Not sure counting Kirk is fair either I mean really no one would expect a female captain back in those days.

So 3 White Males, 1 White Female, and 1 Black Male Captains.

I agree on more diversity in crew though. Voyager was a move in the right direction but can get better.

no one would expect a female captain back in those days.

We had a female Admiral in ENT.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

You can get away with an alien first officer because they're not the face of the show.

As I pointed out in another thread that had the same discussion going on, the Captain needn't necessarily be the face of the show. It could be a Horatio Hornblower-type deal, then the focus of the story would be a dashing, young, good-looking lieutenant, and the Captain could be whatever. It could even have six heads and three butts, because its not the heroic focus.

 

[Sjaddix]

I don't think counting Nu Kirk is fair. Not sure counting Kirk is fair either I mean really no one would expect a female captain back in those days.

So 3 White Males, 1 White Female, and 1 Black Male Captains.

I agree on more diversity in crew though. Voyager was a move in the right direction but can get better.

no one would expect a female captain back in those days.

We had a female Admiral in ENT.

she is not a main character it does not count. So what do u think of dawn of the jedi. i am surprised about no human lead.

You can get away with an alien first officer because they're not the face of the show.

As I pointed out in another thread that had the same discussion going on, the Captain needn't necessarily be the face of the show. It could be a Horatio Hornblower-type deal, then the focus of the story would be a dashing, young, good-looking lieutenant, and the Captain could be whatever. It could even have six heads and three butts, because its not the heroic focus.

if your going to go that way i would prefer a focus on low level crew members with the senior staff in the background.

 

[Yevetha]

she is not a main character it does not count. So what do u think of dawn of the jedi. i am surprised about no human lead.

Now that you mention it i just realised the lack of it.

They did some really short comics with nonhuman leads like some Nym comics, but never something this long.


I like it.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

You can get away with an alien first officer because they're not the face of the show.

As I pointed out in another thread that had the same discussion going on, the Captain needn't necessarily be the face of the show. It could be a Horatio Hornblower-type deal, then the focus of the story would be a dashing, young, good-looking lieutenant, and the Captain could be whatever. It could even have six heads and three butts, because its not the heroic focus.

if your going to go that way i would prefer a focus on low level crew members with the senior staff in the background.

Not enough potential for big adventures. Not close enough to the top of the ship's command structure. Too much bureaucracy, too much interpersonal drama, not enough space adventures. One of those ideas that gets pushed around a lot by fans "new war! time travel show! lower decks!" Takes pie slice out of Star Trek without playing to strengths. Not ideal, in my opinion.

 

[Yevetha]

Too much bureaucracy

Hazard Team was fairly independent.

Not close enough to the top of the ship's command structure.

Special forces have their own command structure.

not enough space adventures.

they can have their own little ship.
I would like to see a Trek show centered around Macos and fighter pilots personally.

In that case the alien captain would not be that disturbing for the average viewer.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

The Hazard Team was also tied to whatever the senior staff decided. Making the senior staff background characters with the main characters not having any say in stuff (besides "yes sir" and "pew pew") makes the whole main cast just meat puppets to be ordered around. Alex Munro was not a proactive character. Most everything he did was reactive.

As for fighter pilots, I've no idea where that came from. Out of the blue. Never seen before in Trek, wouldn't add anything honestly. Not opposed, but it would probably end up retreading ground set by S:AAB and NBSG.

The main character (s) of a Trek show needs to be in the upper echelons of a ship's chain of command, because Trek is all about Space Cops Moonlighting As Ambassadors and Scientists. TNG would have been barely servicable if it was just the away teams. DS9 would have been a snore if it was just the lower-ranked guys. We need the guys who make the big decisions so they can make those big decisions. TNG kept things reasonably close to TOS for familiarity's sake. The theoretical next show needs to do much the same - to make sure fans and casual viewers are comfortable. Going Horatio Hornblower and making the show be about a captain-lieutenant mentor relationship is less extreme than making it about special forces and fighter pilots, IMHO.

EDIT: Don't get me wrong, I've long advocated having dedicated away teams/troops/whatever and what-not as recurring/secondary characters. I think it's neat. It's just not the bread n' butter of Star Trek, is all.

 

[Sjaddix]

oh i agree the only point in focusing on non command characters if is your show is based out of starfleet academy. Otherwise must focus on senior command structure.

 

[Yevetha]

The Hazard Team was also tied to whatever the senior staff decided. Making the senior staff background characters with the main characters not having any say in stuff (besides "yes sir" and "pew pew") makes the whole main cast just meat puppets to be ordered around. Alex Munro was not a proactive character. Most everything he did was reactive.

Thats how Starfllet operates just the orders are probably given ofscreen.

As for fighter pilots, I've no idea where that came from. Out of the blue. Never seen before in Trek, wouldn't add anything honestly. Not opposed, but it would probably end up retreading ground set by S:AAB and NBSG.

A star wars starfighter series would be better. I wouldnt mind a book. Federation starfighters show up in Apocalypse Rising.

EDIT: Don't get me wrong, I've long advocated having dedicated away teams/troops/whatever and what-not as recurring/secondary characters. I think it's neat. It's just not the bread n' butter of Star Trek, is all.
______________

I probably agree that this should be done by books and comics or a small ofshoot series like Crusade was for B5.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

You can get away with an alien first officer because they're not the face of the show.

As I pointed out in another thread that had the same discussion going on, the Captain needn't necessarily be the face of the show. It could be a Horatio Hornblower-type deal, then the focus of the story would be a dashing, young, good-looking lieutenant, and the Captain could be whatever. It could even have six heads and three butts, because its not the heroic focus.

This could work. The captain will be exotic and alien, as will many of the main and recurring cast, while the lead - a young, brash ensign - can be "standard," so as to increase the odds of audience acceptance.

"Standard" means young, white and American (or nominally of some other nation, but indistinguishable from being American, cuz you know there aren't any nations anymore - Uhura's nominally African identity being a good template here) Probably male but could be female.

You wouldn't think a "standard" lead would be so important on cable, but just look at the characters who actually are the leads of cable series - predominantly white and American, more males than females, younger than the national average. Plus Star Trek has already got a lot of odd stuff for the audience to accept, better not to push things by making the lead character one of the exotic elements.

 

[BrownShatner]

Modern Star Trek has gotten away from the Alien = Rubber Forehead formula. So you could have an alien captain that fit the normal lead actor looks stereotypes and wouldn't have scabies on his face.

Don't forget Superman is an alien, but still fulfills the all-american boy type character. You could imagine a typical Captain character which also has psychic abilities or incredible strength.

 

[Sjaddix]

Oh we all agree that would work.

 

[Terran_Empire]

I think the next captain has to be female, since we've only had 1 such out of 5 (or 6 if you count nuKirk) and also of non-Caucasian ethnicity (Asian, Hispanic, Black, et cetera).

Another guy or another white is just... yeah, ridiculous. Make the first officer a white guy if you have to, but make the next captain a non-white female.

Ideally, I'd say make both the CO and XO non-white females. Maybe a human non-white female CO and an alien non-white female XO.

I dare say that at least a minimum of 4 of 9 of the crew female as well.

And FYI I'm a whiter-than-snow man saying this. More females, more ethnicity, damnit. We're not in the stone ages anymore!

Frankly, the next Trek series shouldn't have more than a maximum of 1 white guy and 1 white gal on the whole regular cast. We've got Indians and Latinos and Asians and Middle Eastern and black and so on and so forth. Lets see 'em, even if they're playing aliens!

Oh and... yeah, after the snubbing of the 90s? They need two gay characters, one male and one female. Minimum.

Serious on all of this. They need to go the extra twenty miles on diversity next time.

How about a navigator with down syndrome and a dwarf as the engineering officer while we are at it?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Modern Star Trek has gotten away from the Alien = Rubber Forehead formula. So you could have an alien captain that fit the normal lead actor looks stereotypes and wouldn't have scabies on his face.

Don't forget Superman is an alien, but still fulfills the all-american boy type character. You could imagine a typical Captain character which also has psychic abilities or incredible strength.

Supes looks completely human. Star Trek doesn't really do completely human looking aliens. Last time I checked, they were firmly in the rubber forehead mold. When did they change? I'd love to think that there's some new Star Trek out there that somehow escaped my eagle eye.

But howabout this - an android captain!!! Or maybe an augment or a hologram? Those are the three main ways to have a human-looking but "alien" character in Star Trek.

How about a navigator with down syndrome and a dwarf as the engineering officer while we are at it?

Hey, a dwarf would fit into the Jeffreys tubes much better...wow, would that be un-PC.

 

[Terran_Empire]

Star Trek has always been about humanity reaching out to the stars and interacting with the Galaxy and all of its inhabitants as members of a Earth-born government/military.

I'm a non-black male, yet I still have a degree of relatability with Sisko and Janeway because they are still pure-bred humans, they react in a human way. I never could relate much with Spock for instance, he is just not human, in appearance, behaviour and in what he represents.

 

[Yevetha]

The captain does not have to be the most central character.

 

[Sjaddix]

I suppose so but what would change the model too?

 

[Terran_Empire]

If you want a wildly different format with alien captains and leading Ensigns and liberally-minded casting then just make a completely new franchise.

 

[zar]

a dwarf as the engineering officer

Nog worked engineering, and Aron Eisenberg has stunted growth at just 2 inches above the clinical definition of dwarfism. Close enough?