Ethnic diversity among aliens

[stupor]

I've often wondered about the lack of ethnic diversity among some of the major races we see on Star Trek. The most prominant examples of diversity I can think of are Vulcans, most obvious being Tuvok and I'm sure I've spotted an asian-Vulcan among others. The same goes for Bajorans, but I can't think of any major character examples. And then there's the two distinct types of Klingons, the difference depending on whether they were played by black or white actors (Maybe Martok and Gowrons' ancestors were from the higher latitudes and Worfs' ancestors were from the equatorial regions).

I'm sure that in some cases it can be explained away somehow, say, a planet has a concentrated population that doesn't make much way for diversity. Or there has been some kind of ethnic cleansing in their past (Which I've always thought would be a good explanation for Cardassians all looking the way they do, considering their nature).

I know the rationale behind it all is so the audience can easily identify which aliens are which... but if you had the chance, would you add a bit more variety among the races and in what way?

I've always thought it might've been cool to see a blonde, fair skinned Klingon... or Andorians who weren't all the exact same shade of blue.

 

[captcalhoun]

there are non-blue Andorians. the Aenar from ENT.

 

[byron lomax]

I've always had some issues with this, too. But what annoyed me more was that every alien race seemed to have one, global culture as opposed to the thousands you'd expect. Almost every race wore the same type of clothes, same rituals, same language etc. There was little diversity. Perhaps Roddenberry and the others who developed the series believed that societies who reach that level of advancement would have developed into single, international cultures with no internal conflict by that time, but I don't really see that as positive.

 

[RyuRoots]

the same type of clothes, same rituals, same language etc.

Good ol' universal translator.

But really, the mono-cultures is just a problem in Star Trek, always has been. Closest we get are people like Rom, who don't fall in line with a lot of their culture's traditions. For a Federation world it's a little more acceptable. If I recall correctly, having a unified planetary government is a requirement. And if a home planet for a race has been organized and unified in that kind of way for a very long time, maybe they'd start to blend a bit. But that doesn't do anything to explain the Klingons, Ferengi, etc.

 

[TIN_MAN]

Wasn't there a red haired Klingon female in one epidode?

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Wasn't there a red haired Klingon female in one epidode?

There was. A blond Klingon also showed up in "Soldiers of the Empire" in DS9.

However, I agree that aliens should have been more ethnically diverse. The Andorians and Orions in "Enterprise" were two particular races I believed should have been more varied. We have Aenar of course, but the fact that all the Andorian officers had the exact same skin tone, as did all the Orions, never felt quite "right" to me. For that matter, why no brown or red Ferengi or black or brown Cardassians? Okay, the change in makeup between "The Wounded" and later episodes does make it appear as though Macet was of a different ethnicity to other Cardassians, but the monotone aliens are still one of Trek's oddities.

 

[UssGlenn]

The Andorian look the Data's daughter tries was an extremely dark blue, so there's some hue variety in that direction as well.

 

[hyzmarca]

The monoculture is a way of simplifying things so that viewers don't need a handbook to keep everything straight. It's fairly common in literature that utilizes fictional races and species for this very reason. It's easier./

 

[Icemizer]

Also cheaper and thats the real reason for it.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

You're right I'm sure. It's a shame it has to be that way, though...and a little disturbing. Members of a race must be "all the same" for purposes of helping the audience keep things straight?

 

[Ptrope]

Right now, the Chinese outnumber the entire population of mid-19th-century Earth. Under different circumstances, that alone could be used to show that the population of an entire planet could look very similar, at least to an outside and inexperienced observer. I agree that it's unlikely that cultures over an entire planet would have the same clothes, hairstyles (although ... China ... ), etc., but biological diversity depends as much upon geological diversity as anything, and if the inhabitants of an alien world all live in a homogeneous environment, regardless of geography, they could easily appear to be superficially identical, biologically, to an untrained observer.

The main thing about Trek - and indeed most sci-fi with aliens - is that the aliens are ultimately metaphors for human sub-groups, so they are less diverse as a rule. If the point of the story is to explore diversity, that's when you establish diversity as a key component of your alien species; until then, it's irrelevant.

 

[captcalhoun]

also, we often enounter aliens in their militaries. that can make the races appear more monolithic.

the novel 'A Singular Destiny', for example, suggests the Romulan 'pudding bowl' haircut is a uniformity of the RSE military...

 

[Deranged Nasat]

also, we often enounter aliens in their militaries. that can make the races appear more monolithic.

That's true, good point.

 

[Nerys Myk]

These guys are both Klingons played by "white" actors:

 

[sbk1234]

I've thought of the Andorians from the TOS with their antennae coming from the crown of their heads to be one ethnic group, while the Andorians seen on Enterprise, with their antennaie from their foreheads to be another. Likewise, the Andorians with more of a green hue seen in the background from TMP.

 

[Myasishchev]

Right now, the Chinese outnumber the entire population of mid-19th-century Earth. Under different circumstances, that alone could be used to show that the population of an entire planet could look very similar, at least to an outside and inexperienced observer. I agree that it's unlikely that cultures over an entire planet would have the same clothes, hairstyles (although ... China ... ), etc., but biological diversity depends as much upon geological diversity as anything, and if the inhabitants of an alien world all live in a homogeneous environment, regardless of geography, they could easily appear to be superficially identical, biologically, to an untrained observer.

A fair point, although China isn't really that homogenous (not to the extent of, say, Japan).

As regards the OP, I'm not sure that monochrome aliens aren't more realistic than a species that replicates the spectrum of humanity.

Black and brown humans exist because UV light is generally harmful, and since we're virtually hairless, we have no natural shield other than our melanin--black is better, particularly at the equator. Lighter-skinned humans, by contrast, exist largely because of the necessity of some UV light reaching the dermis for vitamin D synthesis. Does this biochemistry exist in other species?

Other racial differences, like the prevalence of an epicanthal fold in East Asians or incidence of blonde hair in Europeans, are probably largely the result of genetic drift in an isolated population, being rather neutral when it comes to reproductive fitness (of course, maybe not, since I find Asian eyes quite hot, and enough people must like blondes to sustain an industry exists to produce them--but surely aesthetic factors are a minor consideration in natural selection when compared to something like rampant skin cancer).

Everyone on Vulcan should look rather alike--specifically, they should mostly look like Tuvok. Vitamin D synthesis or something similar is probably safe to assume, given the abundance of white Vulcans from presumably more polar locations, but we've been led to believe that the sunlight on desertified Vulcan is pretty intense, so melanin makes natural sense. Further, any reproductive isolation of Vulcan populations--if it ever existed in the first place on their oceanless world--was overcome long ago. At the time of Surak, they had nuclear weapons, which implies a level of technological development of at least mid-20th century Earth. Cultural reproductive barriers might still have existed, as on Earth, but surely on Vulcan after the rain this sort of thinking was tossed to the wayside. So some forty generations of miscegenetion, and they still have visibly identifiable "races." How quarrelsome.

On the plus side, less miscegenetion/more isolation means an overall greater genetic diversity and less vulnerability to viral diseases and plague weapons. Maybe the Vulcans deliberately cultivate this. IDIC = Andorians can't kill us all with a canister of space ebola.

Andorians and Aenar are another kettle of fish entirely. Melanin isn't blue so whatever their pigmentation is, melanin isn't it. I always assumed it was actually just their canonically blue blood--hemocyanin "blue-skin" as opposed to hemoglobin "pink-skin" (Mayweather excepted I guess). We can forgive Jeff Combs' pink tongue, gums, lacrimal caruncle and other inside eye parts as an understandable failure of makeup, but the Aenar make it clear that the blue is definitely skin pigment, not respiratory pigment. I guess it has the same function as melanin. Of course, this is very annoying, since UV radiation at Andor's distance from their weak sun is minimal and I think they're supposed to live underground anyway.

Blonde Klingon? He's just a mutant.

 

[hyzmarca]

Andorian skin pigmentation could be camouflage or a warning color.

 

[Myasishchev]

They should all be stark white, then, right?

Granted, we know little about Andor--we know it's a moon of a gas giant, and extremely cold. It's hard to conceive what their ecosystem must be like. Is their primary source of heat the distant sun (Procyon's been plausibly suggested) or is it tidal forces and resulting vulcanism from their primary?

I mean, parts of Io are pretty hot. You might be able to stand on the geologically active part with an oxygen mask. Your capillaries would burst, though, and that would suck. Maybe that's why surface-dwelling Andorians are blue.

 

[The Badger]

Other racial differences, like the prevalence of an epicanthal fold in East Asians or incidence of blonde hair in Europeans, are probably largely the result of genetic drift in an isolated population, being rather neutral when it comes to reproductive fitness (of course, maybe not, since I find Asian eyes quite hot, and enough people must like blondes to sustain an industry exists to produce them--but surely aesthetic factors are a minor consideration in natural selection when compared to something like rampant skin cancer).

The anthropologist Peter Frost suggests that blonde hair may provide an evolutionary advantage. In western Europe conditions were such that most food had to be hunted, not gathered. This lead to high casualties amongst the male population. Consequently there was a lot of competition between the females to attract a mate. Attributes such as blue eyes or fair hair, starting out as random mutations, could help an individual stand out from the crowd.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article735078.ece

 

[Myasishchev]

^Perhaps, but that's still an aesthetic adaptation, basically amounting to a peacock's plumage. It's not quite on the same level as getting sunburned every day of your life until you died of melanoma, or, alternatively, constantly suffering from rickets, which would directly impact your ability to survive to reproduce, let alone whether you could attract a mate.