^Perfectly true, but from an evolutionary perspective, all that matters is reproducing and passing those genes on. It doesn't matter if you die of as a child or live to a hundred and ten, if you don't have sprogs, FAIL.
Ethnic diversity among aliens
- Thread starter stupor
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Indeed. I find it poor imagination if "ethnicity" or "race" is to be defined by skin color. That's not how it happens with most species on Earth, even - so why with outer space aliens?
Andorian antennae could be "racial". So could the varying kinds of Bajoran noses, for example.
It's also interesting to see human racial features mixed in imaginative ways. The brown-faced but otherwise caucasian Kang was clever; I'd also like to see the opposite being done, with pink makeup on a negroid face (which they nearly did with that Romulan in "The Pegasus", before deciding it would be politically incorrect to "hide" negroid features...
Timo Saloniemi
About the Cardassians--I have noticed, aside from Macet and his crew, whom I consider to represent an ethnic minority (though I consider Macet biracial), one other ethnic variation, although it is not what I would call hugely obvious. We have had a couple Cardassians played by African-American actors, though in that case the difference seems to be little more than bone structure and a slight variation on the color of the scales (a warmer as opposed to cooler grey). I will state, however, that I did find it a little bit strange, if not disturbing, that the only one to get a speaking role had to be...Broca. Somebody in the casting department didn't think that one through--should've had a more diverse cast from the get-go, when they realized they were going to be actually taking a trip to Cardassia Prime.
But anyway, as to the strict question of ethnicity, I would theorize that the two groups represented by most Cardassians, and by Broca, enjoyed much trade and cultural exchange with each other for a long period of Cardassia's history--whereas the group that Daro belonged to were geographically isolated for much longer in their history (and possibly suffered discrimination for some time after contact was made).
But anyway, as to the strict question of ethnicity, I would theorize that the two groups represented by most Cardassians, and by Broca, enjoyed much trade and cultural exchange with each other for a long period of Cardassia's history--whereas the group that Daro belonged to were geographically isolated for much longer in their history (and possibly suffered discrimination for some time after contact was made).
It depends on what the color of the environment is. A great many things aren't white. White snow may be common in our cold regions, but we don't know much about the chemical composition of Andor. And if it is a warning color, then if would naturally stand out, rather than blending in. The whole point of a warning color is to tell potential predators that you're such a badass that you don't need to hide from them. It, of course, also helps if you or a species with the same coloration secretes a deadly poison.
There seems to be ethnic diversity among Romulans. Aside from the Remans, there are clearly 2 Romulan 'races' - one ridged, the other not. The ridged Romulans appear to have different cultural traidtions, i.e. the notion of honour, etc.
It seems every race in the future has become a planet of hats in Star Trek, with few exceptions.
Pretty much anyone on any given planet has the same skin color, speaks the same language, dresses the same, etc. etc.
Pretty much anyone on any given planet has the same skin color, speaks the same language, dresses the same, etc. etc.
No, actually she photographed green in the episode, and wearing a grey jumpsuit. The dark blue image you saw was probably my own attempt to shift the shade into something more Andorian.
Publicity shots from the episode showed her as a brown tone. Almost as if she was an African American wearing no makeup, but with blue antennae coming up out of the wig. But there was some very odd lighting happening in that sequence in the episode - remember we were sort of looking through, and then around, a holographic mirror, because when "It's a Wrap!" auctioned off the Andorian girl's jumpsuit last year, the actual colour of the material was a pale yellow, not grey at all.
Similarly, Shran's half-Aenar daughter in the final ENT episode sometimes photographed pale green, and in other lighting quite blue.
If you've seen the sequence of photos where Jeffrey Combs' Shran makeup is being applied, they actually do an orange base coat and stipple on the blue.
Watching TOS "Wolf in the Fold" last night, we seemed to see ethnic diversity on Argelius.
http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/2x14/Wolf_in_the_Fold_005.JPG
http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/2x14/Wolf_in_the_Fold_005.JPG
Hey! Is that the scene that got spoofed in that recent CSI episode? The set sure looks like it...
Argelians resemble Humans, though. For some reason, the more Human a race looks the more likely we are to get different skin colours. It's the heavier makeups that appear monotone: Andorian, Orion, Ferengi, Cardassian. I suppose Bolians came in a lot of varied tones, from sky blue to dusky pale blue to bright, bright blue, and only some had the streaks across the scalp...
The Andorians' antennae types (at least four!) across the various series and movies provides plenty of diversity.
Vina's Orion persona and Marta had entirely different greens, and the Orion woman in TAS was different again.
Ferengis also had many distinctions: size of lobes, wrinkles, etc.
And I seem to recall Cardassians being all manner of variation, from browns to greys.
Enterprise tried to make something different by doing a species with multiple phenotypes - The Xindi were all one species with multiple phenotypes, a rarity in Trek and only theoretically possible in reality as far as I am aware, though I have seen some research which suggests that certain differences in humans from different geographical regions might actually represent a different phenotype.
The Xindi aren't one species with multiple phenotypes. They're multiple species. Most of them aren't all even of the same class. They've got a fish, an insect, a reptile, two mammals, and an extinct bird. The only thing that have in common is that they originate on the same planet.
Anyway, globalization will naturally result in the smoothing out of clines over time, unless miscegenation is culturally taboo. The end result would be a reduction of overall species genetic diversity and, over time, partial normalization of traits. Though total elimination of diversity is impossible, there would be no clear ethnic traits in a totally global society that persisted for a sufficient period of time.
Culture would also be normalized, though diverse cultural sub-groups would likely remain, membership in such sub-cultures would not be as important as the overarching culture that unites them all. This is the natural progression of the melting-pot phenomenon, which can only be stopped by erecting artificial barriers.
Thus, logically, such worlds would have a planetary culture, but among that would be regional, ethnic, occupational, and interest subcultures which are distinct from each other but which all share traits of the overarching planetary culture.
Anyway, globalization will naturally result in the smoothing out of clines over time, unless miscegenation is culturally taboo. The end result would be a reduction of overall species genetic diversity and, over time, partial normalization of traits. Though total elimination of diversity is impossible, there would be no clear ethnic traits in a totally global society that persisted for a sufficient period of time.
Culture would also be normalized, though diverse cultural sub-groups would likely remain, membership in such sub-cultures would not be as important as the overarching culture that unites them all. This is the natural progression of the melting-pot phenomenon, which can only be stopped by erecting artificial barriers.
Thus, logically, such worlds would have a planetary culture, but among that would be regional, ethnic, occupational, and interest subcultures which are distinct from each other but which all share traits of the overarching planetary culture.
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The basic DNA across all species was the same, meaning that the only differences were phenotypal, not genetic. It isn't usually possible for more than one sentient species to evolve on one planet in parallel because one is likely to kill another off and claim dominance, or because one will die out and leave room for another, like the Velakians and the Menk.
It's probably less expensive not to have to match make-up colors exactly from episode to episode... so I don't think this is true.
No, they were all explicitly referred to as separate species. And just because it's apparently unlikely in the Trekverse for multiple sentient species to evolve on one planet doesn't mean it's impossible.
^Even if they weren't, I would suspect that the differences between arthopodoid and mammalian phenotypes would be somewhat more than skin deep.
And it's not that unlikely. I had a drawn-out debate with Chris Bennett and a few others regarding the likelihood of humanoid development, and we raised a lot of issues touching on the existence of many strains of basically intelligent life that already exist on Earth, but which are (in my opinion solely) incapable of advanced civilization due to inadequate morphologies.
Of course, according to Geoff Mandel anyway, there are two demonstrably intelligent biological species existing on Earth in the 23d and 24th centuries--humans, and humpback whales.
I wonder what kind of cloning and genetic engineering they must have done to create a viable population of humpbacks.
And it's not that unlikely. I had a drawn-out debate with Chris Bennett and a few others regarding the likelihood of humanoid development, and we raised a lot of issues touching on the existence of many strains of basically intelligent life that already exist on Earth, but which are (in my opinion solely) incapable of advanced civilization due to inadequate morphologies.
Of course, according to Geoff Mandel anyway, there are two demonstrably intelligent biological species existing on Earth in the 23d and 24th centuries--humans, and humpback whales.
I wonder what kind of cloning and genetic engineering they must have done to create a viable population of humpbacks.
Exactly. We're talking about fundamentally different biologies here, not just differences in skin color or nose size.
I think the reason we saw alien cultures with so little disersity, is that most Star Trek cultures are very old, and thus have had much more time to be "absorbed" into one overlapping culture. The Vulcans, for example, launched nuclear missiles at each other while humanity used catapults. They travelled through space while humanity could hardly cross the Channel. The first Ferengi nagus Gint lived 8000 BC. Bajoran culture is even 2 million years old, and got unified about 30000 BC, according to the DS9 relaunch series.
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