Examples of Americentricism in Trek?

[The Badger]

While Doctor Who is indeed very British, I don't think it says that in the future everyone is British.

There have been some instances of this, most notably in 'Tomb Of The Cybermen' where Kaftan offers the space ship crew 'Fifty pounds to whoever opens that door!'.
Mind you, in Gerry Davies' novelization, that was changed to five hundred dollars. Damn, that's a good exchange rate .


Given the shoddy way that Chakotay's heritage was portrayed, there may be something in JustKate's cultural error idea.

 

[C.E. Evans]

It's interesting that for something considered "too American" at times, the United States apparently no longer exists in Trek. Oh, the cities and states still do, but the United States government is generally referred to in the past tense in the various Trek shows.

It kind of makes me wonder if the U.S. collapsed at some point after World War III and it was replaced by something else--perhaps "North American Alliance" or something like that, I dunno...

 

[Triskelion]

Show me another series that does multiculturalism any better.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

While Doctor Who is indeed very British, I don't think it says that in the future everyone is British. A lot of it happens in Britain or is linked to Britain but it's never implied that this is the whole of human culture. Granted, I've only seen a tiny portion of the classic series but they did travel a lot outside Britain in the first two seasons.

It was a joke. My friend wanted to say that since it's a British show, intended for a British audience, written by Brits, and starring British actors, it'll naturally feel British. He wanted me to lighten up. So I did.

ST is an American franchise, more often than not starring Americans, and it reflects American cultural life in many occasions. That's all there is to it.

 

[troisboobs]

The fact that most people in the world today are non-white, and they predict over 50% of the US will be non-white in 100 years, so at that point in the future there should be A LOT more asians and hispanics, especially if Starfleet is based in San Fransisco, and so many asians into the maths and sciences, I always pictured realistically starfleet would be mostly asian

 

[Mach5]

Want examples?

Here's some:

• Inventor of Earth's warp technology - a dude from Bozeman, Montana, USA
• First contact between humans and ET's -Bozeman, Montana, USA
• designer of the the 1st Warp 5 engine - dude from upstate NY
• inventor of teleportation device - dude from the US
• captain of the 1st warp 5 ship - (not so competent) dude from upstate NY
• 5 tv shows, 4 American captains and 1 French dude
• the whole freaking ENTERPRISE intro depicts not human, but American achievements. Where the fuck are Russians?
• Earth's Prime Minister (or whatever he is) - Nathan Samuels (OK, perhaps he's Canadian).

 

[Islander]

Show me another series that does multiculturalism any better.

Babylon 5 and Firefly quickly comes to mind but ultimately, however, the show originated form the USA in the 60's. It's normal for that to be reflecting within the show and even if we had a more opened mind later on, writters had to "respect" "canon" as much as possible so this tradition was maintained.

One point to consider, and I'm so anticipaing flaming for that one, is that American culture is widely present all over the world already. There's easily ten times more American TV shows presented in other English-speaking countries and translated than the other way around. Maybe that's an example of the stereotyped arrogance and imperialism of Americans, but it's nonetheless a reality. I don't think that would so drastically change in the near future.

And as far as Warp and transport technology being invented by Americans, I think that's just a nod to nuclear power (ultimately perfected and used by the USA) and the Internet. We can hate them as much as we do, but the fact of the matter is that Americans ARE a big part of our world, our history as much as {likely} future.

 

[Mach5]

We can hate them as much as we do

We do?

 

[Islander]

We can hate them as much as we do

We do?

Ok, dislikes then.

 

[The]

But, we like you...

 

[Count Zero]

While Doctor Who is indeed very British, I don't think it says that in the future everyone is British. A lot of it happens in Britain or is linked to Britain but it's never implied that this is the whole of human culture. Granted, I've only seen a tiny portion of the classic series but they did travel a lot outside Britain in the first two seasons.

It was a joke. My friend wanted to say that since it's a British show, intended for a British audience, written by Brits, and starring British actors, it'll naturally feel British. He wanted me to lighten up. So I did.

That's good advice. I'm already lightened up, though. And generally, I don't mind it (except from the ENT title sequence).

ST is an American franchise, more often than not starring Americans, and it reflects American cultural life in many occasions. That's all there is to it.

Well, yes, of course, but it's also a show about the future and therefore could strive to try to explore how human culture will have developed. There are other shows that tried. I agree that there aren't any ill intentions behind it.


P.S.: I like you, too, The. And just for the record, though it shouldn't be necessary to spell it out, but I have nothing against the USA, Americans or American culture.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

Peace, love and all that shit.

 

[perigee]

The "Americanism" being discussed isn't tied to names and places.

In TOS, it was referred to as "cowboy diplomacy." You come across a planet that was in some way ruled 'wrong,' they'd pick up a phaser and fix it. Despite claims of a Prime Directive, they weekly marched in and made sure things were changed to an apple pie version of "Freedom" and "Democracy."

You don't like Landru? Screw the PD, we'll overthrow it; Vaal - zap that sucker, and give these guys freedom! We are the way, we have the power - we are the universes police force! By and large, the only things that survived the Federation's "fixing them" were the Empires that were too big for the Fed to run over.

Now - put that in synch with our involvement with Vietnam and Korea.

Come the great 80's - the wall had fallen, the USSR was bancrupt and disintegrated, corporate culture was all... and wht do you get? An Enterprise so powerful that most enemies couldn't even scratch it. Some flea would be firing at it all day long - the bridge crew would have some tea and take a meeting. "Boom!" "Now, now - no need to be all gunny, Mr. Wrinklenose - we'll look down our nose as superior beings and explain to you why you're measily weapons and anger are all wrong..." "Boom!" "Somebody target their weapons. Lets have a meeting. I have a speech to make.."

The only reason the Borg are considered so cool is because they were one of the few species actually a threat to Starfleet's overwhelmingly superior tech.

The world changed - with no more superpowers, and the threat of superior force no longer really working, DS9 was a little outpost where all of the Feds power was useless - they Could invade, but they Wouldn't invade, and they didn't want to be bullies, so... all the little factions looked at the musclebound, helpless giant and laughed at it. Kirk, in the Vietnam 60s, would have gone in and kicked butt.. but the 90s Americ - ah, Starfleet doesn't do that anymore, so they were losing respect.

And now? Iraq? Well, hell - we're back to rootin' tootin, "Either They're going down, or we are."

Star Trek has always been tied to the American mindset.

 

[AdmiralSteven]

I've wondered about this as well, but I try not to think abou it too much. I just want to enjoy the shows.

 

[captcalhoun]

Ships are predominantly named in an American tradition (Constitution, Enterprise, Yamamoto etc.)

Yamamoto's Japanese genius. and the ship was called 'Yamato' - also Japanese. although you're right that the preponderance of ship names are Anglo-American.

Lexington, Farragut, Yorktown, Constitution, Constellation, Enteprise, Columbia - all American.
Hood, Defiant, Excalibur, Exeter, Repulse - British

 

[Myasishchev]

It's interesting that for something considered "too American" at times, the United States apparently no longer exists in Trek. Oh, the cities and states still do, but the United States government is generally referred to in the past tense in the various Trek shows.

It kind of makes me wonder if the U.S. collapsed at some point after World War III and it was replaced by something else--perhaps "North American Alliance" or something like that, I dunno...

It's somewhat implied that the East Coast no longer exists. I don't recall any reference to New York, Washington, Baltimore, Charleston, Columbia, Boston, Richmond. The easternmost geographical reference from pre-ENT Trek that I can think of is New Orleans.

ENT of course does have a geographical reference to the East Coast--Florida. Of course, it was shown just to be destroyed.

I like to think everything east of the Mississippi is a nature preserve/memorial, and possibly still slightly radioactive, with no human inhabitants any longer.

 

[Count Zero]

Ships are predominantly named in an American tradition (Constitution, Enterprise, Yamamoto etc.)

Yamamoto's Japanese genius. and the ship was called 'Yamato' - also Japanese.

How did that slip in there? Don't post and do something else at the same time, I guess...

It's interesting that for something considered "too American" at times, the United States apparently no longer exists in Trek. Oh, the cities and states still do, but the United States government is generally referred to in the past tense in the various Trek shows.

It kind of makes me wonder if the U.S. collapsed at some point after World War III and it was replaced by something else--perhaps "North American Alliance" or something like that, I dunno...

Well, they do have a world government which seems to have been established shortly after First Contact. We never hear of any national governments, and in fact, the Federation President resides where the French President used to reside (I'm not sure that's canon, though).

 

[Myasishchev]

Edit-I misunderstood the post.

 

[Braindeer]

Of course it's "Americancentric"! Star Trek is essentially a Western - the quintessential American genre! It's all there in the opening sequence, space is the "final frontier" and the Enterprise is a pioneer ship seeking to spread civilization out into it.

I think it's ace. Mainly because I bloody love Westerns.

 

[Basil]

Show me another series that does multiculturalism any better.

Several shows in the 1960s alone matched or surpassed it.

50% of the starring actors in I Spy were non-white -- that beats Star Trek's white triumvirate of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. Hawaii 5-0 had more non-whites in the rotating supporting cast than Star Trek, though the two stars were both white. Julia -- get this -- even starred a black woman in the titular role! Room 222 and Mission: Impossible! both featured an African American and women in their ensemble casts. The Courtship of Eddie's Father had Mrs. Livingston, who was Asian American, The Green Hornet had Bruce Lee as Kato, and even Batman more or less got in the game with the lovely Eartha Kitt as the first black Catwoman.

By the 1970s, things got a little better. Barney Miller, for instance, had a Japanese American, Puerto Rican, African American, and several white Americans, including Jews and Gentiles, all working together. Still, in nearly all cases, including Star Trek, it was the whites who were in the most prominent roles; perhaps the oddest example was MASH, which in its entire seemingly endless run never had any minorities in lead roles, even though it took place in Korea! The closest was Lebanese American Jamie Farr in the supporting role as Klinger.

Unfortunately, in the 45 years since Star Trek, not a whole lot has changed in terms of who the major characters are and what color the actors who play them will be, even as the nation has become increasingly diverse, all a part of the myopia of Hollywood and the assumption that whites somehow lack the evolution to see beyond skin color when choosing what show to watch. All this effort to reboot old TV shows and movies has just made it possible to further maintain the 1940s-style racial and gender imbalance while making the properties also seem contemporary.