Thats not a problem with star trek. Theyve had strong minority characters like Caotain Sisko. . The problem is token characters who are only window dressing or get filler side stories or dialogue no one cares about.
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Thats not a problem with star trek. Theyve had strong minority characters like Caotain Sisko. . The problem is token characters who are only window dressing or get filler side stories or dialogue no one cares about.
You say it's nice, but I'm tired of arguing with idiots on the internet.
ftfy
Whatever. Its a disservice to a minority actor in the modern world when they are there just to fill a quota and not get any good scenes or story lines.
Such as?
A modern example the early seasons of the walking dead.
I haven't watched The Walking Dead in probably 10 years, you're gonna have to be more specific. Besides, I thought we were talking Star Trek.
Star trek is no exception. The most glaring modern example was the Travis Mayweather character. We got very few episodes were he starred. Most times he had absolutely nothing to do. He should have had more to do since he was the only bridge member to grow up in space travel. They should have explored the character way more. He was largely a background character. Very surprising because TNG. STV and DS9 all did much better with their minority characters.
Im not virtue signaling. I just think hollywood and its use of tokenism in movies and tv is wrong. They have their little checklist and once its filled out story and characterization take a back seat for that character. Its wrong.
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I offer to you the counterpoint that lots of characters get a bit lost in all the Star Trek shows due to their usually being a bigger focus on a select group. Or due to backstage drama. I never felt like Mayweather was a diversity hire and I would argue a token character would revolve around what it is that they are tokening. I don't recall any time being spent devoted to Mayweather talking about his blackness, he was just the pilot not the black pilot.
DS9 being a giant shining exception in which it managed to give massive development and spotlight to a large extended cast of recurring characters.
Agreed. DS9 did a great job and all the characters got their time to shine many times. Perfect balance. What I never got about the mayweather character is he had all the space experience but he was never a character that got that spotlight often. As I recall he only got one episode when he went home. Too bad as his character had a lot of potential.
Last I checked, Travis Mayweather, while certainly a underutilized minority character, was on a series that ended 20 years ago in May. Hardly a "modern" example.
Enterprise ended in 2005. 20 years ago is modern?
Secondary character. Enterprise tried to mix the ensemble style of Berman-era Trek with the star trio style of TOS. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, became Archer, T'Pol, and Trip.
He was fairly present throughout the first season, with the episode Fortunate Son definitely being a Travis episode. Season 2 he certainly had less focus on him, but he did get Horizon as an episode. In seasons 3 and 4 he didn't get much to do, as those seasons definitely went even deeper into the trio, but I would still never refer to him as a token minority character. I don't recall his race, or Hoshi's, ever being highlighted. They were simply part of the crew.
This.
It was a star trek show made after shows thst did it right like tng, stv and ds9. So its valid since ste came out later than all of them. Also other shows besides star trek have practiced tokenism in recent years.
Such as?
I already gave you one. The Walking Dead.
That's one example of a show that ended a few years ago.
The way you talk, token characters are plentiful. I figured you'd be able to name many examples.
Also, I'll grant you that my memory is a little hazy on the issue, but I don't recall any characters being token minorities on The Walking Dead. I remember there being persons of colour throughout the series. What is it that makes them token characters?
What does it matter that the show ended? Its not a show from 40 years ago. There were many on the walking dead especially at the beginning.
Riverdale and Glee are two more shows that have been accused of it.
First, who defines "doing it right?" You?
Second, it was part of the same era as TNG, DS9 and Voyager. It had the same person steering the ship, Rick Berman. So, your use case is extremely invalid. I would consider anything run by Alex Kurtzman the modern Trek era. I think most would agree with that assessment.
What is it that makes them token characters? Seems to me that you're saying that any person of colour that appears on a show is a token character.
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