How to make human characters interesting

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Generally, if a Trek writer wants an interesting character with a unique perspective, they create a member of a new/underdeveloped alien species. They can form the species' culture from scratch and make it whatever they want it to be, without having to get real details right: if it's merely based on a human culture, any deviance from it is simply how the alien culture differs, not an error. Need someone that is affected differently by medical conditions and environments? Make their biology whatever you want (okay, a little more research on this to see if it would work at all from a scientific perspective)

So if you want to create a human character, how do you make them interesting and unique (without the sense that you could swap them out for any random vanilla human and change nothing else about their dialogue and stories)?

1) Raised by aliens
2) Married to/bonded with/adopted an alien
3) Acquired superhuman powers or powerful implants somewhere
4) Lived in a non-Earth setting with a newly formed culture
5) From a different time period with the accompanying culture shock and different perspective
6) Survivor of traumatic incidents (assimilation, alien war)
7) Secretly an alien passing as human

 

[BillJ]

Drugs. Lots and lots of drugs. Then they’re all interesting.

 

[1001001]

Generally, if a Trek writer wants an interesting character with a unique perspective, they create a member of a new/underdeveloped alien species. They can form the species' culture from scratch and make it whatever they want it to be, without having to get real details right: if it's merely based on a human culture, any deviance from it is simply how the alien culture differs, not an error. Need someone that is affected differently by medical conditions and environments? Make their biology whatever you want (okay, a little more research on this to see if it would work at all from a scientific perspective)

So if you want to create a human character, how do you make them interesting and unique (without the sense that you could swap them out for any random vanilla human and change nothing else about their dialogue and stories)?

1) Raised by aliens
2) Married to/bonded with/adopted an alien
3) Acquired superhuman powers or powerful implants somewhere
4) Lived in a non-Earth setting with a newly formed culture
5) From a different time period with the accompanying culture shock and different perspective
6) Survivor of traumatic incidents (assimilation, alien war)
7) Secretly an alien passing as human

I’m not sure I’m understanding your point here.

Are you using those 7 ideas to propose new characters? Because they’ve all been done before.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

No, I'm listing categories of ideas that have been used before and wondering if there were any I missed.

I also wanted to know if people wished such human characters were just replaced with aliens, examples of unique human characters done right vs done wrong, etc.

 

[BillJ]

I also wanted to know if people wished such human characters were just replaced with aliens…

No. Star Trek is the human adventure. I’d say later series probably oversteered into aliens because mindless useless details about them helped pad scripts.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Spock, Data, Odo and Doctor Holo from VOYAGER, among others from later shows, can be pigeonholed as the ''seekers.'' Were there any similar types on LOWER DECKS?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

No. Star Trek is the human adventure. I’d say later series probably oversteered into aliens because mindless useless details about them helped pad scripts.

Not all the quirky humans. Is there one in particular who should have been a human, or alternately, a human character who should have been an alien?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Most of the time, if not almost all or literally all of the time, what makes a character interesting has nothing to do with whether they're in a sci-fi story. The characters are either interesting as people, and in sci-fi that means regardless of their species, or they're just not interesting at all.

Generally, if a Trek writer wants an interesting character with a unique perspective, they create a member of a new/underdeveloped alien species.

So, I'm disagreeing with this premise, right off the bat.

You want to make an interesting character? Forget it's sci-fi. Write your character to be interesting regardless of the genre. The answer to the question is the answer to how you make any character interesting in any genre.

 

[Mudd]

If you don't find human characters interesting, why write fiction?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Interesting from a sci-fi perspective in the sense that sci-fi stories centered around them rely upon the unusual qualities of said character to create the story.

Seven of Nine, for instance. Most/many of her character-focused episodes have something to do with her previous assimilation, which either causes or complicates the plot. If you wanted to tell the same story about someone who didn't have her backstory but had a different established one, you'd have to make something else up - an alternate timeline where that person was assimilated like she was, because we already know in this one they weren't.

 

[BillJ]

Seven of Nine, for instance. Most/many of her character-focused episodes have something to do with her previous assimilation, which either causes or complicates the plot.

Assimilation basically is just long term kidnapping and brainwashing. Early Seven definitely had a case of Stockholm Syndrome.

The Borg that abducted her not being much different than a religious cult.

It isn’t hard to see commonalities.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Yes, but it's something that can exist apart from sci-fi. Although I guess you could argue that every sci fi thing has a non-sci-fi analogue.

Alien cultures? Human cultures
Alien humanoid biology? Humans with rare medical conditions
Alien planets? Foreign countries
Alien technology? Unfamiliar Human technology
Alien influence? Mental health conditions
Secretly alien? Private opinions
Time traveler? Human from an isolated family/culture (Amish, off the grid living, isolated people group etc.)

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

All seven of your enumerated ideas, and probably thousands of others, are really just variations on one idea: give the character an interesting backstory, that provides the character (and possibly other characters as well) with believable motivations. In my own writings, I took a character who was mentioned but neither seen nor heard, little more than a comic relief gag whose name, job, employer, and taste in music were nothing more than a comic relief gag referencing a Beatles song (one of the ones that pianist John Bayless arranged and recorded in the style of Bach), and added an interesting backstory that (1) provided two other characters with believable motivations, (2) finally gave me reason to bring the character onstage in my novel, and (3) got explored in two separate short stories.

 

[BillJ]

Yes, but it's something that can exist apart from sci-fi. Although I guess you could argue that every sci fi thing has a non-sci-fi analogue.

Alien cultures? Human cultures
Alien humanoid biology? Humans with rare medical conditions
Alien planets? Foreign countries
Alien technology? Unfamiliar Human technology
Alien influence? Mental health conditions
Secretly alien? Private opinions
Time traveler? Human from an isolated family/culture (Amish, off the grid living, isolated people group etc.)

Best writers write what they know. Since none of us know aliens, we have to work with what we have.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

How do writers choose who to make the alien character, though, and who is the human character? Either one can have a variation of the same backstory, with a few alterations. If you started out with the defining traits that "I want the first officer to be a disabled war veteran still dealing with trauma" and "I want the doctor character to be a incurable romantic who's unlucky in love", either one of those characters could be alien or human.

 

[BillJ]

How do writers choose who to make the alien character, though, and who is the human character?

I’m sure there’s lots of variation in that process. That is where, I imagine, writers personal experience comes into play and what they’re trying to accomplish with their story.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Best writers write what they know. Since none of us know aliens, we have to work with what we have.

I believe most trees are aliens, but the vast majority of them are mute and unknowable.

 

[Ragitsu]

Worst way to make a character interesting: having them swear.

 

[BillJ]

Worst way to make a character interesting: having them swear.

Generally, I agree. Though there are times when colorful words can help deliver an emotional effect, but they should be used sparingly.

 

[Ragitsu]

It turns out that rarity is a quality all its own. By the way, a certain exchange comes to mind.

WORF: Forged credentials are a simple matter for a spy.
SETAL: How do you allow Klingon pahtk to walk around in a Starfleet uniform?
WORF: You are lucky this is not a Klingon ship. We know how to deal with spies.
SETAL: Remove this tohzah from my sight.
RIKER: Your knowledge of Klingon curses is impressive. But as a Romulan might say, only a veruul would use such language in public.