I loved when Reed makes the remark in Enterprise about why couldn't Zephraim Cochrane have been from Europe instead of Montana.
Is Enterprise the most US-centric Trek series?
- Thread starter Ragitsu
- Start date
I loved when Reed makes the remark in Enterprise about why couldn't Zephraim Cochrane have been from Europe instead of Montana.
Asia is the obvious target for a nuclear war and by obvious I mean just look where the actual nuclear weapons are pointed.
NATO countries have missile interceptor technologies that would pretect them from a nuclear war. Asia has a pile of American nukes pointed at it, as well as every other asian country having nukes pointed at its neighbor.
Just the same America is a century ahead on the whole space front. So the idea they wouldn't be leaders in the federation/space environment would seem unlikely.
] Archer was chosen because Scot Baukala was a known name in sci fi, he was popular in the 80s. They saw the success of casting Richard Dean Anderson, and tried to copy it. The fact he's white says more about the 80s.
Trip is the only obviously token white guy. He was the only other white American on the show. And it was a novelty that he was a Southerner as he was the first southern white guy since Bones.
The more people try to charge race into the conversation the more they completely bypass social differences.
Enterprise was trying to get away from a production that was entirely dominated by a Californian aesthetic.
They were going for a blue collar perspective which isn't an American thing. That's a global perspective. People all across the world identity as blue collar "get it done types". And cultures all across the world especially in Europe try to pretend like these people don't exist as the majority.
A Black forklift driver in Houston Texas is no different from a White forklift operator in Slovakia. When they see guys wearing coveralls instead of brightly coloured spandex, they're gonna be pulled in.
You have 2 white Americans on the crew on the show regardless of what the other 5 look like. I doubt if you were head counting you'd be satified if the Europe/Alien/Black person were gender swapped.
The revival was for the trio. Not the 7 main cast members. As I said Bakula was an established name, and at the time it was a novelty to appear in any science fiction. Babylon 5, TNG, DS9 never allowed for such a thing.
It's exaggerated. DS9 had similar moments with a completely different social context, this was pre federation times it made sense if you compare it to star trek 6.
My issue with this is that the other treks were so overbearingly californian. I didn't ever get the feeling the other treks were more international.
This is why me and my friends gravitated to Beverly Hills Cop and Police Academy movies. These days we’d call those diverse (and these days I doubt they’d be made, sadly) but back then we just saw ourselves in those things. In some small way at least. White dude and black dude, best friends. Must have been something in the water in Hollywood back then.
ENT did feel like a step back to me, not gonna lie. Good ‘ole boys in space, whatever the intent.
Somehow magically the audience doesn't notice that Jolene Blalock and John Billingsley are white Americans just because they're pretending to be aliens? Somehow the audience magically doesn't notice that Dominic Keating is white just because he's the only non-American on the show? Somehow the audience magically doesn't notice that Linda Park and Anthony Montgomery are both American just because they're not white?
Sorry, but no matter how you cut it, Star Trek: Enterprise is both U.S.-centric (only 1 non-American in the cast, and every other non-American character still speaks with an American accent) and white-dominated (only 2 non-white actors out of a cast of seven).
I'm not sure I follow your meaning?
Somebody on TrekBBS called the TNG characters aristocratic once. It stuck in my head because those characters, their style, their reserved natures all seem so much more relatable to me and my cultural background and I was startled into thinking about the pastiche of Star Trek shows and the cultural outlook and experiences of the writers.
I remember when I first watched Enterprise I kind of (offensively I admit) thought they all seemed a little like hayseed yokels (my own prejudice being a city kid).
But I think things like this have to do more with unconscious bias than conscious choice or bias and, in fact, the casting choices seem more based on an assumption and prejudice about working class white people than anything else. That it fits the narrative construct the producers associated with the first Enterprise crew. “Under experienced, not worldly, simple but honest and well intentioned?” - who do people assign those traits to? Working class white Americans. Even Reed is an anomaly. Difficult to get to know and awkward compared to his easy going open unrepressed American friends.
Compare it to say, Miles O’Brian who fits another archetype (like Scotty) of the industrious clever immigrant savant delighted to be productive.
I love Star Trek- but it IS an American show with American bias from Enterprise to Sisko being featured as a religious icon and war leader to demonstrate his authority vs. as a diplomat and explorer like Picard and Kirk or why people respond well to Janeway when she aggressive or when she is passive but not when she’s undecided and makes a grey choice.
But I don’t think it’s an intentional story telling choice in Enterprise so much as just an association of a certain ethos to certain demographics from an American perspective.
In the same way that they cast Scott Bakula, I believe with no proof, largely because his Quantum Leap character (I loooooooovvvvvveeeee QL BTW) is the epitome of an “awe shucks I’m just trying to do my best” kind of hero and so he fit their idea of an in over their head starfleet persevering through good intention rather than by refinement (Picard), strength (Sisko) or resolve (Janeway).
I remember when I first watched Enterprise I kind of (offensively I admit) thought they all seemed a little like hayseed yokels (my own prejudice being a city kid).
But I think things like this have to do more with unconscious bias than conscious choice or bias and, in fact, the casting choices seem more based on an assumption and prejudice about working class white people than anything else. That it fits the narrative construct the producers associated with the first Enterprise crew. “Under experienced, not worldly, simple but honest and well intentioned?” - who do people assign those traits to? Working class white Americans. Even Reed is an anomaly. Difficult to get to know and awkward compared to his easy going open unrepressed American friends.
Compare it to say, Miles O’Brian who fits another archetype (like Scotty) of the industrious clever immigrant savant delighted to be productive.
I love Star Trek- but it IS an American show with American bias from Enterprise to Sisko being featured as a religious icon and war leader to demonstrate his authority vs. as a diplomat and explorer like Picard and Kirk or why people respond well to Janeway when she aggressive or when she is passive but not when she’s undecided and makes a grey choice.
But I don’t think it’s an intentional story telling choice in Enterprise so much as just an association of a certain ethos to certain demographics from an American perspective.
In the same way that they cast Scott Bakula, I believe with no proof, largely because his Quantum Leap character (I loooooooovvvvvveeeee QL BTW) is the epitome of an “awe shucks I’m just trying to do my best” kind of hero and so he fit their idea of an in over their head starfleet persevering through good intention rather than by refinement (Picard), strength (Sisko) or resolve (Janeway).
I had referred to Jolene Blalock ("T'pol").
Thus far, Picard (Patrick Stewart) has been the outlier in terms of temperament; notwithstanding Shatner's hammy performances, only his Kirk has come close. We were fortunate to have a European actor of high caliber star in a foundational Trek series.
I'm still not sure I follow. In what way did she have you fooled?
As someone who regularly posted in this forum at the time ENT aired, I heard that sentiment fairly often, and that was well before anyone was having the conversations we have now about inclusivity and representation. In fact many of ENT's detractors at the time sited this lack of diversity as being anti-Trek, which is absolutely hilarious given how many "Trek is Now Too Woke" people are so loud online these days.
Looking for that happy middle ground,
I once responded with "Next thing you know, they'll have a black woman kissing a white man."; half of them said nothing and the other half started moving the goalpost...painfully unaware that they would have likely been on the wrong side of history back in The Sixties.
That's not woke that's called not being stupid.
You don't get a pat on the bum for not being stupid.
It's not a moral virtue to not be stupid, you don't need a flag to announce to the world you aren't stupid.
Not being stupid is sufficient.
Woke runs with the premise everyone is stupid, and they are more "aware"/woke of what is really going on.
And if we remove politics/people all that other stuff from the equation, and focus on corporate media.
When you're dealing with kurtzman trek, woke is absolutely as stupid as any guy wearing a white ghost costume.
It's just stupid, I mean jaw dropingly stupid.
"we're here to solve world hunger"
"what have you done?"
"we went to a protest against world hunger"
"so what happened?"
"we found a bunch of people who were prostarvation and we told them they were on the wrong side of history"
"alright bud, i'm going to the soup kitchen, you know that place where minority's/gay kids kicked out of their parents homes, people suffering from mental illness, addicts etc go"
"you're just doing that because your in denial of being pro starvation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
FYI I work with seniors/disabled folk, i never ever imagined it gave me any sense of credibility doesn't make me feel any less guilty for not getting involved in soup kitchens, but I am aware of my moral flaws and it sure as hell isn't racism.
Regardless if you had any idea the shit I put up with in a day, like just talk about the things you've actually done, and not flag waving.
Last edited:
Thought it was pretty well illustrated what i meant?
Total bullshit. Trolling warning gladly given.
Sorry. I should have been thorough from the start. You said the following ->
Back when I first watched ENT, I didn't pay too much attention to the particulars of each character's ethnic heritage; on the rare occasion I contemplated T'Pol's actor, I thought she had a blended background. When I finally saw Blalock's role on Stargate SG-1, I realized she differed from that limited impression.