Leah Brahms.....Not Leah Daystrom? (What gives?)

I remember reading in the 'Star Trek: Encyclopedia' (a geek-girl moment there...:lol)...where it was decided against having Leah be a 'Daystrom' for a 'Brahms' because they couldn't find a black actress...

Now this is a bit disturbing.

I would think anyone: white, black, Asian, or Hispanic, should/could have been a Daystrom...as we don't know if the famous doctor might have married a non-black woman (or his kids might have married a non-black, or non-human individual for that matter).

We're talking the 24th century, about a hundred years since Richard Daystrom's time; surely 'race' wouldn't be an issue.

Were the Trek TNG producers/writers (whomever, at the time) that short-sighted?

With that said, I think Susan Gibney was wonderful as 'Dr. Leah Brahm, but I think she could have been interesting as 'Dr. Leah Daystrom as well...

Thoughts?

 

That might be too cerebral.

 

I read or heard the story differently. I read that they had already cast the actress and then realised that Daystrom was black. Of course they could have continued to have the actress play Leah Daystrom but didn't.

 

"Couldn't find a black actress" can mean a lot of things. The better actresses weren't available for shooting, or chose not to take the part because a deal on pay could not be made.

Also why couldn't it be that Daystrom's daughter married a guy named Brahms, and had a son, who had a son who was Leah's father? Not much is know about her lineage, not canonically anyway.

 

you're correct.

 

Yes, this is the correct version of the story. TNG had a variety of black guest actresses, so the interpretation in the initial post is just wrong.

 

Startrek.msn.com didn't even exist yet.

 

And why should it be Leah Daystrom? Why does everything in the Trek universe have to be cute and tidy and everyone connected? It isn't that way in the real world and it's more credible when it isn't that way in a fictional world either.

it would have been dumb if they had made the character Leah Daystrom. It would have been just too cute by far.

 

I agree - I would have found it very annoying that she had to be related to Daystrom. The character is far more interesting as her own person.

 

I agree it would have been dumb. However *if* they had made her a Daystrom she could have also been adopted or the offspring of someone adopted into the Daystrom family. That could have been a nice "The Future Is Better" touch because the reality today is that African American families don't often adopt white children. There could have been a little TNG pro-adoption moment.

 

Or her grandfather (Daystrom's son) married a white woman, they produced a "mixed" son (Leah's father) who married a white woman who produced a white daughter (Leah.)

 

^^^

For all we know, Daystrom himself was married to a "white" woman... or Asian... or Eskimo... or Andorian.

 

Well. William Marshall who played Dr. Daystrom was married to a White woman in real life.

 

Or there's this nifty thing called adoption...

 

Guys, what makes you all think Daystrom was African American? Do we know canonically that he was born in America? Does America even exist in the 23rd Century as we know it today? I don't think Kirk ever considered himself an American, despite having been born in Iowa, rather a citizen of the Federation. What if Daystrom was born in Canada, England (as his accent might suggest), or in the United States of Africa like Uhura was, or even off-world? Would you call Uhura an African American? Why is everyone afraid of saying "black"?

Methinks some people are looking for racist intent under the woodpile a little too eagerly where I believe none to exist.

 

Don't you know it? In the future everyone is American.

I've seen that more than a few times.

I blame jointly American insularity and excessive political correctness.