Monolithic cultures in Star Trek lit?

[Derishton]

The "nameless Romulan Commander is my dad" thing, on the other hand, really gets on my nerves. I mean, as you say, we're dealing with nations who should have trillions (or at the very least many billions) of inhabitants, but the same place or person or family comes up again and again. It just makes the universe seem small to me, and that strikes me as totally antithetical to what Star Trek ought to be.

It's like the idea that there were only twelve Constitution Class starships, out of a nation with dozens of worlds, and thus many billions of people. That number just seems absurdly low to me.

That's always been a problem in TrekLit, but the recent film had the same problem. The Romulans are about to lose their sun, so clearly, in a galaxy chockful of huge and wealthy political entities which all seem to have advanced scientific knowledge, so obviously the thing to do is to hire one ancient guy who used to be a scientist but has been an undercover diplomat for decades. That's going to sort it all out.

No wonder Nero was pissed.

 

[SpaceLama]

The temptation to drop characters in together all the time isnt unique to Trek either - although I don't follow western comics that much, I know they tend to do 'crossover events' all the time, to try to bring in bigger numbers, or perhaps simply because the writer might lack restraint.