Popeye had it right; I am what I am

[RobertScorpio]

Star Trek seems to try to match-up some of their alien species with real life nations/ethnic types...can you match them with up?

Russians = Klingons (TUC really hammers this home I think "Chernoble=the moon of Chronos blowing up)

China= Romulans

Isreal/Palestine issue = Bajor/Cardassians

Vulcans..hmmmmm... not sure about them. I once thought China, or India maybe? not sure...

Klingons = some would say Vikings, but I see them a combo of Japanes and Viking cultures

Feringie= hmmmm, I wont go.

Jem'Hedar= hmmmm, I wont go there either

Tholians = the state of Kentucky

Can you make your own connections or others I didn't???

Rob
Scorpio

 

[A beaker full of death]

Klingons were originally intended to evoke the mongols.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Visually they were based on the Mongols, but they were stand ins for the Soviets.

The Romulans, the Chinese

The Vulcans always struck me as being the Japanese.

The Ferengi were said to based on "Yankee Traders". **gasp!" Americans!!!!!

The Cardassians are Fascists. I guess you could say Nazis.

The Bajorans are any oppressed people in their own lands. Native Americans, Jews, Palestinians, Tibetians, Indians under British rule......

Jem Hadar. No idea. Pretty generic soldier types. Nothing comes to mind.

 

[Lynx]

I guess most of the species and situations we encounter in the Star Trek universe are combinations of what has happened or is happening on Earth and in our own history. I don't think that we can point out this species here or that species there to be an exact equivalent of some Earth nation and it's people.

OK, the Klingons and the Romulans may have had some similarity to the Soviet Union and China in the 60's but it doesn't fit with Russia and China of today or even in the 80's when TNG was created.

The Bajorans could be compared with the Palestines in some ways but also with, let's say Poland during WWII. Cardassia seems rather close to Nazi Germany in many ways but could also be the Soviet Union during Stalin's reign.

I guess that the writers get their inspiration for those species and the situations they are involved in form many sources. I remember writing a fan fiction story where the dictator was a combination of Hitler, Stalin, Mao and the North Korean leader Kim Il Sung. A person who read it told me that the dictator reminded him of Castro and I haven't even thought of Castro when I created that character.

 

[RobertScorpio]

At first I thought the Bajorans were the Jews...but now it could be the other way around. Hard to say with that one...

Feringi were compared to the Jews also, early on. In fact I think Armin Shimmerman made a joke about all the Feringi actors being jews themselves. GR said they were aimed at USA captilist.

But most important? Who were the Horta modeled after?? LOL

Rob
Scorpio

 

[David cgc]

Computer geeks, obviously. Bad communication skills, made of silicon, and only mating once every 50,000 years.

 

[erastus25]

Other than the Klingons being ST representations of the Russians (see: Star Trek VI, A Private Little War) I don't think we can really draw direct parallels between these species and Earth cultures/countries. The writers have tended to use some similarities to what we see on Earth, but also create unique elements that veer away from the parallels. The Cardassians, for instance, have evolved from being potential Nazi analogues in the first few episodes of DS9 to a unique fascist-type creation of the ST writers.