TOS try again....

[The Laughing Vulcan]

One small change... Lose the dates. That was the whole point of stardates in the first place, so that we knew Star Trek was a future series, starring characters that we could relate to, but it wasn't tied down to a specific time frame, although Trelane and Khan might have offered clues. It wasn't until the movies that we got the 23rd Century to tie things down.

Also, do a Star Wars ep 7, and blank slate the EU or in this case the backstory, ditch the Eugenics War, ditch First Contact, ditch WWIII, and extrapolate from where we are now. Cold War allegories aren't meaningful right now, a more relevant Star Trek would probably work better with a background of an Earth recovering from Climate Change, and an antagonist alien race who violently disagreed with Federation ideologies to the point of fundamentalism, a schism for which there is no easy fix.

 

[Orphalesion]

Oooh I lpve these kinda topics.

I'm afraid lots of people are not gonna like my plans. But since the question is what I would do I need to be honest.

Like others here I'd propose a series of 13 one-hour life action episodes per season and I would go for a BSG-style "hard" reboot, playing lose with established characters and setting details, drawing from all of Star Trek lore (though no Borg, we had enough of them for a while)

Keep: The basic premise, the time period, Klingons, Romulans and Tholians as adversaries. The idea of Enterprise being away from home for 5 years. There would be a Captain Kirk, a Spock, a Uhura, a McCoy and a Scotty, though they might be different from the characters in the 60s version.

Drop:
1) Sulu and Chekov. Both characters are just kind of redundant since we already have enough human males and I don't see why the navigator and the helmsman should be separate. Also "Sulu" is not a Japanese name, that might have flown in the 60s, but today.....eh....
2) The super-powerul, we are as amoebas antagonists that cropped up sometimes.
3)T he everybody laughes ending, unless there is actually a good reason to celebrate.
4) The "planet of hats" plots. No planets fashioned after 1930s mobsters, Nazis, Cowboys etc.

Change:
1) Change from an episodic nature to multiple, on-going storylines, less to no "filler" episodes multiple points of view (the Enterprise, a Klingn Ship etc.) Strong continuity between episodes. All characters have a relevance to the plot, their own agendas and prominence in different storylines.
2) All the characters get re-interpreted to make them more complex, this doesn't mean they need to have heaps of moral ambiguity or cynicism injected into them, just make them seem less archetypical and more like real people:

Kirk: Has just taken over command of the Enterprise, after the last Captain has been killed in an ambush by the Romulans. Enterprise is his first command and he's still fairly green behind the ears. Is married to Carol Marcus and aware of his young son, David, but his family had to stay behind on Earth, because it's not the 24th century and "take your kids along for the ride" isn't a thing yet. He'd be a romantic, an idealist.
Spock: Would need the least changes. He was not only the most popular character in TOS (and ST) but he was also the best written one in the original series. So the changes would just amount to 1) make him a bit younger 2) get rid of the bowl cut 3) Write him like Spock, but even more so; really drive the point home about this idnividual caught between two cultures, two philosophies, two natures and give him a deep, almost religious thirst for transcendence. To heighten the tensions with his family I'd add Saavik as a rebellious younger sister who years ago fled Vulcan and has severed all ties with her family.
McCoy: Would be replaced by his daughter Joanna. Leonard McCoy would have gone missing in action about 20 years before the show started while he was on a secret mission to bring medical supplies to the Klingon-occupied world of Bajor. A Vulcan vessel received McCoy's request for aid, but chose against action in order to prevent further escalation of the situation. Joanna is a bras young woman with an attitude that can be off-putting and, in the beginning butts heads with Spock because of her resentment for Vulcans. Still her main motivation would be compassion. If she sees people in need she will go help them, no matter the consequences. She would also hope to be reunited with her father one day. As an actress I think Liza Weil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liza_Weil would fit my mental picture of her, at least physically.
Uhura: Gets a first name. Possibly Nyota, possibly Nichelle, possibly Upenda. She'd be changed to security chief/tactical officer and be a highly decorated, pragmatic veteran of the Klingon Wars who initially has problems accepting Kirk's authority as a Captain.
"Scotty": Not actually Scottish, also a veteran of the Klingon Wars, he was badly wounded and was rebuilt as a cyborg, a process which replaced about 50% of his brain with a computer. His dilemma would be whether he is still the same man he was before the war and "Scotty" would be a designation he uses in order to distance himself from his human life and possibly based on the designation of the robot brain in his skull. While Uhura would be the "proud veteran" he would be the "wounded" one.

3) The ship's interior and the uniforms would need to be redesigned completely. No mini-dresses and go-go boots. No bright primaries. I'm actually partial to the Enterprise suits or something else more military looking.

4) Klingons get the post TMP look, or better yet the ID look (though possibly with hair). No shoe-cream slathered Foo-Manchus in this version. Int heir behaviour they might get mixed with Cardassians in some ways.

Add:

1) A number of additional (main) characters:

Lt. Ilia: A Deltan telepath of considerable power. Able to read minds, project her thoughts and mind-link with others. She'd be assigned to the Enterprise to provide means to combat Romulan cloaking devices (her telepathy would still be able to sense their life signs with some difficulty) Inistially she would be distrusted by the crew because telepaths are rare in Federation space and closely watched by the authorities. I think she and Scotty, both outsiders, could develop a relationship.
Lt. M'Ress: This young Caitian takes Uhura's original place on OPS. The heart and soul of the crew, everybody's friend she'd also be the first to accept Ilia into the fold. She'd often be underestimated because of her playful cat-like character but in truth she'd be very intelligent when it comes to reading, and manipulating, others.
Ensign Xonsulu: Replaces both Chekov and Zulu as Helmsman/Navigator (I see no point in keeping them separate). A member of a species that has only recently joined the Federation and a member of the first generation of that species to venture into space. Very much a naive country boy who'd have to learn to cope with the stresses and strangeness of space.

2) A bunch of interesting side and recurring characters such as: Carol Marcus, David Marcus, Saavik, Nurse Christian Chapel, Mudd Herron (A Bajoran smuggler who claims to be Joanna's half-brother), Valeris (a Romulan resistance fighter/defector) etc.

 

[Marsden]

If I'm being allowed to go back to the "original source material", then I'm going to go one step further than some of the other suggestions in this thread.


The format:
26 half-hour episodes, animated series with a linked story-arc.


The setting:
The year 2245. In the wake of the Romulan war, and with ever increasing tensions with the Klingon empire as well as the recently discovered Cardassian union, the brand new Constitution Class vessels are given their shakedown cruises, setting out on a mission of firstly territorial protection, and secondly an exploration of the borders. Starfleet has been severely hit by a prolonged Romulan war, so in many cases they start from a point of weakness, and there is a paranoia about what might happen next, particularly with the Klingons and Cardies each champing at the bit to expand their realms of influence... by any means necessary.


The regular cast:
- CAPTAIN ROBERT APRIL; male, seasoned Starship commander. Already a widely decorated officer, April was placed in charge of the construction of Starfleet's newest vessels, Constitution and Enterprise, and is now commanding the latter on her shakedown cruise.
- COMMANDER AZIZAH MOHAMMED; female, ship's first officer. Of Arabiac descent, one of the fleet's most brilliant officers, fast-tracking her way through the command structure. She has a brilliant military mind and her defined role aboard ship is manning tactical.
- LT.CMDR SARAH APRIL; female, ship's doctor. Wife of the captain, but this is a cause for many tensions as both their roles place them in danger frequently. We see something of their off-duty life alongside their on-duty responsibilities.
- LT.CMDR JACE MULDEEN; male, late 50s, chief engineer. Of African desent, Muldeen serves not only as the ship's general "Mister Fixit", but as the oldest of the regular characters, and with an impressive career behind him already, his age and experience means that he serves as something of a mentor of sorts to Captain April, and they form a unique bond on this basis.
- LIEUTENANT PREX; male, Andorian helmsman. A little cocky about his skills as a pilot and looks down a little on humans for their being unable to react as fast as his people do, but usually he chidles humanity in a good natured and humourous way, and when the chips are down he becomes a solid and professional officer. His nature does often see him rub people up the wrong way however, but he soon wins them round with his charm.
- LIEUTENANT JANET HANSEN; female, communications and 'first contact' specialist. Hansen comes to Starfleet from the diplomatic corps, where her duties included being one of the first points of contact for new Federation members. She brings a wealth of this experience to the team.
-ENSIGN SPOCK; male, Vulcan. Junior science officer. This Spock is very young, fresh from the Vulcan academy. Despite professing the usual Vulcan control of his emotions, he is going through something not unalike adolesence, so in practice his culture's inner passions rise to the surface much more readily than he'd often like. He is nevertheless already a brilliant mind, something which is recognised immediately by the captain, and his input and opinion is invaluable to the success of many of Enterprise's missions.


Antagonists:
As mentioned, the Klingon empire and the Cardassian union (despite the Romulans forming a basis of the backstory, they have retreated to a position of neutrality and isolation following the signing of a non-aggression treaty with the Federation, so they play no 'overt' part of proceedings). The Klingons are a war-like and aggressive species, although contradictorially, they are honorable in combat also, always giving the other side the chance to fight on equal terms. By contrast, the Cardassians (a recent 'first contact' of the Federation) are a much more political foe, devious and manipulative, often avoiding outright conflict, but squeezing at the Federation in a much more subtle way. Either of them could take initiative and invade Federation space, something which the chiefs of staff on the Federation council fear the most (having come out of a long a brutal conflict with the mysterious Romulan enemy, many in Starfleet are feeling the effects of war, and are fearful of it starting up all over again). There are many times when both enemies test the waters, by for example the Cardassians contesting the Federation's validity to have a colony on a planet that they claim they have had territorial sovereignty over for centuries; or the Klingons acting extensively in something of a 'jihad' on the Federation, citing religious imperitives to do so; and so on.


The style:
Can be either CGI or a more traditional animation. The show uses a modern style of storytelling, but asthetically it ties in to the visual look of the ship, weapons, uniforms etcetera as they were seen in "The Cage", thus maintaining a broad sense of continuity with the old Star Trek.

Can I send you my money now?

I love that!

But I would just respectfully recommend switching out Cardassian for Tholian. Don't change anything else, including the descriptions, those Tholians are sneaky bastards, and that would be perfect for them.

 

[TRON JA307020]

Anyone redoing the show would need to throw out the 60's attitudes regarding women. No more "I'm frightened" moments from two-dimensional female characters. Do a better job fleshing out the characters beyond Kirk and Spock. Keep the optimistic view of the future. Mix episodic and arc-based story telling. A gay main character (Spock?). Make McCoy a woman. Give the ship an expert (new recurring character) on alien cultures. The Enterprise would keep the iconic shape but the details would be reworked.

Why make Spock gay and McCoy a woman? Why not add a new gay character and a woman doctor working with McCoy. Your scenario sounds like a liberal hollywood white guilt remake that panders to minorities by making well known characters different races and sexes. Star Trek always had different races and sexes on the Enterprise so to change the established characters is really unnecessary.

 

[BillJ]

Why make Spock gay and McCoy a woman? Why not add a new gay character and a woman doctor working with McCoy. Your scenario sounds like a liberal hollywood white guilt remake that panders to minorities by making well known characters different races and sexes. Star Trek always had different races and sexes on the Enterprise so to change the established characters is really unnecessary.

You tend to make more of a progressive statement (Star Trek's supposed calling card) by reworking the iconic characters. Hollywood white guilt? Please. Sometimes you have to move forward, even if it's kicking and screaming.

 

[Warped9]

Speaking for myself I'm partial to the 13 one hour episode season. I think it allows you to get the best results out of individual episodes whether you're doing story arcs or largely standalone stories. Cranking out 22+ episodes is just spreading things too thinly. Great if it works, but the nature of television has changed and so why not take advantage of it.

That said I don't think I'd care for seeing gratuitous sex and violence on Star Trek. If the storytelling is solid it doesn't need that and it's not the show's primary draw anyway.

I can see tweaking some of the characters, but I'd want to retain the overall positive sensibilities to the show: a somewhat better and well intentioned humanity getting bruised occasionally as it goes out into the galaxy. I also like the idea of keeping the 5-year mission concept with the Enterprise out on the frontier. I'd prefer to largely keep it away from familiar UFP territory and stick to the local starbases being the main contact with higher authority. Revive that first season TOS sensibility that deep space is remote and dangerous..

I'd like the most adventures for my money so I'm partial to generally episodic stories with onging threads running throughout.

 

[TRON JA307020]

Why make Spock gay and McCoy a woman? Why not add a new gay character and a woman doctor working with McCoy. Your scenario sounds like a liberal hollywood white guilt remake that panders to minorities by making well known characters different races and sexes. Star Trek always had different races and sexes on the Enterprise so to change the established characters is really unnecessary.

You tend to make more of a progressive statement (Star Trek's supposed calling card) by reworking the iconic characters. Hollywood white guilt? Please. Sometimes you have to move forward, even if it's kicking and screaming.

But you wouldn't have conceived of making Janeway a male or Sisko white wither. There are plenty of original and great characters who are black, female and gay but you guys never say we should change them. I really don't think black people, the female genders or gay people need Hollywood to use their guilt to change iconic characters to appease them. They can and have created new and great characters for them and that's great. Blade is one of my favorite vampire movies but I will be willing to bet no one wants to do a reboot and make Blade white. Sheeesh.

 

[Orphalesion]

Why make Spock gay and McCoy a woman? Why not add a new gay character and a woman doctor working with McCoy. Your scenario sounds like a liberal hollywood white guilt remake that panders to minorities by making well known characters different races and sexes. Star Trek always had different races and sexes on the Enterprise so to change the established characters is really unnecessary.

A show can only have so many principal characters. The principal cast of TOS had only one woman (two if you count Chapel, and from what I have seen she's a minor character even when compared to Uhura, Sulu and Chekov) that tends to feel awkward nowadays.
For all the dislike I feel for NuBSG it actually did well with diversifying it's cast further than the old show. Neither Starbuck nor Boomer being changed to women seemed forced and from what I gather female Starbuck even became the show's most popular character.

Plus the beauty of a remake is you can explore all sorts of possibilities. A remake could bring back Number One from the unaired pilot. Explore the Spock/Uhura relationship etc.
In my idea, for instance, McCoy's sex is not really changed, instead it's his daughter who serves on the Enterprise with Leonard being MIA with a possibility to appear later.
TOS was fair for its day, but the treatment of gender roles, and women in particular, is a bit antiquated by today's standards.

Though I agree with what others say the show should still follow the idea of an optimistic future. That doesn't mean it has to be all superior all the time or sunshine and rainbows and puppies, but it also should not be as chronically depressed as NuBSG.

 

[BillJ]

But you wouldn't have conceived of making Janeway a male or Sisko white wither. There are plenty of original and great characters who are black, female and gay but you guys never say we should change them. I really don't think black people, the female genders or gay people need Hollywood to use their guilt to change iconic characters to appease them. They can and have created new and great characters for them and that's great. Blade is one of my favorite vampire movies but I will be willing to bet no one wants to do a reboot and make Blade white. Sheeesh.

Janeway's gender and Sisko's ethnicity were still up in the air until late in the creative process. But there is nothing about either character that would prevent me from changing them if I thought it was what was best for the show.

When it comes to Kirk, Spock and McCoy, do I want the best actors for the parts or the best white, male actors? That would always be my question if I was in a position of authority.

 

[TRON JA307020]

But you wouldn't have conceived of making Janeway a male or Sisko white wither. There are plenty of original and great characters who are black, female and gay but you guys never say we should change them. I really don't think black people, the female genders or gay people need Hollywood to use their guilt to change iconic characters to appease them. They can and have created new and great characters for them and that's great. Blade is one of my favorite vampire movies but I will be willing to bet no one wants to do a reboot and make Blade white. Sheeesh.

Janeway's gender and Sisko's ethnicity were still up in the air until late in the creative process. But there is nothing about either character that would prevent me from changing them if I thought it was what was best for the show.

When it comes to Kirk, Spock and McCoy, do I want the best actors for the parts or the best white, male actors? That would always be my question if I was in a position of authority.

You weren't talking about the best actors for the parts but how you would redo trek. You want a gay Spock and a female McCoy. That's not mentioning the best actors for the roles but gender and sexual preference. Basically if you were redoing trek you would change Spock and make him gay and only audition females for the role of McCoy. You basically figure that the iconic roles need to be changed because creating new crew members that fit your specifications may not become iconic so that wouldn't be fait to minorities or women.

 

[BillJ]

You weren't talking about the best actors for the parts but how you would redo trek. You want a gay Spock and a female McCoy. That's not mentioning the best actors for the roles but gender and sexual preference. Basically if you were redoing trek you would change Spock and make him gay and only audition females for the role of McCoy. You basically figure that the iconic roles need to be changed because creating new crew members that fit your specifications may not become iconic so that wouldn't be fait to minorities or women.

Gay would be a character trait written in to the character and any male or female actor could do it. Same with McCoy. You'd be surprised how many times actors read for one part and end up snaring another part in the same production based on the reading. When I sat down to write, my intent would be that Spock is gay and McCoy would be a woman. But, I'm open minded enough that I could see what an actor could also bring to a role that is outside what I originally perceived them as being.

What is on the written page isn't what always makes it to the screen. Or else we'd be talking about the adventures of Captain Winter, his red-skinned Martian science officer Spock aboard the S.S. Yorktown.

 

[Orphalesion]

You'd be surprised how many times actors read for one part and end up snaring another part in the same production based on the reading.

Case in point: Marina Sirtis as "Security Chief Macha Hernandez" and Denise Crosby as "Counselor Deanna Troi".

 

[TRON JA307020]

You weren't talking about the best actors for the parts but how you would redo trek. You want a gay Spock and a female McCoy. That's not mentioning the best actors for the roles but gender and sexual preference. Basically if you were redoing trek you would change Spock and make him gay and only audition females for the role of McCoy. You basically figure that the iconic roles need to be changed because creating new crew members that fit your specifications may not become iconic so that wouldn't be fait to minorities or women.

Gay would be a character trait written in to the character and any male or female actor could do it. Same with McCoy. You'd be surprised how many times actors read for one part and end up snaring another part in the same production based on the reading. When I sat down to write, my intent would be that Spock is gay and McCoy would be a woman. But, I'm open minded enough that I could see what an actor could also bring to a role that is outside what I originally perceived them as being.

What is on the written page isn't what always makes it to the screen. Or else we'd be talking about the adventures of Captain Winter, his red-skinned Martian science officer Spock aboard the S.S. Yorktown.

Take the Fantastic Four reboot that is coming out. They changed the Human Torch from a white young 20 something to a black 20 something. Why? Most fans of the fantastic four know exactly why the creator of the movie have done it and so far are turned off by it. They could easily have created a new black character for the movie but instead decided to make a statement and show how progressive they were. The problem is they changed the dynamic and Sue and Johnny are now adoptive brother and sister. It smacks of pandering to minorities to get them to come to the theater. Its not really progressive but in a way kind of racist. There are so many great black characters in the marvel universe that they haven't used and to just change the white ones to black is totally idiotic and lazy.

 

[BillJ]

Take the Fantastic Four reboot that is coming out. They changed the Human Torch from a white young 20 something to a black 20 something. Why? Most fans of the fantastic four know exactly why the creator of the movie have done it and so far are turned off by it. They could easily have created a new black character for the movie but instead decided to make a statement and show how progressive they were. The problem is they changed the dynamic and Sue and Johnny are now adoptive brother and sister. It smacks of pandering to minorities to get them to come to the theater. Its not really progressive but in a way kind of racist. There are so many great black characters in the marvel universe that they haven't used and to just change the white ones to black is totally idiotic and lazy.

Or... they picked the best actor for the job and adjusted the back story accordingly. Or... they had the intent from the start and since blended families are no longer unique they decided to reflect the change in society.

Many of these characters were created when white folks ruled supreme over the United States. These changes reflect that is no longer the case.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Spock as gay seems pretty pointless, given that the character as originally developed came to be sexually 'different' anyway, the whole once every seven years allegory enough to raise human eyebrows. It would be thematically redundant. Far more progressive to have someone like Kirk be gay, as it isn't an allegory, and we no longer live in an era where such things have to be expressed so obliquely.

The question is, what kind of stories will you be able to tell as a result that you couldn't before? Bottom line really.

 

[Pauln6]

I think 13 1-hour episodes with an over-arching plot for each season sounds excellent. I'm not 100% sure I'd want one over-arching plot for the entire series unless it's part time. I would prefer the show to maintain the ensemble feel it had in the first half of season one. NuBSG had the right idea by having a 3-tier cast of regulars (Kirk, Spock, McCoy- 13 episodes), support regulars (Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov 6-10 episodes 2-6 episodes) and semi-regulars (Chapel, Rand, Riley, Decker, Ilia, M'Ress, Xon, andorains, tellarites, maybe even Saavik, and some new blood). That way if you start killing characters you aren't just losing superfluous redshirt 13 and you can upgrade or downgrade characters as needed. It's also a good way to test out the popularity of new alien characters without messing with the iconic crew. Avoid alien of the week stories and concentrate on telling stories about the races that already exist.

I'm not really in favour of changing the gender, ethnicity, or sexuality of the core crew much. I would rather see them defined so that they are used where appropriate (i.e. not have Chekov swapping departments every 5 minutes) and create more diversity among the support cast. While I loved NuBSG and the gender dynamic was much improved, I was rather miffed that few of the original female characters were ported across (I think Sheba was the only one that had any basis on the original, although you could argue that elements of Cassiopeia were added to Six but that's it). I would want to see any new series do credit to all three of the existing recurring female roles and add many more.

The above suggestion of having a female doctor and female comms officer sounds like something out of the 70s. I would expect any modern Trek to work harder to have a 50/50 gender split and less gender stereotyping than that.

Quite a few shows are coming through now where a character just happens to be gay or bi-sexual (Flash, Warehouse 13, Gotham). That's definitely the way to go IMO. Being gay is not an achievement. Make it as ordinary on tv as it is in real life and our work is done.

However, I anticipate that an animated show is far more likely. Thuderbirds has done a good job of maintaining the spirit of the original and updating some elements (go Granny!). I suspect Trek will do the same.

 

[Maurice]

They're fictional characters. You do with them what you think will make for interesting stories. The more diverse the characters are, the more story and thematic possibilities.

 

[Pauln6]

They're fictional characters. You do with them what you think will make for interesting stories. The more diverse the characters are, the more story and thematic possibilities.

There is diversity and then there is inconsistency. Inconsistency for the sake of convenient story-telling does not necessarily make good story-telling. Janeway is often criticised as a character for being inconsistent. Paris and Chakotay lost what little edge they had far too soon in Voyager and their development suffered. I think characters should oscillate on a relatively narrow band and depart from that only as part of a defined arc or when they are pushed to extremes.

But them I'm a control freak.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

• 13 hour long episodes per season
• The big 3 + Scotty are the same, but Scotty is a woman for sure.
• The minor characters rotate through, as would actually happen. They'd come aboard, serve a year, and either move to other positions on the ship or rotate off.
• Much more Hornblower-esque in that the ship cannot easily contact command base because their subspace radio has not only significant time lags but limited range. When they're out on the frontier, they are alone.
• The transporter only moves people and things from place to place. When it malfunctions, you die. It's not a story device.
• Regular characters die and when they do they don't come back. Ever.
• No hybrid aliens. Species can't cross-breed (they can't, really). Spock is a Vulcan raised by a human mother whose influence on him has made him as ill a fit on his homeworld as if he were half human.
• Spock is NOT a Swiss Army Knife character. He is better at some things than humans, and worse at others. He's great on desert planets. He sucks on Sarpedion.
• No ESP/telepathy amongst humans. Only aliens may have telepathy, which operate under very carefully worked out rules.
• No comedy episodes. No cute endings on dramas where people die.
• Aliens are alien. If that can't be afforded, they're humans who settled other planets and developed their own cultures.
• The gravity fails now and then
• Short stories are licensed from actual SF writers where possible, but adapted by TV writers who understand the form (TOS tried to use SF writers, but many of them couldn't produce a story/script which suited the show's format).
• We never ever say what year it is. We always refer to the past as in "120 years ago" meaning we never end up contradicting real history.
• No evil mirror universe.
• Stories are about something, but not moralizing. Questions are more interesting than answers.
• We get only ONE each of the following.
  • logic the computer to death
  • alien force takes over the ship
  • alien(s) with godlike powers

I like it! Let's make it.

 

[Maurice]

They're fictional characters. You do with them what you think will make for interesting stories. The more diverse the characters are, the more story and thematic possibilities.

There is diversity and then there is inconsistency. Inconsistency for the sake of convenient story-telling does not necessarily make good story-telling. Janeway is often criticised as a character for being inconsistent. Paris and Chakotay lost what little edge they had far too soon in Voyager and their development suffered. I think characters should oscillate on a relatively narrow band and depart from that only as part of a defined arc or when they are pushed to extremes.

But them I'm a control freak.

I fail to see how one relates to the other. You can write non-diverse characters as inconsistently as WASPy ones. "Non sequitur. Your facts are uncoordinated."