Why are aliens always "diverse," but never diverse?

[Sci]

It would be the equivalent of having a script about an alien species whose culture embodies stereotypes about Jews, and then casting all Jewish actors to play the part.

Oh, you mean like Kivas Fajo, the guy who kidnapped Data because he wanted the most toys?

Well, I haven't seen "The Most Toys" in years and can't say if I think it's anti-Semitic. But we only saw one member of that species; we didn't see every single one of them being played by Jewish actors.

It would be more akin to having only Jewish actors play Ferengi... while wearing yarmulkes.

 

[Maurice]

Personally I'd have been fine with variations in Vulcan skin tones, but given the base skin tone was yellowish, not pinkish, a dark skinned Vulcan should have been more olive drab than Earthly brown.

A lot of people mistakenly believe that all traits are evolutionarily significant. There's a certain amount of variation in any species, and some features are survival-neutral and perpetuate, not because they confer a survival advantage, but because they don't provide a disadvantage.

As to "Code of Honor", the Teaser specifies

"There are four extremely tall, elegant Black Guards who form a square."

But if this is meant to describe the "race" of the guards, it seems strange. Why specify this for the guards (non-speaking roles) and not the rest of the characters? I suspect the script is at fault, and the intention of the script was that the Ligonian people be black. It really makes no sense to specify the race in this context otherwise.

 

[C.E. Evans]

As to "Code of Honor", the Teaser specifies

"There are four extremely tall, elegant Black Guards who form a square."

But if this is meant to describe the "race" of the guards, it seems strange. Why specify this for the guards (non-speaking roles) and not the rest of the characters? I suspect the script is at fault, and the intention of the script was that the Ligonian people be black. It really makes no sense to specify the race in this context otherwise.

But would it make sense if they specified green people on Orion or blue people on Andor?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

If that's the only bit of description - capitalizing both "Black" and "Guard" - one almost wonders if it was a clumsy attempt at some nomenclature for the group: a quick Google on "Black Guard" turns up everything from a fictional bodyguard unit in the game Warhammer through a swordmakers' guild in WOW and a special U.S. military unit to a leather club in Minneapolis.

Maurice is right, obviously - a tremendous amount of variation and mutation is of no clear evolutionary advantage at the time it first occurs, if ever. Traits will also fall out of a population without the pressure of being either selected for or against on the basis of usefulness.

 

[xortex]

Cause the writers were lazy. It's easier to write them with a greater slant than a lesser one. It's hard to get a handle on the motivations of a diverse race but in 'The Omega Glory' I pointed out elsewhere that the aliens - the Yangs and the Comms might have been higher life forms that were 'borrowing' our history and it's trappings to play with and basically try on for size.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Cause the writers were lazy. It's easier to write them with a greater slant than a lesser one. It's hard to get a handle on the motivations of a diverse race but in 'The Omega Glory' I pointed out elsewhere that the aliens - the Yangs and the Comms might have been higher life forms that were 'borrowing' our history and it's trappings to play with and basically try on for size.

You know this how?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The variations in populations that we now call "races" appear to be very late trends in evolutionary terms. The evidence is that human beings pushed into areas like Europe and Australia around 50,000 to 60,000 years ago. By this time the "genetic dice" were already being loaded by technological innovation, etc. such that isolating a single recent phenotypical trend - like reduced melanin levels - and attributing particular significance to it as a mechanism for survival of offspring isn't science...it's a game of speculation for folks more interested in making up stories about race than in facts.

 

[xortex]

Cause the writers were lazy. It's easier to write them with a greater slant than a lesser one. It's hard to get a handle on the motivations of a diverse race but in 'The Omega Glory' I pointed out elsewhere that the aliens - the Yangs and the Comms might have been higher life forms that were 'borrowing' our history and it's trappings to play with and basically try on for size.

You know this how?

'Cause I'm a lazy writer.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Cause the writers were lazy. It's easier to write them with a greater slant than a lesser one. It's hard to get a handle on the motivations of a diverse race but in 'The Omega Glory' I pointed out elsewhere that the aliens - the Yangs and the Comms might have been higher life forms that were 'borrowing' our history and it's trappings to play with and basically try on for size.

You know this how?

'Cause I'm a lazy writer.

Not sure if you're any sort of writer.

So, what clues are there that the Comms and Yangs were "higher lifeforms." And how would that show them as being more diverse than any other "higher lifeform" ( or lower for that matter) seen in Trek?

 

[scotpens]

Cause the writers were lazy. It's easier to write them with a greater slant than a lesser one. It's hard to get a handle on the motivations of a diverse race but in 'The Omega Glory' I pointed out elsewhere that the aliens - the Yangs and the Comms might have been higher life forms that were 'borrowing' our history and it's trappings to play with and basically try on for size.

You know this how?

’Cause I'm a lazy writer.

Actually it’s because he thinks he’s Timo.

 

[Nerys Myk]

A Timo length post, written in xortex's style!!!!!!

 

[Count Zero]

Actually it’s because he thinks he’s Timo.

A Timo length post, written in xortex's style!!!!!!

Let's not get personal, please.

 

[Timo]

Since I was summoned, I might just as well give my support to the original poster.

1) Racial variation done the human way may be considered an extension of the use of the human body plan for all aliens. But rather than being a mitigating factor, I'd consider it a damning one. Why should a black alien have a flat Afro nose and curly Afro hair? Why not a cute little Asian nose and long blond Nordic hair, along with a distinct Cockney pattern of speech? Piling unrealism on unrealism is something that might better be avoided - but an Asiatic actor deliberately painted dark brown and given a blonde wig might simply be too much for certain people to swallow.

2) Let's ignore 1 for now and accept, say, the overall Afro look as a galactic constant. But having blacks as a minority every time they appear is a valid target for critique as well. Why should all cultures and species have the same demographics? Trek never really attempted a black population with a white minority. And it never attempted a majority/minority racial setup without using it as a plot point, unless said setup happened to be the stated Hollywood norm. In that case, it could go uncommented, such as with black Bajorans or black Vulcans or random blacks in "False Profits" etc. Again something that could be easily avoided with intentionally "scifi" casting (whites in a minority but without any fuss over this issue), but again that sort of intentionality might be too much for some.

I basically never use the "lazy writers" excuse, as I don't think it excuses anything. But this does appear to be a case of overall creative laziness. Whether it warrants the attention it gets, against all the other kinds of creative laziness inherent in the Trek format, is a different question altogether.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Deckerd]

This question was answered on the first page. I can't believe all this racial turmoil has been generated by casting companies and principal auditions which have a limited range of people, who are all human, to turn into aliens.

 

[Sindatur]

Aliens Cultures being Mono-Cultural is a popular complaint about SciFi storytelling originality (IE: Everyone speaks the same language, everyone has the same religion, listens to the same music, and same eating customs, etc). But, in addition to that, you also generally have the story telling you that Humans are so special and resourceful, etc, because we are diverse, so, it's often explained in the story itself.

Though, I can't get on board with the idea that a SciFi show needs to show the same skin tone diversity as on today's Earth, or the US in particular, I do believe, that if a SciFi planet has different climates, there should be varying skin tones for folks from those different climates (IE: A hot Desert dwelling Alien, should look different via skin tone or other attributes then the same Species come from the snowy mountains.

 

[Timo]

casting companies and principal auditions which have a limited range of people, who are all human

But not all Caucasian, which was the original point. Casting a 100% black or 100% Asiatic team should be simple enough (there are plenty of non-scifi shows and movies where this is required for realism or at least verisimilitude anyway), so casting a Star Trek team that diverges from the reputed and indeed evident 90/5/5 norm should not be particularly difficult.

Casting a 100% team of extreme body types (say, short or muscular or obese) should not be an obstacle, either, in the typical case of there being the classic eight extras sharp (say, Klingons or Borg in any Klingon- or Borg-themed TNG episode or even movie!) to represent the alien species... Even if filling an entire background "village" or "space station" with such body types would obviously be impractical. Some effort is then involved, though - whereas avoiding the critiqued "fake diversity" of the 90/5/5 cliche should require zero effort as such.

Timo Saloniemi