Why is Starfleet so dominated by Humans?
- Thread starter cwl
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Solely budgetary reasons, most likely. Having numerous aliens as background characters in virtually every episode would not have been possible given a television show's budget.
But then, given that every time we see an installation or ship, we only see a small percentage of the personnel, there very well could be numerous non-Humans around that we just aren't seeing.
Though, I will admit, this is one major pet peeve of mine about Trek in general. Granted, they couldn't have Andorians, Tellarites or whoever running around all the time, but every now and then would have been nice.
But then, given that every time we see an installation or ship, we only see a small percentage of the personnel, there very well could be numerous non-Humans around that we just aren't seeing.
Though, I will admit, this is one major pet peeve of mine about Trek in general. Granted, they couldn't have Andorians, Tellarites or whoever running around all the time, but every now and then would have been nice.
Budget. I would've loved to see more aliens too, and kinda feel that ST shows in general should have more, but it's a lot cheaper to have humans in uniform than to get all the makeup and work for several aliens per episode, especially if they wouldn't be pivotal to an episode's plot.
Racism
While I do definitely understand budget constraints, it seems that they might have been able to put some representative non-humans at a distance: walking down corridors, "manning" consoles in the background, eating lunch at a side table in the mess hall, etc,. The make-up/prosthetics would not have needed to be perfect (ever seen any of the prop phasers that the crew members in the back of the landing parties held?). This would definitely have added a little more flavor to the scenes, but -being the fans we are- many of us might have then been complaining that we did not see the aliens up close enough to see faces clearly, etc. 
Very COOL!
In The Making Of Star Trek there is a reference to the idea that Starfleet ships could be manned predominantly by one race: humans, Vulcans, Andorians, etc. In TOS we hear of the starship Intrepid manned by Vulcans and I believe this idea is revisited in DS9.
Budget is the main reason we never saw this idea really put across onscreen, but there isn't any reason not to accept it. And as someone else mentioned because of budget we can just assume we're seeing the human arm of Starfleet.
Indeed. In DS9: Take Me Out to the Holosuite there's the U.S.S. T'Kumbra, which has an entire Vulcan crew.
TNG also had a reference to this - LaForge's mother commanded the U.S.S. Hera, the crew of which was mainly Vulcans.
It's much easier to point out the incredible logistical difficulties that would spring from having a large number of species on one ship. Take temperature and humidity, for example. Human normal is habitable for Vulcans and Andorians, but probably not all that comfortable, and Andorian normal might be dangerous for Vulcans and vice versa. Similarly, food that's safe for one species could be poisonous or hyper-allergenic for another. It's probably easier to have variety in the 24th century than the 23rd, as food replicators have and more customizable environmental systems have probably helped that quite a bit, but there's going to be a practical limit. Garak's a good example - Bajoran norms are too cold and too bright to be comfortable for Cardassians.
Then there's other, more subtle issues. Take shift scheduling, for example. Humans work reasonably well with six to eight hour shifts, and submarines have shown that - if you're willing to push things - you can do wacky things like twelve-hour shifts back to back. However, all that assumes a 24-hour day. If you shift humans too far from that standard, you start having psychological issues. The same applies to other species, no doubt. How do you make up a work schedule when a human needs a 24 hour day broken into 8-hour work periods, while Denobulans stay awake for a couple weeks and then sleep for a couple day, and the Caitians (making this up) function best during dawn and dusk, so they need two shifts with a siesta in the middle?
In short, having a ship with a majority of one or two closely compatible species plus a few others might well work best. There could be a requirement, however, that everyone serve on a ship, station, or base with a different majority than their own at least once, probably early in their career, to promote diversity and solidarity between different species.
Then there's other, more subtle issues. Take shift scheduling, for example. Humans work reasonably well with six to eight hour shifts, and submarines have shown that - if you're willing to push things - you can do wacky things like twelve-hour shifts back to back. However, all that assumes a 24-hour day. If you shift humans too far from that standard, you start having psychological issues. The same applies to other species, no doubt. How do you make up a work schedule when a human needs a 24 hour day broken into 8-hour work periods, while Denobulans stay awake for a couple weeks and then sleep for a couple day, and the Caitians (making this up) function best during dawn and dusk, so they need two shifts with a siesta in the middle?
In short, having a ship with a majority of one or two closely compatible species plus a few others might well work best. There could be a requirement, however, that everyone serve on a ship, station, or base with a different majority than their own at least once, probably early in their career, to promote diversity and solidarity between different species.
I'd go with enviromental factors as part of the reason.
Perhaps another reason is that Humans are naturally more curious than some of the other species.
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