Will Discovery show us a world with true diversity?
- Thread starter Wadjda
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Probably the latter. The Klingons should be more diverse but they've only shown their reimagined versions and likely only ever will.
Only humans can be diverse in the Trek universe, and even then only slightly.
Only humans can be diverse in the Trek universe, and even then only slightly.
hmmm...so far, we had Klingons with different skin colours and believe systems/cultural approaches, we had Vulcans with different skin colours and hair styles, I guess. Humans of course. We haven't seen much of the other species, tbf. One Kelpian, two Tellarites (at least we've seen different Tellarite sexes, which might be a novum), and only one Andorian.
So far, the UFP has been the 'homo sapiens club' it ever was, buut given time, two or three seasons and we might see more variation with other species asides the pretty diverse Klingons and slightly diverse Vulcans as well. After 10 episodes it is really way too early to tell
So far, the UFP has been the 'homo sapiens club' it ever was, buut given time, two or three seasons and we might see more variation with other species asides the pretty diverse Klingons and slightly diverse Vulcans as well. After 10 episodes it is really way too early to tell
We’ve seen diverse Klingons in DSC
Diverse in the context of their own rebooted design. We've seen none of the pie-head Klingons with hair, nor the human fusion Klingons which ENT and TOS say should be a big part of the empire at this point.
They're ignoring the diversity which should be part of the empire at this point for multicolour nuKlingons.
Genuine question.
What will it add to have two types of bumpy heads on the planet of the week? Apart from increase production costs. Do the different bumps represent different ethnicities, nationalities, ideologies? Or would they represent a biological diversity in one coherent society, like the Star Wars bar?
How will they show the multiple languages of an alien society when everything is translated seamlessly anyway. How do they show complex societies and demonstrate diversity effectively?
Multiple interest groups within societies are a regular feature in trek. How many times has the crew beamed in to the middle of a conflict, or found one group exploiting another, enslaving then, feeding addictions?
They’ve already shown that the Federation isn’t the homogeneous harmonia of mutual tolerance and virtuous ideals. A segment of Vulcan society abhors the Federation and considers it a failed experiment and wants out. Vexit next season maybe?
Maybe they could point out that this planet of the week has 228 distinct nation states, 500 languages, 19 major religions, 8 dominant and competing political ideologies, 7 castes, 99 skin shades, 14 forehead bump variants. Six sexes, 8 genders and an infinite combination of them all. But you’ll still only get a handful of them on screen, 2-3 speaking parts, 6-10 extras. Dependent on the story, it’s likely that the group will have some mutual interest relevant to the crew and therefore story, so some will probably be related, a family group maybe, so there will be physical similarities by necessity. And they’d still have to make this planet of the weeks population physically distinct from the last weeks species of the week, and the next.
Some races wear robes and togas, and others wear little more than sheer mankinis, maybe mix them round a bit.
We've seen different colors, but culturally they are homogeneous.
No, brown faced painted humans should not be. We have seen more diversity among klingons than ever, you are not getting your 1960s white actors in brownface.
Why do you think your idea of "Diversity" applies to aliens?
Some more diverse actors would be nice, they can put shit on their foreheads if that eases more sensitive viewers afraid of that.
A lot of them are a lot like humans or embrace certain parts of human culture. it would make sense.
It would be nice to have aliens who are actually...you know...alien in terms of their outlook, instead of being either exactly like modern Americans, exactly like except for one weird trick, or an expy of historic earth cultures. They'd probably need some talent in the writer's room with some experience with had Sci/Fi however.
Also, I'd like to see an exploration of an advanced culture (like, thousands of years ahead of the Federation) which isn't just some sort of vague energy being. This was one of the things TOS was better at than the later series, where it seemed virtually every alien race was within a few hundred years in terms of technological development.
Also, I'd like to see an exploration of an advanced culture (like, thousands of years ahead of the Federation) which isn't just some sort of vague energy being. This was one of the things TOS was better at than the later series, where it seemed virtually every alien race was within a few hundred years in terms of technological development.
In looks as well instead of just being "Human with bumpy nose" honestly if I was doing discovery, every single species that just looks like a human with a tattoo or bump or no difference at all, would be drastically redesigned aside from the Vulcans basically. Trill would be redesigned, Bajorans, Rijilians.
It would nice to see Aliens that were actually Alien in their outlook as well, but it might be hard to write around especially with the extremely short episodes Discovery is pushing. I mean they're getting down to the half an hour mark now.
Honestly I don't think we'll ever get that much world building with Discovery. It's a serialised show in the modern way, we're not going to get hour long episodes exploring some rando Alien race, it's going to be 14 episodes of character drama with 1 episode with a contained storyline to pander to the old fans.
I honestly would like the see the SCALE of the Federation enlarged as well. The only thing in Star Trek that has ever really shown the sheer scale of manpower of the Federation is Yorktown in Beyond. The Federation is home to trillions of citizens, hundreds of worlds, tens of thousands of lightyears, yet every colony or alien world we see is literally 10 people, a few adobe houses and a small town courtyard with a old medieval cart selling fabrics or fruit and if TNG is to be believed, the entire federation fleet is like 50 ships and if DS9 is to be believed maybe a few hundred ships.
We also got to see "logic extremists" as well
Eh. Given humanioid hybrids are a thing, and are canon, I really don't support visual retcons of established races to make them much more alien. If we were working with an unlimited budget I'd probably do things like use CGI to make limb proportions different and facial features subtly off (like say increasing the distance between eyes) to make it clear that we aren't looking at someone wearing some rubber props. But they still need to be humanoid.
They can still be humanoid, but I personally would still drastically redesign them. It makes no sense for Aliens that look identical to humans even if they're humanoids.
https://orig00.deviantart.net/47c7/f/2009/066/9/5/95c5f78e28211d28eb6a89f02d497d53.jpg
Something more along the lines of this. I quite like the Bajoran and Trill redesign here. It's 2017 we have CGI, get rid of the "They're identical to humans" aliens.
"How would you canon explain it"
Easily, characters on the show often can tell aliens that look identical to humans apart from humans, meaning, the characters are seeing something we are not, we see them as humans, but in reality, they look like Aliens.
