With humans like us, who needs aliens?

[C.E. Evans]

Chekov - We do believe all planets have a sovereign claim to inalienable human rights.

Azetbur - Inalien? If you could only hear yourselves. Human rights. Why, the very name is racist. The Federation is no more than a "homo sapiens only" club.

General Chang - Present company excepted, of course.

To avoid future misunderstandings such as in the exchange above, what should be used instead of ‘Human’ when referring to other species using an ‘umbrella’ term? Perhaps ‘Human’ *does* fit the purpose if used innocently, but what about species offended by the comparison who may not agree with human visions, values and ethos, such as in this example with the Klingons? What is the actual definition of *being* human? Humans and humanity have not always shone the best examples of compassion, fairness and integrity.

Humanities ethics and virtues have often strayed to both ends of the spectrum both good and bad; behaviours which have been displayed repeatedly even leading up to the ‘present day’ at the dawn of 25th century in nu-Trek. What exactly *would* be a good label for a ‘collective’ of souls displaying a common ‘moral compass’, an all encompassing term for many species of differing backgrounds, beliefs and moral values who might not even get along all of the time… possibly even resorting to conflict on occasion?

Let’s think of a new term for the collective of species and consciousness’ that make up our galaxy that will not offend even the Klingons.

Galaxians? Nah, too cheesy and sounds too much like Talaxians… hehe.

I do think that "human" is something of an umbrella term for a large number of bipedal species across the known Galaxy and beyond, with "humanoid" being an even more generalized term for such life-forms. To go in the other direction and be more specific, "Terran" could be used to describe humans from Earth or of Earth ancestry.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

"Being" or "person" instead of Human, I suppose. I think they already used "sentient rights". Someone here suggests "sensap" (sentient/sapient): https://english.stackexchange.com/q... to,almost necessarily include self-awareness.

 

[valkyrie013]

As said, it would be just any other show, with the use of Sci Fi, we can boil down to the core argument without any bias's. They can show both sides of an argument, and discuss when why, etc. and the crew make a decision. Now sometimes, that decision isn't right, a good number of episodes often talked about on this board get it wrong.

 

[herofhyrule]

That reminds me of Stargate SG-1; I love the show, but it's blatant military propaganda that got the US Air Force's seal of approval (and, therefore, occasional official assets).

Speaking of Stargate, that franchise is a good example of a sci-fi series that doesn't rely as heavily on aliens. Most off-worlders they meet are human.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Sometimes the alien-ness of the worlds and the futuristic technology can be enough, I guess, without other species of sentients.

 

[fireproof78]

Sometimes the alien-ness of the worlds and the futuristic technology can be enough, I guess, without other species of sentients.

The more alien the environment, the more familiar the people can be to ground it. Star Wars is a perfect example, where you have an extraordinary setting and very grounded characters, everyman or archetypal in their roles.

 

[Mojochi]

Because I like it

 

[SalyutBuran]

Speaking of Stargate, that franchise is a good example of a sci-fi series that doesn't rely as heavily on aliens. Most off-worlders they meet are human.

In my head canon there are very few actual aliens. Klingons/Vulcans/romulans/betazoids, etc are all just offshoots of our hominid ancestors from roughly a million years ago.

It's why forehead ridges are so common, exactly because our recent ancestors had them.

 

[Mojochi]

In my head canon there are very few actual aliens. Klingons/Vulcans/romulans/betazoids, etc are all just offshoots of our hominid ancestors from roughly a million years ago.

It's why forehead ridges are so common, exactly because our recent ancestors had them.

In my Star Trek head canon, humans are the most pervasive species. They travel the most & farthest, they colonize the most, as such that explains why they seemingly have superior numbers in Starfleet. They, more than any other, are out there in greater numbers spreading their kind & befriending others. Ferengi are notable for their bargaining, Klingons for their honor bound warrior codes, Vulcans for their logic/intellectualism, & humans are the charmers, who somehow can manage to beguile them all through, persistence, pervasiveness, & downright talking everyone to death

 

[SalyutBuran]

They travel the most & farthest, they colonize the most, as such that explains why they seemingly have superior numbers in Starfleet.

A) The federation is unlikely to invite a world into the federation if they are gonna greatly out number humans on star ships. No one wants their voting share radically reduced.

B) Seems likely that each alien race has their own ships as part of star fleet. I.e. the vulcan fleet etc.

C) In my head canon starfleet that we see on TV, is just the Starfleet based out of San Fransico. Space is massive and it makes sense, that each culture/region of humanity has it's own fleet, and it's own list of worlds where it sends its people.

Like imagine if the US military sent all it's west coast people to the pacific fleet, same sort of idea.

Otherwise it's farcical to explain how billions of humans would have so few star fleet vessels that officers are routinely having run ins with academy friends etc.

In my head canon there's a dozen or so fleets based out of sanfrasinco. And they're the only fleets we ever see on screen.

In my head canon Annapolis/washington has it's own Academy, where east coasters line up to serve.