"Wouldn't it be cool if..." aliens.

[Myasishchev]

CGI employed to complete the illusion that an actor has a different hue flowing in their circulatory system.

What do you mean by this? ...How flat and/or powdery make-up sometimes looks as it's caked on actors' faces, taking away skin's natural (if minimal) translucence?

Nah, it's something I harp about a lot, where the actors' red blood is visible in areas where makeup is impracticable or impossible, like the tongue or caruncles. The most hilariously obvious example is from, of all things, the one that $200 million to make, so clearly the technical ability was there--but there it is, huger than life on the theatre screen, Kid Spock's pink lip is bleeding green, and I'm at a loss to describe how that works.

I'd also like to see different races within a species. All the Cardassians are exactly the same shade of gray. The make-up may have changed throughout the seasons, but in each episode, every Cardassian is exactly the same color. Imagine one that's near black - not human "black" but actually near charcoal in color. Or one that's near white. And instead of the dark one having more rounded "African" like features, it be pinched and angular, and the lighter one be smoother and curvier. I like the idea of playing with norms. Why should alien races vary in the same ways human ones do?

I dunno. I've got nothing against morphological diversity in any given species (you know, like humans), but if they're going to do it, they need to think about how such diversity came to be in the environment of the particular alien.

 

[Arpy]

I dunno. I've got nothing against morphological diversity in any given species (you know, like humans), but if they're going to do it, they need to think about how such diversity came to be in the environment of the particular alien.

Sure. And an idea that may not work with one species on one planet can always be made to work for another species on another planet...you're not going to find 33 feet tall light-gravity Cardassians but you may Norvalens from Mirana II.

It might also be interesting to see entirely new races pop up among human-like humanoid species. That is, as there are Caucasian-like Klingons, and Asian-like Vulcans, I wonder if a talented make-up artist could design a "race-that-might-have-been". Say if a race of humans adapted to life in Antarctica - what would they look like?

Or could humans have adapted differently in places where there are already people?

Now, it doesn't make sense (I don't think) that aliens come in the same racial diversities that humans do, but then it doesn't make sense that there are humanoid aliens in the first place. But given that there are, I guess that that Antarctican race of humans a make-up artist could come up with could also have Klingon, Vulcan, Yridian, etc counterparts.

We'd probably ONLY get the counterparts given that there are no actual Antarctican humans. ...Unless of course Earth takes in refugees from a parallel Earth where humans did adapt to life in Antarctica. Don't you just love science-fiction?

 

[Anji]

This is all very well boys and girls but the question is would Paramount/CBS shell out the extra money to do this?

I don't think so.

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

^Way to rain on the parade. It's a What If thread, who cares what Paramount does or doesn't do? That's not the point of the thread.

 

[Cicero]

CGI employed to complete the illusion that an actor has a different hue flowing in their circulatory system.

What do you mean by this? ...How flat and/or powdery make-up sometimes looks as it's caked on actors' faces, taking away skin's natural (if minimal) translucence?

Nah, it's something I harp about a lot, where the actors' red blood is visible in areas where makeup is impracticable or impossible, like the tongue or caruncles. The most hilariously obvious example is from, of all things, the one that $200 million to make, so clearly the technical ability was there--but there it is, huger than life on the theatre screen, Kid Spock's pink lip is bleeding green, and I'm at a loss to describe how that works.

Pink skin pigment.

Alternatively, Vulcan blood vessel walls may contain red pigmentation of some sort for unknown reasons. This would also explain oddities like red blood vessels being visible in Vulcan eyes and backlit ears.