Freethinking Ferret

Dr. Bashir was "secretly" genetically engineered by his parents. There was an episode on what a big issue that was.

Valentine Pontifex

Re: racial demographics of Trek actors.

It might be pointed part of the breakdown of ethnicity of the actors is related to the fact that series is being made in L.A. and must draw on the set of actors that work in L.A. That means the majority will be "white" with a strong minority of "black" or "hispanic" with a sprinkling of others. Of course the planet's current population is mostly Asian (which come in many varieties for the lack of a better world). Even "whites" come in more variety than is typical from the pool of professional actors in Hollywood. Africans are far more diverse than one would expect soley judging current populations of "blacks" in United States.

Obviously it would be nice to have the people in Trek match the world in terms of ethnic, "racial," and cultural factors. But to truely do so is not very practical. For the main cast which some money can be spent in search for one should certainly expect some diversity. But for the guest cast, one can't expect too much. Typically guest roles are filled in days and not all that many people read for them.

As for gender, that is something which they are without excuse though since actresses are readily availiable. I suppose that they might point out that the need to be consistant with TOS (Kirk et al. for those not into fanish terminology) which certainly was rather sexist, but they never let consistency with prior Trek series stop them with anything before. (Heck in Trek sometimes they can't stay consistent between acts in a single episode let alone between two series.)

I don't think that any SF series has ever came close to matching world demographics. Trek has made an effort to have a racially diverse casts. Babylon 5's pilot movie "The Gathering" did a fairly good job at diversity though the series itself did not do nearly as well. B5 was also male-heavy as well.

sensate

Can't find black, latino or asian acorts in LA. Oh please! They can certainly find 'em when they want gang members, prostitutes, junkies, and poor people for television and movies. They can find people of color when they want to find them.

Could it be that asian, black, and latino actors just don't get sent to certain auditions by their agents because they know they won't get hired?

All of the vulcans and the doctor's race look pretty white to me and they are all portrayed by white actors. Maybe if they had described the doctor as a drug dealer instead of a doctor they would have hired a person of color.

pz

You can't seriously discuss genetic engineering in Star Trek. The biology in that show is the most abominable, ignorant, misbegotten crap ever -- there is no basis for even considering the issue. It's like consulting Tolkien's novels for strategies to optimize railroad timetables. There is no connection between the two subjects at all.

Late_Cretaceous

Q:WHat does the starship enterprise have in common with a wad of toilet paper?

A: They are both trying to get rid of Klingons from Uranus.

Secular Pinoy

And what would a better world be like? Ok, it's a spelling mistake. Just wanted to point it out.

wordsmyth

Starfleet and "The Federation" are not the same institution.

Starfleet is more akin to the United States Navy, but its my primary purpose is exploration. This is the reason there are far more humans than aliens on starships. You won't find many humans working aboard alien starships either.

The Federation is equivalent to the U.N., but on a galactic level. This is where ambassadors of the various alien races get together. AFAIR, in the episode IV movie (or was it VII?), The Federation President wasn't human at all, but an alien. Though yes, that alien was portrayed by an obviously white male.

So it should come as no surprise that there are far more humans in Starfleet, while The Federation is made up of alien races who have joined a sort of "coalition" of planets.

I would also like to point out that in the newest series, "Enterprise", The Federation doesn't really even exist yet and Starfleet is in its infancy.

I would also point out that Star Trek: The Next Generation, prime adversaries were "Q" (who always appeared as a white human male) and "The Borg" who mostly appeared as white human male cyborgs (mindless drones). I think a belief in rascist undertones is unwarranted.

Remember the original series portrayed the first ever on screen inter-racial kissing scene (Capt. Kirk & Lt. Uhura) and was very controversial for its time.

Wyz_sub10

Weren't the the heads of the earth government *and* Starfleet both black by the DS9 years?

I don't see the "racism", as such. *Of course* you have to have confrontation, and you have to keep a single perspective most of the time (Federation) or else who the hell will care about anything on the show?

Saying that the Romulans are 'x' and therefore ST is racist seems to be looking for problems. Besides, there are many ST episodes where there is a "good" Romulan or a situation where the Romulan needs to overcome prejudice.

But making the connection that Michael Dorn is black and Klingon, and therefore ST says all blacks are "warrior-like" seems absurd to me. Most of the Klingons in ST are played by white actors.

I would agree that the representation of ethnicities in ST is lacking, but I wouldn't read much into that being an intentional move on the part of Roddenberry.

There are many espisodes - one notable one with Geordi wooing a felow crew member - when balcks date whites, and Asians date Europeans, and no one blinks an eye. When they do it's because of different 'species' maixing (like Klingons and Humans). Should we assume that *all* prejudices should go out the window? Of course not.

mecca777

Well, not the first inter-racial kiss (that was in I Spy), but the first Black/White kiss. Isn't that the scene where Kirk is forced, grimacing and struggling against his humilation, to kiss Uhura; for the amusement of telepathic aliens?

I'm not going to accuse the Trek universe of out-and-out racism, but it does pander to stereotypes (which can easily be compared to outdated racial stereotypes), and the show's makers have never been as daring in confronting prejudice as they'd like to think.

Corwin

Well to be fair.... the whole 'forcing' issue seemed to stem more from pure stubbornness and contrariness than from the fact that she was black.

It wasn't that he minded kissing her especially... (this IS Kirk we're talking about here after all...) but he appeared to be mightily annoyed that he was being pushed into it by someone else and had no particular control over the situation.... and also some hesitation over the fact that she was one of his subordinate officers.