Alright, this is a simple question. Why are all organizaions except for the Federation uniracial? I mean, look at a Klingon ship, and there is nothing but Klingons. Same for Romulans and Cardassions. If these groups were so big, why wouldn't there be multiple types of aliens that are part of their alliance? I mean, if the Federation has 150 member worlds, the Romulans and Klingons have to have at least 200+, and of those 200+, there have to be different aliens then just simple Klingons. The only group I have seen with diversity is the Dominion, but even there, we only see 3 of the races, though we know there are two others only mentioned in one episode. Now, I know that makeup plays a big thing in this, but in the Trek Universe, why is it like this?
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Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :
Welcome to the wonderful world of bad writing. At least we have the Son'a.
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Posted by Chimaera on :
The federation is an alliance of many different worlds, with many different species. The other empires (Cardassian, Klingon, Romulan) are not, they are comprised of only one species, from one planet, that has colonized many other planets. This is why there are only Klingons on Klingon ships, and so on. There may be other races that these empires have conquered (such as the Bajorans were conquered by the Cardassians), but I think that they would have their rights and freedoms and priveleges limited in some way, they certainly wouldn't be allowed to serve on military vessels.
------------------ "Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you." -Commander Riker, USS Enterprise
Posted by LB4747 on :
You know, this could have been a great explanation for why TOS Klingons look different from the TNG era Klingons - they weren't true Klingons! They were some other humanoid race conquered by the Klingons a long time ago, and that adopted the traditions and culture of the Klingon Empire until they were fully integrated. Alas, the appearances of Kor, Kang, and Koloth in both eras voids this theory. But you do have a good point; I'd love to see a little more diversity within each of the major powers (though I wonder if the Romulans might be too paranoid to let any other race exist under their power).
------------------ Lawrence Boucher "The first step to a successful revolution is destroying all competing revolutionaries."
[This message was edited by LB4747 on March 24, 1999.]
Posted by Orion Syndicate (Member # 25) on :
Hmmm, in Trials and Tribbleations, Bashir asked Worf what happened to the Klingons after seeing a TOS Klingon, and Worf said that they don't talk about it. It could be anything.
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Posted by Cargile (Member # 45) on :
Back to the diveristy topic, I thing they simply just have racists attitude about allowing other "inferior" races to join thier "elite" forces. The Federation practices equality, while the other three practice domaninance.
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Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :
OTOH, most of Starfleet is human anyway...
------------------ http://frankg.dgne.com/ Blitzwing: "If I want to know what's on your mind, I'll splatter it on the wall and see for myself!"
Posted by jh on :
I don't for sure that we've established that 'most' of Starfleet is human. We've certainly seen more humans but we also have references to all Vulcan ships and Starbases so there are probably all Bolian starbases closer to Bolarus. It just happens that most of our stories and action center around Human crews.
------------------ "A screaming comes across the sky..."
Posted by RW (Member # 27) on :
MORE BOLIANS!
Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :
Perhaps...although the regular starbases seem to be "human" starbases...
------------------ http://frankg.dgne.com/ Blitzwing: "If I want to know what's on your mind, I'll splatter it on the wall and see for myself!"
Posted by jh on :
I love the Bolians!! The next series should definitely have a regular Bolian character, forget more Klingons or Vulcans. Either a Bolian, Tellerite, or Andorian is my vote!
------------------ "A screaming comes across the sky..."
Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :
Any race other than humans may do. BTW: Why are all human-looking people automatically supposed to be humans? There are a lot of races on different planets featured in TOS, TNG and also some in Voyager, that look exactly like humans.
Well, the crews that we've seen have probably been all huamns because we could better realte to them because we are human audiences (mostly human, anyway).
------------------ "How many people does it take before it becomes wrong? 6,000? 60,000? How many people does it take admiral!?!" -Ambassador Picard during his command of the Enterprise-E in the Ba'ku incident.
Posted by Baloo (Member # 5) on :
Regarding Klingon foreheads, a lot of interesting theories are exponded upon here:
The theory proffered by JStaik1043 seems the most plausible to me.
My personal fave? (not necessarily the most accurate):
--Baloo
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[This message was edited by Baloo on March 28, 1999.]
Posted by Jordan on :
My guess is that the various races that the Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, etc. have conqured are not as infranchised (sp?) as the Federation cultures....
And, yeah, I do think we could stand a healthly dose of regular UFP alien characters in a Trek series. Even if it's a Bolian. :-)
------------------ Goodnight my love...the brightest star in my sky...
Goodnight...you have been my sky, my sun and my moon...
Posted by jh on :
Baloo: I checked out that site and I agree with you. In fact I posted a nearly identical theory on Psi Phi (or was it on one of the previous versions of this site?) a couple of years ago before it went kaput. In addition to his comments I want to add something I included in that original post. The idea that the difference in foreheads seem to be related to some social revolution is also supported by Dax's comments to Martok's wife in "You Are Cordially Invited" in which she says that the Klingons had a disastrous flirtation with democracy that is still being called "the dark period". Timewise it seems to coincide with the ages of Kor and Kang and the TOS period and Martok's wife's reaction was nearly the same sort of anger and embarassment that Worf displayed in Trials and Tribbleations when it was mentioned.
The thing this theory seems to have most in its favor is that its the only one that can be supported by interpretation of canonical facts and quotes. It's strange (and probably a little self-deluding) but I sometimes think that if we can get enough people to accept this definition that the writers may even use it someday and cement it. It certainly makes the most sense to me.
------------------ "A screaming comes across the sky..."
Posted by Federation Shipmaster (Member # 15) on :
About the Klingons: Tomy Myle's theory is similar tooen I read somewhere: Klingons in contact with the Federation were physically altered so that they could do some spying on the Feds.
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Posted by Chimaera on :
*shrugs*
It's just a matter of budgets and make-up and how both improved with time. Personally, I think it's a little pointless to try to come up with theories regarding the klingon forhead, its just one of those things to which the golden rule of science fiction must be applied.
Golden Rule: Suspend all disbelief
P.S.: The sev trek theory is quite funny though. ------------------ "Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you." -Commander Riker, USS Enterprise
[This message was edited by Chimaera on April 01, 1999.]
Posted by Federation Shipmaster (Member # 15) on :
Call that Part 1. Part 2: If belief is not suspended, consult Part 1.
------------------ What bloke invented signatures?
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
While I used to advocate just ignoring it, "Trials and Tribble-ations" confirmed that the two kinds of Klingons are different, somehow.
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Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
I'm sure Kor Kang and Koloth, wouldn't be too happy to here you saying that, they would assume themselves to be the same person for the last 150 years...
------------------ Alamaraine, count to four...
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Well, I won't go into my Klingon theory (which I'm about to send to the Sev people), but I'll egt back to the "why so many aliens in the UFP but not in the Klingon and Romulan Empires" question. That's kind of like asking why a UN forca has Americans, British, French, etc., but a Russian force only has Russians in it. And I'm not advocationg Klingons' representing the Russians, or anything like that. It's just a real-world example.
Erm... Russia isn't in the UN, is it? If it is, I just rather screwed up...
------------------ "About as useful as a narcoleptic rickshaw driver." -James Lileks
Posted by Baloo (Member # 5) on :
Russia is not only a member, but they have a veto.
Blush away, TSN!
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Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
D'oh! *smacks self*
------------------ "About as useful as a narcoleptic rickshaw driver." -James Lileks
Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :
The real Klingon problem is not the two different foreheads but the fact the flat foreheads were only seen in TOS and the ridge foreheads only in TMP and hence. Since it seems ridiculous and little honorable that whole ship crews were surgically altered (why?), the only remaining explanation is that there are two different Klingon races.
TSN: You had better taken the NATO and Russia as example. Still, there are not only Russians in the Russian army...
