posted
god forbid an american show actually be filled with american culture, jokes, and people. I know star trek is about diversity, but so is america.
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I thought there was an episode where Kim said his family was Chinese.. maybe I'm misremembering. Oh well.
I brought this up in another thread a few months ago: the novels have always done a fantastic job of showing good cultural diversity, and melting-pot qualities. The best example i can think of is Romeo "Hash" Takahashi, on of New Frontier's semi-regulars: part Italian, part Japanese he had olive skin, blond hair and a southern accent. The novels have covered all of the nationaliities/etnicities weve discussed in this thread recently with supporting casts that help flesh out the Starfleet universe.
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posted
IIRC, in the novel "Crossroads" (another good one), there was a Vietnamese crew member.
At my job, I supervise a crew of primarily Vietnamese workers. Their culture, language, etc. although quite interesting, sometimes strikes me as being more alien than anything I've ever seen on Star Trek. I would love to see a Vietnamese crew member on the show, just for the same reasons Bernd described.
-------------------- "A film made in 2008 isn't going to look like a TV series from 1966 if it wants to make any money. As long as the characters act the same way, and the spirit of the story remains the same then it's "real" Star Trek. Everything else is window dressing." -StCoop
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Now on to the making of films!
Member # 621
posted
Mike brings an interesting point - taking the diversity a step further. Something I've always wanted to see was more mixes of the various nationalities and ethnicities. Bullworth aside, there should be plenty of (for lack of a better term) mix and matched people. Even if you can't find an actual Italian/Japanese/Middle Eastern actor, you can still give an Italian an Inuit name.
I want to see more Keiko O'Briens.
-------------------- If God didn't want us to fly, he wouldn't have given us Bernoulli's Principle.
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I had thought that Lao Zhiming (from Crossroads) was Chinese too.. ive really got to stop doing that.
Lisa Nguyen (from JM Dillards books) was Vietnamese too.. good character mix there on the security staff. Mohamed al Baslama and the 'ice princess' Ingrit Tomson.
-------------------- "Are you worried that your thoughts are not quite.. clear?"
quote:Originally posted by Omega: As for China and India, I'm guessing the entire region got nuked in WW3, which is why in over 500 hours of filmed Trek we've NEVER seen anyone from that massive segment of the population.
Actually, I thought North America was the hardest hit area during WWIII. Besides, it's a lot easier to wipe out 200-300 million people concentrated in major cities than something like 3-4 billion in South East Asian and the subcontient (India), most of whom still live in rural villages. We should be seeing a lot less Americans.
[ November 13, 2001: Message edited by: David Templar ]
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Registered: Apr 2001
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There have been a couple of Indians as I recall. There was one in ST:IV, I think he was on the Saratoga, or Yorktown, he was the one that relayed their emergency situation to Starfleet Command. And doesn't anyone remember Mr Singh? He was the Enterprise-D Chief Engineer before Geordi.
But overall, yes, I totally agree with Bernd.
And what the heck is all this talk about Will & Grace??? Can someone enlighten me, and others that don't know, what precisely this is??
-------------------- "To the Enterprise and the Stargazer. Old girlfriends we'll never meet again." - Scotty
quote:And what the heck is all this talk about Will & Grace??? Can someone enlighten me, and others that don't know, what precisely this is??
It's a TV show about a gay man (Will) and a woman (Grace) living together in an NY flat.
[ November 13, 2001: Message edited by: Spike ]
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Registered: Mar 2000
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Actually, while there were several Chief Engineers on TNG's run before Geordi, Singh wasn't one of them. He was called an "Assistant Engineer", and in a conversation with Riker said he would need to run something by Chief Argyle.
posted
If I remember correctly, "Will and Grace" is also about Will's clichéd male gay friend, and Grace's slutty female friend. Or something like that. I've only seen it a couple times, a while back.
Bernd: Well, like I pointed out before, someone who isn't familiar w/ German would wonder why somebody would call their kid "burned". And, besides, as I also said, "Ethan" isn't an "American" name. You should be complaining to the Hebrews if you don't like their names.
posted
"Regarding Bashir, he's half diverse... he's of Middle Eastern descent, but he's from Knightsbridge, England, according to Robert H. Wolfe. He's got the looks, but not the background."
That's what I was getting at. Apart from skin colour (which I never even noticed), Bashir is English. He drinks pints. Plays WWI games in the holosuite. The only thing wrong with him is that he hangs out with an Irishman (joke). I do wonder if it's a coincidence that he's a doctor, considering that of all the university courses in the UK, medicine is the most popular one by far for mid-Eastern students. I'd pegged Bashir as one of them. Rich mid-eastern family who sends their son to an English university to study medicine. I was wrong. Very wrong. But his dad had a brilliant cockney accent and was in Austin Powers, so I don't mind.
I wonder if Alexander Siddig is from Knightsbridge. Where on Earth is Knightsbridge?
"Well no, of course not. However, given the demograhic situation of the Earth by the mid-2000s, certain nationatlites should have more screen time than they have. "
As has been pointed out, giving the demographic of people watching Star Trek, then there probably aren't enough white Americans in the cast.
"I even want to see the girls in Sex and the City date Black and Latin boyz. But one could only dream..."
Actually, that's one area that needs impovement. Even Sisko hooked up with another black person. And can I drag up again the fact that in the US Red Dwarf, Lister was going to be white, partly because he fancied a white girl and that's wrong, but also because I don't think that American executives could grasp the idea of a black slob.
"I want to see more Keiko O'Briens."
At that point all arguements cease, and everyone just points and laughs.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
quote:Originally posted by CaptainMike: I brought this up in another thread a few months ago: the novels have always done a fantastic job of showing good cultural diversity, and melting-pot qualities. The best example i can think of is Romeo "Hash" Takahashi, on of New Frontier's semi-regulars: part Italian, part Japanese he had olive skin, blond hair and a southern accent. The novels have covered all of the nationaliities/etnicities weve discussed in this thread recently with supporting casts that help flesh out the Starfleet universe.
Hash is pretty cool.
NF Spoilers
He's the ops officer on the Trident now. Actually, the whole nightside command crew is on the Trident. Mueller, Hash... Also, Arex and M'Ress from TAS are on the Trident, temporally displaced, of course. Also, there's this new guy named Gleau. He's a Selelvian, or elf for short.
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I'm just wondering how Ceti Alpha VI reformed itself in order to destroy itself again after Star Trek II. Seeing as there was a time portal involved, it seems that P.D. might have something in store for an explanation as to how M'Ress and Arex ended up in 2377 from different points of being lost in two different anomalies.
Its nice to see a bigger part for Kat Mueller too. Sparks flying and the such. And she's German.. yay!
-------------------- "Are you worried that your thoughts are not quite.. clear?"
Yes Psyliam, that is one thing that's always bothered me about US TV, is the fact that it seems so race-conscious, black men will often only ever be seen with black women and so forth. Why is this? Is it because they believe a black man dating a white woman would offend the general demographic? This is the 21st century for f**k's sake, is that how far television has come since Kirk and Uhura's kiss 30 some years ago!
If this is actually the case then this is a shame, and indeed it expands the points initially put forward in this very thread.
-------------------- "To the Enterprise and the Stargazer. Old girlfriends we'll never meet again." - Scotty
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