Improving Star Trek?
Moving beyond Western culture to reduce the problems I talked about previously.
The obvious solution to Star Trek’s treatment of alien cultures is not write them as one-note stereotypes. Not only does this reduce the problematic aspects of alien cultures in Star Trek, it would, frankly, make the show more interesting.
Are there minorities on Cardassia that are treated almost as badly as Bajorans were? Show them!
Are there Romulans who cannot figure how to tell a lie? Let’s see this person (and hear about their problems navigating Romulan society - which they would still rather remain in)!
Is there a Kazon who dresses like other Kazons, loves Kazon food and customs - but isn’t a jerk? They should meet Starfleet personnel!
Non-religious Bajorans?
Un-joined Trill who are perfectly happy not to have a worm in them, thank you very much…
Ordinary Klingons who don’t get a chance to do anything but mop up the ship because they aren’t of a high enough social class and who don’t really have a quest for glory (bc exactly HOW would that happen when there’s no chance for that to happen when I’m mopping floors, the Klingon asks) and would really just like some blood wine that was decent for change….
There’s so much that could be done with the species that Star Trek has already invented that we really don’t need to have new ones imo. I mean - look how much DS9 was able to by expanding what Ferengi could be.
ALSO, related to this, is expanding first the racial, but also the CULTURAL diversity in a crew. And doing this in an actually decent manner (i am looking at YOU Voyager).
Like - scene idea - four lower level Starfleet officers discussing their favorite religious holiday foods - two are human (one is Muslim, another is Christian, Hindu, Jewish - another religion), one is Bajoran, last one is Cardassian, and is the descendant of religious refugees that fled Cardassia several generations ago after being persecuted for being part of the Oralian Way.
Bc like….this is literally what happens whenever you put a bunch of decent humans from different cultures together for awhile - we get in these long discussions about the differences and similarities in our cultures (particularly holidays and food and family ime).
I find it hard to believe that such a thing WOULDN’T happen on the average starship.
ALSO, instead of only using a Western cultural backdrop, use things from other cultures and areas as well. Instead of citing “Abraham Lincoln” as a great dude, why not “Mahatma Gandhi”?
Instead of “some rando white dude explorer” how about “Zhang He”?
Foods are also important markers of identity and they only really refer to white people food.
Idk, these are just my ideas, feel free to add yours!
I like this! The only thing I would say is that I like that human society in Star Trek seems to have moved away from religion, so I could live without “
four lower level Starfleet officers discussing their favorite religious holiday foods,” but to each their own.
