Why can't more TV shows be like Star Trek?

[Dark Reality 0]

First of all, I considered posting this in the Qo'noS forum. But then I went in there, and a lot of the topics were of a political nature, having nothing to do with Star Trek. My post does, but it is somehwat controversial. I was unsure, but decided to post it in here. If my decision was wrong, I'm sorry - please move it. Anyway:

 

 

Why can't more shows be like Star Trek? Is it fantasy, exclusive to Science Fiction that races intermingle on television? One reason I never liked UPN is, aside from Star Trek, I always thought it was a very racist network. Every single person on every single non-Trek show they did was black/African-American. Now, I have nothing against African-Americans, not at all! But it's hardly approaching an acceptable level of realism if everyone in the world is black, as portrayed on these shows.

 

Then I was reading that UPN and the WB were merging, and an article in either TIME or Rolling Stone (maybe Entertainment Weekly) was saying that a lot of African-American cast and crew members would be out of work.

 

WHY?

 

Shows shouldn't be all-white or all-black. One thing I love about Star Trek is that it sort of elevates itself beyond science-fiction. Sci-fi is cheesy, for the most part; Star Trek is not. These are good - no, great - stories, set in the future. So there's this sci-fi backdrop, but the story is so much more than that. And part of the realism is the parallels with everyday life. On Star Trek, you have people who are "white", people who are "black", Asians... and aliens. It represents a true cultural diversity which exists in real life. We don't have aliens, but we *do* have a lot of oddballs. I can understand a whole family being of one race. Jake and Ben Sisko are both black; Beverly and Wesley Crusher are both white. But that doesn't mean all their friends, neighbors, co-workers, and so on have to be the same skin color, the same race, the same heritage. In real life people are different, and Star Trek is one of the few shows that actually portrays that. Science fiction, my foot. The real science fiction is these shows about all-white and all-black planets.

 

As far as crew (behind the scenes), there should be no excuse why they don't have good diversity. In front of the camera, however, they *do* have to assign races to some characters based on their relationships with other characters (of the same race). But what I'd like to see is shows portraying real and OK relationships between people of different races, different religions. Heck, DS9 did the whole religion thing and nobody boycotted Paramount. Did the right-wing conservative Christian activist groups completely miss DS9 because Paramount substituted God for "The Prophets" and "Christians" for "Bajorans"? DS9 hit on a lot of controversial topics. I don't think that because they were using aliens was the only reason they "got away with it". I think a lot more people are more accepting than the television execs often assume. People are still coming to terms with homosexuality ("Brokeback Mountain" was nominated for Best Picture, after all - it didn't win; people in general still have a ways to go, but that it was nominated speaks a lot toward our progress as an accepting people) but I think as far as race is concerned, we have that nailed down. (I thought in moving to the South, I'd see a lot of racism, rebel flags - in fact it's quite the opposite - white and black get along fine, so far as I can tell, Confederate flags are rare, but most people don't seem bothered by them.)

 

I think it's time for television to take a giant leap forward in evolution. Let's see a sitcom that plays off the recent movie "Guess Who" - a married couple, one's white, one's black, and the kids are mixed. They have family and friends of both races and then some, but not done in such a way that it looks like they're promoting affirmative action. Let's see more shows with people from more walks of life. I know it's not all black and white, that some shows do have mixed races - but if people are worried that UPN shows might get cancelled, that African-Americans might be out of work - well, why? Why can't they find homes in other shows, or new shows? What's the problem?

[APW 0]

Well, I agree with a lot of your post, but not all.

 

In don't agree at all with regards to Brokeback, which was nominated despite having made far less money (and having been seen by far less people) than many other worthy films which were totally ignored by a biased Academy intent on pushing its own social-political agenda.

 

That said, I will agree with the race diversity points.

 

Being from a family that is thirded almost evenly between white, black, and hispanic peoples I've always been pro racial diversity on television. But all sides are guilty of being bigots. When I hear blacks complain that the networks don't hire enough blacks for television roles or as journalists (or whatever), I ask them where are the white people on B.E.T. When my asian friends do the same, I ask about the lack on non-asians on AZN Network. The same for latinos. For all of the many latino channels on tv, I see almost no white or black faces on those networks. By contrast the networks like NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, UPN, are very diverse.

 

I don't know why the the merger between WB and UPN would exclude blacks.

 

Then again, Star Trek has made me wonder about it at times.

When the character of Leah Brahms was introduced on TNG, it was originally planned that she would be named Navid Daystrom and be a descendant of Dr. Daystrom from TOS (The Ultimate Computer). But the Trek people said "Wait...Susan Gibney's white, she can't be related to Daystrom."

Why? I have white relatives and brown relatives and black relatives....all related by blood, not marriage.

That one left me scratching my head for a while.

 

All in all I think television is diverse and all-inclusive today. We have shows about different ethic groups, about gays and lesbians, news journalists of all backgrounds, and people behind the scenes who also represent an array of nationalities and religions (or philosophies). We have music channels featuring all kinds of musical stylings from traditional country, to hip hop, reggae, rock, pop, etc.

[Theunicornhunter 2]

Well I have to take offense at the statement that all scifi is cheesy - cheesy Scifi is what I call "space opera" - as in soap opera but while Star Trek is the best it isn't the only good scifi.

 

As for racial diversity - I've also wondered if they really shouldn't just hire biracial actors to play all futuristic roles because I wonder how many people will still have single race ancestry in 500 years.

 

I guess it also depends on what shows you watch - I can think of several shows with multiracial casts - although it seems to me that "lead" roles are held primarily by white men. All the Law & Orders & CSI's among others have mixed race cases but the star of each one is a white male. And I know I'll get storms of angry responses but I do question the "role model" potential of shows that always show the one in charge as being a white male.

 

I have to agree with APW regarding the movie nomination - Hollywood's opinions mean nothing to me anymore.

[mj 7]

 

 

As far as crew (behind the scenes), there should be no excuse why they don't have good diversity. In front of the camera, however, they *do* have to assign races to some characters based on their relationships with other characters (of the same race). But what I'd like to see is shows portraying real and OK relationships between people of different races, different religions. Heck, DS9 did the whole religion thing and nobody boycotted Paramount. Did the right-wing conservative Christian activist groups completely miss DS9 because Paramount substituted God for "The Prophets" and "Christians" for "Bajorans"?

 

I don't quite get your point here. The religion of DS9 did not at all relate to my Chrisitian faith, but I found that whole story line interesting. Religion was ambiguous in DS9, because the Prophets were definitely aliens, and Sisko 'human-prophet'. So there was the 'faith' of the Bajorans vs the reality of the Prophets being another group of aliens. It still made for wonderful stories, but was not in any way offensive to me as a Chrisitian.

 

Star Trek has a long history of dealing with religious themes. I am not particularly fond of the terms 'judeo-christian myths' which has turned up after TOS, but mostly there is no denigration of Christianity as a matter of practice, so I can live with the phrase cropping up from time to time.

 

DS9 hit on a lot of controversial topics. I don't think that because they were using aliens was the only reason they "got away with it". I think a lot more people are more accepting than the television execs often assume.

 

But people still won't watch things that offend them. I don't watch the new Battlestar Gallactica because I found the machines' regular mockery of Christianity offensive. I don't watch a lot of programs for that reason. But I will watch shows that speculate about religion if it is not wholesale disrespectful of my beliefs.

 

There are already many shows that deal with controversy from diverse perspectives. I think the various Law and Order shows do. I love shows like 'Doc' and 'Sue Thomas: FB-Eye", both in re-runs, which are racially diverse.

 

I think as far as race is concerned, we have that nailed down. (I thought in moving to the South, I'd see a lot of racism, rebel flags - in fact it's quite the opposite - white and black get along fine, so far as I can tell, Confederate flags are rare, but most people don't seem bothered by them.)

 

Yes and no. I live in a southern city that was once segregated, and have mostly had good experiences. But

when I see cars or pick-up trucks with confederate flags on the license plates, I do nothing to provoke them and stay away.

 

I actually have a work environment that is diverse and peaceful. Many races and nationalities are represented: white Americans, English, Russian, and others; black Americans, Nigerians, Ghanaian, Zimbabwean,; from Sri Lanka, from India, from mainland China, and others. Many of the above foreign-born members have become American citizens, so when I refer to nationality, I refer to place of birth and upbringing. There are also different religions. The way it plays out is that faculty meetings open with a moment of silence, but when we have faculty dinners at the chair's house, there is a Christian prayer said, because his is a Chrisitian home. The non-believers and those of other faiths forbear and have never complained. It is a remarkablely peaceful department where civility prevails. But we are truly very different. We just act like grown-ups.