Diversity of Earth crews in scifi shows

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

While playing Mass Effect 3 I couldn't stop thinking that the Alliance (Earth) ships aren't really representative of Earth. This is a problem that a lot of shows have. In Mass Effect 3 your ship only has on British officer and a Scottish engineer on your ship (that speak anyway). I think Babylon 5 did it best, even though it could have been better, because they had at least one ship with a Russian captain. Ivanova doesn't count because she wasn't really Russian. Am I the only one that thinks if you have an Earth crew it should be representative? Obviously one ship isn't going to have the UN in there, but they'd have more than three nationalities on board.

 

[SSgt Burton]

Obviously one ship isn't going to have the UN in there, but they'd have more than three nationalities on board.

The Enterprise did.


Kevin

 

[Wes R]

And that british officer is actually from a colony so her accent is second hand. You don't see much racial diversity either other than on the colonies that were founded by the various earth nations. The aliens have a more diverse racial makeup in the game even if it is slight physical differences like Turian skull shapes and Asari shades of blue.

 

[MooMooEgg]

There's a gay ethnic (looks black, but I think his name is Cortez) officer in the Normandy's armory in ME3. That has to count for something.

 

[Wes R]

I think he's supposed to be Hispanic. Not sure what James is supposed to be in the game. Cortez is one of the 2 only openly gay game characters i know of. the other is a woman up on the citadel who mentions her wife when you go past. Maybe that makes up for the odd makeup diversity wise.

 

[Apollo]

Yes she did!

Chekov, Russian, Uhura, Swahili, Sulu, Japanese, Kyle, British, and what is not mentioned were all background extras so they were there! :lol

The Enterprise did.

 

[Jeyl]

There's a gay ethnic (looks black, but I think his name is Cortez) officer in the Normandy's armory in ME3. That has to count for something.

And don't forget Samantha.

 

[Darth Lars]

Ivanova in B5 was also lesbian, but it was mostly hinted at.

 

[TheDoctor]

Personally, I would say "no". If you force diversity for diversity's sake, then it's going to come across fake. Not every ships is going to have a diverse crew - even in a 'diverse' environment, people are going to go where their skills and experience take them. I would much rather focus on the Captain being an experienced office with a varied history than placing them ther because they're this ethnicity/gender/etc. You CAN have it both ways, but writers generally don't write both well - they have to somehow overcome something before they can become a rich character (Sisko and Janeway are prime examples - they at least tried with Sisko to give him a rich character, but they ended up falling back to him being pretty bland until the character grew into itself. Janeway was horrible - it was all about being a "Female Captain" not a "Captain").

If you force it, it's fake. Better to let things happen so you don't even notice it. An experienced office is replaced by an experienced officer - who cares what gender or ethnicity they are.

 

[Wes R]

And don't forget Samantha.

The mass effect Universe seems to have more lesbians than gay guys it seems as half the girls on the crew can sleep with either Shepard :lol Then you have the Asari who are all women (and how they reproduce just raises more questions). The Normandy crew wasn't that diverse but you see more human diversity on the colonies and then Citadel.

 

[MooMooEgg]

The mass effect Universe seems to have more lesbians than gay guys it seems as half the girls on the crew can sleep with either Shepard :lol Then you have the Asari who are all women (and how they reproduce just raises more questions). The Normandy crew wasn't that diverse but you see more human diversity on the colonies and then Citadel.

Too bad there aren't any fat people in the ME universe. I guess they cured obesity. :lol

 

[Wes R]

Too bad there aren't any fat people in the ME universe. I guess they cured obesity. :lol

Given that Miranda's engineered and apparently Ashley had some done too it's no wonder fat and ugly people are gone. According to Futurama Joker's rather odd fandom of EDI is robosexual so there's a whole new branch of diversity. :lol

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

The mass effect Universe seems to have more lesbians than gay guys it seems as half the girls on the crew can sleep with either Shepard :lol Then you have the Asari who are all women (and how they reproduce just raises more questions). The Normandy crew wasn't that diverse but you see more human diversity on the colonies and then Citadel.

Well technically Asari aren't any sex. They just take the genetic material from their mates to reproduce. The fact that they look like very beautiful women is just a coincidence...

 

[Shendorion]

Shouldn't the fiction dictate that? What are the odds that Earth will still even have diverse nationalities in the far flung future? As long distance communications and travel become more trivial, the difference between humans from this and that part of the planet will also become less noticeable. Unless some sort of segregation is imposed on people (like diverse states whose governments maintain strict control over interstate travel and immigration,) local distinctions would naturally fade away.

National distinctions are going to become as quaint as mechanical user input devices at some point, assuming we survive long enough to break free of our own solar system. Our distant descendants will likely think it odd that people used to speak differently based on which part of the planet they grew up in, used to look a certain way because of geographically influenced adaptations and common ancestry. We'll all have common ancestors at that point, and our accent will be Earthling.

 

[reaper63]

The Mass Effect Noels do Touch on the lack of Diversity in the Universe, at least for humans. The novels stated that some traits had been bread out, I think Blue Eyes and natural blond Ahir being 2 of those traits. Also almost all the characters have radically mixed heritages.