# Star Trek, where the heck are the Indians, Africans and Chinese? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 18, 2012, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118 "2012-03-18T06:22:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/41 "2012-03-19T13:38:57Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Fixed your first link: [Singh (Lieutenant) | Memory Alpha | Fandom](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Singh_%28Lieutenant%29) Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/42 "2012-03-19T14:00:55Z")
> [@antonio107](#): > > As though this is supposed to mean something 250 years after they ceased to be separate legal entities under a United Earth government. Given the current relationship between the various states in the USA, I find someone from Alaska bristling at being taken for Canadian to be _very_ understandable. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/43 "2012-03-19T14:56:34Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > TOS had a Dr. M’Benga. Based on the name, he’s quite likely from Africa. Well, on TAS there was also a Lt. M’Ress, but she was some sort of cat person. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/44 "2012-03-19T15:01:05Z")
They don’t mention that Alaska voluntarily become part of Canada in 2045 to get socialist healthcare. We’ll call it the Canschluss. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/45 "2012-03-19T21:18:33Z")
This reminds me of when Patrick Stewart was on _The Kumars At No. 42_. The grandma character asked him, “Why didn’t you have any Indian characters on your show? A ship that big must have had a huge IT department!” ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/46 "2012-03-19T21:46:17Z")
> [@antonio107](#): > > There was that episode where the toadying ensign tried connecting with Riker in ten-forward, by saying that his grandfather was Canadian, only to have Riker fire back that he was from Alaska. As though this is supposed to mean something 250 years after they ceased to be separate legal entities under a United Earth government. Hah. Watch a Brit refer to a Mississippian as a “Yankee” sometime. Or tell a Scot that he lives in England. Great fun. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/47 "2012-03-19T22:47:30Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > Hah. Watch a Brit refer to a Mississippian as a “Yankee” sometime. Or tell a Scot that he lives in England. Great fun. Actually, that raises an embarrassing memory for me. I was in Europe over Christmas/New Year of 2010-1, and one point we stopped in a German town whose name escapes me (eh, maybe it was northern Italy) to go to this big spa with a wave pool and such. In the locker room, I had a brief conversation with some local and one asked me “You are.. American?” and I got all smiley and mock-offended and said “Ha-ha, no, I’m Canadian” and was met with blank stares. Afterward it occurred to me that I was probably being rude - possibly to them, “America” was their term for the exotic-sounding western-hemisphere New World (and not without reason - to lump it all together as “the Americas”) and making some petty distinction was like expecting them to have heard of my home town because _everybody_ (well, everybody **I** know, and those I don’t, don’t matter) has heard of it. Montreal, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/48 "2012-03-20T00:08:05Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > I’m going to get a rep for ridiculously analytical Star Trek posts, aren’t I? If you didn’t do it, I would have. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/49 "2012-03-20T00:12:34Z")
In Star Trek IV, the captain of the ship that first encounters the whale song alien thing was Indian or Pakistani (or maybe Bengali I guess). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/50 "2012-03-20T00:41:47Z")
The captain of the Kelvin was Pakistani as well, although the actor was apparently born in Los Angeles. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/51 "2012-03-20T01:03:57Z")
Just because it was going to bug me if I didn’t, a revised analysis based on the corrections and expansions other people have made. (Corrections/expansions bolded, series identifications have all 3 formatting options.) _ **TOS** :_ **6** Human characters, all Earth-Born: Kirk - American McCoy - American Sulu - American Uhura - African (Adjective chosen by analogy to American, since both nations are ‘USA’, where the ‘A’ is the continent.) Chekov - Russian **Scotty - Scottish** 1 Alien: Spock\*\* - Vulcan/Human hybrid, raised on Vulcan\*\* _Core cast of **7** , 3 American, each of the others from different nations, one of whom is non-human._ _ **TNG** :_ 3 Earth-Born human characters: Picard - French Riker - American LaForge - African Confederate **3** Aliens: Worf - Klingon, born on a colony world, raised **on Gault by human parents** Data - Android, built on Omicron Theta **Troi - Betazoid/Human hybrid, born and raised on Betazed** 2 known non-Earth-Born humans: Yar - Tarkanian Dr Crusher - From Luna 2 humans of unknown birth: Dr Pulaski Wesley Crusher _ **Core cast of 10, 2 of unknown extraction, Each other from a different world/nation** _ (Further correction, my initial analysis listed 2 Americans for some reason. I don’t know why.) _ **DS9** :_ 4 Earth-born humans: Ben Sisko - American Miles O’Brien - Irish Keiko O’Brien - Japanese Julian Bashir - Not conclusively known, but likely English 7 or 8 Aliens: Jadzia Dax/Ezri Dax - Trill Odo - Changeling Kira - Bajoran Quark - Ferengi Nog - Ferengi Rom - Ferengi Worf - see above. 1 human of unknown extraction: Jake Sisko (circumstances suggest he was space-born). _Core cast of 11 or 12, depending how you count the Daxes, 3 Ferengi, 1 or 2 Trill, one of unknown birth, each other major character from a different nation/world._ _ **Voyager** :_ 3 Earth-Born humans: Janeway - American Kim - American Tom Paris - Not entirely sure, but I think American 7 Aliens (including hybrids): Tuvok - Vulcan Kes - Okampa Neelix - Talaxian Ceska - Cardassian, masquerading as Bajoran Torres - Human-Klingon hybrid, born on Kessik IV 7 of 9 - Borg, born Human on Tendara colony Naomi Wildman - Human/Ktarian hybrid, born aboard Voyager 1 non-Earth-Born human: Chakotay - Native American, born on an unnamed colony. _Core cast of 11 3 American, each of the 8 others from a different nation/world._ _ **Enterprise** :_ _4 Earth-Born humans_: Archer - American Tucker - American Sato - Japanese Reed - English 2 aliens: T’Pol - Vulcan Phlox - Denobulan 1 known non-Earth-Born human: Mayweather - born and raised on a freighter. 1 character of unknown extraction: Hayes. _Core cast of 8, 2 American, 1 unknown, each of the other 5 from a different background._ Ignoring the aliens, the counts go: TOS: **6** humans: 3 American, **3** other. TNG: 7 humans: 2 unknown, 5 from different backgrounds. DS9: 5 humans: 1 unknown, 4 from different backgrounds. Voy: 4 humans (5 if you count 7): 3 American, 1 (2) other. Ent: 6 humans: 2 American, 1 unknown, 3 other. Multiculturalism rating (to the extent that the fairly generic humans can count as such), in descending order: Overall: DS9, TNG, Ent, Voy, TOS. Human-only: TNG, DS9, Ent, **TOS, Voy** Human/Alien ratio: DS9, Voy, TNG, Ent, TOS. These core casts didn’t have those numbers all at once (Save TOS, once Chekov is added), due to cast changes. I considered including Nurse Chapel and Yoeman Rand for TOS, but ultimately decided they were both glorified guests. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/52 "2012-03-20T01:43:15Z")
Meh… Beverly Crusher, Tasha Yar and even Geordi La Forge were so whitebread in their attitudes, outlook and behaviour that I’d happily consider them generic Americans… Genericans. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/53 "2012-03-20T01:46:15Z")
Sorry to doublepost, but, a series I missed and nobody felt the need to correct me on occurred to me when I was getting food. \>\_\> _ **TAS** :_ 5 Human characters, all Earth-Born: Kirk - American McCoy - American Sulu - American Uhura - African (Adjective chosen by analogy to American, since both nations are ‘USA’, where the ‘A’ is the continent.) Scotty - Scottish 3 Aliens: Spock - Vulcan/Human hybrid, raised on Vulcan M’Ress - Caitian Arex - Edosian _Core cast of 8, 3 American, each of the others from different nations/worlds._ (Walter Koenig declined to reprise the Chekov role, though he did write an episode.) Human-only 5 total, 3 American 2 other. Overall: DS9, TNG, Ent, Voy, TAS, TOS. Human-only: TNG, DS9, Ent, TOS, TAS, Voy. Human/Alien ratio: DS9, Voy, TNG, Ent, TAS, TOS. And, for the heck of it, the racial, rather than ethnic diversity of the humans: TOS: 4 white, 1 black, 1 asian. TAS: 3 white, 1 black, 1 asian TNG: 6 white 1 black DS9: 1 white, 1 asian, 2 black, 1 unclear\* Voy (counting 7): 4 white, 1 asian, 1 native american. Ent: 4 white, 1 black, 1 asian - Alexander Siddig is mixed race, but Bashir, from what we’ve seen, isn’t. (But he’s also clearly not white, black, or asian.) Ranking: DS9, TAS, TOS, Voy, Ent, TNG DS9 has both the largest number of racial groups represented, and the most even distribution thereof, rather than being a bunch of white folk with a couple POCs thrown in, which the rest of the series have going. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/54 "2012-03-20T02:15:51Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > I thought Riker was born in Alaska Could he see where Chekhov was born from his house? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/55 "2012-03-20T10:32:23Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Just because it was going to bug me if I didn’t, a revised analysis based on the corrections and expansions other people have made. (Corrections/expansions bolded, series identifications have all 3 formatting options.) Sorry for further corrections, but I don’t think you could really count Pulaski, Nog, Rom, Seska, or Naomi Wildman as part of the “core” cast. Their actors were always credited as guest stars, and indeed there were many other charecters in their respective series who had more appearances. For example, there were at least four lowly ensigns and lieutenants who appeared on TNG more often than Pulaski, not to mention recurring characters with much greater roles, such as Guinan and Miles O’Brien. On DS9 Garak and Dukat appeared nearly as often as (or in some cases even more often than) Rom and Nog. If we discount minor background characters, Seska was indeed the most commonly seen recurring character of Voyager, but appeared in only in 13 of its 172 episodes. Naomi Wildman had only 7 appearances, putting her well behind other major recurring characters like Icheb and Vorik. ---
**Author:** ![kombatminipig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5ac83/32.png) [@kombatminipig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kombatminipig)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/56 "2012-03-20T10:47:22Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Australia gets the shaft, though…can’t think of a single Aussie character. I seem to remember that the redshirt who gets fried while parachuting from space in the reboot had an Aussie accent. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/57 "2012-03-20T14:12:20Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > This reminds me of when Patrick Stewart was on _The Kumars At No. 42_. The grandma character asked him, “Why didn’t you have any Indian characters on your show? A ship that big must have had a huge IT department!” You know, I never thought about that. It seems all the IT functions on every ship have been relegated to the Engineering section. That’s the one thing that always required suspension of disbelief for me in Star Trek: how everyone had Leonardo-like polymathic abilities. Every engineer in Starfleet must have mastered all fields of physics (both applied and theoretical), engineering, chemistry, computer science, robotics, biology, astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology. Never did Geordi say “I don’t know” and not figure it out later. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/58 "2012-03-20T14:15:38Z")
Yeah, but the transporters, shields, engines and life support systems malfunctioned in pretty much every episode so apparently Geordi wasn’t very good at his job. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/59 "2012-03-20T14:34:20Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Yeah, but the transporters, shields, engines and life support systems malfunctioned in pretty much every episode so apparently Geordi wasn’t very good at his job. Given how frequent and systemic these failures were, I think it’s more likely that the blame lies with the people who designed and/or constructed the ship in the first place. Geordi was probably doing the best he could with a vessel shoddily cobbled together with the 24th-century equivalent of duct tape and string. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118/60 "2012-03-20T14:55:24Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > In Star Trek IV, the captain of the ship that first encounters the whale song alien thing was Indian or Pakistani (or maybe Bengali I guess). Actually, the USS _Saratoga_ was the first. The _Yorktown_, the second, was commanded by the unlikely-named Capt. Joel Randolph, played by Indian actor (and tennis star) Vijay Amritraj: [Vijay Amritraj | Memory Alpha | Fandom](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Vijay_Amritraj) > [@The\_Tooth](#): > > The captain of the Kelvin was Pakistani as well, although the actor was apparently born in Los Angeles. Correct, Faran Tahir, playing Capt. Robert Robau: [Faran Tahir | Memory Alpha | Fandom](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Faran_Tahir) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-where-the-heck-are-the-indians-africans-and-chinese/616118.md?page=4)