Chekov and North Korea

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I don’t think it was uncommon for there to be Russian Americans around during the Cold War. Needless to say, we were at war with the Soviet regime and not just Russian people. If there were Americans from North Korea, then we’d most definitely have such portrayals.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Also Riker was from Alaska, not Canada. Although since Frakes made no attempt to change his central Pennsylvania accent I can see the confusion.

They could still have the names of the territory, if just for geographical distinction.

[clearspira]

This is a thought stolen from tumblr user spock's evil grandmother, but like, it took BALLS to include Chekov in Star Trek. Can you imagine a New Trek show having a character from North Korea?

1) Did it take balls to include Chekov in Star Trek? Not as much a black woman on the bridge during a time when being against civil rights could still carry several states. The ''Southern Strategy'' is an interesting yet disturbing read if you want to give it a go.

The fact is that Uhura and Sulu were created to depict the interracial future of Star Trek. Chekov was created according to Koenig because the Monkees were popular at the time and Roddenberry wanted a male cast member who looked like Davy Jones. I've tried my best to try and find any reason at all why he is Russian but found nothing but conflicting reports. There is one mention of the Russians themselves complaining that the ''great interracial future of Star Trek contains no Russians'' which would mean that it required no balls on Roddenberry's part at all. Another suggests that Roddenberry wanted to honour the achievements of the Russian space program. Both sources seem very sketchy about their sources.

Either way, Chekov doesn't seem to have been all that controversial. The American public didn't like the Ruskies, but they certainly were not hated in the way that blacks were.

2) Can you imagine a New Trek character from North Korea? The world government of Earth wouldn't allow such a nation as North Korea to exist.

You have to remember, strictly speaking, there are no nation states anymore. There is no United States, United Kingdom, Russian Federation, Peoples' Republic of China or North or South Korea. There are just landmasses with arbitrary borders under one flag. People like Picard occasionally bring up his heritage, but for most people, we are talking about the distant past. They think of our nation states like we think of Ancient Rome. I guess there could perhaps still be local elected leaders who make sure that the pot holes are filled etc. but nothing higher than that.

The bigger problem is that corporations today are petrified of offending ''the wrong people''. Disney will happily erase black and LGBT people from releases in foreign countries whilst championing being an ally to the US audience. In a way, we haven't really moved on from the 1960s at all, we just outsourced our bigotry to other countries in exchange for money.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Actually that raise a second question. Would the united federation still refer to people by lines on a map made centuries or even millennia ago?

The question is, why would you change it?

1st/2nd world conversion, sure that happens enough. Occupation, more or less same thing there.

Otherwise people living somewhere collectively aren’t likely to change the name of where they live.

[Thebestoftherest]

Good point. Although counter point it might be like American, I mean if someone from say West Virginia went up to someone in say Spain, and told them they are from West Viriginia would they Spainish person understand that,

[Riedquat]

You have to remember, strictly speaking, there are no nation states anymore. There is no United States, United Kingdom, Russian Federation, Peoples' Republic of China or North or South Korea. There are just landmasses with arbitrary borders under one flag. People like Picard occasionally bring up his heritage, but for most people, we are talking about the distant past. They think of our nation states like we think of Ancient Rome. I guess there could perhaps still be local elected leaders who make sure that the pot holes are filled etc. but nothing higher than that.

Yes, I think people would. There'll almost certainly be some differences compared to now but the same concepts of local identity would probably still exist, as would the areas in some shape or form - if nothing else they're useful for describing where somewhere is (we name continents, people often have part of their sense of identity tied to the continent they're from, even though admistratively they mean nothing).

I would very much hope that differences in culture still exist, and that Earth hasn't become a dull, homogenous place - it becoming one would be no concept of utopia that I recognise.

AFAIK we don't know exactly how Earth is governed and where the boundaries lie, whether it's just the low level you mention or rather higher up (think, say, the Isle of Man). I'd argue that a reasonable level of independence is necessary, there are too many differences for anything else to work simply because different people in different places have different ideals, cultures etc. - unless you destroy that, which, as I've already said, would be a bleak vision of the future.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Good point. Although counter point it might be like American, I mean if someone from say West Virginia went up to someone in say Spain, and told them they are from West Viriginia would they Spainish person understand that,

Maybe, maybe not. It would take a lot of work to teach everyone in WV Spanish, or everyone in Spain West Virginian.

There’s not much reason to assume a world unification would resemble a hostile takeover where one person takes control and assigns one language for one world state/territory with a new name.

For Earth in the federation, people wouldn’t just say they live on earth without any further local/regional distinction. You still need a local administration to handle local affairs (just as the Soviet Union did).

[Thebestoftherest]

Fair enough

[McAvoy]

This is a thought stolen from tumblr user spock's evil grandmother, but like, it took BALLS to include Chekov in Star Trek. Can you imagine a New Trek show having a character from North Korea?

1) Did it take balls to include Chekov in Star Trek? Not as much a black woman on the bridge during a time when being against civil rights could still carry several states. The ''Southern Strategy'' is an interesting yet disturbing read if you want to give it a go.

The fact is that Uhura and Sulu were created to depict the interracial future of Star Trek. Chekov was created according to Koenig because the Monkees were popular at the time and Roddenberry wanted a male cast member who looked like Davy Jones. I've tried my best to try and find any reason at all why he is Russian but found nothing but conflicting reports. There is one mention of the Russians themselves complaining that the ''great interracial future of Star Trek contains no Russians'' which would mean that it required no balls on Roddenberry's part at all. Another suggests that Roddenberry wanted to honour the achievements of the Russian space program. Both sources seem very sketchy about their sources.

Roddenberry tended to change stories depending on the crowd he was talking to playing to. Would not surprise me that him wanting to honor the Russian space program was a later story he made up.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

This is a thought stolen from tumblr user spock's evil grandmother, but like, it took BALLS to include Chekov in Star Trek. Can you imagine a New Trek show having a character from North Korea?

1) Did it take balls to include Chekov in Star Trek? Not as much a black woman on the bridge during a time when being against civil rights could still carry several states. The ''Southern Strategy'' is an interesting yet disturbing read if you want to give it a go.

The fact is that Uhura and Sulu were created to depict the interracial future of Star Trek. Chekov was created according to Koenig because the Monkees were popular at the time and Roddenberry wanted a male cast member who looked like Davy Jones. I've tried my best to try and find any reason at all why he is Russian but found nothing but conflicting reports. There is one mention of the Russians themselves complaining that the ''great interracial future of Star Trek contains no Russians'' which would mean that it required no balls on Roddenberry's part at all. Another suggests that Roddenberry wanted to honour the achievements of the Russian space program. Both sources seem very sketchy about their sources.

Roddenberry tended to change stories depending on the crowd he was talking to playing to. Would not surprise me that him wanting to honor the Russian space program was a later story he made up.

I think the idea was to have Pavel be more like a proto Wesley Crusher to showcase the scientific savviness that Soviet ideology prevailed in.