Matt McAllister comments: > Actually, I feel that the original Star Trek was more culturally diverse > than The Next Generation. . . . > Perhaps in TNG, what substituded for race was the guest star aliens. The > alien races that they encountered were defacto the racial other. And, more > often than not, they were treated in a "stereotyped" way (ALL Ferengi act > like this; ALL Borg act like this), unless they were assimilated in Anglo > Saxon culture during the course of an episode (like Hugh the Borg). Good points: DEEP SPACE 9 goes somewhat further than either show. Not only is the captain black but his multicultural background enters into the storylines from time to time, as do the backgrounds of some of the other characters. There is also more "diversity" among aliens--Cardassians are generally not nice but there are better ones out there; Quark and his family turn out to be rather atypcial Ferengis, etc. Don Larsson ---------------------- Donald Larsson Minnesota State U, Mankato [log in to unmask] ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite