I remember the bitching and moaning when Tim Russ got cast as Tuvok because “Vulcans aren’t black.” As if the handful of Vulcans ever shown by that point represented the entire species.
Edit: Also, Vulcan has a huge red sun. Dark-skinned Vulcans actually make more sense.
Alien similarity to humans is always weird. In live-action we take it for granted because, well, most actors are human. But there’s species where blue is an option. Do Vulcans come in blue? Humans sure don’t.
I caught hell for pointing this out with that Justice League cover that’s the whole team face-to-face with their alternate-universe counterparts. Our Superman looks like he has European ancestry… but Krypton doesn’t have a Europe. Their Superman looks like he has African ancestry… but Krypton doesn’t have an Africa, either. It’s a coincidence of cosmic proportions for even one of them to pass for human. Two is twice as unlikely! Is all of alternate Krypton different? Is Krypton canonically 1:1 with Earth, in terms of how people can look? Could General Zod show up looking Japanese? It is buck-wild that any alien without shape-shifting abilities should look perfectly normal anywhere on Earth. Within the same continuity, the Tamarans are human-shaped, but come in shades of orange. (As do Tamarians, but they’re kinda lumpy.) Martian Manhunter’s from right next door, and he’s fuckin’ green.
Meanwhile on that same cover - highlighting how people don’t weigh these implications - Batman looks identical. Batman did not get swapped around. People, Bruce Wayne is just a guy. His superpower is money. He could look like anyone on Earth (who can plausibly win a fistfight) without even changing who the Waynes are. He didn’t need to get picked by forces beyond his comprehension, like the Flash and Green Lantern. He only needed to get adopted.
That said:
Star Trek deliberately doesn’t give a shit. They changed Klingons in a big way and shrugged when people asked why. More than once. The franchise runners will say, we want this actor to play this character, and the lore implications are, deal with it.
I remember the bitching and moaning when Tim Russ got cast as Tuvok because “Vulcans aren’t black.” As if the handful of Vulcans ever shown by that point represented the entire species.
Edit: Also, Vulcan has a huge red sun. Dark-skinned Vulcans actually make more sense.
Tim Russ isn’t Vulcan because he’s a human pirate (see: Starship Mine). Wait maybe he’s a Klingon Trill trafficker (See: Invasive Procedures).
I thought he was still looking for his identity because he …
There were other black Vulcans shown on-screen (as background characters) before Tuvok:
Star Trek III had a Vulcan midwife played by Fran Bennett
Star Trek V had a Vulcan High Priestess played by Beverly Hart
Alien similarity to humans is always weird. In live-action we take it for granted because, well, most actors are human. But there’s species where blue is an option. Do Vulcans come in blue? Humans sure don’t.
I caught hell for pointing this out with that Justice League cover that’s the whole team face-to-face with their alternate-universe counterparts. Our Superman looks like he has European ancestry… but Krypton doesn’t have a Europe. Their Superman looks like he has African ancestry… but Krypton doesn’t have an Africa, either. It’s a coincidence of cosmic proportions for even one of them to pass for human. Two is twice as unlikely! Is all of alternate Krypton different? Is Krypton canonically 1:1 with Earth, in terms of how people can look? Could General Zod show up looking Japanese? It is buck-wild that any alien without shape-shifting abilities should look perfectly normal anywhere on Earth. Within the same continuity, the Tamarans are human-shaped, but come in shades of orange. (As do Tamarians, but they’re kinda lumpy.) Martian Manhunter’s from right next door, and he’s fuckin’ green.
Meanwhile on that same cover - highlighting how people don’t weigh these implications - Batman looks identical. Batman did not get swapped around. People, Bruce Wayne is just a guy. His superpower is money. He could look like anyone on Earth (who can plausibly win a fistfight) without even changing who the Waynes are. He didn’t need to get picked by forces beyond his comprehension, like the Flash and Green Lantern. He only needed to get adopted.
That said:
Star Trek deliberately doesn’t give a shit. They changed Klingons in a big way and shrugged when people asked why. More than once. The franchise runners will say, we want this actor to play this character, and the lore implications are, deal with it.