• Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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    5 months ago

    What if Andorians see different wavelengths of light, and the closest word the universal translator can find is “pink.”

    Maybe “pink” means “warm” in Andorian.

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago

    It makes you wonder about the colored aliens in the Star Trek universe.

    Are there different shades of Andorians and their blue skin and white hair?

    Are there different shades of Orions and their green skin?

    There is a weird mentality when we imagine an alien species from another world and think that they all look uniformly the same across billions of individuals on their home planet.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPM
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      5 months ago

      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.

      • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        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).

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        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

    • Infynis@midwest.social
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      5 months ago

      There are definitely multiple shades of green on the Orions in Lower Decks. Some are yellow-green, and some are blue-green

  • Infynis@midwest.social
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    5 months ago

    I would imagine he was using a slur they invented for Vulcans, probably combining meanings of colour and warmth, which the UT didn’t really understand, so it just spit out something kind of close

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPM
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      5 months ago

      I’m picturing Hoshi telling everyone, “no, look, in his language, that means ‘able to absorb heat!’” and Travis is like, “yeah, whatever.”