DuracellEnergizer said:
Sadako said:
The nonsense biology I can buy--it's the 24th century, and based on a remark made in TNG 02x20, it seems that someone has developed a gene splicing doohickey for interspecies couples, and it's existence is apparently well-known and often used, given the existence of B'Elanna, K'Ehleyr, Spock, and Troi
That doesn't explain interspecies offspring in situations where such technology simply wasn't available (Worf's human brother having a child with some rubber forehead chick on a primitive planet, for example).
I simply don't know why the writers didn't simply make most of the human and rubber forehead aliens genetic offshoots of humanity. Going by TOS, we already know aliens had transplanted humans to other worlds from Earth long before humans developed interstellar travel; it's well within the realm of possibility that some of these transplanted populations could have evolved/been modified into new species and subspecies over the centuries/millennia.
Jeez ... now I'm just serving to remind myself of why I dislike TNG so much. Why did the writers of the show have to bungle almost every aspect of the ST Universe in such a horrible, slipshod manner?
That sounds like how they explained every planet having humans or human like aliens on it in SG1.
As for TNG that show was fine and they did pretty much what you asked for. I can't remember every detail as it has been years since I have seen it but there was an episode where they discovered that most life in the galaxy was created by a single race and used the same basic DNA as it's building blocks. They did pretty much what you said they should do. Also I wouldn't be too hard on them remember the show started in the late 80s and had to stay on budget while using model shots and sets for pretty much everything. B5 and Farscape are from the 90s and could use CGI to generate ships and alien planets and thus were able to save money that they could spend on makeup. also neither of those shows went on location as much as TNG did. The only other show I can think of that went on location as much as TNG was SG1 and they had aliens that were completely human,they didn't even do foreheads,so I really think it was a budget thing and if you let TOS off of the hook for it's Asian looking Klingons i really think you should cut TNG some slack. They didn't have unlimited money either. Farscape also had Jim Henson's creator ship at their beck and call. I don't think anyone was being lazy and trying to make a bad show and I think the show they made holds up at least as well as TOS with it's loincloth wearing aliens,space hippies,and red shirts dying by the dozens. It was a good show and I think it still stands up today.