GURPS Star Trek - Canon Vulcans

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

Yeah, that's always been one of the inherent contradictions in the ST setting, from the very beginning: it doesn't really make sense for significantly different species to serve in the same environment. Only very closely similar ones, like Vulcans and Humans, can reasonably be expected to do so at all (both breathe nitroxy, prefer the same basic temperature ranges and air pressures and so forth, their native gravity is close enough), and even then there are issues.

I've always said that Star Trek tries to be faithful to Astronomy, regularly cheats on Physics, and leaves Biology crying and abandoned in a locked basement.

The standard excuses for this setup working are:

1) The galactic bias towards "humanoid" sapient life put in place by a precursor species.

2) Most habitable planets will be "Earthlike" in atmosphere, biology, etc. Because Reasons.

The real reasons were budget, time limits which made extensive special effects impractical, limits on biological knowledge at the time, and what the show-runners assumed the TV-watching American public would accept as plausible.

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

In actual practice, even with closely similar species, you'd probably tend to see human ships, Vulcan ships, Andorian ships, etc. At best.

This seems to be a popular fan theory because it makes sense. The Federation initially standardized around common technologies and ship designs, but crewed them with crews made up of a single species for logistical and medical reasons. As the Federation got bigger, and Starfleet gained institutional experience and improved technology, it became easier to have multi-species crews.

For various reasons, some species maintain their own fleets of ships which work in parallel to Starfleet - notably the Vulcans.

The big advantage of having multi-species crews is that there seems to be strength in diversity - in addition to the plot possibilities. the "sense of wonder," and the harmonious multicultural sensibilities which underlie the franchise.