Few would argue that there is a sci-fi franchise out there with the same richness of alien species as Star Trek. For any writer wanting to create an interesting crew, there is certainly a huge variety of species to choose from. Writers can even “mix-’n'-match” some of the species to create blends like Counselor Troi or B’elanna Torres, much in the same way we see a blending of all different races in America (although, technically, “mixing” species makes no sense because by definition two members of different species cannot successfully interbreed). We can see this as being a very fun process for fans wanting to design their own crew; just pick up any fan series and you can see a huge variety of “mixes” with wildly diverse backgrounds that make up their starship crew.
But it’s easy to go too far. A character that is a half-Vulcan/half-Klingon Chief Medical Officer born on Cardassia with Betazoid powers (often accompanied by “and once served with Captain Picard on Enterprise-D…“) makes no sense – there is nothing new that is added here, it’s just mixing the paint and disguising it as something new. Often the argument for such a character is that he/she faces “inner conflict,” which always holds the promise of something interesting but always comes up short. Even when it came to B’elanna Torres from Voyager whose half-human/half-Klingon genetic make-up should have yielded some amazing stories, most of the time she came off to me as a “normal-Starfleet-woman-who-got-angry-on-occasion.”
Sometimes, though, you just need a character to fill out your bridge crew and it doesn’t matter what he/she is – and sometimes some silliness is called for – so I will ease the process. Allow me to introduce…the Random Star Trek Character Generator! If any of you need characters for your fan-fiction, just hit the spin button and see what you get!
(If it doesn’t work the first time, you may need to refresh your browser)
Random Character Generator
| Race | Sex | Occupation | Homeworld | Starship |
