Star Wars & Sc-Fi Talk
- Thread starter bd popeye
- Start date
James Bond Moonraker.
Nope, miles off. Think the 'anti-Bond'.
Oh yeah, that's the joke. Funny enough, it was released in 1979 as well.
We have a winner in the trump trophy meme stakes:
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
Nice analysis but usually people only see things in the frame of “today”. First time I’ve ever heard DS9 was analogous to India being Bajor while the British were the Cardassions. In the 1990s when DS9 debuted it was more analogous to Tibet and China to which that was the talk then. And the US and the West are the Federation there to protect the poor little spiritual Bajorans.
Star Trek was a worst offender than what Star Wars got heat for paring aliens with human races and cultures with similar stereotypes. I’ve heard it accused that Ferengi were Jews because they were stereotyped as materialistic. And so are Asians and Ferengi use chopsticks and eat weird things and are sexist. Some say it’s the Jews that are the Bajorans and Germans are the Cardassions. In the TOS it was obvious the Klingons were Chinese since they wore FuManchu mustaches and had Chinese names and were warlike. The Cardassions who showed up first on TNG followed what was accused of China in torturing and having unfair predetermined trials that were just for show. So since Hollywood is controlled by the Jews, what do you think is the more correct parallel…?
We've been through this a million times! In Star Trek TOS the Klingons were Russians/Soviets and the Romulans were Chinese. According to ChatGPT:
In star trek TOS who were the Soviets and who were the Chinese?
Short answer: they mostly weren’t directly mapped.
Star Trek: The Original Series deliberately avoided saying “these aliens = Soviets” or “those aliens = Chinese,” but Cold War viewers definitely read subtext into a few factions.
Here’s how it generally shakes out
Soviets → The Klingons
This is the clearest and most widely accepted parallel.
Why Klingons = Soviets (in TOS):
They’re the main rival superpower to the Federation
Constant brinkmanship, proxy conflicts, and tense diplomacy
Emphasis on military strength, secrecy, and expansion
Ideological opposition rather than outright nonstop war
Episodes often mirror Cold War crises (arms races, border incidents, espionage)
Gene Roddenberry himself acknowledged that Klingons were inspired by Cold War adversaries, and most scholars/readers agree the USSR analogy fits best.
In later series (TNG+), Klingons evolve into something closer to a proud warrior culture rather than a Soviet stand-in—but in TOS, they’re very Cold War-coded.
Chinese → No direct equivalent
This is where it gets interesting.
Unlike the Soviets, there is no consistent alien race in TOS that clearly maps onto China.
Reasons:
1960s American pop culture tended to frame the Cold War as US vs USSR, with China folded vaguely into “Communism” rather than treated as a distinct geopolitical actor.
Roddenberry’s focus was on binary superpower tension, not multipolar politics.
When China does appear symbolically, it’s usually abstract or indirect, not embodied by a single species.
Possible loose or debated parallels (but not strong)
These are speculative and much weaker than the Klingon–Soviet link:
Romulans
Sometimes read as a mix of Imperial Rome + Communist China
Isolationist, secretive, suspicious of outsiders
First appearance (“Balance of Terror”) reflects fear of a hidden, unknown enemy
But honestly:
They’re more about ancient empire + Cold War paranoia than China specifically.
Most fans still see them as Roman/authoritarian, not Chinese-coded.
Generic “Communist” allegories
Some episodes critique:
Totalitarianism
Collective over individual
State control of thought
These critiques sometimes lump USSR and Maoist China together, but without distinction.
Federation perspective
Worth noting:
The Federation is very explicitly a post-national, post–Cold War ideal.
Earth has moved beyond US/Soviet/Chinese divisions.
The show’s message is less “this alien = that country” and more:
“Humanity survives by growing past this mindset.”
TL;DR
Soviets: Klingons (very strong analogy in TOS)
Chinese: No clear or consistent equivalent
China is mostly absorbed into generic “communist/authoritarian” subtext, not personified
Star Trek cared more about warning against Cold War thinking than mapping every real-world power
If you want, I can also break this down episode by episode or compare how this changes in TNG / DS9 (where politics get way sharper).
Gene Roddenberry was ahead of the curve in thinking past the pre-existing ideological thought processes prevalent in the west, and the ones working on the shows who understand that the best generally do better presentations than the ones following the desired ideological "flavor of the week" thinking. That being said, I think Futurama's presentation of the human future will be more accurate than Star Trek in the long run, as again comedy is a better observer of things than drama.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
During the Cold War the West hated the Chinese more than the Soviets just like the West hated the Japanese more than the Russians despite how the Japanese chose to be Western. Yeah the Soviets were more a threat military but it's the Chinese they hated more. That's why the US entertained allying with the Soviets to break up China during the Cold War. Klingons had Chinese names and wore Fu Manchu mustaches. TNG and after they had to change it because it was obviously racist and not because they were sensitive to the feelings of the Russians. It's no more different today where liberals are more antagonistic towards Asians than blacks. So it's not far-fetched that that they can be more sensitive to one and not another but then claim they're not racist in general. During TOS they had episode Omega Glory where a planet was at war with the Kohms versus the Yangs paralleling the Communists versus the Yankees. And who did they chose to represent the Kohms? Asians(Chinese) not white people.
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