I’m a pretty big Star Trek fan. I grew up watching The Next Generation with my dad, then DS9, and I even mostly liked Voyager (awesome premise, mediocre execution). The recent movie was incredibly excellent. But one thing that’s always bugged me about the franchise is how not-at-all-alien all the aliens are.
Vulcans have green blood, but they can still reproduce with humans and make Spock? 95% of the species follow a humanoid body plan? Captain Kirk seduces women from anywhere and everywhere? It’s not just biology, but culture as well. Voyager gets flung across the width of the galaxy and meets a guy who understands human jokes? Kirk visits a planet filled with the Italian Mafia? Yeah, I know it was because there aren’t any septapods in the Actor’s Guild, and the humanoid thing was established in the ’60s and became a calling card of the show (and a source of quite a few in-jokes). It’s too bad make-up and special effects budgets for film limit the creativity of the setting.