for the whole project see my tag #star trek dialogue analysis and my spreadsheet data here
other related links: overview // TOS overview // TNG overview // DS9 overview // Voyager overview // Enterprise overview // gender analysis
this post will be diving to explore the differences in amount of dialogue characters of color vs white characters received in TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. i also have data on TOS but am not including it here because it aired over 20 years before TNG in a much different social climate with a different style of show and just isn't that useful for a comparative analysis in my opinion.
also a note/disclaimer that this project only looks at amount of dialogue, not necessarily the quality of the roles in each show or the racism present in the content of the shows. here i'm just trying to do a statistical analysis with quantitative data, not looking at qualitative elements as many people have already written about Star Trek's various racism problems more coherently than i can. (though please feel free to use this data in any qualitative analyses!)
also a minor note – because this is a scifi show and many of these characters are aliens (and not necessarily POC or white within the Star Trek universe), i'm including any characters portrayed by actors of color as characters of color as that would inform how their characters are written and the amount of screentime they receive.
so without further ado – results under the cut!
cast composition by race
it unfortunately goes without saying that characters of color are a minority in TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. TNG, DS9, and Voyager all feature a ten person cast (though not all at the same time). in TNG, there are two characters of color comprising 22.2% of the cast in s1, 25% in s2-3, and 28.6% in s4-7. in DS9, there are 4 characters of color comprising 37.5% of the cast in s1-3 and 44.4% in s4-7. in Voyager, there are 4 characters of color comprising 44.4% of the cast in all seven seasons. in Enterprise there are two characters of color out of a seven person cast comprising 28.6% of the cast for all four seasons.
it's also worth noting that out of the eleven actors of color on this era of Trek, six of them are Black, two are Asian, two are Latino/a, and one is multiracial (note that race/ethnicity of the actor does not necessarily match the character they portray, i.e. Chakotay is indigenous while Robert Beltran is Latino and Bashir is ambiguously Arab while Alexander Siddig is multiracial).
overall, Voyager and DS9 (s4-7) include the most characters of color and Voyager includes the most characters from different races (Black, Latino/a, and Asian).
how much of the show's dialogue is from characters of color?
in TNG, characters of color had 19.46% of the dialogue (8397 lines) while white characters had 80.54% of the dialogue (34751 lines).
% of lines from characters of color is in blue, % of lines from white characters is in red
in DS9, characters of color had 40.95% of the dialogue (17673 lines) while white characters had 59.05% of the dialogue (25485 lines).
% of lines from characters of color is in blue, % of lines from white characters is in red
in Voyager, characters of color had 38.07% of the dialogue (19464 lines) while white characters had 61.93% of the dialogue (31667 lines).
% of lines from characters of color is in blue, % of lines from white characters is in red
in Enterprise, characters of color had 11.63% of the dialogue (2909 lines) while white characters had 88.37% of the dialogue (22109 lines).
% of lines from characters of color is in blue, % of lines from white characters is in red
in total across these four shows, characters of color had 29.82% of the dialogue (48443 lines) while white characters had 70.18% of the dialogue (114012 lines). interestingly, this ends up being roughly equal to the amount of dialogue from female vs male characters. and again, the next time someone complains about how many characters of color there are in new shows, you should remind them that in this era of Star Trek, characters of color had less than 30% of the total dialogue.
% of lines from characters of color is in blue, % of lines from white characters is in red
average character of color's # of lines compared to white characters
for this measure, we ignore that there are unequal amounts of characters of color to white characters and only look at how the averages compared to one another.
in TNG, the average line count for a character of color is 23.27 per episode while the average line count for a white character is 30.44 per episode.
in DS9, the average line count for a character of color is 27.6 per episode while the average line count for a white character is 30.87 per episode – the smallest gap for any show.
in Voyager, the average line count for a character of color is 28.97 per episode while the average line count for a white character is 35.82 per episode.
in Enterprise, the average line count for a character of color is 14.69 per episode while the average line count for a white character is 44.66 per episode – the largest gap for any show.
in total, the average line count for a character of color is 25.18 per episode while the average line count for a white character is 33.63 per episode.
to summarize, white characters consistently have more lines on average than characters of color with the smallest gap in DS9, a moderate gap in TNG & Voyager, and large disparity in Enterprise.
most to least lines
characters of color with the most to least average amount of lines are as follows: Sisko (50.72), Chakotay (34.68), Bashir (29.82), Tuvok (28), Kim (26.88), Torres (26.3), LaForge (25.07), Worf (in TNG) (21.47), Worf (in DS9) (20.35), Sato (15.99), Mayweather (13.39), and Jake (9.51).
fifth and FINAL show breakdown! if you'd like to see this entire project check out my tag #star trek dialogue analysis, this spreadsheet, or the below posts:
this post will give an overview of all the Enterprise data i collected broken down by season and character.
cast composition
Enterprise is the only show i'm looking at that has a consistent main cast for all of its seasons. it's also the shortest Berman era Trek show with only four seasons (and 99 episodes) and with the smallest cast: Archer, T'Pol, Tucker, Sato, Reed, Phlox, and Mayweather. according to the producers, there was an effort in Enterprise to recreate 'the triumverate' style of cast from TOS with Archer, T'Pol, and Tucker as main characters as opposed to the more ensemble style of TNG, DS9, and Voyager. (and they did succeed, whether or not that was a good thing.)
season 1:
we can see the differences from DS9 and Voyager right off the bat in season 1 with Archer having far more lines than any other Captain of this era and with a clear division between the primary characters (Archer, T'Pol, and Tucker) and the secondary characters (Sato, Reed, Phlox, and Mayweather), resembling the divisions in s1 of TNG. this is also the only season where Phlox has the least lines.
season 2:
while most Star Trek shows seem to have characters getting more equal amounts of lines as the series goes on, this is not the case for Enterprise with the difference between the primary & secondary characters being even more stark. and Archer, now in his second season, still has more lines than any other Captain of this era (the closest someone comes is Picard in s1 of TNG with an average of 90.4 lines per episode.)
season 3:
Archer does follow the pattern of Captains getting fewer lines as the season progresses but still the divide between primary & secondary characters endures. it is interesting to note that this is arguably the first entirely serialized season of Star Trek (while DS9 experimented with serialization, they still had one-off episodes in their later seasons) though everyone still has roughly the same amount of lines from the mostly non-serialized s2. Mayweather's 10.17 lines has the fewest lines out of any adult character in this era Star Trek. this is also the only season where T'Pol has the second most lines.
season 4:
not a ton has changed – Archer, T'Pol, and Tucker have fewer lines than in previous seasons but still considerably more than the others who have roughly the same amount of lines as the previous two seasons.
by character:
ARCHER
while if we include TOS, Kirk has more lines, Archer still has by far the most lines of any character from this era of Star Trek with an average of 86.68 lines per episode (Janeway & Picard had about 20 fewer lines and Sisko had 35 fewer lines). that said, because Enterprise has considerably fewer episodes than the other Trek shows of the era, he only has 8581 lines in total. he appears in all 99 episodes of the show with 61 high line count episodes and 0 low line count episodes, the first character since Kirk & Spock to never have 10 or fewer lines. the most lines he ever has is 154 in The Expanse (or 220 in Broken Bow if we include double length episodes).
T'POL
T'Pol as first officer has either the second or third most lines per season with the most in s3 and the least in s4. on average she has 44.02 lines per episode (4358 in total). she appears in all 99 episodes of the show, with 6 high line count episodes and 0 low line count episodes. the most lines she ever has is 98 in Doctor's Orders (or 114 in Broken Bow if we include double length episodes). despite being arguably the second most important character to the show, she is the first main character to never have more than 100 lines in an episode since Tasha Yar & Katherine Pulaski in TNG.
TUCKER
Tucker acts as the third part of the Enterprise triumverate and thus has relatively equal amounts of dialogue to T'Pol with an overall average of 46.03 lines per episode. he appears in all 99 episodes of the show (Enterprise is the first show where at least three characters appear in every episode). he has 11 high line count episodes and 4 low line count episodes. the most lines he ever gets is 145 in Shuttlepod One.
SATO
Sato is the first of the secondary characters from Enterprise and this is evident by her amount of dialogue which sharply decreases after s1. her overall average is 15.99 lines per episode (the second lowest of any post-TOS Star Trek character) and appears in 93 of the 99 episodes. she has 2 high line count episodes and 54 low line count episodes. the most lines she ever gets is 127 in Vanishing Point.
REED
like Sato, Reed starts out with a higher average in s1 and that drops significantly in the next seasons (but not by as much as Sato). his overall average is 26.37 lines per episode (2611 lines total) and appears in 95 episodes. this makes him the most used of all the 'secondary' characters in Enterprise. he has 2 high line count episodes and 18 low line count episodes. the most lines he ever has is 167 in Shuttlepod One, the most of any character in a single Enterprise episode.
PHLOX
Phlox doesn't necessarily follow the pattern of the other secondary characters as he has a lower line count in s1 and a higher line count in seasons 2 and 3 but overall he still has an average of 20.22 lines per episode (2002 total) across 92 episodes. he has 3 high line count episodes and 40 low line count episodes. the most lines he ever has is 161 in Doctor's Orders.
MAYWEATHER
frankly, when i started this project i went in with the assumption that Mayweather would have the least lines and generally be the least used character across all of Star Trek and i was right. he starts off in s1 with a low amount of lines compared to other adult characters from other series and it continues to drop off. overall he has the lowest average of any adult character 13.39 in Star Trek with even Wesley beating him with 13.67 lines per episode. he appears in 90 episodes, the least of any Enterprise character, and only has one high line count episode and 51 low line count episodes. the most lines he ever has is 125 in Horizon. despite not having many lines overall, he does end up having more lines in a single episode than T'Pol.
things of note:
Sato & Mayweather (and Phlox to a lesser extent) are the least used characters in both Enterprise and this era of Star Trek as a whole.
T'Pol is the only main character in TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise who never has more than 100 lines per episode (despite having a lot of dialogue overall).
Archer is undoubtedly the character with the most dialogue and screen time per episodes he's in across this era of Star Trek (and only rivaled by Kirk in TOS).
Enterprise's shift towards serialization in the latter half of the show didn't really seem to affect the amount of dialogue each character got.
while Enterprise was never really an ensemble show, it drifts further and further from being an ensemble as the show goes on.
for the whole project see my tag #star trek dialogue analysis and my spreadsheet data here
other related links: overview // TOS overview // TNG overview // DS9 overview // Voyager overview // Enterprise overview // race analysis
this post will be diving to explore the differences in amount of dialogue male vs female characters received in TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. i also have data on TOS but am not including it here because it aired over 20 years before TNG in a much different social climate with a different style of show and just isn't that useful for a comparative analysis in my opinion.
also a note/disclaimer that this project only looks at amount of dialogue, not necessarily the quality of women's roles in each show or the misogyny present in the content of the shows. here i'm just trying to do a statistical analysis with quantitative data, not looking at qualitative elements as many people have already written about Star Trek's various misogyny & sexism problems more coherently than i can. (though please feel free to use this data in any qualitative analyses!)
and one last note – i use the words "woman" and "female" (and "man" and "male") interchangably here. this is mostly because in English "female/male characters" is grammatically correct and is a more used term than "woman/man characters". i'm not trying to pull any bullshit terfy sex vs gender shit. and while some characters do have trans/genderqueer subtext to their characters (especially alien characters), i am just looking at this through the gender of the actor portraying them (all of whom are cis).
so without further ado – read the results under the cut!
cast composition by gender
it goes without saying that all four of these shows had less female characters than male characters overall – TNG, DS9, and Voyager all had ten regular cast members at various points. in TNG – 4 of the characters are women but only had 2 female regulars for six of its seven seasons (with 3 in season 1). in DS9 – there are 3 female characters with 2 at any given point. in Voyager – there are 4 female characters with 3 at any given point. and in Enterprise – there are 2 female characters out of the 7 person cast.
this means that TNG's cast is comprised of 40% women overall and with 33.3% women in s1 and 25% women in s2-3 and 28.6% in s4-7. DS9 is comprised of 30% women overall with 25% women in s1-3 and 22.2% in s4-7. Voyager is made of 40% women overall and 33.3% in each season. And Enterprise has 20% women overall and in each season.
it should also be noted that the only people removed & replaced from the 90s Star Trek shows are women with Denise Crosby leaving because of frustration with the writing for her character & the general management of the show (though she later came back for guest appearances), Gates McFadden being fired for voicing her complaints with sexist writing (and eventually rehired), Terry Farrell leaving because of sexism, harassment, and unequal treatment from execs, and Jennifer Lien being replaced due to personal reasons. it goes without saying that this is a pretty bad history with 30% of actresses having been fired, forced to leave, or quit because of behind the scenes issues. (note that Diana Muldaur also left TNG but from my knowledge, she left because her contract was up & because Gates McFadden was rehired, not because of any particular issues around sexism or harassment so i did not include her in that 30% statistic.)
how much of the show's dialogue is from women vs men?
in TNG, women had 7,430 lines of dialogue from regulars across the show while men had 35,718 lines. this means that women had 17.22% of the dialogue across the seven season run.
(% of female character lines in blue and % of male character lines in red)
in DS9, women had a somewhat better 10,460 lines compared to the men's 32,698 lines. meaning women had 24.24% of the dialogue.
(% of female character lines in blue and % of male character lines in red)
in Voyager, women had a much improved 21,582 lines compared to the men's 29,549 lines. in other words, women had 42.21% of the dialogue.
(% of female character lines in blue and % of male character lines in red)
and while it seemed things were on an upward trend for women's representation, Enterprise only had 5,941 lines from female characters compared to the males' 19,077 lines. meaning women had 23.75% of the dialogue.
(% of female character lines in blue and % of male character lines in red)
in total across all four shows, women had 27.95% of the dialogue compared to men having 72.05%. (interestingly this is a similar ratio to the amount of dialogue from characters of color vs white characters.) the next time someone brings up that they preferred how women were written on older trek compared to new trek, be sure to remind them that women on average had only 28% of the dialogue despite the fact that women make up around half of the global population.
(% of female character lines in blue and % of male character lines in red)
average female characters' # of lines compared to male characters
this measure ignores the fact that men make up the majority of all the shows' cast and is now just focused on how many lines per episode on average female characters have compared to male characters.
in TNG, the average female characters' line count is 20.68 per episode compared to the males' 34.55.
in DS9, the average female characters' line count is 32.78 to the males' 28.18.
in Voyager, the average female characters' line count is 36.1 to the males' 29.32.
in Enterprise, the average female characters' line count is 30.01 to the males' 38.54.
out of all of the shows, the average female characters' line count is 29.65 and the males' is 32.21.
i would highlight that in both DS9 and Voyager, women typically have more lines than the men on the show, especially on Voyager given that the lead character is a woman. but there's a pretty large gender gap in both TNG and Enterprise which leaves male characters with slightly more lines overall.
most to least lines
female characters with the most to least lines per episode are as follows: Janeway (69.51), T'Pol (44.02), Seven (40.88), Ezri (39.84), Kira (32.24), Torres (26.3), Jadzia (26.26), Pulaski (23.95), Crusher (20.79), Yar (19), Kes (18.18), Troi (18.11), Sato (15.99).
it's also worth noting that out of the 13 female characters from this era of Trek, only 2 of them are characters of color (B'Elanna Torres and Hoshi Sato) who both have a below average amount of dialogue compared to other female characters. (Torres – 26.3 average lines per episode, Sato – 15.99 average lines per episode). obviously race is a highly significant factor when considering amount of lines/screentime and i will have a similar post dedicated to it here (link will be posted shortly).
EVERY fucking stupid liberals university in the star trek future their fucking student sketch comedy group OF COURSE has at least one Vulcan and it's like their thing where they're like "haha I bet you wouldn't expect a VULCAN in an IMPROV group!!!!!" as if this hasn't become such a fucking tired cliche like literally since 2063 every fucking comedy show has the token Vulcan to be the straight man. you're doing nothing. call me when you guys make an effort to actually include tellarites in the writing room instead of confining them to punch lines. and to be honest with you guys your Vulcan isn't even that good. his performance was highly derivative of T'min's work in the big bang theory 3 (the third big bang yheory. they make a lot of sitcom sequels in the future)
star trek is very demonstrably not a utopian future it's a broken society playing at paradise. we see hints of this earlier in the post when I mention university improv comedy groups
The amount of joy I get when I find an extremely detailed post about some design element in Star Trek is unparalleled. Someone doing a very deep dive on like, the console buttons or the shape of the bridge viewscreen or whatever. Even if I don't care about the topic I see all the little diagrams and the screen caps and I am comforted that the nerds are still obsessing. The world is still turning
