Cast

Cast helps me visualize better. I can’t help it. I like to see a person. Furthermore, that can help me make decisions on details such as hair and eye color, dominant hand, height, etc. It helps to know if characters can literally see eye to eye. In Discovery, Saru’s height matters, for example.

While I do not honestly expect any of my Star Trek fan fiction work to ever see stage or screen, it’s fun to imagine who would ‘play’ a particular character. Furthermore, this can often crystallize ideas about characters. Height, weight, gender, race, age and ethnicity  are all going to matter, whether we want them to or not.

I respect canon casting decisions (even if the actor or actress is deceased) and don’t change them. However, I may add a child version of a canon character. I also try to match ethnicity as much as possible, and put actors together who are within a reasonable age range. But this is far from an exact science. Hence if a character is Jewish, I try to make sure the actor or actress is as well. I also make an attempt to “cast” people who are within a reasonable distance of an age. If the character is 50, then I am perfectly fine with an actress being 40. However, I am not so okay with an actress being 20 years of age.

Or …?

Do I gender swap? At times, but not for the canon cast and characters. If the character starts off male in canon, then they stay that way. This does not mean I will not write someone similar who is female. Or I might even create a scenario where that character is briefly not male. But Picard is a guy, Burnham is a woman. For me, that works. However, as with everything else, your mileage undoubtedly will vary.