John Ralston, Saul

The backlash continues. White, light-haired North American males are being given iconic science fictional roles that used to belong to persons of colour - Black and Asian. First, Ged of Earthsea was filmed as a bland whiteboy. Then, Colonel Tigh (played by Terry Carter, black) was turned into Colonel Saul Tigh (played by Michael Hogan, white). Both bad. Two smacks for Sci-Fi Channel.

But now it gets complicated. In Sci-Fi's new re-imagining of Flash Gordon, Emperor Ming is now played by a white Canadian actor, John Ralston. I'm guessing, just guessing, that Pam Noles won't be as pissed off about this particular de-pigmentation as she is about Danny Glover's role in Earthsea and Ron Glass's role in Firefly.