I think the dialog screen should  focus on:

1-Making the the alien itself  "alive", even if its mechanical. Has to express through facial/body animation or light/shading changes the main racial traits of the species itself, conveying also some lore through body features/features if possible.

2-We only had voice+musicin the original, why not having ambient sound of the alien itself & the enviroment he is at. Ambient sound, is a key to immersion, if we go to a theme for each race dialog, why not try to mix that with ambience also, probably making the racial theme itself more a mid volume, and mix it with realtime sounds related to creature facial or body movement, breathing or secondary reflex action sounds. Tip: Starcraft 2 Heart of the swarm campaign dialog screens folley sounds. usage

3-The background itself, if its to be static, it should have enviroment subtle effects or animation. Example: Aquatic species, why not having an outer-sea floor bed with other species in it, like an aquarius, minor creatures doing subtle animation cycles. Although some species probably are the only race on their homeplanet cause of evolution, more spiritual species, those that seek harmony not warfare, probably co-exist with other minor species at their homeworlds. Races more focused on conquer and warfare are probably alone with all their supposed power, probably in a starship itself, a ground planetary base, underwater, whatever. So why not having diferent backgrounds, for each race, based on the speaker itself location?. Space, Air, Ground, Underwater/Belowground(planet core). The truth about Destiny enviroments, is that all those planetary enviroments almost are concept design in motion, all skyboxes have suble animation on them, like passing meteors, decaying ships in orbit, stuff like that, but even if you stand still, you see life in those backgrounds, making all the enviroments very immersive.  Or simply all of above with an animated concept like a golden card background in Heartstone CCG, or animated cards in Infinity Wars CCG, or layered image based animation, with a rigged/shaded 3d creature in it. I truly think sound folley is the key to it being alive

The devs probably know all this im saying so.

But i agree with pushing the bar in those dialog screens, a good way to go also in the  new master of orion species dialog screens. 3d rigged creature/half realism/cartoon(painted) look, and awesome animated enviroment background.

Agree that 35% of the game time is in those screens, they are the stage where we interact with others, they need to be truly a wonder.

Ekya

I agree with everything you said, but for the sake of accuracy there was no voice in the OG game.  Voice was added for the 3DO version.

I just want to reiterate that unless you're speaking to the same individual all the time, the subject as well as the backgrounds should vary, to reflect that you're talking to different members of the same species.  Background music/ambient sounds need not change, but the individuals should look/sound slightly different.  If we're communicating 35% of the time, there's a danger of things getting stale.

True soz, yeah 3DO version, being playing Ur-Quan Masters HD Cant imagine now sc without voice overs, really.

I, personally, wouldn't make it a priority though. I'd rather see the same Mukay, but polished out to irresistible eye candy than skinny Mukay and fat Mukay that I don't care to look at.

I always took the backgrounds being the same as each ship being the same, didn't bother me at all.  It would be nice to have the individuals looks and sound slightly different from each other, but I think it would be a huge drain on Stardock's time and resources.  Not sure it's worth it.  I'd rather have more playable content.