spotlight STAR TREK: DISCOVERY
GOING WHERE NO ONE HAS GONE BEFORE
By joel martens
Who can forget the inimitable words spoken by Shatner’s Captain Kirk, beginning each episode of Gene Roddenberry’s original Star Trek television series: “Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” Known for its progressive civil rights viewpoints and for taking on deeply ingrained cultural taboos, the series has always broken ground. Illustrated in part by the series multicultural cast, through the analogous prejudices faced by Spock because of his parent’s interracial marriage and an especially memorable moment when Kirk and Uhura kiss, one of the first inter-racial kisses on American televi- sion, which was banned in several states. It’s hard to believe that took place nearly 51 years ago, especially considering the challenges we’re still facing on the racial and LGBT front in 2017. Subsequent shows and films took on other taboos and though women have been central to the various film and television crews, it wasn’t until 1995’s Star Trek Voyager that Captain Kathryn Janeway [Kate Mulgrew] would finally become the first female captain to serve as a central character in a Star Trek television series, later becoming a Starfleet admiral for the 2002 feature film Star Trek: Nemesis. LGBT representation however, has been even slower to arrive on the bridges
of any Star Trek franchise: One that has spawned six TV series and 13 feature films. Gene Roddenberry himself spoke in 1981 of having to overcome his own homophobia in a David Alexander interview inThe Humanists; “My attitude toward homosexuality has changed. I came to the conclusion that I was wrong.” Conversely, there have been notable cast members such as LGBT sage and activist, George Takei (Sulu) and Zachary Quinto [Spock] from the latest film franchise who said via
zacharyquinto.com about his reason for coming out: “It became clear to me in an instant that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it - is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality,” he wrote. “Our society needs to recognize the unstoppable momentum toward unequivocal civil equality for every gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered citizen of this country.” The first clearly-defined LGBT character’s moment finally came in the most cur-
rent film franchise version Star Trek Beyond, in which Sulu is briefly pictured with a male spouse and their infant child. A moment that wasn’t without its controversy, most notably coming from LGBT champion, George Takei. Though delighted there was an LGBT character, he toldThe Hollywood Reporter “Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene’s creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it’s really unfortunate.” Pointing out that Sulu referenced having a daughter in the original series and since the current film takes place before that, Sulu would have had to first been gay and married, only to then go back into the closet years later.
26 RAGE monthly | OCTOBER 2017
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