I occasionally think that I should just collect a masterpost of overtly political things that have happened in the Star Trek franchise and be prepared to throw it at the next person who tries to argue that Discovery or whatever shouldn’t be political.
And then I realize that I’d probably be on the hook for massive copyright infringement because (say it with me)
Star Trek
was
explicitly
and overtly
political
from the very beginning
and has never stopped.
It wasn’t always good–it was frequently hamhanded, corny, schmaltzy, and a whole grocery store of other food-related (and not food-related) adjectives–but it is far easier to remove quality from Star Trek than politics.
Everything I Learned About About Lawful Good Activism I Learned From Captain Jean-Luc Picard
“star trek wasn’t progressive before discovery!”
sure chad whatever you say chad how was your weekend in charlottesville chad
Yea! Rejoice! For it was on this blessed day in the year 1967 that our foremothers watched two men roll around on the hot desert sand and decreed, “Let there be gay.”
[For those who don’t understand the reference: this is about the 49th anniversary of the Star Trek TOS episode Amok Time.
This is the episode where Spock goes in pon farr, where he is literally biologically compelled to mate, kill, or, die. Spock does none of these things except to roll around on the sands of Vulcan and grind on Kirk.
This was the episode that sparked the entire idea of slash in our foremothers’ minds.]
The upcoming Star Trek Beyond pays homage to original Star Trek cast member, George Takei, by declaring Hikaru
Sulu, the character he made famous, openly gay. Takei is openly gay in real life, and is a long time advocate of gay rights, telling News Corp in 2015:
If I wanted to work as an actor I had to keep it a secret. Back then I couldn’t marry a white person — that was against the law here, miscegenation. But now I am married to a white dude, so we have changed.
In the original series and the six films that followed, Sulu is father to at least one daughter. This has not changed, as the film introduces Sulu’s husband and daughter. The actors playing Sulu’s husband and daughter have not yet been revealed, and neither has the extent of their roles.
As a long time Trekkie, the news is pleasing in a common sense sort of way. Star Trek is a groundbreaking series that first aired in 1966, inspiring so many, including the first black female astronaut,Mae Jemison, and airing the first interracial kiss on U.S. television. It’s only fitting that on its 50th anniversary, it continues to inspire, living up to its tagline: to go where no one has gone before.
Yep. First time. We’re just gonna ignore Evil Bisexual Kira. And Ambiguously evil Bisexual Ezri. And Bisexual But Only For One Episode So Maybe The Fans Will Stop Being Pissed At Us For Breaking Roddenberry’s Promise Jadzia.
Do those not count because they were all shitty, or is ther esome other common unifying factor that gets them all ignored? I wonder…
I’m thinking they don’t count because they’re all shitty. I mean, Evil Bisexual Alternate Version of Good Heterosexual Female Character is perhaps the ultimate shit “representation” trope, and Jadzia’s one-episode bisexuality stemmed from a relationship one of Dax’s male hosts was in.
I’m. Super conflicted about this.
Because A.Takei doesn’t actually agree with the choice to make Sulu gay. Considering Sulu being gay is meant to honor Takei, you’d think they would have, oh, I don’t know. Considered his wishes, and worked with his desire to introduce a new character who was openly LGBT?
Because B. yes the ‘evil bisexual alternate version of a good heterosexual female’ is a trope, but Mirror Kira is fucking kick ass, and I love the hell out of her. But at the same time…
Because C. Mirror Ezri isn’t actually ‘evil.’ She starts out darker, and working with Kira, but she helped the ‘good guys’ escape and ended up joining the Terran Rebellion.
Because D. Mirror Leeta was ambiguously either bisexual or (depending on how you view her disgust towards Rom) homosexual. Granted, Leeta isn’t a major character.
Because E. I don’t give a flying fig that the Dax symbiont was in a male host when they were originally married to the Kahn symbiont. Jadzia isn’t male, and neither was Lenara.
And lastly, which I openly admit is most weakly, but I do feel the need to mention it… More fans should read the novels, especially the novelizations of TOS movies. I loved reading through the novelizations and seeing how the concept of marriage worked in Roddenberry’s vision of Star Trek: contract marriages that could include more than two partners, regardless of gender/sex/species, and were renewed on a regular basis dependent on the spouses involved wishing to continue their relationship. Of course, this hasn’t made its way visibly into the shows or movies, but I do think it bears mentioning.
(Nevermind Spock referring to Kirk as his ‘t’hy’la,’ a word that can mean friend/brother/lover. Whether you ship Kirk and Spock or not, it’s still important to be aware of, that that possibility and dynamic is there. But again, this is a books thing, so.)
So my friends and I have been re-watching through all of TOS. Near the end of the series, in the episode ‘The Savage Curtain,’ a facsimile of Abraham Lincoln appears; a creation by an alien race that believes he actually is Abraham Lincoln. During a tour of the ship led by Kirk, he meets Uhura on the bridge.
The exchange that follows is one that we found especially empowering and profound. Lincoln addresses Uhura as a ‘charming negress,’ realizes that using that word could be taken as an offense, and apologizes. Uhura answers;
“But why should I object to that term, sir? You see in our century, we’ve learned not to fear words.”
Lincoln replies, with the realization that he’s apologized where no offense was given, and Kirk follows up;
“We’ve each learned to be delighted with what we are.”
This is an exchange that was penned in 1969 as a very astute and clear social commentary, as was not unusual for the show. (After all, Star Trek is the show that gave us America’s first televised interracial kiss.) The ideas in this exchange, the message of self-acceptance, of reclaiming one’s own sense of self, even of reclaiming words that might have been twisted into insults through foolish prejudices, are ideas that are still relevant today, in 2015. They are ideas that will continue to be relevant for years to come, for centuries to come. We just need to learn to live by these ideas, and to spread them to everyone we can reach.
“Well, when I was nine years old Star Trek came on, I looked at it and I went screaming through the house, ‘Come here, mum, everybody, come quick, come quick, there’s a black lady on television and she ain’t no maid!’ I knew right then and there I could be anything I wanted to be.”
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