STAR TREK: IT’S IN THE STARS
SELF-CONFESSED TREKKIE, XAV RUDD, CHEERS ON THE GAY CHARACTERS WHO HAVE FINALLY MADE IT INTO THE STAR TREK FRANCHISE, AND LOOKS AT THE SHOW’S REFLECTION OF IDENTITY POLITICS.
Gay characters have finally made it into the Star Trek franchise. We look at the show’s reflection of identity politics.
IN THE 1960S, Texan-born TV producer and scriptwriter, Gene Rodenberry changed American culture forever with a simple idea: Star Trek. The revolutionary science fiction series, set in the 23rd Century, depicted the adventures of the starship Enterprise and its crew as they boldly went where “no man” had gone before. Out in space and, occasionally, on Earth in a different timeframe, the characters encountered “strange new worlds” and battled an assortment of weird aliens and other dubious humans – albeit with a high-minded colonial attitude. Star Trek was as ground breaking in the US as Dr Who was in the UK. Nonetheless, in 1969, after only three seasons, the show was jettisoned, cancelled by NBC due to low ratings.
Then, by a miracle almost as impressive as travelling at warp speed, Star Trek became a revered cult classic. Through the wonders of syndication, Star Trek repeats began screening nightly across the US and the show finally attracted a huge following, particularly on college campuses.
Ten years later, following the surprise success of Star Wars, the franchise was resurrected. Initially, the original cast were called upon in a succession of big-budget movies, starting with the eponymous Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). As the momentum of Star Trek fandom grew, further TV series were developed, creating a broader Star Trek universe with action taking place in different eras and locations, and with completely new casts: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise.
The big-budget movie reboots continue. A trio of features in which Chris Pine plays Captain Kirk and Zachary Quinto is his second-in-command, Spock have thrilled fans but not quite kept them sated. Invariably there’s a three- or four-year hiatus between each release. Thank goodness then, for Trekkie tragics like me, there’s NBC’s current nine-episode iteration Star Trek: Discovery, set approximately a decade before the original series, which explores the Federation-Klingon war.
Uniquely, it’s the first show in this Rodenberrycreated cosmos to have an openly gay lead character, Chief Engineer Paul Stamets, played by Anthony Rapp. (Although, in the latest movie, Star Trek: Beyond in 2016, which operates along a different timeline, we learned that helmsman Sulu (John Cho) isn’t straight. Although, George Takei, who played the character originally and is gay, wasn’t particularly happy about the change.)
Even if Rodenberry had wanted LGBT characters in the first iteration, it would never have had approval from the network. Homosexuality was illegal in the overwhelming majority of US states in the ’60s.