Star Trek Producer Laments Lack of Gays

[kickyourass]

While it never bothered me, I think it would've been interesting seeing how homosexuality fit into the Star Trek Universe.

Problem is that if you go "THEY ARE GAY!", then you've not just alienated the entire fanbase (who love deciding which way they ACTUALLY are) and the homosexual community because you've just dedicated that entire character to Flanderising gay people everywhere.

I just felt I should ask, how exactly did you come to this conclusion? No seriously, explain to me how a sow simply stating "this character is gay" would turn that character into an insane parody of gay people.

 

[Something Amyss]

If you want a cop out I'd direct you to SG-1, where the producers announced weeks after an episode aired that one of the characters was homosexual . . . . it was never mentioned or implied during the episode and the character was killed off so nothing more would happen with this.

Which character is this? I don't remember that. Not that I caught all the news, but I'd think I would have seen that announcement.

 

[Gaderael]

Meh, it never really occurred to me. I think it would have been pretty stupid to have one of the characters just randomly go "I'M GAY!" I mean people don't (normally) do this in real life.

 

[IAmTheVoid]

You're not telling me there wasn't a relationship brewing between Bashir and Garrick anyway.

Darn it, you ninja'd me. Garak's actor always said that he portrayed the character as gay, and there's some scenes where it's painfully obvious behind the scenes that they wished they could openly portray their attraction to each other and tackle the issue, but feared backlash.

 

[thisbymaster]

I believe that by not paying any attention to it at all then they are making sure that in the future it is everyday and not even worth mentioning. Which would be a million times more important then having a main character becoming screaming gay and prance across the screen. Re-enforcing stereotypes is bad for everyone. I am sure one of the Species 8472 is a hexasexual.

 

[wasalp]

In 1991, series creator Gene Roddenberry told The Advocate that the next season of The Next Generation would feature gay characters as part of everyday life on the Enterprise-D, but his death meant that those promises never materialized.

It may not have fully materialised but it was there, in the background.

I know it's not exactly the same as being gay, but cross dressing crew members was pretty forward thinking for a mainstream TV show at the time. I think it even says something by having those characters in the background, as part of everyday life, but not drawing attention to them or making a big deal out of their appearance.

...wait there was cross dressing...never noticed, perhaps they just ran out of male uniforms for those particular scenes?

 

[Defective_Detective]

I would agree. A real missed opportunity.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I just felt I should ask, how exactly did you come to this conclusion? No seriously, explain to me how a sow simply stating "this character is gay" would turn that character into an insane parody of gay people.

As was stated, Flanderization [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Flanderization], every other character has it on their most noticeable trait. Or you can try and name me a Pakistani, Homosexual or Gamer that has been presented fairly by the media. Or a Furry, Mormon etc. etc. etc.

 

[CrystalShadow]

yeah with the time that the orignal startrek was released...the show would have been taken off the air if they did open gay relationships.
hell TNG would have been hit hard if it had done that as well...

Uh... TNG was hit hard for so much as implicating a gay relationship. The fact that in the episode that first introduced the trill ("The host), Beverly fell in love with the trill in the episode.

When the symbiont's host died, it got implanted in Riker, which was awkward, but then the new host turned out to be a woman.

You would not believe the amount of complaints that episode got just because Beverly kissed this female host...

So... Yeah. Reactionary much? (And yet, a few years later, nobody cared when Jadzia Dax had a fairly similar scene.)

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

I remember one of the producers responding to criticism about this before, and his response was simple enough 'what would you like us to do? Have them sashay up and down the corridors?'

Yes they could maybe have introduced a gay main character, but even then they would have been accused of crass sensationalism whenever the issue came up. If it was a background character it wouldn't be enough, if it was a main character it would have been too much, this was one issue they were never going to win.

 

[sleeky01]

anc[is]
Too bad there aren't asari in star trek ;p

There are. They're called Trill. "I've been a mother 3 times and a father twice,...." You know.

 

[nekoali]

mmm. I don't see those pictures of the guys in skirt uniforms as really being cross dressing. The idea behind cross dressing is to appear in the gender opposite your sex. These guys are not, they are just wearing skirt uniforms. I would call that more of a sign that, in the future it is not considered a big deal for a man to wear a skirt, the way it is no longer a big deal for women to wear slacks these days.

I would like to see a homosexual character appear on a future possible Trek movie or series.. but honestly, I don't think it's needed to have a main character who is. As mentioned before, just show some background people who are clearly gay. A couple of men holding hands on a date, or a female crew member checking out another woman. Subtlety and just 'it's no big deal' express things in this case a lot better than having a main character who's always going on about being gay.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

I lament what Brannon Braga did to the franchise.

So it's tragedy all around, I guess.

I dunno enterprise was not that bad, it was better than Voyager(but not by much) but not better than DS9, and STNG is just better than them all.

 

[PrototypeC]

Are we forgetting about Wesley Crusher? They did introduce a gay main character. What he's talking about here is that there was no guys holding hands, kissing or otherwise being clearly and unequivocally gay for each other.

No offense to George Takei(he's one of my idols you see), but I didn't get the impression that Sulu was gay. Gay actors can play straight characters, and vice-versa. Sulu had attentions, but none from other men so it's hard to tell, especially with him being technically a fictional character and all. I don't think he was written that way.

 

[PunkyMcGee]

OT: Seriously never thought about the lack of gays in Star Trek. But while we're on the subject of that show's diversity. How come there weren't more aliens in the crews of the human ships? I mean if you want more diversity...

the reason that there are mostly humans is make-up is expensive and time consuming. same reason they are mostly humanoid.

 

[Blind Sight]

Here's an idea...for once, let's not make homosexuality a focus or anything. Just have a gay character. Don't moralize about it, don't make commentary on it, just have a character who happens to be gay. Maybe even make it a surprise, just have a character who, a couple episodes in, goes on a date or something and have it turn out that they're dating someone of the same sex. When the other characters find out, don't make them have any kind of negative reaction, just a simple 'meh'. I think that making homosexuality an irrelevant factor on a TV show would be much better then doing a 'HEY LOOK AT THIS CHARACTER THEY'RE GAY' concept because it shows THAT IT DOESN'T MATTER. Somewhat like Sam Adama in Caprica, he just happens to be gay, and no one cares.

 

[Redd the Sock]

What about the mirror universe characters. Mirror Ezri Dax was a lesbian, and mirror Kira was...well...she's sleep with anything.

But yeah, I think he's saying they wanted it presented like women or black characters in Trek: a total non-issue. A modern example was Joe Adama's brother Sam on Caprica: gay, but just as a character point, not to make a point.