Friday, December 19, 2008
TV / Homo / Nerd Blood and Fire
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Dec 19, 2008 at 11:11 AM
I know I've been posting a lot of Star Trek stuff this week, but I think you'll agree that this merits attention:
Years ago, the author of the classic Trek episode "The Trouble With Tribbles" wrote an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation with gay themes. Titled "Blood and Fire," that episode, unsurprisingly, was killed by Paramount. Now, he's retooled it into an episode for Star Trek: Phase II, a web series that's intended to be the fourth season of the original series. It includes something called "Bloodworms" and it features Captain Kirk's gay nephew.
It's sad that the successor to the series that featured American television's first interracial kiss didn't have the cojones to run an episode dealing with homosexuality—or even (gasp!) maybe include a gay character—but it's good to know that Gene Roddenberry okayed the script way back in the day.
Too bad the clip from Phase II looks painfully bad. But you can decide for yourself: the first half of the episode goes live tomorrow.
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1
Are those green and red overalls? At first I thought the still was from some kind of supremely lazy Mario/Luigi slashfic.
4
They flirted with the idea when a Trill symbiont who was being hosted in a male body fell in love with Dr. Crusher.l The host body was damaged and the symbiont ended up being implanted in a new host who was female. The symbiont in the new (female) host was still in love with Beverly, but she was apparently too heterosexual to return those feelings.
Sigh. I really have moved past my Star Trek obessive phase. Honest. My brain just feels the need to store this completely useless information.
Sigh. I really have moved past my Star Trek obessive phase. Honest. My brain just feels the need to store this completely useless information.
5
DS9 did have that (single episode) lesbian affair between Dax and some other Trill, including the first same-sex kiss on a Trek show. I still remember the headlines over that episode.
Now that I think about it, the Trill really were the closest thing to a LGBT community in the Trek universe weren't they?
Now that I think about it, the Trill really were the closest thing to a LGBT community in the Trek universe weren't they?
6
Looks like classic Star Trek to me.
BTW
Dax had a lesbian relationship with another Trill because her symbiont once had a relationship with the other Trill who had a symbiont. I too keep this information stored up though I stopped watching years ago.
BTW
Dax had a lesbian relationship with another Trill because her symbiont once had a relationship with the other Trill who had a symbiont. I too keep this information stored up though I stopped watching years ago.
7
It is too bad that Star Trek is behind on this. I noticed that it's mainly hospital shows (ER, House..) that have gay couples as part of the show and don't bother creating a plot around it (you know, just treating the couple as normal human beings), but I noticed very few gay male couples. Mostly the ladies...
8
I thought what would be cool is to make Christopher Pike gay in the upcoming movie. Yeah, it would not be cannonical but would be great finally having a queen command the Enterprise.
Then you could do an alternate history line and totally redo Star Trek to make it relevant. Oh well.
Then you could do an alternate history line and totally redo Star Trek to make it relevant. Oh well.
9
Battlestar Galatica just had a gay kiss on the first of the preseason webisodes. I feel like a dork for posting this, but anyone who knows Battlestar Galactica knows it is one of the best shows on television and is chronically/criminally ignored come awards season.
10
@2: It's fixed, but do you have to be such a whiny, curt little bitch about a fucking misspelling?
12
clearlyhere, lets not forget about Admiral Caine and Gina's little lesbian relationship on the Pegasus pre-attack. Gaeta aint the first.
13
I seem to remember that ST:TNG sidestepped the issue by having a lesbian planet and one of the inhabitants having feelings for Riker, but I could be misremembering it. I like Star Trek but I'm not a Trekkie.
14
There was another ST:TNG episode where Riker falls in love with an androgenous character. Jonathan Frakes wanted the androgenous person to be played by a man but the studio overruled him and cast a woman instead. He makes a pretty good speech about sex and gender identity and such in the episode, from what I remember.
15
I think 13 and 14 are referring to the same episode. It really bugged me that they made the unisex character so feminine.
In the novels, Lieutenant Hawk (He is in Star Trek First Contact, played by Neal McDonough) is gay. In the movie he just gets killed by the borg, though.
Actually Star Trek acts really liberal, but replace the comments about species with comments about different races and it's really bigoted. They had an episode with a Ferengi scientist everyone treated like crap because everyone in federation distrusts Ferengi.
In the novels, Lieutenant Hawk (He is in Star Trek First Contact, played by Neal McDonough) is gay. In the movie he just gets killed by the borg, though.
Actually Star Trek acts really liberal, but replace the comments about species with comments about different races and it's really bigoted. They had an episode with a Ferengi scientist everyone treated like crap because everyone in federation distrusts Ferengi.
16
@15:
That's because everybody in the ST universe (not just in the Federation) KNOWS Ferengi are totally untrustworthy - have you ever READ 'The Rules of Acquisition"?
That's because everybody in the ST universe (not just in the Federation) KNOWS Ferengi are totally untrustworthy - have you ever READ 'The Rules of Acquisition"?
17
@5&6
Yeah, and they sidestepped the whole controversy by making the characters not want to be into it either because of that complicated pass.
As a kid I was so excited to see one of my favorite shows deal with the homo issue without the overriding sense of disgust. But it was still a disappointing kiss because both actors looked so uncomfortable.
Yeah, and they sidestepped the whole controversy by making the characters not want to be into it either because of that complicated pass.
As a kid I was so excited to see one of my favorite shows deal with the homo issue without the overriding sense of disgust. But it was still a disappointing kiss because both actors looked so uncomfortable.
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