Star Trek and the 21st Century’s Final Frontiers

Trek Yo’ Self Before You Wreck Yo’ Self

As I understand it, in the upcoming Star Trek Beyond movie the Enterprise’s helmsman, Mr. Sulu, will be shown to be a gay man. There is a scene which will have Sulu interacting with his husband and their baby (assumed to be daughter Demora, whose character was introduced in Star Trek: Generations).

Simon Pegg, who does double duty as the actor playing Scotty and as the screenwriter for Star Trek Beyond, decided to reveal Mr. Sulu’s sexual orientation in the new movie as a way of paying tribute to the actor that brought the role to life, George Takei. After having come out in 2004, he has become an outspoken advocate for the LGBT community.

But there is at least one person who thinks that this is a terrible idea: George Takei.

He feels that since Gene Roddenberry, The Great Bird of the Galaxy, conceived of the character of Sulu as a heterosexual male, that he should remain that way. It wasn’t that Roddenberry was against the idea of having a gay member of the Enterprise’s crew. It was just that they were already dealing with the fallout caused by thinly veiled references to the Vietnam War, contemporary social problems, and the airing of the first interracial kiss on television, with Captain Kirk planting a lip-lock on Lt. Uhura in the episode “The Gamesters of Triskelion”.

“He was a strong supporter of LGBT equality, but he said he has been pushing the envelope and walking a very tight rope — and if he pushed too hard, the show would not be on the air.” — George Takei, in the Hollywood Reporter

But speaking of “The Gamesters of Triskelion”, I have a quick sidebar:

When I first saw this show as a child, I was told about the controversy. And the only question I had was “who was it that complained?” The words “Trekkie” and “bigot” don’t seem to belong in the same sentence. Star Trek fans had embraced the concept of “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations” long before the rest of the world had, so I doubted it was Trekkers. Were the complaints coming from people who had just heard secondhand reports about the content?

In the episode, The Captain and the lovely Lieutenant are captives who are being manipulated into kissing by a group of aliens as a way to humiliate them for their viewing pleasure (sort of like TV, but without the commercials). They fight mightily, but in the end their struggles are for naught and they make history. A white man and a black woman share a kiss on your 1968 TV set in glorious technicolor.

Even watching this as a kid I was aware that Kirk was resisting because he was being forced to kiss his officer, not because he didn’t want to kiss someone with darker skin than his. This was the manliest man in the Milky Way we’re talking about! If you ever watched the show with any sort of regularity, you already knew Captain Kirk followed his own sexier version of the Prime Directive. Seeking out strange, new civilizations and then hit on them. I mean, even tribbles would hide when James Tiberius Kirk sauntered into the room. It was common knowledge throughout the known universe that Jim Kirk boldly went where no man had went before. Sometimes, more than once.

The way I thought the show should have ended:

Bonus bit of useless trivia: Sulu was supposed to be a member of the landing party instead of Chekov, but Takei was off shooting the movie “The Green Berets” when they filmed this episode.

Anyway, Takei makes the argument that they should create a new character to represent the LGBT beings of the future.

“I’m delighted that there’s a gay character. Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene’s creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it’s really unfortunate. I told [Pegg], ‘Be imaginative and create a character who has a history of being gay, rather than Sulu, who had been straight all this time, suddenly being revealed as being closeted.’” — George Takei in the Hollywood Reporter

Pegg, however, stands by his decision to reveal this aspect of Sulu’s life in the Kelvin Timeline (the alternate universe that was created by J.J. Abrams in the first of the reboot movies).

“I have huge love and respect for George Takei; his heart, courage and humor are an inspiration. However, with regards to his thoughts on our Sulu, I must respectfully disagree with him. Our Trek is an alternate timeline with alternate details. Whatever magic ingredient determines our sexuality was different for Sulu in our timeline. I like this idea because it suggests that in a hypothetical multiverse, across an infinite matrix of alternate realities, we are all LGBT somewhere. Whatever dimension we inhabit, we all just want to be loved by those we love (and I love George Takei). “He’s right, it is unfortunate, it’s unfortunate that the screen version of the most inclusive, tolerant universe in science fiction hasn’t featured an LGBT character until now. We could have introduced a new gay character, but he or she would have been primarily defined by their sexuality, seen as the ‘gay character’, rather than simply for who they are, and isn’t that tokenism?”— Simon Pegg, in The Guardian

Gay actor Zachary Quinto, who plays Spock in the new movies agrees with Pegg and is “disappointed” in Takei’s reaction.

“I get it that he’s had his own personal relationship with this character, but, you know, as we established in the first Star Trek film in 2009, we’ve created an alternate universe. And my hope is that eventually George can be strengthened by the enormously positive response from especially young people, who are heartened by and inspired by this really tasteful and beautiful portrayal of something that I think is gaining acceptance and inclusion in our societies across the world… and should be.” — Zachary Quinto, Pedestrian TV

So the debate politely rages on across the Neutral Zone of Inclusion. Whether you prefer your Sulu straight up or on the rocks (so to speak), Star Trek will continue to boldly break down barriers. And as Simon Pegg tweeted:

P.S. For what it’s worth, my money was always on Dr. McCoy. I think I may have been mislead by the eye shadow.

Which would you have preferred to see: an Out and Proud Sulu or an entirely new and different gay character? I’m interested in your opinion, so let’s hear it!