Contents:
- BRYAN FULLER PRAIS HOW ‘STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NE’ PAVED A GAY WAY FOR ‘DISVERY’
- STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NE ACTOR WANTED HIS CHARACTER TO BE OPENLY GAY
- STAR TREK’S FIRST GAY COUPLE THAT WASN’T
- STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NE DOC CONFIRMS ONE CHARACTER WAS GAY ALL ALONG
- DEEP SPACE NE: THE GAYT STAR TREK
- STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NE DOCUMENTARY CONFIRMS FAN FAVORE CHARACTER WAS GAY
BRYAN FULLER PRAIS HOW ‘STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NE’ PAVED A GAY WAY FOR ‘DISVERY’
Premierg 2017 to cril and fan acclaim, “Star Trek: Disvery” featured out gay actors (and origal “Rent” -stars) Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cz as chief engeer Pl Stamets and his hband Hugh Culber, rpectively. Together, they ma history as the first out gay uple on any “Star Trek” anchise, and that’s somethg seri -creator Bryan Fuller is very proud of.
Dpe homophobic phback, Deep Space Ne gave some fantastic queer stori - even if they were never "officially" queer. Star Trek managed to predict mobile phon, headsets, and Alexa, but uldn’t que predict gay people.
Oh, and they wanted to panr to homophobic viewers. This was somethg wrers of the time had to adapt to - gettg the gays their shows whout offendg the nservative crowd, or providg enough subtext for queer viewers to pick apart and claim as their own as a slight form of reprentatn.
STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NE ACTOR WANTED HIS CHARACTER TO BE OPENLY GAY
As a rult, media of the 1990s and 2000s is filled wh allegori for gay people, but few actual ncrete exampl of them. The latter optn gave the bt and worst “gay” characters media. The biggt problem here is that ’s meant to be a pro-gay story, but the ma pair are fightg to be heteronormative.
This is what you get when you have too many oks the kchen, and none of them are gay.
In the same 2001 article that quot Frak, queer fans also say that the episo giv the imprsn that the J'naii are the gay on - and they sound like somethg “right om Rh Limbgh's show”, wh “genr viants” stroyg the tradnal, heterosexual fay.
STAR TREK’S FIRST GAY COUPLE THAT WASN’T
So, Star Trek had already tried both the gay allegory and queer dg approach, and failed pretty goddamn badly. Deep Space Ne was, and still is, a show for the gays. The Outst was wrten to plate homophobic censorship, whereas Deep Space Ne’s queer rep phed to the lim.
Perhaps bee misgenrg Dax is not treated as a big al until the last season (the pta’s nickname for her is ‘old man’), but also bee she stole the show by makg another piece of Star Trek history: the first gay kiss. Sure, ’s not actual homophobia, but here ’s impossible to see the bad guys as the gay on. They’re obvly an allegory for homophob.
Them seeg the relatnship as “unproductive” bee nothg new will be gaed is clearly a stand- for the argument that gays shouldn’t get married bee they won’t have blogil kids.
STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NE DOC CONFIRMS ONE CHARACTER WAS GAY ALL ALONG
When you have homophob gettg jt as mad as the bad guys your show, you know you’ve done somethg right.
Unfortunately, whout the same “no homo” loophole that Dax has, this was shot down. Executive producer Ira Steven Behr was clearly on board, agreeg that he was “clearly gay or queer”.
DEEP SPACE NE: THE GAYT STAR TREK
But even as the show stands, he’s one of the bt, ept, and morally ambiguo non-gay gays out there.
DS9, on the other hand, gave a gay kiss and gay energy throughout s seven season n. While the seri did have the first same-sex kiss Star Trek history, didn't have an openly gay character.
STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NE DOCUMENTARY CONFIRMS FAN FAVORE CHARACTER WAS GAY
On the other hand, did have a character that many read as bisexual or gay. And although they didn't follow that up wh an explicly gay character, that ambiguy about Garak remaed. "Robsons go on to say that he would have liked to have ma Garak openly gay stead.
And I thk that sudnly to brg on an openly gay alien, who, who was havg this relatnship wh Dr. So why did DS9’s producers ci to take such a huge risk wh a gay uple on their new show? Creator Gene Rodnberry promised that there would be gay characters, and wrer David Gerrold even wrote a script to fulfill that promise for TNG’s first season.
They axed the script wh two gay men; when Gene proposed showg same-sex upl the background, they told a wrer to ignore him. Years later, shownner and wrer Ira Steven Behr would exprs remorse at their failure to plumb those pths, and said that he wished they’d had Garak e out as gay so they uld have explored the relatnship further.