Let the howls about perversion begin

[Scooter]

"Star Trek” is making it official: Helmsman of the USS Enterprise, Hikaru Sulu, is gay. The reveal is a nod to the original Sulu, actor George Takei, longtime LGBT activist and deliverer of the famous Takei, “Oh my.”

For its third installment in the reboot series, “Star Trek Beyond” will reveal that Sulu — now played by actor John Cho — is the franchise’s first LGBT main crewmember.

In an interview with Australia’s Herald Sun, Cho revealed that the decision was writer Simon Pegg’s and director Justin Lin’s way of paying homage to the original Sulu, played by Takei.

Cho, 44, explained that Sulu’s sexual orientation in “Star Trek Beyond” will be revealed nonchalantly rather than as a large factor in the plot.

“I liked the approach, which was not to make a big thing out of it,” Cho told the Herald Sun, “which is where I hope we are going as a species, to not politicize one’s personal orientations.”

Also worth mentioning, but with a little spoiler warning, “Star Trek Beyond” will show Sulu as “the loving father of a daughter with a same-sex partner,” according to the Herald Sun. The identity of that partner has yet to be revealed. But we’re open to hearing guesses.

The 13th film in the “Star Trek” franchise will arrive in theaters July 22.

[BoSoxGal]

Apparently George Takei isn't feeling honored by the gesture, though.

[Scooter]

His view was that they should have created a new character rather what he sees as re-imagining an existing one. The problem with that approach is that such a character would be unlikely to be recurring in future films, which again relegates the gay character to "novelty" status.

[Bicycle Bill]

OK, Q-boy, argue with this ...

In the original "Star Trek" universe, Gene Roddenberry was telling a story and it made absolutely no difference to the story if Sulu was gay or not.

But why stop there?  Humans, Vulcans, Klingons, and all sorts of other various species and races passed through the Enterprise, but never once did we ever get to find out just how — or even IF! — they relieved themselves, for instance.  And how interesting was it that when Kirk was taking his own personal 'Enterprise' into places where 'no man had gone before' that no matter the race or species of his partner in dalliance they could all be aroused/seduced/bedded just like an ordinary human female?

It's because IT JUST DIDN'T MATTER TO THE DAMNED STORY!!  And unless they are going to show the new Sulu getting it on with Kirk, Spock, or Scotty, for example, IT DOESN'T MATTER TO THIS STORY EITHER!!!

So it's just gratuitous pandering to a demographic.

-"BB"-

[Scooter]

That's right, it doesn't matter to the story. So if Kirk fucks every female alien that walks/crawls/slithers across the set, then why can't Sulu have a husband and a child?

It wouldn't matter to the story if a character mentioned, in passing, that he had a wife and child. But you wouldn't be claiming that it was pandering to those who believed in the "traditional nuclear family", would you? So why is it pandering when the character happens to be gay?

[Gob]

It's been done so many times before, why is Star Trek any different?

[Scooter]

It's not, I just posted it because I knew it would yank certain people's chain, and I was right.

[Gob]

Oh I knew that. The question was aimed at the board, not you!



Polly- Please put the bottle down!
Basil - What is it?!
Polly - Kurt is drunk.
Basil- Sorry! Sorry. "Drunk"?
Polly - Almost unconscious.
Basil - Right. How?
Polly - I don't know.It happened so quickly.
Polly - He had a row with Manuel.
Basil - Manuel?
Polly - He's got a crush on him.
Basil - A what?!
Polly - A crush. You know, in love.
Basil- I knew it! I should have never hired a Frenchman.
Polly - He's Greek, Mr.Fawlty.
Basil - Well, that's even worse.I mean, they invented it.
Basil - Right! Give that to me, Kurt.Give me that bottle.
Kurt - No, go away! Leave me alone.
Basil - Come on. Give it to me.
Kurt - Manuel!
Basil - Come on, Kurt.
Kurt - Manuel! He doesn't love me!
Basil - Well, you have to give these things time.
Kurt - want Manuel!
Basil - I'm sure we can arrange something.Now can I have the bottle?
Kurt - He's so sweet.

Fawlty Towers 1976

Lukewarm is a rotund young man with a calm and personable demeanour, who originates from smogtown. The circumstances that brought him to be in prison are unknown although in one episode - The Porridge Christmas Special, "No Way Out" - he successfully relieved Mr. Barrowclough of his wristwatch, in a manner strongly suggestive of a skilled pickpocket. He is known to be gay, and has a boyfriend called Trevor on the outside who is a watch repairer from Southport; Trevor appears in the episode "Men Without Women". Lukewarm shared a cell with Blanco, over whom he would fuss a lot, especially when the elderly convict was due to face the parole board. Blanco did concede that, for all his fussing, Lukewarm did keep the cell nice and clean. Lukewarm is often seen knitting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lukewarm_(Porridge)

Porridge 1974.

[Bicycle Bill]

It's not, I just posted it because I knew it would yank certain people's chain, and I was right.

So you freely admit that you are a troll.
Remember, I'm relatively new here although I was starting to come to that conclusion myself.  Thanks for confirming my suspicions, and future interaction between the two of us will take this new information into consideration.

-"BB"-

[datsunaholic]

First off, yes, I know too much Star Trek trivia.

When I first read that they were going to make the Sulu character gay I thought, "but he has a daughter" (he does; in Star Trek : Generations we saw Demora Sulu as the Helmsman of the Enterprise-B). But then I realized I was falling into the traditional family trap, and that the Sulu character never had a wife mentioned canonically.

So really, it doesn't matter. It is rewriting a character, and yes George Takei isn't totally on board with it because it's somewhat pandering rather than making it part of the original fabric of the fictional universe.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Oh it's pandering all right - jumping on the bandwagon. Who cares?

[Guinevere]

It's not, I just posted it because I knew it would yank certain people's chain, and I was right.

So you freely admit that you are a troll.
Remember, I'm relatively new here although I was starting to come to that conclusion myself.  Thanks for confirming my suspicions, and future interaction between the two of us will take this new information into consideration.

-"BB"-

And you just fell into his trap.

[Lord Jim]

This entire series is a "re-imagining"...

And frequently not in a good way...

Whether or not Sulu is gay really doesn't do much to the character one way or the other...

But Spock sucking face publicly with Uhura in the transporter room (in the first installment; I've never seen the second, and have no plans to see the third) was ridiculous, and completely "re-imagined" the character...

The real Mr. Spock would never have engaged in that kind of PDA (unless something was messing with his mind)

As you can probably tell, I'm just not a fan of this whole series period...

A bunch of pouty, angst driven 20 somethings tooling around in their own Star Ship...(WHAT was The Federation thinking???)

They should have called this mess Star Trek: 90210...

[Joe Guy]

If I were casting the new Sulu, it wouldn't be so subtle. Each day I'd have him prance to his station at the beginning of his shift wearing a different outfit like Elton John or Liberace would wear, looking in a full length mirror he has installed at his station and saying "Ooooh My".

Then he would say, "What do you think boys? Do I look like I've gone where no man has gone before?" Spock would always get a confused look on his face, Chekov would be having thought dreams of killing Sulu, for example a scene of him putting his phaser on "kill" and zapping him right there on the deck. Uhura would start competing with him with her own outfits.

[oldr_n_wsr]

The real Mr. Spock would never have engaged in that kind of PDA (unless something was messing with his mind)

Like that 7 year itch (I think it was seven years) when he "killed" Kirk?

[Lord Jim]

or when he got hit with the hippy dippy spores...

[oldr_n_wsr]

or when he got hit with the hippy dippy spores...

Oh yeah, I forgot about them.

[rubato]

the criticisms seem to stem from the fact that this is the first one. Because it is the first it can only be one expression of what it might be like to be a homosexual in that particular fantasy world and it cannot be <<all>> expressions. So we should wait until there are 50 or 100 and then talk about it.


yrs,
rubato

[rubato]

This is the TV show which featured the products of many varieties of human-nonhuman sexual encounters as major characters.

A human homosexual is a little ho-hummer after that wild and exotic a sexual history.


yrs,
rubato

[liberty]

A bunch of pouty, angst driven 20 somethings tooling around in their own Star Ship...(WHAT was The Federation thinking???)

.

That’s a shame it was a great story concept. So they no longer have to take orders from Star Fleet Command; they just go where they want. Do they still have to wear uniforms? Is there still a command structure?