'Star Trek' producer regrets lack of gay characters. What other...

On Star Trek TNG, I had a crush on Wesley Crusher (Will Wheaton). I swear that whoever designed and tailored his uniform HAD to be gay. It hugged just the right places and accentuated his curves, especially his rear end. I never missed an episode.

Designers can be gay they are not part of the crew.

Ever notice there were never any transpersons on board, even if one later transitioned to be a woman.

Interesting series and Dax was interesting.

Well, it's not too late to make more Star Trek movies.

Even a continuation of the NG doing a season of special persons form other races and the odd happenings on the Enterprise.

All older and doing their last rounds in a continuum of peace. A tranny on the deck, and new doctor who is a tranny. second engineer who is gay. Ginna, coming out.

Maybe a mission that some member must be changed to fit the population, and all woman society.

or an all men society both using heavy sexual powers.

Star Trek, the lost logs.

Be fun if one of them was Wesley. With his advanced power he could change sex and gender at will.

Imagine Ru Paul having a drag show on 10F. And Riker entering it.

It would only be a one year shot with a few shows but it would be fun, maybe on the SyFy Chanel.

..well I play Startrek Online....have since BETA testing and the game is 1yr old as of this Feb....my character's name is VA1 GAEMON of the USS EDWIN HUBBLE JPL (Intrepid Class Starship)..on my crew I have a character named Bimann...and I also have a few starships named:
USS EQUALITY
USS MARRIAGE EQUALITY
USS DIVERSITY

Once or twice Commander Riker was shirtless and that was all I needed to be satisfied.

However, the episode someone mentioned about the androgynous person Riker fell in love with was incredibly forward thinking and is still fresh and current. It also was incredibly sad. They were a bit unclear as to what organs those people had, but now, THAT would have been interesting to hear about.

I've been a fan of Star Trek since 1966 (well, TOS & DSN, anyway). They have talked about having one or more gay characters for the past 20 years, either in a series or in one of the movies but it never happened.:(

It's a shame that the show which created such controversey in some places, by having the first inter-racial kiss shown on tv, could never bring itself to take that other step and "to boldly go where no man has gone before" in outer space.

Instead of being bold, they've been timid.

:(

One of the hottest girl-on-girl kisses I've seen was on Deep Space Nine. Dax met up with a former love. Both symbionts happened to be in female bodies now. It was an interesting premise.

There was also one where Crusher fell in love with a symbiot who then had to change bodies into Riker. She was conflicted about what exactly it was she loved.

While not the same as actually having gay characters, they did bring up some interesting thoughts about what we really fall in love with.

Frank Stanton wrote:

I've been a fan of Star Trek since 1966 (well, TOS & DSN, anyway). They have talked about having one or more gay characters for the past 20 years, either in a series or in one of the movies but it never happened.:(
It's a shame that the show which created such controversey in some places, by having the first inter-racial kiss shown on tv, could never bring itself to take that other step and "to boldly go where no man has gone before" in outer space.
Instead of being bold, they've been timid.
:(

Like you I've been a fan since 1966 of all the ST shows and movies. They are still part of who I am.

Over the years they explored sex and sexuality a lot but never really got into actual LGBT characters, which is a shame and didn't live up to the ST UFP universal ideals. It was always a 'choice' on the part of Paramount, because in reality, LGBT characters, still don't play all that well at the box office or with advertisers. It is about the money.

Now we have a new Kirk and a new Spock and an alternate timeline, it will be interesting to see if finally, we can have at least a bisexual character or a truely gay one. I say gay because lesbian would be the easy path.

Eric

I had heard that someone was producing a ST show on the web that had a lead character that was gay, but I don't know what ever became of it.

There was a show on tv about 2 weeks ago that was the story of, and a behind the scenes look at, Lost In Space, Star Trek, and The Twilight Zone, and they interviewed a few of the actors in those shows. I was very surprised to learn that LIS was getting higher ratings than TOS, considering how bad LIS was, PARTICULARLY "The Great Vegetable Rebellion" which featured Stanley Adams, perhaps BEST knwn as Cyrano Jones in TOS' The Trouble With Tribbles.

They interviewed Marta Kristen, who has an interesting family background (which I already knew about).

Incidentally, Rod Serling has ALWAYS been one of my FAV writers of all time, and I began reading his books about 1965. I NEVER miss the TZ marathons they do on New Years Eve each year. This year I was particularly lucky to see 3 of my FAV episodes shown consecutively.

Upon further reflection, I believe that the web-based storyline involved Capt. Kirk's nephew at Star Fleet who is gay, and is the "Son of Sam" (pun intended, LOL). If you remember, in one of the episodes, Capt. Kirk's brother Sam is killed on one of the planets he visits, and the gay nephew, who becomes a Star Fleet cadet, is the son of Sam, Capt. J.T. Kirk's brother.

Up next season on the CW..."Star Trek: Circling UrAnus".

I go back to the original series, when shatner was shirtless on many happy occasions.

It's sad that this ground-breaking series never accepted the relity that there will be gays in the future--and one or two might even command starships.

Curteese wrote:

Once or twice Commander Riker was shirtless and that was all I needed to be satisfied.
However, the episode someone mentioned about the androgynous person Riker fell in love with was incredibly forward thinking and is still fresh and current. It also was incredibly sad. They were a bit unclear as to what organs those people had, but now, THAT would have been interesting to hear about.

Story idea: Planet has a species with three genders which are able to reproduce in any of the three combinations of different pairs (but not all three at a time) Homsexuality is completely accepted within all three but those who have sex with both of the other two genders instead of picking just one of them are spurned and persecuted, like kiki lesbians in the days of lesbian role playing.

Joe in NY wrote:

On Star Trek TNG, I had a crush on Wesley Crusher (Will Wheaton). I swear that whoever designed and tailored his uniform HAD to be gay. It hugged just the right places and accentuated his curves, especially his rear end. I never missed an episode.

Except for the weird open butterfly looking thing on the waist line on his back. That thing drove me crazy. I always wanted to just reach into the screen and button it up.

As a Trekker, you have to understand the ST: TOS background. The series started in the 1960's and an integrated cast was a big deal then. The first interracial kiss was on ST:TOS too!
As far as more modern movies (ST:First Contact and later), they never really needed to address LGBT issues as everyone in the 24th Century was treated equal so it wasn't something as a LGBT person myself, cared to see (but Riker was the ST:TNG "Kirk" and great eye-candy on occasion.

Besides, the "unofficial" Star Trek novels have a lot more juicy stuff than the Series and Movies ever addressed!

I have been reading the books and there has been some progress, but not much yet. For the Titan series that retconned Lt Hawk from First Contact as gay. He was the partner of Titan's head of security. The only thing I hate about it so far is that they refer to how he is misses his "beloved Shaun" and that is the most they have mentioned his sexuality. I get that the character needs to grieve, but it feels like an excuse so they don't have to write any romantic story for him. Hell, I'd be fine if he flirted a little or at least acknowledged an attraction to someone.

SouthJerseySteve wrote:

As a Trekker, you have to understand the ST: TOS background. The series started in the 1960's and an integrated cast was a big deal then. The first interracial kiss was on ST:TOS too!
As far as more modern movies (ST:First Contact and later), they never really needed to address LGBT issues as everyone in the 24th Century was treated equal so it wasn't something as a LGBT person myself, cared to see (but Riker was the ST:TNG "Kirk" and great eye-candy on occasion.
Besides, the "unofficial" Star Trek novels have a lot more juicy stuff than the Series and Movies ever addressed!

I don't think its a matter of addressing GLBT issues so much as simply having the presence of GLBT characters. They did not deal with Afro American or Asian or Russian etc.. issues on TOS. The mere presence of those characters working together side-by-side said it all.

The Borg are the gay character.

JohnInToronto wrote:

Story idea: Planet has a species with three genders which are able to reproduce in any of the three combinations of different pairs (but not all three at a time) Homsexuality is completely accepted within all three but those who have sex with both of the other two genders instead of picking just one of them are spurned and persecuted, like kiki lesbians in the days of lesbian role playing.

Story idea: Planet visited by crew has a virus that infects them, turns the entire crew gay, and they have a naked boinkfest !

:)