Trek Core Theories: The Gay Commander May Not Happen

On April 8, 2016, one of the sites posted Chimera's article reply of the Trek Core web site article on the gay commander theory for the next Star Trek series. He did not start the article. He merely posted. This was originally printed on a web site under another name. 

Chimera82405

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Posted Sunday at 11:26 PM (edited) · Report post

Tangled had a gay character? You mean that obviously stereotyped almost mincing one? Yeah, well he doesn't count. He was too much a sign of whatHollywood gets wrong.

Better hidden gay characters with Disney, the bisexual Genie, Timone and Puumba...who were outgoing and loving their freedom...

Hidden Frontier was good at doing the fan fiction gay character most of the time, but sometimes it got a little preachy.

In 2016, it would be best to make the character not seem off the wall, flaming, or anything stereotyped, but to make them just a good human being with amate that happens to be the same gender. It should be no big deal. Star Trek should have openly bisexual relationships by the time of TNG. It shouldn'thave bothered Crusher or later Dax to have a same sex lover. She should have been like, hey, why not?

But no, even then the censors were squeamish and wanted those stories to end with some sort of rejection. Heaven forbid they should end with them actually liking each other! In some ways, some of those stories were backward compared to even the 1960s show. In 1989 they were not ready to embrace it, and in 1996 even less so somehow. Mirror Kira was another kind of stereotype, the 'evil lesbian', which always was wrong for them to do.

The who Dax is kissing was just the whole tired even then cliche, look hot girls kiss because guys like that, which is not reality. No, lesbians are notinteracting to turn guys on, but the way TV did it back then, it was what they thought.

What do ya expect though? When they wrote relationships with hetero partners it was always awkward. Maybe only Riker and Troi kind of worked, and maybe

Worf and Dax a little, but really the rest failed. Kira and Odo seemed incredibly out of place. Picard and Vash seemed forced. Picard and Crusher neverhad chemistry and came off like a pair of cousins.

Actually I think two of the most interesting pairings on DS9 should have been Bashir and Garak and Bashir and Miles, in that order, or vise versa. Iconsider flamboyant Garak to be one of the first bisexual if not gay Star Trek characters, although it is never explicitly said.

I think if they're going to have some sort of gay or trans gendered character, don't make it a token character. Don't just do it because fans want it.Do it because it's about time Hollywood did it right.

Make him or her normal in the sense that there is no mincing, or anything obviously stereotyped, and not going around constantly protesting that there

is some inner turmoil. You'd figure by the future they would be accepted and there would be no struggle. They would merely be who they want, and beconfident about it. Don't make the gay characters all sad and troubled. I'd much rather see a self confident and outgoing strong willed gay captain who is proud of it.

Those episodes where they became troubled by having a same sex relationship was silly and out of place in the future they were showing. I say embraceit!

In Star Trek's future everyone should be allowed to be at them selves free from any hindrance.

Maybe there can be another character who is troubled and trying to fit in, but the captain should not have that issue, as he or she is a trained

Starfleet officer, and they understand the issues. Otherwise you have angry leader Trek.

I'd much rather see two openly friendly gay characters having a good time in space than I would like to see the opposite,

Science Fiction needs to get back to some more fun stories. In the future, they should be equals and nobody makes a big deal about it.

The crew shouldn't even consider it a big deal. The gay character should just be like, oh, this is my wife, or my husband, or my boyfriend, and theyshake hands and nod and have a friendly chat on the way to the bridge.

I don't know for sure if they are going to have an LGBT character.

TNG would have gone there but chickened out. They almost had a gay character. La Forge in the first season was going to be gay, but they got cold feetafter about half the season and started making him more confined and less flamboyant. Garak was the later response to that, making him similaraly outgoing and suggestive, while pulling back on what he might do. It still wasn't official, but that was the intent. Both were kind of stereotypedthough, that whole overly excited, well groomed, garishly outfitted off duty deal. Yeah, Garak was straight. No. Even so, it's the future so it doesn't msatter. When was DS9 supposed to be, like 2369? Yeah, no big deal that far off.

Too bad the producers were kind of homophobic and never took that leap, or afraid of losing ratings and didn't. Even Trek 09 had to toss in lines about

Spock having a girlfriend, Kirk having several, and Scotty thinking the engine nacelles were like lady parts. Ugh, Abrams, come on. Then in Trek 13 theyhad to show gratuitous underwear and how Kirk was with not one, but two women at once, and alien ones at that. It seems the new movies actually took astep backward.

"Ohhh Myyy"

But aren't there like five threads on this? Granted it is part of the whole Trek 2017 series thing kind of.

Edited Sunday at 11:45 PM by Chimera82405

Chimera82405

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Posted Monday at 4:48 PM · Report post

I agree, Vie. Rejoined copped out. Host hopped out. That other one did too.Why couldn't those episodes have just ended with them not being sad or not willing to stay friends?

Chimera82405

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Posted Wednesday at 12:47 PM (edited) · Report post

I agree with many of these ideas. My point is similar to many.

I want a three-dimensional gay character in a committed relationship on a starship. Like Uhura back in the day, or Sulu, it's not that his gender preference is ignored. It's that in the future the persecution and wrong headed ideas about homosexuality on Earth are gone, and they have an enlightened sense of morality that has changed.

It is no longer that 'gay equals bad somehow', it's that it is just the way they are, it is not bad, and that's not a big deal. It's not being ignored.

It's almost being celebrated. The character reflects a more modern acceptance.

Yes, don't make them horny. It would be the same thing as making Kirk like that, or making a girl in a cat suit like that, or the strapping young dude who works in security. Make them people.

You don't have to make them bitter because they lost a loved one. Same goes for the straight guy like Sisko. That was part of his character but doesn't have to be part of theirs. Why have conflict about it? That's kind of saying that they need to be sad or tormented somehow, when they do not.

You don't have to make the gay character excessively outgoing because they're gay, 'no Liberace stereotypes',  but outgoing a little makes you connect with any character. Kirk is suave. But not angry either, like the opposite end of that.

If he or she is the captain, I would much rather see that he or she doesn't chase around the crewmen. That is not a very appropriate thing for the commander to do. It would be too much about power and not about a relationship. It would be nice if the lover or spouse was not an officer serving on the ship, but a civilian or some kind. Then he or she is not beholden to the command structure, but accepts it.

So as someone who knows at least bisexual people, knew gay people, and they were not stereotyped, it stands to reason they just want to be understood.

It's 2016, so you'd think by the future, such things would not be ignored, but persecuted minority aspects could be a thing of the past. That is very

Star Trek.

A 2016 version of Q would lecture the captain, "In your not too distant past, humans were persecuted for their religion, race, or gender. What apreposterous thing. Since we Q have no gender technically. It is as alien to us as you are."

"So you will judge us for something else, Q? Because we have learned to better ourselves, and such things happened centuries ago?"

"Yes, Captain. You are still emotional human beings clinging to your old ways, even though disguised as righteousness. The Federation is little more

than an affluent human's club."

"So we have a lot to learn, Q. Agreed. Human nature will not change, but we can learn, even if we do not adapt."

"Fascinating idea, Captain." Q vanishes.

Captain's civilian lover looks askance at him. "What did you do this time?"

"I think I just made a bad bet."

"Oh, Captain, you do that often."

Edited Wednesday at 12:48 PM by Chimera82405