Star Trek and the Distinct Lack of Gay Characters

Star Trek is yet another show that faces a difficult challenge. You might even say that the Powers That Be of Star Trek are up against a potential no-win scenario. This challenge the PTB (particularly the writers) have is that Star Trek has been often up held as this utopian society. In the midst of many dystopian futuristic sci-fi shows, Star Trek, though filled with many alien conflicts, presents us with a universe where the problems of earth have been resolved. In the Star Trek universe there is no more racism, classism, ableism, or sexism.

The reason this can be viewed as a no-win scenario is that it’s hard to create a utopian society when the writer exists in an imperfect world and is influenced by all those -isms that Star Trek claims to have gotten rid of. However, Star Trek has done surprisingly well—yes, there have been some problems, but, for the most part, Star Trek does a pretty good job.

Oh, wait—there is still one problem. There have never been any queer characters in any Star Trek TV show or movie—not one. And no, Kirk and Spock don’t count.

When it comes to marriage and gender, Star Trek has addressed tons of different views on marriage and many different interpretations of gender. Hell, there was even a canon male pregnancy in one episode. There have been polygamous relationships, interracial relationships, and interspecies relationships. There have been tri-gendered species and androgynous races, but gay characters? None at all.

Sexualized Saturdays: On Shipping Questions and Questionable Ships

How many of you here are in the Supernatural fandom? Yes, all of you? Then you probably know about NJWank2013: one of Supernatural‘s many chances to gank us all with angry feelings before the season finale. Let’s recap the events: At a Supernatural convention in New Jersey (“Salute to Supernatural 2013″), there was a panel with Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, otherwise known as Sam and Dean. The first questioner at this panel was a young lady who started her question with “I’ve loved seeing Dean’s character become more comfortable with himself this season. I’m bisexual and I’ve noticed some possible subtext…” She was immediately drowned out by a chorus of booo’s. While a bodyguard confronted her, Jensen said that he couldn’t hear the question, and that he planned to move on. “I meant no disrespect,” said the girl, and that was the end of that story.

Psych.

Fanfiction Fridays: Anyone up for some old-school slash?

Okay, to be fair, I haven’t seen Star Trek Into Darkness yet. I’m seeing it tonight. So I don’t know what happens in it or what beautiful relationships blossomed or were furthered or which ships were brutally sunk.

Either way, I felt like starting off this Star Trek day with a little good old-fashioned Kirk/Spock, yanno, the pairing that started it all. Of course, in keeping with the fact that it’s nu!Trek day and not Original!Trek day, this fic is set in the rebooted Star Trek verse (sometimes referred to as XI).

Kyliselle’s “How High the Moon” series is sort of famous in the reboot’s K/S fandom (although probably not as famous as her “Baseball” series). Back in the day when I followed the kirkspock LiveJournal comm, her fics were a perennial favorite, considered a must-read for both newbs to the fandom and old guard slashers alike.

“How High the Moon” is in five parts, and follows Kirk as he tries and fails to forge the fabled connection Spock Prime promised him he should have with his commanding officer—a friendship that would define them both, as it were. However, Spock doesn’t seem the least bit interested in Kirk as a friend or anything else, and his rejection of Kirk may be hurting Jim more than either of them realize.

This fic has great imagery, a really solid basis in both reboot and TOS canon, great tension and characterization, no lady-bashing, and, my favorite in fanfic, buckets of hurt/comfort situations (and my secret weakness, Vulcan endearments). Check out this series here and let me know what you think!

Sexualized Saturdays: River Song

Oh, Steven Moffat, why do you so often introduce ladies that you claim are bisexual only to never give any hint or evidence in the actual show that they are? River Song is not the first character to be outed outside of her TV show, but is there any evidence in the actual show that River Song is bisexual? And does it matter if there isn’t?

River Song is one of those characters that I find extremely confusing. Don’t get me wrong, she’s extremely interesting, but she’s a time traveler, we meet her out of order, she ends up being Rory and Amy’s daughter, as well as the Doctor’s wife and murderer. Everything with River was very confusing. Add to that a confusing representation of River’s sexuality and suddenly you need some damn strong headache medicine.

The Road So Far: “Clip Show” Review

Ugh. I was really hoping this episode would be good. I hoped so hard. It turns out this episode was so atrocious that I don’t even want to review it. It was a clusterfuck on literally every front and I’m pretty sure it only scrapes by as not-the-worst-S8-ep because “Man’s Best Friend with Benefits” is still a thing that exists.

Sigh. Spoilers after the jump or something.

What the Puff: Pipes in Pop Culture

I smoke tobacco pipes. I’ve enjoyed them since I turned 18 and even make them. So, I am pleased when I see television or movies including characters smoking their pipes. You’ll never know where pipe smokers are going to turn up in these things, from Colonel Hans Landa in Inglorious Basterds to Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean. Even the First and Fourth Doctors in Doctor Who were seen smoking pipes. However, I’m almost always infuriated when I see how they smoke them. This is because many times the characters smoke their pipes wrong. Typically, these characters seem to be most interested in making as much smoke as possible. This isn’t wrong because of arbitrary etiquette, but rather is wrong because it ruins the taste of the tobacco, burns the mouth, and can ruin a pipe over time.

Oh, My Pop-Culture Paradise: How Far is Heaven?

The concept of Paradise, the idea of some final reward waiting for the good folks after death, is a part of many religious traditions. From Dante’s Paradiso to that episode of Tom and Jerry where Tom dies and St. Peter won’t let him into heaven unless Jerry forgives him, we have a bit of a cultural fixation on the good life after death.

Am I the only one who remembers this?

We’ve gotten pretty creative about portraying it, too. It’s not all angels in white dresses wielding harps anymore.

Web Crush Wednesdays: A Game of Thrones Supplement

So, I guess Game of Thrones is pretty cool or whatever.

Okay, okay, fine. I love Game of Thrones. I love all the drama, all the dismemberments, all the scenery, and of course, all the fantastic characters. What I love most about it though, is the richness of its universe. It’s clear that there are hundreds of houses the audience may never know about or lands that may never be visited within the story that the audience is allowed to view, but it’s clear that they all play a role in things like how a character may strategize their tactics for battle or how they may choose their allies. While the show does a rather good job at giving the audience information on Houses, lands, and other such things that directly affect the main players, sadly there are many things that are resigned to staying questions in the viewer’s mind.

A good example of this: the other day I was talking to my girlfriend about the late King Robert’s rebellion and his relations to the Starks. Now, as someone who hasn’t read the books and doesn’t really have any plans to in the future, I know that Robert was in love with Ned Stark’s sister and eventually took the throne from the mad king, Aerys Targaryen. Little did I know all the extra delicious tidbits that had been left out of the show—no doubt due to time constraints—that she had only been too glad to tell me. Such as there being certain other, juicer elements at play during Robert’s rebellion (of course, when playing the game of thrones, nothing is ever as it seems). So while the show is wonderful, those of us who aren’t taking the literary pilgrimage presented by George R.R. Martin are dreadfully out of the loop on some things.

Though today’s webcrush may not fill this information gap entirely, it certainly is a great start. Today, I bring you youtuber gameofthronesfan94 and their stash of videos on the mythos of Westeros.

As much as some of us fans want to read the novels, we just don’t have enough time or the will to sit through those bricks (I proudly place myself in the latter category), especially not with all the ‘glowing’ reviews of Martin’s writing style. So, stumbling upon a channel with lore that I can watch, or at least listen to while I’m doing other things—guess what I’m doing right now?—is a godsend for me. Not only is the lore interesting, but I love the fact that these history lessons are given by the characters that know them best. A study on the Targaryens is given by the little shit Viserys and likewise the history of House Greyjoy is presented by the Greyjoy children. (And since I love House Tyrell, I’ll give you a snippet from them. Biases, ho!)

So, if you find your knowledge of the kingdoms of Westeros a little lacking but simply don’t have the energy to get into the books, I’d highly recommend taking a look at these videos. Now if you excuse me, I’m going to get back to my regularly scheduled sobbing over Theon.

An Unearthly Journey: “Tomb of the Cybermen”

It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed any Classic Who here, but seeing as Neil Gaiman’s upcoming episode “Nightmare in Silver” is supposed to feature the return of the Classic show’s Cybermen, now seems like the perfect time to talk about the Second Doctor serial “Tomb of the Cybermen”. (You’ll notice I’ve skipped Hartnell’s third and fourth seasons—I’ll get to them eventually, don’t worry; I never promised these reviews would come in chronological order!)

“Tomb of the Cybermen” is the only Two serial in Troughton’s first two seasons that’s still in one piece; the serials bookending are all lost episodes, and what I have of them is pieced together from audio and grainy stills. There’s a lot I’d do for Doctor Who, but after half an hour of “The Highlanders” I had to call it quits and move to something with existing video footage.

Let me just say that I’m glad I did; this serial alone has put Two on the map as one of my favorite Doctors and features some great storytelling.

Anyone else watching ‘Bates Motel’?

Bates Motel is a new show on A&E, telling the story of a mother and son trying to start a new life in a new town. The father of the family has just died in an unfortunate accident and the mother decides it’s best to try to get a fresh start in a new setting where they can be free from the memories that may haunt their former home. Though her son is resistant at first, he does try to get involved in his mother’s new endeavor of running a motel and getting themselves back on their feet after their loss.

Oh yeah, the name of this boy is Norman Bates. You know, of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, and this is the story of how he and his mother became the notorious icons of derangement in that classic horror movie.