Tag: Star Trek

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George Takei Explains Much Of The Star Trek Lore & Metaphors

Star Trek star, LGBT activist and soon-to-be Broadway actor (in the upcoming ALLEGIANCE) George Takei chats with Big Think regarding the creation, thinking and ideas behind the now iconic TV series STAR TREK.

Takei explores Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s ambitious and progressive vision for the future: “Roddenberry felt that the Enterprise was a metaphor for starship earth and the strength of this starship lay in its diversity.”

We also learn that Takei’s character, Sulu, represented a united Asia free of the many strifes Roddenberry witnessed during the 20th century. Takei tells us how the name “Sulu” came about; it’s an incredibly inspirational story.

Finally, Takei explains the now-glaring omission of gay and lesbian characters from Roddenberry’s progressive Enterprise.

In short, it was the 1960’s and the biracial kiss between Uhura and Kirk nearly sank the show. Roddenberry knew there were limits to what the public would tolerate and he couldn’t risk losing his platform for social commentary by testing them. Thankfully, as Takei notes, times have changed quite a bit since then in so many ways. And Star Trek and Gene Roddenberry are partly responsible.

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The fabulous Nichelle Nichols from “Star Trek”

My Facebook friend Aaron Baldwin shares some facts about the fabulous Lt. Uhura from the original Star Trek:

“Uhura” comes from the Swahili word UHURU meaning “freedom”. Uhura was pretty much the first ever black main character on American television who was not either a maid or a domestic servant.

In 1966, TV network NBC refused to let Nichelle Nichols be a regular, claiming Deep South affiliates would be angered, so Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry hired her as a “day worker,” but still included her in almost every episode. She actually made more money than any of the other actors through this workaround, and it was kept secret from the other actors, but it was still a humiliating second-class status. The network people made life hard for Nichols, constantly trying to pare down her screen time, purposefully dropping racist comments in her presence and even withholding her fan mail from her.

This deplorable state of affairs led Nichols to make the decision to quit after the 1st season, but then she happened to meet with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who pleaded with her to stick with the show because as a black woman she was portraying the first non-stereotypical role on television.

Star Trek is still winning in the public arena with the huge success of it’s latest movie sequel “Star Trek Into Darkness.”