YAM blogathon #4
Jun. 16th, 2012 02:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jana_denardoAs if I haven’t already outed myself as the queen of nerds, let’s talk about SF/Fantasy TV shows in way of LGBT entertainment. This maybe more brief than normal as I’m visiting the family and they don’t believe in me needing time to myself to do things.
Again, I’ll be concentrating on the shows I know well as opposed to all available venues. I have to start with Star Trek. My parents are Trekkies (just don’t tell them that). I grew up with it. Kirk/Spock slash aside, there wasn’t too much that applies in the original universe. The closest they came was the terrible episode The Turnabout Intruder where a woman body swaps with Kirk because women still couldn’t have power or rank. While it was gender-bending, it was more to do with inequality than sexuality.
Even the 80’s and early 90’s, the whole idea of homosexuality was still a no-fly zone on TV. However, Star Trek: The Next Generation played with the idea of homosexuality and gender issues.
The two stand out episodes in my mind for ST:TNG are the ones with the Trill, and the one with the gender-neutral characters. The Host featured the first appearance of the Trill, a humanoid being joined with a worm-like parasitic being that was very long lived. Dr. Crusher falls in love with one of the Trill, but after an accident occurs and the humanoid host is killed, they learn of the symbiote, which is first transferred into Will Riker. This left Beverly conflicted, and then finally the symbiote is transferred to its new host, a female. The one criticism I had for the episode was it didn’t dwell long enough on the implications. They were still in love, but Beverly wasn’t gay and they went their separate ways. Then it was forgotten about. Of course, some of that may have been mandated by the powers that be (see the wiki I’ll link to later).
The Outcast more directly dealt with gender issues. Riker falls in love with a member of a species that had no gender and that assuming either gender role was forbidden. I don’t remember particularly liking the episode well, but it did at least deal with sexuality.
Deep Space Nine went a step further. Rejoined brought back the Trill culture when Jadzia Dax meets back up with a Trill that had been her mate decades prior. They had been male and female then. This time both hosts are female. The episode featured one of the first (but not THE first, as advertised at the time) onscreen lesbian kisses.
Gene Roddenberry had wanted to do more with gay characters. If you want to see more on this and why it mostly didn’t happen, check out this wiki.
Dr. Who and its spinoff, Torchwoodincluded the bisexual character captain Jack Harkness. His bisexuality is very openly depicted during the show’s run. That said, most of the onscreen romance was with men. (sorry for the short inclusion of this show since I don't have time to expand. Parentals are starting to rush me)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer , midway through the series's run, introduced the idea of bisexuality for the witch, Willow Rosenberg. After graduation and she and her high school boyfriend, Oz, went their separate ways, Willow struck up a friendship with a quiet witch named Tara. Their friendship led to a loving relationship. While, at the time, it seemed Willow's bisexuality came out of left field, I thought it was a well-handled relationship. Tara represented not only a moment of love, but of tranquility in an otherwise chaotic life. Naturally, it didn't last (as typical in most of Whedon's work, happy romantic entanglements don't usually last.). Willow went on to form a more sexual, less loving (in my opinion, which I will admit it tarnished by my outright loathing of the character Willow hooks up with), relationship with a young potential Slayer, Kennedy.
Earlier in the series, there was one episode where one of the jocks came out to Xander, thinking he was gay as well (when Joss Whedon mentioned in interviews that he always intended for one of the characters to be gay, I assumed it would be Xander, to be honest). There were also hints of experimentation in bisexuality with Spike and Angel as well as between Ethan and Giles in their 1970's magic orgy time period. I've already covered the Buffy comics in a previous post.
And while we're talking SF as part of LGBT entertainment, it would be a shame to leave out George Takei (Star Trek, Heroes), a mainstay in SF entertainment. While Mr. Sulu (one of my first Hollywood crushes, Sulu and Spock, oh my!) was not gay, I'm sure more everyone knows, George is a very outspoken gay rights activist, among other things. His twitter and Facebook accounts are entertainment in their own rights. He is, in turn, very funny and witty and deadly serious about his stances on things. I don't follow too many celebrities, but it's a privilege to follow his.
YAM magazine's LGBT Blogathon
Again, I’ll be concentrating on the shows I know well as opposed to all available venues. I have to start with Star Trek. My parents are Trekkies (just don’t tell them that). I grew up with it. Kirk/Spock slash aside, there wasn’t too much that applies in the original universe. The closest they came was the terrible episode The Turnabout Intruder where a woman body swaps with Kirk because women still couldn’t have power or rank. While it was gender-bending, it was more to do with inequality than sexuality.
Even the 80’s and early 90’s, the whole idea of homosexuality was still a no-fly zone on TV. However, Star Trek: The Next Generation played with the idea of homosexuality and gender issues.
The two stand out episodes in my mind for ST:TNG are the ones with the Trill, and the one with the gender-neutral characters. The Host featured the first appearance of the Trill, a humanoid being joined with a worm-like parasitic being that was very long lived. Dr. Crusher falls in love with one of the Trill, but after an accident occurs and the humanoid host is killed, they learn of the symbiote, which is first transferred into Will Riker. This left Beverly conflicted, and then finally the symbiote is transferred to its new host, a female. The one criticism I had for the episode was it didn’t dwell long enough on the implications. They were still in love, but Beverly wasn’t gay and they went their separate ways. Then it was forgotten about. Of course, some of that may have been mandated by the powers that be (see the wiki I’ll link to later).
The Outcast more directly dealt with gender issues. Riker falls in love with a member of a species that had no gender and that assuming either gender role was forbidden. I don’t remember particularly liking the episode well, but it did at least deal with sexuality.
Deep Space Nine went a step further. Rejoined brought back the Trill culture when Jadzia Dax meets back up with a Trill that had been her mate decades prior. They had been male and female then. This time both hosts are female. The episode featured one of the first (but not THE first, as advertised at the time) onscreen lesbian kisses.
Gene Roddenberry had wanted to do more with gay characters. If you want to see more on this and why it mostly didn’t happen, check out this wiki.
Dr. Who and its spinoff, Torchwoodincluded the bisexual character captain Jack Harkness. His bisexuality is very openly depicted during the show’s run. That said, most of the onscreen romance was with men. (sorry for the short inclusion of this show since I don't have time to expand. Parentals are starting to rush me)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer , midway through the series's run, introduced the idea of bisexuality for the witch, Willow Rosenberg. After graduation and she and her high school boyfriend, Oz, went their separate ways, Willow struck up a friendship with a quiet witch named Tara. Their friendship led to a loving relationship. While, at the time, it seemed Willow's bisexuality came out of left field, I thought it was a well-handled relationship. Tara represented not only a moment of love, but of tranquility in an otherwise chaotic life. Naturally, it didn't last (as typical in most of Whedon's work, happy romantic entanglements don't usually last.). Willow went on to form a more sexual, less loving (in my opinion, which I will admit it tarnished by my outright loathing of the character Willow hooks up with), relationship with a young potential Slayer, Kennedy.
Earlier in the series, there was one episode where one of the jocks came out to Xander, thinking he was gay as well (when Joss Whedon mentioned in interviews that he always intended for one of the characters to be gay, I assumed it would be Xander, to be honest). There were also hints of experimentation in bisexuality with Spike and Angel as well as between Ethan and Giles in their 1970's magic orgy time period. I've already covered the Buffy comics in a previous post.
And while we're talking SF as part of LGBT entertainment, it would be a shame to leave out George Takei (Star Trek, Heroes), a mainstay in SF entertainment. While Mr. Sulu (one of my first Hollywood crushes, Sulu and Spock, oh my!) was not gay, I'm sure more everyone knows, George is a very outspoken gay rights activist, among other things. His twitter and Facebook accounts are entertainment in their own rights. He is, in turn, very funny and witty and deadly serious about his stances on things. I don't follow too many celebrities, but it's a privilege to follow his.
YAM magazine's LGBT Blogathon
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