Supplemental: Diversity and Science Fiction
The genre of science fiction had long since established itself as a place for the minorities of the world to be represented. Perhaps most notably, the presence of the characters of Uhura and Sulu in
Star Trek: The Original Series was clear proof of this. In the case of Uhura, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. had in fact convinced Nichelle Nichols to stay on the show when she was considering leaving, as there were almost no black characters on television that were not stereotypes, or whose skin colour was not their defining characteristic.
With the resurgence of mainstream science fiction on television, networks were keen to be inclusive in their programs. In the lead-up to the release of
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gene Roddenberry announced that the show would feature a homosexual character. However, as of early 1990, no such character had appeared. This, unsurprisingly, did not earn the show many favours amongst minority groups. [1]
As casting went,
Doctor Who was by far the less inclusive of the two shows. All three of the main cast members were white, and though many guest stars were persons of colour, fans agreed that it would be good to see one of the future cast members be from a minority group. [2]
Doctor Who had however made itself an ally of the LGBT community. Most notably, the stigma surrounding the community during the AIDS epidemic had been tackled in the story “Blood and Fire”, a script originally written for
Star Trek. While the story did have its intended effect of increasing the number of blood donors, even if the effect had been small, the main consequence was to take a big step towards breaking the stigma of having LGBT characters in mainstream television. [3]
Unfortunately, wherever there was diversity, there were those intent on removing it. NBC and the BBC both reported a large increase in hate mail directed at
Doctor Who following the airing of “Blood and Fire”. Some conservative groups in both the US and UK supported boycotts of the show in the following weeks. The publicity in fact resulted in an increase in viewership of the show, as the story became sensationalised. [4]
Fundamentally, both of the “Big Two” science fiction shows had their issues, and both intended to fix them in the near future. No show was without its sins, but it was the belief of the producers of both that they could, at the very least, try to commit as few as possible.
And as a result, 1990 would prove to be an important year for inclusivity in science fiction. [5]
[1] This is, in part my fault for not writing one in by this point. A fair bit of this update is me admitting a problem with this timeline thus far. It's pretty straight-white dominated. That wasn't the plan, but the increase in diversity in the coming few years is something that had been in the plan for as long as I've been writing.
[2] No piece of work is without sin. This timeline included. I've tried to make the media a bit more inclusive where I can, but I've not done it as much as I might like.
[3] Things are a little better for the LGBT community here. The underlying issues with society aren't going to go away for a long time, but the decision to make "Blood and Fire" has caused some people to change their points of view. No one piece of work is going to change all of the people who watch it, but it will change a few every time. The best we can hope for is that every time someone does something like tackle an issue like the horrible way many homosexual people were trated during the AIDS epidemic, that a few people see the light.
[4] Boycotts often have this effect.
[5] A little hint for the future. I'm not going to try to shoehorn people in because they're from a minority though. I cast people because I think they'd be good for the role.
Alright, an update that I had planned for a while, and one that I felt I needed to make. I'm sure that my stance on certain issues is crystal clear, which shouldn't be surprising. I've done my best to avoid being preachy in this update. I might come across as a little critical of the shows, but that's not my intention. There's almost always room for improvement, and there definitely is for the two main franchises of this timeline. Things will, as they tend to, get better with time.
Definitely not my best update, and one that I doubt will be remebered as a particularly important part of the timeline, but one that I felt I ought to make. I'm going to put a little RL update up in a few minutes, as I've changed some stuff in the running order coming up.