Inspired by the "WI Mr. Sulu Was Gay" thread. Let's say that NBC is more liberal and allows Roddenberry to get a 50/50 male/female cast and all the other progressive things he wanted to do. What happens?
Inspired by the "WI Mr. Sulu Was Gay" thread. Let's say that NBC is more liberal and allows Roddenberry to get a 50/50 male/female cast and all the other progressive things he wanted to do. What happens?
As far as a 50/50 cast is concerned, the sponsors would not have responded immediately. Viewership would have been low because most would have not accepted such a crew as credible, given its military orientation. Sponsors would have pulled their backing and unless there was a major crew change, the show would have been canceled mid-season.
I'll go with that. I guess in that case they'd have kept the character Number One rather than combining her personality with Spock, but made her science officer rather than first officer - in which case Spock would have a different position (Security Chief Spock?) and would act very differently (Spock was originally meant to have emotions like normal, and his main defining character trait would be curiosity over new and "alien" things).Perhaps if half of the main characters were action men, while the other half were girl scientists - that'd be believable, and acceptable to people who still couldn't see a woman rolling around phasering at lizardmen.
Star Trek needed a military orientation in 1966. Its competitor, Lost in Space, was a very tacky, poorly written story about a space family oriented to scientific exploration.
In short, Star Trek had to take on a military regimen, with character development, to become, as billed, "the first adult space adventure," to distance itself from Lost in Space.
I find it interesting that in discussing Star Trek that Lost in Space gets mentioned frequently but no one ever brings up the other Irwin Allen SciFi adventure Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea which is about this military ship which wanders around a strange environment and has equally strange adventures (and in its first season wasn't that badly written ).
*cough*WilliamShatner*cough*How about a future-Jew
That would be welcome, actually. In the original plan for Star Trek there actually was a Latino navigator, Lt Jose Ortegas - an impressively-skilled yet socially shy guy in his 20s who would continually be arguing and debating with the ship's doctor (that was the early version of the Spock/Bones animosity). By the time "The Cage" got made he'd transformed into the blond-haired blue-eyed Lt Tyler. (Which is why if you look up Tyler on the internet he's called "Jose Tyler" even though the name doesn't suit him - his first name isn't given in "The Cage")or some Hispanics?
Where are you getting this original plan stuff?
I'm always interested in such things.
If I recall, when Roddenberry passed away, there was talk about adding gay crew members to Star Trek: The Next Generation. I do not recall any openly gay characters in that series, though two females did kiss on Deep Space Nine, right?
Even in the nineties, there was reservation about putting gay relationships in a show that is aimed at a broad base and wide age range.
IMO the Mirror Universe Kira was as clearly a lesbian as is possible to show on a primetime TV show. The fact that she was also evil complicates how 'progressive' that was a little.
IMO the Mirror Universe Kira was as clearly a lesbian as is possible to show on a primetime TV show. The fact that she was also evil complicates how 'progressive' that was a little.
She was more bi-sexual.