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Bryan Fuller Says Gay Characters Were Considered for Star Trek Voyager

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By GustavoLeao / 03:16, 10 April 2008 / Voyager

AfterElton.com posted an exclusive interview with former Star Trek Voyager writer/producer Bryan Fuller, in which he talks about gay characters in his TV Shows. Here is an excerpt of the article.

According to the article, Fuller wasn't so excited about a "gay" script that was rattling around for Voyager when he was part of the show.

"There was a pregnant ensign - Ensign Wildman - and she was going to have gay godparents to her child," said Fuller, explaining the show's potential plotline - that never got made. But Fuller found the characters so two-dimensional that he wasn't disappointed it didn't air: "It sounds weird to say - but I was kind of glad they didn't do it the way it was written. Because it became really cliché."

The Star Trek Hidden Frontier fan series is known for its huge take on homosexuality in Star Trek, by featuring two openly gay main characters - Lt. Commander Corey Aster, and Lieutenant Commander Ro Nevin. HF, while not focusing solely on the gay aspect of these characters, integrated them into the various plots and situations, to see how they would deal in 24th century society. Lieutenant Commander Ro Nevin (photo), now acting captain of the starship Odyssey in the fan series Star Trek Odyssey is the first (non-canon) gay starfleet captain.

Plus, the fan series Star Trek Phase II will introduce gay characters in Kirk's Enterprise, for their next episode titled "Blood and Fire", written by David Gerrold, from an aborted TNG script.

‘Blood and Fire" features a Gay couple, but it is not about being gay." Phase II actor/producer James Cawley said at TrekMovie message board "They just happen to be gay and caught up in the unusual circumstances that are happening on the ship. To everyone else on the Enterprise, they are just a normal couple who are in love with one another. Their have been many openly gay folks who have contributed to Star Trek's creation over the last 40 or so years. It is time that they are included in Trek's optimistic vision of the future, That is my prime reason in doing this episode, that and keeping Gene's promise that gay people would be included in Trek."

The full interview with Fuller can be found here.

A TrekWeb interview with actor Brandon McConnell, who plays the gay character Lieutenant Commander Ro Nevin in Odyssey, can be found here.



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RE: Roddenberry Was Right | Report this post to moderator
By: IamKirok!!! (Odo's file, contact) @ 16:13:57 on Apr 12, 2008

Well, thats all fine, but I'm not sure how that pertains to this show. No matter how we choose to see it, here's the reality of how the show functions:

Trek works out current societal issues via the morality play formula. Thats what makes it stand above regular sci-fi. Too many examples to mention. We all get that.

The second way Trek functions, is it breaks past norms of our present day, purposefully, to propose how the future will be. Examples: Uhura, Sulu and Chekov as main characters. The Kirk/Uhura kiss. This was done specifically to attack the prejudices of the time and to say, "Hey, we can get past that."

So, then, would creating a homosexual character make sense in Trek? Seems to me it is right in the pocket for what Trek does. A contrived character, no matter what he or she is, would be a drag on a show.

But, how many contrivances have we seen so far? When someone says "Borg show" or "Space Battle" I dont hear any geeks rising up and saying, " Well, we just dont want it to be a contrivance. We want it to be an organic part of the story" or "Borg battles are the past."

No, they say, "Cool! Space battle!" or "I love the Borg!"

Because people are still geeked out by homosexuality and they have a double standard.

So, I'm not sure what you really mean, but I think a gay character would be fine. Maybe a gay couple would do the job even better.
I say there should b

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RE: Roddenberry Was Right by msspurlock @ 17:00:42 on Apr 12
    RE: Roddenberry Was Right by IamKirok!!! @ 05:59:34 on Apr 13
       RE: Roddenberry Was Right by msspurlock @ 09:30:37 on Apr 13
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