George Takei says gay Sulu is "really unfortunate" decision

Let’s have a gay Kirk.

Let’s have a black Superman.

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A Vulcan science officer who is brain-damaged into having lots of banal human-like emotional problems? Isn’t that just WTF we needed…?

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I think what throws me about this all is that they would have shown more creative integrity to simply create new characters to tell new stories in new ways. It feels like theirs has been an act of arrogant nihilistic vandalism on literally decades of storytelling and character development. Make of each past Trek series as you will, they were products of their times. Why couldn’t these guys continue the tradition of the franchise by creating a ‘new generation’ of stories, settings, and characters that coexist with the past universe? Why did they have to piss on things that fans and prior production crew surely held dear?

It doesn’t make sense, to me, either. People who know who the old characters are invested in them and won’t take kindly to retroactive fanfic’ing from Paramount becoming universe canon. The people who don’t know the characters that are being cynically rebooted as fashionably trendy and hip were never invested in the characters in the first place and would have responded equally well (or maybe better) to an original character.

So, anyway, this feels like an indifferent destruction of something people hold dear as a cynical and pandering sort of ‘make a sequel of something’ approach to cinematic originality. I can see why this got a response from Takei.

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No disagreement from me but, the actresses did not write the roles. I just think their work was great.

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Lets have a woman as Thor and a young, black Iron Maiden :metal: WoMan!

I don’t read comics much now, but growing up, I’d have loved some of the recent directions they’re taking.

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Damn good thing Superman’s impervious to bullets because he’s going to be spending the first few episodes of that TV series just convincing the local PDs that he’s on their side.

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I love that you and so many others went right to ‘So, Star Trek was really badly skewed against minorities, that vision should take the back seat.’

Sulu in TOS wasn’t gay?

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Caption: Ensign Demora Sulu
Star Trek Generations
Episode: MOV 007 - Star Trek Generations
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Demora was Hikaru Sulu’s daughter and helm officer aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701-B in 2293. James Kirk met her for only the second time, minutes before he was swept into the Nexus, which history recorded as his death. Kirk had actually met Demora twelve years earlier, when she was a young girl, but neither seems to remember the occasion.

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I <3 Takei, but I’m not with him on this. Different universe, different adaptation, different character. Takei’s Sulu will always be a straight man. John Cho’s Sulu will be a gay man. Just different characters!

It’s understandable, though - my guess is Takei’s performance of a straight man in the 60’s is kind of tied up in…well…his performance of George Takei The Straight Man in the '60’s. He’s kind of too close to the character.

Good on him to question the choice, but I trust Pegg for now.

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Seriously, I was rewatching old episodes last year and I’d forgotten (or probably didn’t notice because I was so young) how much Uhura flirts with Spock in those early episodes. I was like “Suddenly their NuTrek romance makes a bit more sense.”

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Obviously Sulu and his partner - whoever he was - did a great job of raising her.

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Maybe, maybe not but there are some hints in early TOS episodes (The Man Trap) that the writers may have been aware at least Takei is gay and intentionally didn’t hint at straight relationships for Sulu when it wouldn’t have been hard to do.

Having a kid doesn’t mean he’s straight though. :sweat:

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yeah, precisely. Pegg makes much more sense on the issue, and i’m bummed that Takei didn’t just take it for the honor it is and leave his personal opinions about Roddenberry’s vision to himself. Pegg is right: a new character would be defined solely by his/her sexuality, whereas with Sulu we have an entire history to now view in the new light of that sexuality. it’s a richer experience, and not just tokenism.

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Yeah, all apologies to Mr. Takei, but Sulu was always a bit… awesome. (if’n you know what I mean).

And a daughter’s not exactly entirely dispositive…

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No - but it does mean that the show & George thought he was.

That said - it’s a different Sulu & I lean towards respecting Simon Pegg’s vision here. Much as I respect both men.

Though as always, the proof will be seeing him in the new movie as we see this new facet of the character.


In an article entitled “George Takei” which appeared in Star Trek: Communicator issue 100, Takei talked about Demora Sulu, discussing his take on his character having a daughter. He expressed an interest in finding out how Demora had been conceived by Sulu and an unnamed woman, as well as wanting to learn who her mother was.

Apocrypha

Demora is central to the plot of the following:

The novel The Captain’s Daughter by Peter David (where her mother’s name is given as Susan Ling)
The PC-based simulation Star Trek: Starship Creator.
The Lost Era novels Serpents Among the Ruins and One Constant Star by David R. George III.
The short story “Iron and Sacrifice”, from the Tales from the Captain’s Table anthology, also by David George.
She was also referenced in William Shatner’s novel Dark Victory.

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I don’t even care what you’re implying. Sulu fencing is just awesome.

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I signed up for a fencing course and all they wanted to do was sword fight.
I got my money back on that one.

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George I love you like chocolate cake, I’m really “Star Trek-conflicted”, plus I’ve been drinking, a lot.

Maybe the light of a new day will help.

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