Star Trek will return to TV in January 2017 -- Cautiously optimistic, or?

[Sommerswerd]

Yes..

Am I the one missing a emoticon now, or is there something more to that?

Go home, Sommerswerd.

Yes it is about that time... Thanks for reminding me I think today might be a sexytime day at home

 

[Arakhor]

Posting from work? You bad man.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Am I the one missing a emoticon now, or is there something more to that?

I was saying that yes, you are misreading everyone. Well, unless I'M misreading everyone at any rate.

 

[Sommerswerd]

That's what I don't get then... can you explain? It seems like people said exactly what I posted.

Specifically... putting everyone else aside, how do you in particular see it then? Do you think Keiko was selected for her acting skills with no regard to her being Asian, but Zoe Saldana was picked specifically because they wanted someone black?

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Well... I don't really know why you're asking me that as it has nothing to do with anything I've been saying, but if it helps...

I would expect that the character of Keiko was always written as Japanese and that they auditioned appropriate actresses and cast whatever-her-name-is as a result of those. Her acting skills most likely also were a factor of course. However, I have absolutely no idea of the relevant production history and so can't rule out the possibility that someone really wanted that specific actress in the series and created a role just for her. On anything inbetween.

I would doubt that Zoe Saldana was picked SPECIFICALLY because they wanted someone black, I would again suspect some sort of audition process was held and she has other qualities which led to her being chosen, but given that the character of Uhura is pretty firmly established as being black then I would imagine that that was a requirement for the role.

But none of that has anything to do with anything I was saying about the exploration (or lack thereof) of the issue of interracial marriage in the storylines.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I think I understand what you mean now, thanks. I think you may have already said this, but since one of the premises of Star Trek is that race doesn't exist as a human subcategory anymore, the only "interracial" relationships in Star Trek are between different sentient species.

They do touch on the Japanese culture of Keiko and Miles' Irish heritage, a few times in the shows and they specifically contrast Japanese and Irish cultures of the couple in the episode I linked to... but it seems like you are talking more in terms of "They never depict any 20th century style race related strife" between them like Keiko saying "Miles my parents don't approve of you because you aren't 100% Japanese" like we saw with Worf's family treatment of Jadzia...which of course would be difficult, given the whole premise of Star Trek humanity. So in that sense I think you are right.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Yay!!

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Star Trek is always conspicuously diverse, though, right?

So it seems like what most of you guys are saying, is that Uhuru is black because Nichelle Nichols (the original actress) was black. And then there was a reference to her basically sleeping her way into the role (ie not really deserving it). So then Zoe Saldana was not necessarily picked basically because she was the best actress for the role, but at least partly because they earmarked the Uhura role for a black woman, to replace the black woman who, herself did not fully deserve the role?

But Keiko was picked purely on merit and she just happened to be Asian. They didn't set out to pick an Asian actress for O'Brien's wife, right? Is that generally what everyone agrees on? Or am I misreading?

What is this obsession with "Uhuru"? There is no such character.

I'd have to re-read my copy of Nichelle Nichols' autobiography to see her take on how she got on the show and whether or not the role of Uhura existed prior to that, if they created the role for her specifically. What we do know is that Roddenberry worked on a previous TV show called "The Lieutenant" and so did several of the actors he eventually hired for Star Trek. Nichelle Nichols was one of those actors. It's a normal thing for producers to prefer people he's already worked with, since he knows what they're good at.

As for Roddenberry's sleeping around with two of the TOS actresses, it's not anything admirable, but unfortunately it was also a common occurrence for producers to do that.

Majel Barrett also had previous TV experience prior to Star Trek. Among other roles, she was in an early Bonanza episode that's not too bad.

When it came time to cast the nuTrek movies, they pretty well had to go with a black actress, unless they figured they could just wave a hand and say "hey, different universe, in this one she wasn't black".

As for Keiko, I don't know if the role was written for Rosalind Chao or if she just happened to win the audition in which they wanted an Asian actress. All I know is that I preferred her in M*A*S*H. I can't stand Keiko.

+1 Agreed on both counts.Agreed, and I will add that I liked Star Trek V and I don't care who knows... so there

That movie is the only one that was so bad that I actually was thisclose to walking out of the theatre.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

That movie is the only one that was so bad that I actually was thisclose to walking out of the theatre.

It's still significantly better than Nemesis or either of the two reboot ones. Awful pieces of cinema the lot of them.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I would doubt that Zoe Saldana was picked SPECIFICALLY because they wanted someone black, I would again suspect some sort of audition process was held and she has other qualities which led to her being chosen, but given that the character of Uhura is pretty firmly established as being black then I would imagine that that was a requirement for the role.

I forgot to mention that according to Wikipedia the character was originally intended to be black for diversity reasons, and was supposed to be the one named Sulu but someone pointed out that the similarity to the South African "Zulu" tribe might be offensive and defeat the purpose of having diversity in the first place. So instead they used a less known Swahili word "Uhuru" meaning "freedom", for the character's name. So the point is, the character was always supposed to be black.

It's still significantly better than Nemesis or either of the two reboot ones. Awful pieces of cinema the lot of them.

Nah I liked all those too. Of all the movies I would rank Star Trek V last. Nemesis wasn't the greatest, but I think the two reboot movies (lens flares and all) are just dreamy

 

[Valka D'Ur]

It's still significantly better than Nemesis or either of the two reboot ones. Awful pieces of cinema the lot of them.

It's not quite a valid comparison, since I didn't see any of the TNG movies in the theatre, nor did I see either of the Abramsverse movies in the theatre. The only reason I watched them in the first place was to shut the TrekBBS people up who kept complaining that I hadn't seen them... and after I had, they complained that I had even more reasons to consider them to be garbage.

I forgot to mention that according to Wikipedia the character was originally intended to be black for diversity reasons, and was supposed to be the one named Sulu but someone pointed out that the similarity to the South African "Zulu" tribe might be offensive and defeat the purpose of having diversity in the first place. So instead they used a less known Swahili word "Uhuru" meaning "freedom", for the character's name. So the point is, the character was always supposed to be black.

Nah I liked all those too. Of all the movies I would rank Star Trek V last. Nemesis wasn't the greatest, but I think the two reboot movies (lens flares and all) are just dreamy

The reboot movies were crap. Aside from a little bit of music here and there, I can't think of a single thing I liked about either of them.

Thank goodness for the fan films.