So, last week I delved into my nerdy side with my love of comics and exploring why I love them, so now I’m taking you into the world of Sci-Fi and telling you why I, and many other LGBTQ+ folk are so into Science Fiction – So come with me, Darth Vida, while I tell you why I’m so at home in galaxies far far away, adventures in Space and Time and beaming up and travelling at maximum warp! Engage!
There’s a wide range of different sci-fi fandoms out there, but my very favourites are Star Trek, Doctor Who and Stargate. These all have something in common – They’re about optimism, teamwork and overcoming the impossible. There’s often themes of working together, smashing preconceptions about each other and thinking outside the box to overcome the crisis of the week – all brilliant things to learn and all feel-good things, but they’re great lessons to learn in real life too, as well as giving much needed hope, which the world has rarely needed more!
I think these are also why many people who have felt like outsiders or misfits at one time or another may gravitate towards these franchises – that message of hope, the promise of a better tomorrow if we can learn to get along and work together and celebrate our differences instead of fearing them. It all makes perfect sense to me and has guided me from a very young age. Star Trek stories were always intended to be morality plays packaged in an exciting ‘wagon train to the stars’ concept that it’s creator Gene Roddenberry pitched way back in the beginning.
In recent years, thanks to social media, fandoms of every type have become more polarised than ever. For example, there has always been resistance to certain new concepts in Star Trek – When ‘The Next Generation’ was announced in the 1980s, some fans of the original series flatly refused to like it (most changed their tune eventually), the same thing happened with each new series, but never as much with the very newest, ‘Discovery’, ‘Picard’ and ‘Lower Decks’. It’s because at the very bottom line, all the fans care and have their own vision of what they’d like to see, but it’s impossible to please everyone, so some become convinced they’re correct and as everyone feels a need to share their opinion on social media, arguments often ensue, but many of us are just happy for more Trek. Especially the latest, ‘Lower Decks’ which proves that an animated comedy incarnation can actually fit in that universe. One of the complaints that has been around a lot (among few but loud fans of a certain type) is that Star Trek has become ‘too political’. This is because the lead in one of the new shows is a black woman, we’ve also finally been given our first out and official gay couple, mental health has made an appearance and suddenly some people are claiming that it’s become ‘too inclusive’ and is written by ‘snowflakes’ – It’s almost like this particular breed of Trekkies hasn’t ever actually watched the show!
Star Trek, at its very core, has always been political. Rewind to the original series back in 1966…
The Cold War was at its height and there was a Russian on the Bridge. Only a couple of decades after the Second World War and there was a man of Japanese descent on the bridge. Don’t forget, the Bridge is the ship’s command centre, the people manning the stations up there on Deck One are the ones in charge! This was Huge! Then there was the absolutely fantastic Lieutenant Uhura, the Enterprise’s Communications Officer – Not only black, but a woman, in a position of authority, on a 1960s television show. At the time, this was massive! In fact, Nichelle Nichols, the inspirational woman behind Uhura tells the story that after the show’s second season, she was doing theatre and received a visitor who told her that it was the only show that he and his wife allowed their kids to watch. She explained that she was considering leaving and the guest told her that she absolutely could NOT leave because her presence there was so important to so many. That gentleman was Doctor Martin Luther King.
A young girl called Caryn Elaine Johnson saw Uhura on her screen and called her parents in shouting “Come quick! There’s a black lady on TV and she ain’t no maid!” – At that point, the young girl knew she could be whatever she wanted. We know her as Whoopi Goldberg.
Star Trek: The Original Series was also responsible for primetime TV’s first interracial kiss – the network tried to cut it, but William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols made sure every alternate take was ruined so the network were forced to air the kiss.
The bottom line: Star Trek has always been political. From its roots, through to the mid-80s movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (where the crew return to 1986 earth looking for humpback whales to save the world in the future – trust me, it’s actually brilliant), right through to the modern issues the show tackles. It’s about representation and hope, told through things that mirror things going on in our world today. But it shows us that if we can learn to come together, a peaceful, prosperous future is possible.
Moving on to Stargate, slightly different, as it’s set in the present day, but through the Stargate (and later ships developed with alien tech) we visit other world and even other galaxies. It’s different because of it’s setting in the here and now, but the messages of peaceful cooperation are very much present too. One of my personal favourite moments is in the pilot episode of SG-1 (the first of the TV shows to be spun off the original movie) – an astrophysicist who also happens to be an Air Force pilot is coming to join the briefing and they all have questions about how good ‘Captain Sam Carter’ is asking what ‘he’ has achieved, when Samantha Carter walks in, looking sharper than anyone else in the beautiful Air Force Dress Uniform, politely but firmly correcting them that ‘she’ is transferring from the pentagon and lists some missions flying behind enemy lines leaving them all dumbfounded for a moment before they continue. I totally have a girl-crush on Carter. She kicks ass – with science, while also being every bit as capable as the men on the team, often more so. It’s about going out there, exploring and making friends and defending those who need defending and learning all that can be learned. Again, the core of sci-fi – making the universe a better place and exploring our place within it.
Doctor Who is different again and gave us a lead character who changes his entire identity every few seasons through the medium of regeneration, a handy biological feature of the Time Lords, but actually invented due to the ailing health of the First Doctor actor, William Hartnell. The BBC knew they had a hit on heir hands and did not want to cancel, so they came up with the idea of the doctor changing into a new body when the existing one ‘wears a bit thin’. Quite a concept, but one that’s given us many incarnations of our hero over the years – some old, some young and now, a woman (which the certain purists are up in arms about despite not being able to explain why – though they maintain they’re not sexist or in any way discriminating, if that can be believed). The Doctor often takes companions on their travels, most often from our time, so we get to know him through them getting to know him and they travel in the TARDIS to all manner of times and places, often finding themselves in precarious positions. But the characters we’ve met along the way have included every size, shape, race, colour, form…. Even John Barrowman!
When Doctor Who was brought back in 2005 by Russell T Davies, a Doctor Who superfan, it enjoyed a giant rebirth and has become one of the BBC’s tent pole franchises again, enjoying popularity worldwide. Davies had also worked on Coronation Street and created Queer As Folk, as well as a host of other dramas and breathed new life into the show while respecting its roots beautifully. His style of high drama mixed with whimsical comedy (and the musical master strokes of frequent collaborator Murray Gold) created a new look and feel for the show – and they weren’t afraid to push the boundaries either, even giving us a post-watershed spinoff with Torchwood, featuring more adult stories entered around pansexual and immortal Captain Jack Harkness from the revived show’s first season. Another example of sexuality, while present and talked about, is not what defines the character, it’s just a facet. Just like in real life. Ask anyone who’s part of a minority and they’ll tell you – We are NOT our minority! It’s a small part of us. People used to prefix my name with ‘gay’ and it used to annoy me, because to me, there’s so many other things you could use to describe me before that. I’m a functioning person first – ‘gay’ has no more of a bearing on how I do my job or day to day activities than things like eye colour, hair colour or anything else.
All of the examples of empowerment in sci-fi basically come down to the fact that there are much bigger issues out there that are worth tackling than gender, sexuality, race, religion – the characters just get on with what they need to do and are just accepted. A future many of us dream of! The things that make us different are what make us so brilliant as a species – our rich tapestry of experiences and cultures and different ways of looking at things – we get to see this hope and cooperation in Science fiction and see ourselves represented out there among the stars, reminding us that we can be whatever we want when we are judged on who we are rather than what we are. Where each of us has the freedom to be brilliant because we are freely accepted. THAT is why people love sci-fi. Because there’s a place for all of us.
Or maybe it’s all the exciting battles, sleek ships and ‘pew pew pew’. That could be it too.
So, what’s YOUR favourite Sci-Fi franchise? Are you a proud nerd like me? Come share your thoughts and experience in the comments and until next time, may LaFierce be with you!
