I agree with that line of thinking. Doctor Who has handled this just fine without people losing their shit best that I can tell so I don't see why this has to be a big deal. And Who doesn't present its gay characters as chaste, either.My only concern if Stamets were to have a husband back home, he's then cut off from romantic entanglement plots (which can be great or awful) and we'd lose that character development. Also, that COULD be construed at "we're willing to have a gay character as long as we don't have to deal with that aspect of his life." In all the Star Trek series after TOS, I think nearly every character has had their own flirtation episodes. I'm not suggesting in any way that I want Discovery to be a soap! I would just like to not have Stamets locked out of something from the get go.
TNG/DS9 touched on this a little with Keiko's and Miles' marriage, but I agree with your overall point.One thing most Star Trek incarnations never really dealt with was the idea that crew members are away from their families, such as is the case in real life with the crew of a Navy ship.
They touched upon it a little in Voyager with Janeway being away from Mark, and Tuvoc being away from his family, but only a little -- and mostly because of the specific situation with Voyager being so far from home.
I always thought Star Trek should have at least one crew member (in the main cast) who sometimes struggles with the real-life difficulties of being away from a husband, wife, domestic partner, and/or children. Stamets could be that character in this incarnation of Trek.
I'm confused about the leap from “promiscuous gay men” to “sex scenes”. What has one to do with the other? Would you suspect they'll incorporate sex scenes, too, if they had a promiscuous heterosexual character?
Thanks for taking the time and clearing it up for me. I think I just got you wrong, sorry. And sorry if I seemed confrontational. I'm just glad we can finally have these kind of conversations; finally Star Trek gets a gay character! It's about time.I'm not expecting ANY sex scenes. But if there were to be any, I'm not someone who will be judging the characters are promiscuous, regardless of their orientation. If Stamets were to have a casual relationship, I'm certainly not going to suddenly start believing the stereotype. I'm a gay man and I know enough about the GLBT community to know the spectrum of people's behaviors. lol!
But the leap from promiscuity to sex scenes seems pretty self-explanatory. If a character is going to be portrayed as promiscuous, it would easily be accomplished by the use of sex scenes. I probably should have said "love scenes" initially, as opposed to "sex scenes." Maybe I misspoke and that's why you were unclear on what I meant.
I want to see a cast of characters (gay, straight, asexual, whatever) who are written as three-dimensional people. If that includes relationships or dalliances, I have no problem with that. I don't want to see Stamets denied the full range of experiences available to the character because he's gay and SOME viewers might be upset by seeing that side of him portrayed.
I've read that Wilson Cruz will be playing Stamets' boyfriend, who is also a crew member.
That's very exciting news! I quite like Cruz.
It's also very rare that two gay men actually play a gay couple.
I really like that they addressed this at the panel. But what I like even more is that we are actually living in a time where something like this is revealed and it sparks no outrage. It's just silently accepted with no notable negativity. At least here on this board, where discussions about homosexuality tend to be rather level-headed most of the time, but posters with rather strange views on this do exist.
Another unknown name to me I'm afraid, but i like that. Although I'm psyched at the two Captain castings, in general I prefer unknowns (to me) on sci fi so they don't 'shine through' the character in my head. No matter how famous Patrick Stewart gets, and I've seen him in loads of things now, he's Captain Picard in my head![]()
No it isn't.At this point it just feels like pandering.
We use essential cookies to make this site work, and optional cookies to enhance your experience.