News Female Same-Sex Couple For Discovery?

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A new news article has been published at TrekToday:

Production on the second season of Star Trek: Discovery has begun, and could that second season include a female same-sex couple? At...

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[Ceridwen]

There were women dancing together at the crew party in "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad".

I cried. First Stamets/Culber, then this background couple. After 50 years of Star Trek going out of their way to avoid depicting same sex relationships, I didn't realize how much it was going to mean to me to know that LGBT people actually make it to the future.

 

[lawman]

No disrespect to Harberts, but he's kinda dodging the question. Straight characters tend to "lead with their professionalism" first as well, if they're well-written, but that doesn't mean their sexuality is left to the audience's guesswork. If he and Berg have a story to tell about another same-sex couple, they should go ahead and tell it; if not, they should say they don't have one planned right now. Should be fine either way.

Interesting observation about the party scene. I see women dancing together at parties and social gatherings all the time, and I don't ever assume they're lesbian or bi. (In many cases I know for a fact they're not.) It's just something people do on a social dance floor.

 

[AlanC9]

Are the scripts for the whole season written yet?

 

[BillJ]

They need someone to kill off for season two.

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

Interesting observation about the party scene. I see women dancing together at parties and social gatherings all the time, and I don't ever assume they're lesbian or bi. (In many cases I know for a fact they're not.) It's just something people do on a social dance floor.

Yes, for us in the real world, this is true. But as @Ceridwen said, Star Trek has gone out of its way to avoid showing scenes like this for 50 years aside from a single episode of DS9. It very much read as 'these two are attracted to each other' for those of us that were waiting so long to see it. I was also very moved by this scene, because they were presented as just being there doing the normal.

 

[lawman]

I'll grant that Trek has historically avoided same-sex relationships prior to DSC. That was hardly unusual in the '60s, but in TNG in particular the show reportedly changed one or two stories just to avoid it. It's nice to see progress on that front, no question.

I guess I was just surprised at that particular example being taken as progress. As non-plot-related moments go, showing Sulu walking off with his husband in STBeyond seems like a more direct show of diversity than anything in that party scene. Trek has historically not spent much time in general showing its characters hanging out at social gatherings with dancing, but insofar as it does so, there's really nothing out of the ordinary or conspicuously LGBT-supportive about showing women dancing together. Unless the characters were engaged in some sort of PDA beyond dancing, there's just nothing that would stand out about it.

 

[Spot261]

To be honest on a first watch of the party scene the girls dancing together didn't even flag up for me. If Sulu and his partner was speaking softly this was barely a whisper.

 

[ITDUDE]

They need someone to kill off for season two.

Well, my bet for a lesbian couple would be Detmer and someone else. But please, oh please do NOT kill Detmer.

 

[gblews]

No disrespect to Harberts, but he's kinda dodging the question.

If the question you're referring to is; will there be a romance between two women in season 2, well of course he's dodging the question. Producers will tease certain things about upcoming episodes but they almost never drop what they may consider to be major spoilers.

Straight characters tend to "lead with their professionalism" first as well, if they're well-written, but that doesn't mean their sexuality is left to the audience's guesswork. If he and Berg have a story to tell about another same-sex couple, they should go ahead and tell it; if not, they should say they don't have one planned right now. Should be fine either way.

Did you miss this part:

Harberts said, “In terms of your question about a same-sex couple on the female side, you know, you may very well be already watching one and you just don’t know.”

Intriguing. Burnham/Tilly? Seems to obvious. Ariam and (someone)?

 

[TorontoTrekker]

Interesting observation about the party scene. I see women dancing together at parties and social gatherings all the time, and I don't ever assume they're lesbian or bi. (In many cases I know for a fact they're not.) It's just something people do on a social dance floor.

I could be misremembering - and I don't have a PVR, so I can't verify this, and a quick Google search didn't turn up any images to cofirm this - but I recall getting the impression that they were being more intimate with each other than a non-couple would be. But maybe I was reading too much into it.

 

[jaime]

If the question you're referring to is; will there be a romance between two women in season 2, well of course he's dodging the question. Producers will tease certain things about upcoming episodes but they almost never drop what they may consider to be major spoilers.

Did you miss this part:

Intriguing. Burnham/Tilly? Seems to obvious. Ariam and (someone)?

Ash Tyler is a girl.
You heard it here first folks.....

 

[Agony_Boothb]

Ash Tyler is a girl.
You heard it here first folks.....

Don't say things like this. Digificwriter will think you're being serious.

 

[MrPointy]

I was thinking Tig Notaro's character and someone else, but I remembered that her character's on another ship.

 

[jaime]

Don't say things like this. Digificwriter will think you're being serious.

Well, there’s only two relationships we have already been watching, and one of those is the two guys brushing their teeth....since Michael appears to be a girl, if we are watching one already, it has to be her relationship (there’s only so after all...) ergo, Ash Tyler must be a girl, as well as a boy, a Klingon, an American and...probably a Trill by series three. Yup. He’s gonna keep the stubble though.

 

[Spot261]

Giorgiou/Cornwell seems a possibility, it's not hard to imagine they'd have a lot of offscreen interactions whilst she was officially off the radar

 

[jaime]

Giorgiou/Cornwell seems a possibility, it's not hard to imagine they'd have a lot of offscreen interactions whilst she was officially off the radar

One of them was dead. That’s pretty far off radar, and a level of inclusivity that I can’t imagine being a thing.

 

[Mudd]

Why not Burnham and Tilly?

 

[jaime]

Why not Burnham and Tilly?

Can you imagine the squee from certain areas of the fandom? It could be very dangerous....

 

[Ceridwen]

I guess I was just surprised at that particular example being taken as progress. As non-plot-related moments go, showing Sulu walking off with his husband in STBeyond seems like a more direct show of diversity than anything in that party scene. Trek has historically not spent much time in general showing its characters hanging out at social gatherings with dancing, but insofar as it does so, there's really nothing out of the ordinary or conspicuously LGBT-supportive about showing women dancing together. Unless the characters were engaged in some sort of PDA beyond dancing, there's just nothing that would stand out about it.

I didn't call it """"""progress"""""", I said it moved me because even that tiny thing never happened before. I have literally had conversations with other LGBT Trek fans where we had to wonder if we even make it to the future. As much as I love "Rejoined", Dax and Kahn aren't human, and like "The Host" and "The Outcast" before it, the episode goes out of its way to not mention or even deny the existence of LGBT humans.

So obviously there is something that would stand out about it because it stood out to me.