Should The New Show Include a Disabled Character?

[hux]

Following on from the LGBT discussion, should the new show look to address disability?

This is a tricky one because on the one hand, we're asked to accept that most (if not all) disabilities have been "cured" (for want of a better word) in the Trek future (all part of the relentless utopianism) but of course the show is filmed in 2016 (a time where disability representation in media is generally lacking) and should (IMO) reflect our own current society.

Thoughts?

 

[UssGlenn]

Since Trek works by allegory, you include an alien character who, by virtue of being out of their native environment, has to deal with a hardship that roughly paralleling a modern disability. They tried this with Melora in DS9, to not great effect. But, there is nothing wrong with the basic idea.

 

[feek61]

Wasn't Gerodi blind? That is a disability is it not?

 

[hux]

I thought Melora was very interesting and a worthy DS9 attempt to (however minimally) look at disability issues.

I guess there are two ways of doing this. One is to have a disabled character (like Melora) portrayed by an able-bodied actor that utilises the allegory angle which I don't think would be reasonable in this day and age and the other (which I'd strongly prefer) is an outright representation of disability by using a disabled actor within the context of a future society.

Wasn't Gerodi blind? That is a disability is it not?

His disability was fixed pretty conveniently with technology. And again, it doesn't address the issue of representation. An able-bodied actor playing a disabled character isn't really something that should be pursued anymore. We don't ask white people to play black people anymore. There are plenty of excellent disabled actors.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

This is an optimistic future, one that is meant to give hope that we won't have to deal with disabilities and illness like today.

I'd rather see hope than representation. And I'm speaking as someone who sits full time in a wheelchair due to muscular dystrophy. I know who I am and I like who I am. Actors and characters on the screen don't matter to me like that.

 

[cultcross]

The very nature of Star Trek as a futuristic show with wonderful technology means that this is a difficult issue - how do you introduce someone with a disability where technology can't reduce its impact to being negligible and have that be believable? We're talking about a future where almost any aspect of the human body could be replicated, genetically altered, reconstituted to an earlier form using the transporter, and so on. It's a stretch that Geordi couldn't have eye replacements given the tech available around him - so you risk a scenario where someone has a disability just for the sake of it.
I think the best option for representation in this area is what @hux suggested - an alien from a radically different environment who has a resulting distinct disadvantage in earth-norm atmosphere or gravity or temperature. A sci fi allegory of disability rather than having to address why, by 2390 or so there is no cure available for x condition.

 

[drt]

The very nature of Star Trek as a futuristic show with wonderful technology means that this is a difficult issue - how do you introduce someone with a disability where technology can't reduce its impact to being negligible and have that be believable? We're talking about a future where almost any aspect of the human body could be replicated, genetically altered, reconstituted to an earlier form using the transporter, and so on. It's a stretch that Geordi couldn't have eye replacements given the tech available around him - so you risk a scenario where someone has a disability just for the sake of it.
I think the best option for representation in this area is what @hux suggested - an alien from a radically different environment who has a resulting distinct disadvantage in earth-norm atmosphere or gravity or temperature. A sci fi allegory of disability rather than having to address why, by 2390 or so there is no cure available for x condition.

Good point. Maybe something like a delicate alien from a lighter gravity planet trying to deal with Earth normal gravity.

 

[arch101]

A character with borgified arms and legs to replace limbs lost in an accident or battle could be interesting. Worked well for the science officer on the old Yamato tv show.

 

[JWPlatt]

You only get six or seven main characters, assuming an ensemble, to represent the agenda of various special interests. And you need one character included as the token majority. Someone's going to be left out.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Wow.

 

[Chekov's Phaser]

to represent the agenda of various special interests. And you need one character included as the token majority.

Yeah stupid diversity.

 

[JWPlatt]

...we're asked to accept that most (if not all) disabilities have been "cured" (for want of a better word) in the Trek future...

No time period can be assumed, and very little is known about which medical advances happened when. Maybe the ship goes back in time and gets stuck there with the dinosaurs. Voyager, of a sort.

Geordi still needed a visor, but it actually enhanced his vision and was not, strictly speaking in terms of the definition, a disability. Does that count?

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Hopefully Trek 2017 will take a page from DS9 and give us a good canvas of recurring characters to draw upon, to help build up the universe further. This could include lots of different men, women and others who have their own problems and arcs.

And lets not forget the extras, hopefully the new series decides to show lots of aliens in the background, a crewmember in a hoverchair, even same-sex couples holding hands.

 

[T'Girl]

we're asked to accept that most (if not all) disabilities have been "cured" (for want of a better word) in the Trek future

I've never received the impression that disabilities had been cured, or that this was a part of the future society.

and should (IMO) reflect our own current society

They should be basically us, but living in the future. Our current problems will still be with us, just in a slightly different form.

using a disabled actor

I don't know if this would be a requirement, nuSpock was a straight character, played by a gay man. On the other hand, if we were to have character who had prosthesis limb(s) a actor who was a actual amputee would be one way to go.

how do you introduce someone with a disability where technology can't reduce its impact to being negligible and have that be believable?

If the character is "disabled" then the disability should come with a ongoing impairment of some kind. Otherwise they are just a person who was previously injured.

Star Trek medical science has never been depicted as omni-capable. There would nothing particularly unbelievable about a person in the future being injured to the point where they couldn't be returned to their previous state, or being afflicted with a disease that left permanent damage.

one character included as the token

The construction of all characters is the result of deliberate decisions on the part of TPTB and the actors playing them, how do you feel a disabled character would be a "tolken" while the other characters aren't?

And was Picard, deliberately a older man (older than the actor that played him) in your eyes a "tolken?"

Geordi still needed a visor, but it actually enhanced his vision and was not, strictly speaking in terms of the definition, a disability. Does that count?

LaForge had never ending pain as a consequence of using the visor, that would qualify as a disability.
=

 

[Anji]

The new show should contain whatever characters are needed to support the ongoing plot. There should never be a "token" character on the series...it goes against what Star Trek stands for to begin with.

 

[hux]

The new show should contain whatever characters are needed to support the ongoing plot. There should never be a "token" character on the series...it goes against what Star Trek stands for to begin with.

Doesn't Star Trek stand for diversity? The ongoing plot could probably be supported by an all white, all straight cast. Doesn't mean it should be though.

 

[JWPlatt]

one character included as the token majority

The construction of all characters is the result of deliberate decisions on the part of TPTB and the actors playing them, how do you feel a disabled character would be a "tolken" while the other characters aren't?

You misunderstand. The disabled are not the majority. I don't think STEPhon IT or Chekov's Phaser quite got it either.

And was Picard, deliberately a older man (older than the actor that played him) in your eyes a "tolken?"

'Token' - no 'L.' When I started reading your sentence, I thought you were going to reference Picard's choice to remain bald. Age didn't occur to me. So, no.

 

[T'Girl]

You misunderstand. The disabled are not the majority. I don't think STEPhon IT or Chekov's Phaser quite got it either.

Perhaps you could explain further so that we might understanding.

'Token' - no 'L.'

I admit to the spelling error.

Age didn't occur to me. So, no.

What I meant was Picard was a man in his sixties, the other officer characters were in their twenties and thirties, this (in a way) makes Picard the odd man out. Wouldn't this make Picard a "token" older person?

My position would be no, while there was no requirement that Picard be older, him being so added distinctness. And he being the age that he was might have given older viewers someone they could more readily identify with and enjoy additionally for that reason.

And it would be similar with a disabled character, do they absolutely have to have a disabled person as a part of the cast? Of course not, they could find five white male identical quintuplets to portray the main characters. But this would not be a deliberately diverse crew.

No one is suggesting that this should be done solely so Star Trek can say "Hey lookie, we got us a cripple, pretty dark and edgy huh?"
+

 

[Guy Gardener]

Imagine 5 seasons of the Colonel Green Show.

Hunting down radioactive mutants and genetic feebs to upgrade the species foreverafter.

 

[Shalashaska]

Where is the option for "I don't care"?