I don't really care too much about the content of these things, but I do feel a sense of nostalgia for being a Star Trek watching kid.
To Be Takei
- Thread starter HaplessCrewman
- Start date
I find it impossible to believe that Shatner would not recognize Sulu from one of the stagehands, as was said upthread...impossible...I also was a Kool-aid drinker from way back on the harmonious state of My Star Trek Family...sadly, not to be, as I read the Auto/Biographies of the cast...but it turns out it did not matter...and Shatner and Sulu were INTEGRAL parts of that family, however functional or disfunctional...I think it is beyond any of us to judge and jury them...like them, don't like them?...ok...but that is all...remember what we are here for...what this forum has to do with...they are ours and we are theirs...sappy?...you betcha...true?...beyond a shadow of a doubt...
...may we all Live Long and Prosper...
...may we all Live Long and Prosper...
They don't have to be a family. They are just a bunch of actors who got a three year gig that 50 years later they cannot escape from and have had to embrace.
HAH, good catch there.
Frankly, I blame Voyager (specifically, Janeway's repeated insistence) for generating the idea that a Trek cast must be a family. TNG was a bunch of professionals who got together and then grew close because of all that work; conversely, DS9 and ENT were a group that got together to work, and while they're not as close as other casts, they're still on good terms with each other. But they're not family, either -- they don't consistently party together or cook together or go to their kids' birthdays together like the other casts; and that is perfectly fine. Don't force social situations just to appease fans.
I like keeping work and friends and family in different circles. Sometimes they intersect sure, especially after long periods of time, but only because those relationships are forged naturally, not thrust upon us by some brand or force. And family, like many terms, brings a particular set of connotations.
When announcing he had a procedure to his skin on his face, 'ol George said the bandage was not the result of his husband hitting him. Apparently that's his questionable taste commentary on the current NFL domestic violence epidemic. 
Like my wife says to me on occasion, "you think you are so funny."
Like my wife says to me on occasion, "you think you are so funny."
Wow. Where's the hostility from, bro?
I was referring to "boring ass drones that pass for celebrities", not "working actors".
Now, reread my post and see if you feel better about it.
Jeez.
Has anyone in Canada seen this - and if so, where? Thanks.
I have not seen it, but it looks like the last Canadian showing on the schedule was ten days ago at the Sudbury film festival. However, it appears the DVD is scheduled to be released in just under two weeks, so you should be able to see it that way, if you're interested.
My problem with these things boils down to a simple question: "What is there left to say?"
I'm not denigrating Takei or saying that his life story isn't interesting or that he doesn't have the right to talk about it (or anything else from his life/career for that matter). But those of us in the fandom have heard these stories thousands of times already, and people outside fandom probably aren't going to care either way. So it ultimately becomes an exercise in pointlessness.
Same applies to Shatner, Nimoy, Nichols, any of them. Unless there's some big 'smoking gun' revelation we haven't heard yet, then there's only so many times we can hear the same old stories before our eyes glaze over. There's a point where we just lose interest.
I'm not denigrating Takei or saying that his life story isn't interesting or that he doesn't have the right to talk about it (or anything else from his life/career for that matter). But those of us in the fandom have heard these stories thousands of times already, and people outside fandom probably aren't going to care either way. So it ultimately becomes an exercise in pointlessness.
Same applies to Shatner, Nimoy, Nichols, any of them. Unless there's some big 'smoking gun' revelation we haven't heard yet, then there's only so many times we can hear the same old stories before our eyes glaze over. There's a point where we just lose interest.
Thanks, I'll keep an eye out for it.
My problem with these things boils down to a simple question: "What is there left to say?"
I'm not denigrating Takei or saying that his life story isn't interesting or that he doesn't have the right to talk about it (or anything else from his life/career for that matter). But those of us in the fandom have heard these stories thousands of times already, and people outside fandom probably aren't going to care either way. So it ultimately becomes an exercise in pointlessness.
Same applies to Shatner, Nimoy, Nichols, any of them. Unless there's some big 'smoking gun' revelation we haven't heard yet, then there's only so many times we can hear the same old stories before our eyes glaze over. There's a point where we just lose interest.
The thing is, what we in Trek fandom have heard a million times, non-Trekkies haven't. The majority of people in the audience when I went to go see it were politically active in Asian American and/or LGBTQ issues, and that's why so little of the doc was actually focused on Takei's Trek history -- much of the audience had a cursory knowledge of Trek, but nothing nearly as extensive as your average TrekBBS member. His struggles in being an Asian American actor when Asians were being typecast as servants or villains, his visiblity as a gay activist, and his newfound fame are typically overshadowed at Trek conventions with anecdotes and stories and trivia, but are discussed in depth in the lecture circuit; even more, those three components are usually divided up depending on the venue -- he's less likely to talk about his Asian heritage in an LGBTQ talk, and vice versa, but there's also some sort of intersectionality there by virtue of his existence. For one thing, very few people on this board were aware that his musical about Japanese internment is going to Broadway, which the last 1/4th of the doc covers -- but go to a popular Asian American blog news site and there'll be more frequent updates about its status.
If there's one thing I've learned from lectures, it's not to assume that many things are "common" knowledge. I'm always surprised about that whenever I meet someone who's never heard of Star Trek. And honestly, it can apply to any cast member, not just Takei. Nimoy can talk about facets of his life and career that we normally don't think about; Shatner can indulge us with stories about his world travels or his career resurgence during Boston Legal. And that is okay -- those are things not normally discussed at conventions, at least not with the majority of time during their appearances, especially when the speaker is in their 70s and 80s and with much more worldly, nuanced, personal knowledge than we can expect.