#queering of star trek

[tuttle-did-it]

Fascinating. Odo always came off to me as aro/ace as he was so insistent in the earlier years that he just couldn't comprehend why anyone would be romantically or physically involved. There's always room along various spectrums to move, so it's fine that Odo changed, but he did seem genuinely baffled why anyone would bother with any of that.

And I certainly would have liked to see agender/nonbinary variations of Odo, I always found it very strange that Odo could be any gender representation possible, and just chose to have the same face and body every day. Which, as an agender/non-binary trans person, I find baffling.

Would have much preferred Jadzia and her bi/pan more highlighted. (Especially as the reason given for her and Lenara unable to be together was because of Trill rules that hosts can't carry lives/relationships you had in previous lives (which honestly seems like the stupidest rule I can think of). That made zero sense, because Sisko already knew her as Curzon. But at least they didn't kill Lenara, especially as this particular era was so heavy on the Bury Your Queers trope. So... good job? I guess? But still, it didn't make sense. Especially because the first thing Ezri does is go to DS9 where Jadzia's former husband and all her best friends live? That was baffling to me.)

I would have also wanted to see more of Jadzia and gender perormativity/genderfuck. As a young queer person watching her as I grew up, Jadzia was the first trans-coded character I saw on television who was not a JOKE or comic character. (you guys know how much I love Klinger. But they invented him for a joke. And you know I love Bugs, but again, he was a comic character and the joke was that he wore dresses often. I loved them both. But they were invented as a joke.)

Having someone whose sexuality and gender representation were a NOT jokes was a huge deal to me. And that all of Jadzia's friends just totally accepted her without question, and how easily she could just say 'when I was a man....' without anyone trying to murder her was actually huge. ESPECIALLY considering how many shows I saw as a kid had a trans coded/gender queer/gender non-conforming/person in drag were shown as psychopaths and murderers in police procedurals and crime shows. So Jadzia, as a trans-coded character, was a HUGE deal to me. And thank you Terry Farrell for leaning into that and often talking about how much that means to her on a personal level when queer/enby/trans people talk to her and tell her how important Jadzia was.

Garak/Bashir... I love, LOVE their relationship. One of my favourite relationships in most of the TV i've seen. I wouldn't have minded if it had just been confirmed casually. Even if they had an open relationship, just a casual acknowledgement (probably from Bashir).

Or, you know... NOT had them attempt to pretend Garak (in his 50s) is in a flirtation/question situationship with Ziyal (who is still or barely out of being a teenager-- and the daugher of someone he hates). That was... yeah. Didn't work for me. What that felt like to me was the Powers That Be became annoyed at how many fans were convinced Bashir and Garak were lovers, so they ordered the writers to try to break that up by bringing in a teenage/very young Cardassian woman.

If he and Bashir adopted her or something, I would have hated it less. But that relationship-- even if read on a friendship level where she has a crush and he's like no I am way to old for you also my husband will mind.

Ziyal should have been connected with Jake. He's a writer, she's an artist. They would have made so much more sense than trying to suggest that Ziyal and Garak were even remotely possible.

I would have also hoped more of the O'Brien polycule would have been addressed. Because the polycule is one of my absolute favourite things about DS9.

(I don't mean any of this to be hateful or negative. I love DS9. But I still do have a few thoughts about it all. DS9 was certainly the queerest of the Treks-- and as queer (in many ways) watching, it had a huge impact on me. So I'm grateful for what I did get. Thank you. )

Finished DS9 recently, and it's the first trek i've watched. Super obsessed with it btw. If you had written this more recently, would you have tried to have characters be canonically gay/bisexual/lesbian? If so, who? (You're probably going to say Garak and Bashir and I know it)

Just to avoid expectations...

Dax is canonically bi, so nowadays, we'd definitely play into that more.

Also, given his nature, Odo should be pan. I don't think the Founders actually have gender. They only pretend to when they find it useful.

I honestly love the Bashir/Garak dynamic so much, I don't know if I'd really want to change it. Maybe we'd be more overt. But Garak doesn't really do "overt," and that's part of his charm.

[virovirokun-has-adhd]

[our-queer-experience]

[havi-fart]

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH YAAYYYY

to fight my artblock i decided to redraw some gerard p donelan comics as ds9. but once i started i could not stop....

so heres all deep space 9 of them. lol. again the poses and captions are lifted straight from his comics all i did was put space guys on there! please enjoy

(id in alt text btw!)

[dustykneed]

survival is an act of rebellion. jim loves you SO MUCH. i hope this finds all of us who need it today. please stay alive so we can make it out together. sending so much love and strength

[hornyverymuch]

happy pride to these two for saying the gayest shit almost 60 years ago on television and singlehandedly inventing slash fiction

[notruevampire]

[homoquartz]

a show doesn't necessarily have to be ABOUT queerness to BE a queer show. it's a cultural dialect that cishets don't quite speak.

edit: i gotta clarify that the shows do indeed still have to have actual queer characters in them to count

[gremlin-pattie]

“why do mlm ships always have one blond guy and one guy with dark hair?” well you see, it all started back in 1966 when a new sci-fi show premiered on NBC—

[zenosanalytic]

You can really tell how transgressive TOS Kirk and Spock's relationship is from the reflexive need of contemporary "remakes" to inject antagonism into it.

That friction and contention just flat-out isn't there in the original. Jim and Spock are just always listening to one another, and trying to understand each other(often succeeding), and admiring one another, and that makes SO MANY straight men deeply, Deeply Nervous.

[rainbowresurrection]

So glad people are talking more and more about Spock getting aggressively hetwashed bc this has been bothering me BADLY for at least twelve years now and as long as people keep talking about it maybe future generations will be less welcoming of this characterization of our misfit Mr Spock

[emptyjunior]

im trying out a new character it's called guy who won't shut up about a children's dog show and the bit is i Never stop playing the character

[bulbabutt]

don can't sleep and needs a second opinion. good thing raphie's always there and knows exactly how to help

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[wizardinahole]

Everyone say thank you Andy Robinson and Alexander Siddig

[fun-fact-generator-3000]

I think it is very important for new Star Trek fans, especially new TOS fans to know that in 2008, George Takei, who played Sulu, got married to his partner of 23 years, Brad Altman, and at their wedding, Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura, and Walter Koenig, who played Chekov, served as Best Lady and Best Man.

[loislaina]