George Takei To Play Star Trek's Sulu Again

Tycoon Guy writes "TrekToday reports that George Takei has agreed to play Hikaru Sulu in an upcoming episode of the fan series Star Trek: New Voyages. He's the second actor from the original Star Trek series to come onboard; another episode will feature Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov. And here's what really makes this news great: Takei's episode will be written by none other than David Gerrold, the SF writer who also brought us Star Trek's Tribbles."

Comments

Good for the Fanbase

[Ardeocalidus]

I think its great that some of the original cast members are willing to act in a internet fan-based series.

A) It keeps the community alive and series continuity going

B) Its just a good feeling that the older actors are willing to go back after all this time. Its a warm, fuzzy feeling.

Re:holy underwhelming

[hey!]

Well, TV in the sixties was commonly referred to as a critical wasteland. Granted a 60s series have stood the test of time, like The Prisoner and The Twilight Zone, but for the most part TV was commercial pablum: artistically slapdash and creatively timid.

What made TOS standout was its aspriations. It wasn't an apparatus designd to make money with minimal risk, it was a labor of love. As such things are it was more than occasionally a bit embarassing but there at least was no question that each and every episode had deep significance to someone at least.

When Roddenberry died, the franchise lost its soul, and became an imitation of itself. It went all calculatd and post-modern, constantly self-aware of itself as a medium. TOS on the other hand was authentic; it was sincere and earnest to the point of painfulness. Case in point: later series used sex appeal, dressing their anatomically improbable female stars in cat suits to appeal to a young male demographic. When Roddenberry dressed Yeoman Rand in a skirt that wouldn't have made a decent dinner napkin, he was making an true sincere and un-selfconsious statement. TOS didn't try to be sexy, it was sexy. It practically raised sexiness to the level of a personal philosophy.

TOS embodied an authentic personal vision of a future of complete liberation: political, economic, gender role and of sexual. Maybe it's naive; maybe it's unacheivable; but it's worse to have no vision.

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream.... It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim is sin.

-Benjamin Elijah Mays

A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's heaven for?

-Robert Brownin

g

Re:Takei is gay

[zakezuke]

Star Trek shouldn't be applauded because they unknowingly had a gay helmsman, they should be remember for the other civil rights movement, such as having a character Uhura on board.

What makes me sad is the fact the people have pointed this out... because I never gave it a second thought. I guess it's actually important... the simple fact that they bought all these people together in a situation where it simply was no big deal.

This is a tad off topic but I recently watched the Warner Brothers banned 11 cartoons. Some of these I actually saw as a kid living in the south... and at the time I would have seen them I had no idea they were attempting to poke fun at african americans... I just assumed there were cool cats and cool dogs in a city called Harlem who were big on skat and jazz. Watching them now makes me feel rather ill. I had to ask my self whether I wanted to archive them or not... but without things like this... big names in Warner Brother's animation... creating these strongly racist cartoons because it again was "no big deal"... without these things people like Martin Luther King, Jr. would have had nothing to complain about... and women like Whoopi Goldberg who grew up with Sherly Temple reruns wouldn't have been excited to see Star Trek and exclaim, "Momma, there's a black lady on tv... and she ain't no maid".

So yes... I feel ashamed when I have to think about the fact that "I love Lucy" of all things was groundbreaking... a mixed marriage between I presume an Irish Catholic and a Cuban-born musician. I feel even more ashamed when I have to think about the fact that Star Trek featured the first African American woman who wasn't a maid. But I can feel some pride in the fact that much was accomplished over a period of 40 years... though i'll be another 40 years before we as a people trully understand that we share a planet.