#Gene Roddenberry

[twink-gods-and-olive-oil]

I still remember the day I first watched Star Trek and I thought, "Wow, Kirk and Spock would make a really good couple, I wonder if there's anyone who ships them," and then I looked up 'Kirk and Spock' on the Internet and the first thing that came up was the fucking Wikipedia article about the history of slash fiction and that it was Kirk and Spock who invented modern fandom.

#star trek #star trek tos #james t kirk #jim kirk #kirk spock #kirk/spock #captain kirk #spock #tos spock #spirk #k/s #slash #slash fanfiction #fanfic #fanfiction #ao3 #gene roddenberry

[1shirt2shirtredshirtdeadshirt]

Sexism in TOS: Worst Offender, or Progressive in Retrospect in Comparison?

I see a lot of folks claim that TOS was the most sexist of the Star Trek shows by a landslide -- and while I agree that it definitely suffered from the sexism of the times, I also have other perspectives to share to give some food for thought.

I am of course not insinuating that TOS isn't sexist -- it is, but I have to ask folks to consider the breadth and depth of Berman's sexism in his run and ask yourself: Was Gene Roddenberry genuinely more sexist in his storytelling and delivery than Rick Berman?

I'm not telling you to feel one way or the other, but all I ask is that you hear me out and consider some perspectives and make your own balanced assessments. Nobody is obligated to share my opinion, but it means a lot just to have folks hear it and see their thoughts on the subject. So here is what I was originally responding to:

Someone's response to this photo:

"Devil's advocate. This was a part of the popular form of cardio during the production time of TNG. Yes, it was heavily sexualised by men, but so is literally every other way women work out. Men have been caught taking pictures of women while trying to do dead lifts, running on tracks and working on sled machines. They post them online to share too. The fact is, there is no way a woman can be shown working out without it going there. And yeah,t hat includes the combat forms of workout they do in Star Trek. Just look at how Dax dresses when she spars with Worf. Yes, they're dating, but still, same goes when 7 does and any other female.

Aerobics routines like this were made dirty and cringy. This was what women wore then by and large. This is how the workout was done. We make it cringy."

My response to them:

"I respect your take, but I disagree on a few fronts.

The miniskirt was chosen by the TOS female cast, not the male cast, specifically requested by Grace LW and affirmed by Nichelle and Majel who would go on to vehemently defend the miniskirt over the years as comfortable and embraced by them.

Grace said it was comfortable and seen as a symbol of female sexual empowerment during the 60s and thought it would be a progressive garment (and turns out that it was, as it was later adapted and worn by male crew as a skant on TNG) -- FYI those were designed by a gay man and Gene approved them.

This was also supposed to be Spock's TMP outfit:

Literally lingerie.

We saw both Uhura (who saves Kirk in from Marlena Mirror Mirror) and Yeoman Landon (the first to initiate combat with a classic Kirk-esque kick to help the Captain being attacked in The Apple) carry out their combat training in their Starfleet uniforms without ever being made to change into any ridiculous workout gear.

In fact, I'd argue Jim Kirk was sexualized even more than the ladies of the week on the show and I saw his naked body more than anyone else's on a fairly regular basis. He wore red yoga tights while topless in Charlie X while the women wore full length gymnastic suits that covered their entire body. If anything, it went out of its way to avoid sexualizing women practicing fitness in those scenes and instead focused on Kirk.

Gene confessed that he asked to have Shatner filmed in suggestive/provocative ways to "give something to the ladies", so he -- as he said -- liked to "film him walking away" or have him conveniently busting out of his shirts in just about every episode as it were, because Shatner apparently had great assets. LOL

Gene made an effort to at least sexualize both if he was going to sexualize one, and he carried that attitude forward in wanting the m/m and f/f scenes in the background on Risa for TNG. He also insisted that the men and women wear skimpy outfits on THAT TNG planet. You know the one. LOL I mean the dudes even had on less than the women:

Gene also gave permission to K/S shippers to have their conventions back in the 70s when he was asked for permission. Gene and Nimoy felt with all the skimpy outfits they had the ladies wear, why not let the ladies and gay men have their fun, too? It's how we ended up with moments like this:

Yes, those are two people dressed up as Kirk and Spock's penises doing interpretive dance. Gene didn't give two damns. LOL

In my eyes, that was a very progressive take on Gene's part for the 60s. It was actually PARAMOUNT STUDIOS who had the big problem with K/S stories and vehemently tried to shut them down. Gene literally hired slash authors on his payroll and even had several slash stories/writers published in his official Star Trek books (The New Voyages & The New Voyages II).

I feel I saw Uhura and women in TOS engaged in more physical combat/altercations defending themselves that Troi or Bev were shown holding their own.

In fact, Kirk used to get furious when someone would "dress up" his female crew members without their consent (Trelane episode, Shore Leave episode) because like his male crew members, he wanted them to be treated professionally and to also have his male crew act professionally.

Berman brought some of his own personal biases into Star Trek that in some ways regressed it. While TOS had blatant sexism and was called on it time and again, that show was made in the 60s -- a solid 21 years before TNG. We as a modern audience understood why some of it was cringe/sexist due to the time period -- look at any other media coming out in the 60s and Star Trek was miles ahead of what other shows were doing.

Compare that to Berman who was churning sexist stuff out when women like Starbuck and Scully were simultaneously on screen on other programs airing, and we had already had Sigourney Weaver and other strong women in Holywood playing respectful roles.

In my eyes, there was no need of the sexism seen in TNG but especially VOY and ENT. There was no excuse for it when other shows were writing women far better and a number of those weren't even set in the future like Trek was, making it age even faster due to having those dated perspectives frequently highlighted.

In the Center Seat documentary as well as "The Fifty Year Mission" book you will find cast members, writers and other studio alumni who attest to this. Some discussions from "The Fifty Year Mission":

"First, Berman was supposed to have been a real sleaze ball . . . According to Terry Farrel, he would go on constantly about how her breasts weren't big enough, how she should do something about it, and how his secretary was a good example to follow as she had huge breasts. She even had to have fittings to get larger bras, and that was all done at his behest.

Later Berman and Braga developed a name for Jeri Ryan's character prior Seven of Nine. They originally called the character "perineum" which if you look it up it is the area between the anus and the scrotum. Later they floated the name "6 of 9". I mean, what does it tell you about where these two were coming from in the development of this character if they had names like that put forward in all seriousness for her?"

Gene Roddenberry also had some of his own more progressive ideas for TNG cut or watered down by Berman. Roddenberry agreed TNG should have homosexual relationships and representation at a con in the 80s and insisted on it in a meeting with his writers -- something Berman later would not honor. Gene wanted the AIDS episode, showing m/m and f/f in the Riza scenes -- these were some of Roddenberry's requests to include in TNG that Berman later stonewalled.

Berman's era was sadly dated by his own misogynist bias, IMO, to the point that it can somewhat hurt the shows he worked on through his cringe egoism and blatant disrespect toward his female cast.

There is a reason why Gene could keep female actresses working with him and Berman had a revolving door of women that he couldn't seem to keep working for him -- he was abhorrent to women, on and off set. Gene wasn't perfect at all, he had a lot of issues himself -- but Berman was a whole other level. Just look at what he did to poor Jolene Blalock, Marina Sirtis and his toxic commenting on her body weight which exacerbated her struggles with eating disorders, or how he treated and talked to Terry Farrell.

Anyway, just some food for thought. I'm not saying anyone is wrong regarding a take like that, but there are a variety of ways to look at this. Gene Roddenberry isn't a saint by any means, but it definitely bothers me how folks will tote the Berman era as if it were the lesser of two evils or the more progressive depiction of women when I felt there were far more concerning portrayals of women in his era with far less justification.

(P.S: I don't event want to go near the sheer amount of "creepy old dude/villain preys on innocent/naïve/scared young woman or little girl" stories there were in Berman's era, either. But that's a whole other can of worms I can write about in a part 2.)

#star trek #star trek tos #star trek tng #star trek voy #star trek ent #star trek ds9 was the one show that went above and beyond #1shirt2shirtredshirtdeadshirt #oc #octrekmeta #octrek #gene roddenberry #rick berman #brannon braga #kirk #spock #uhura #rand #nichelle nichols #majel barrett #grace lee whitney #tos #tng #voy #ent #marina sirtis #jolene blalock #terry farrell

[scarletwitchie2]

not may art

Roddenberry FB

Art by REVO-COLLAGE on deviant art.

#art #gene roddenberry #BlackHistoryMonth #star trek

[thaern]

Thanks Star trek, it wasn't like if i'm felling ok lately. But it was necessary that it was about him visiting Jim's grave?

#star trek #spock #star trek tos #spirk #jim kirk #star trek the original series #gene roddenberry #Video on the notes

[humanoidhistory]

Icons of Star Trek attend the unveiling of the Space Shuttle Enterprise in Palmdale, California, 1976.

#star trek #space #star trek day #history #sci-fi #nasa #space shuttle #gene roddenberry

[spirk-trek]

S3E16: The Mark of Gideon ⋆.˚ ✧ · ˚⊹

#i don't think people like these that much but theyre soooo fun to put together #oh well #sorry if they bug anyone #titlecard #star trek #spock #star trek tos #captain kirk #the original series #tos #star trek the original series #the mark of gideon #aesthetic #spirk #william shatner #television #retrofuturism #scifi #science fiction #sci fi #leonard nimoy #1960s #gene roddenberry

[frogayyyy]

hello????

#have i seen this before #idk but going insane #because they did!!! they still do!!!! #i see spock learning to let go of his internalised shame and i think hey maybe i can do that too #gene roddenberry #spirk #quotes

[june2734]

#star trek #star trek tng #tng #deep space 9 #star trek voyager #star trek discovery #star trek picard #gene roddenberry

[your-name-is-jim]

Interviewer: Are you very fond of Alexander? Gene Roddenberry: As a matter of fact, I am. I have Mary Renault's new Oxford book―in fact, I'd have everything in the bookstores a few years ago. Passionate admirer of Alexander. Passionate man. [...] Interviewer: There's a great deal of writing in the STAR TREK movement now which compares the relationship between Alexander and Hephaistion to the relationship between Kirk and Spock―focusing on the closeness of the friendship, the feeling that they would die for one another― Gene Roddenberry: Yes. There's certainly some of that with―certainly with love overtones. Deep love. The only difference being, the Greek ideal―we never suggested in the series―physical love between the two. But it's the―we certainly had the feeling the affection was sufficient for that, if that were the particular style in the 23rd Century. [He looks thoughtful] That's very interesting. I never thought of that before. [From Shatner: Where No Man (1979)]

Sooo I watched the new docuseries Alexander: The Making of a God and I was hit by indirect Kirk/Spock feelings because I remembered this interview. And of course I had to make a gifset about it. :)

#spirk #alexander x hephaestion #star trek tos #alexander: the making of a god #star trek the original series #james t. kirk #spock #k/s #kirk x spock #space husbands #alexander the making of a god #alexander the great #hephaestion #my gifs #hephaistion #alexander x hephaistion #gene roddenberry

[electronickingdomfox]

From Roddenberry's first "writers guide" for TOS:

As if there was any doubt that for McCoy and Spock, bickering=love. This was there from the very beginning, even at this stage when characters were hardly developed.

#star trek tos #leonard mccoy #spock #gene roddenberry

[1shirt2shirtredshirtdeadshirt]

Today on popping the corn and feeding the children, what do you folks think of this discussion? :)

I'm always curious to hear what other Trek fans, especially queer Trek fans, think about our place in Trek history and how we fare as the queer participants within our fandom. What have your experiences been like?

Overwhelmingly I've found a great reception and a welcoming attitude, but I admit that has increased considerably since the 90s. However, there are still some Trek fans who seem to be vehemently in denial about queer history in Star Trek, or the fact that anyone who has worked on Trek has pro-LGBT attitudes. This always surprises me considering some of the blatant queer content we have already seen in Star Trek such as the Jadzia Dax and Lenara Kahn kiss.

Anyway, I enjoyed the discussion that followed and seeing the overwhelming outpouring of support coming from Star Trek fans in response to this thread.

Here was my two cents contribution:

"No, what they said was factual.

Have you forgotten Nichelle Nichols was indeed an African American woman in the core seven bridge crew back in 1966?

Or the fact that Gene Roddenberry went out of his way to write The Motion Picture Novel, creating the term "T'hy'la: friend, brother, lover" so that fans could choose which interpretations of Kirk and Spock they saw fit? He also embraced K/S fans and hired a number of them to write the earliest Star Trek novels, including the very first official one (The New Voyages Vol. 1 & 2) which included slash fiction as well as Gene's approval/forward in the books.

In case anyone has forgotten, here's a little bit of background on Gene Roddenberry and his perspectives on queerness in Star Trek.

He admitted that in his early life he was very affected by how society and culture treated the LGBT community, and that he too found himself subjugating and judging others for that lifestyle because it was what people did at that time. As he got older and had more life experience, he began working with a number of queer artists in Hollywood -- and through TOS, a number of queer individuals began asking questions about Kirk and Spock.

Instead of vehemently shutting down this perspective, Roddenberry was intrigued, and saw potential to tap into a large audience (LGBT) that most others didn't want to go near or acknowledge publicity-wise. He saw it as an opportunity to expand the fanbase while also pushing yet another envelope.

But with the heat already on the show for what they'd already pushed, he found he was often stuck between what he'd like to do and what production would let him get away with. There are a number of Kirk and Spock scenes in scripts that got cut out for leaning a little too obviously romantic. Tiny trickles of that content still made it in were infamous moments like the backrub scene in Shore Leave. Even the 2009 movie had a K/S moment while Spock Prime and Kelvin Spock talked that was written and filmed that was cut out of the final product.

Queer subtext and coding has always been relentlessly weeded away at with an excuse ready to go for why they always try to cut us out, but we all know it's because they are scared of the homophobic backlash and ratings hits. Look how violently homophobes went after the gay romance episode of The Last of Us **just this year**. This has always been our reality, so for someone like Roddenberry to make efforts in the 70s? That was massive.

But Gene as well as the queer/slash Trek community managed to accomplish some things in the 70s which I'm surprised more folks don't talk about or give much credit.

In the same TMP novel which features "T'hy'la" and the famous footnote, Gene cleverly wrote Kirk with a bisexual/pansexual lens: Kirk describes himself as *preferring* women but being open to "physical love in **any** of its many Earthly, alien, and mixed forms." (Direct quote from Genes book). Basically, Captain Kirk was DTF with whoever if there was a connection, which was a very progressive take for a character in a novel written in 1979, but made sense for the future which would have a lot less hang ups about sex and love compared to our current rather puritan/conservative society.

I also prefer women, but I married a man. Shout out to Gene Roddenberry for giving us a seat at the table back in the 70's when folks *still* try to insist there is no place for K/S or queer concepts in Trek, because he made efforts -- however small -- to employ queer people and show queer perspectives. According to David Gerrold, LGBT+ representation was a big thing that Gene personally pushed for in TNG and wanted various depictions of love/couples in the Risa scenes, to name one example.

In the 70s, fanzines led to meetings and swapped fanmade magazines, which got so big that they needed hotel centers, then convention centers, then one day the TOS cast came to one and what we know as modern fan conventions were born -- inspiring even George Lucas who attended Trek conventions in the 70s and saw how popular Trek was in syndication; it was a great climate to launch his Space Opera. Star Wars then became so huge that we got TMP.

But none of that would have happened without the level of organization, passion, and creativity that those fans poured into Star Trek and their characters after it got cancelled and went into syndication.

Without queer folks we wouldn't have George Takei, Theodore Sturgeon who gave us Tribbles, Bill Theiss and his amazing TOS costumes, Mike Minor's art direction, Merritt Butrick, David Gerrold (writer for TOS, TAS, TNG) to name a few of many queer contributors to Trek that Roddenberry respected and tried to go to bat for wherever he could in a climate that was absolutely impossible to gain an inch in.

At a time during the 70s and 80s when so many people resented and feared the queer community and wanted us to disappear, especially in the 80s during the AIDS epidemic which many homophobes claimed was "God's punishment to the gay community" or "Gods's answer" to our "hedonism", thinking we'd gotten our just desserts and should just disappear . . .

During that time, Gene Roddenberry gave us queer folks a place to say: "You know what? Sure. Write your stories. TV says you guys shouldn't exist, they pull books with queer people off the shelves and burn them. Laws exist specifically to forbid you guys from loving each other, and call you mentally ill. You can't even hold hands in public. But I'm going to validate you guys and invite you to write novels or work for me, try to see what we can get by production, and allow you to see yourselves in my characters if you want to. There's a place for you in our fandom."

He gave us bi/pan Kirk, he gave us K/S is open to interpretation. In Phase 2 Kirk's surviving nephew Peter, son of his brother Sam from Operation: Annihilate!, was going to be written as gay and living on the Enterprise with his partner -- that also got chopped and reworked into a script that wouldn't get used until decades later. That was huge at a time that being queer was officially listed as a mental illness, and villainized due to the AIDS crisis.

So before you try to dismiss or tell K/S + queer Trek fans whether or not they deserve a seat at the table, remember that Gene Roddenberry was among the **first** to pull that seat out for us in a climate that was ruthlessly against LGBT+ folks." -- 1Shirt2ShirtRedShirtDeadShirt

P.S: Have some cute bisexual/pansexual K/S pride gifs. :) Pride month is a hop, skip and a jump away.

LLAP!🖖💚

#1shirt2shirtredshirtdeadshirt #long ass post #lgbt #lgbt+ #star trek #queer trek #star trek tos #gene roddenberry #lgbtqia #lgbtqia+ #bisexuality #pansexuality #pride month #spirk #tos #spock #kirk/spock #kirkxspock #kirk x spock #queer history #queer art #queer representation #jim kirk #kirk #mr. spock #star trek conventions #trekkies #octrek #octrekmeta #ocspirk

[hyperizzation]

the virgin showrunner: waaa waaa these characters ARENT gay they weren’t WRITTEN as gay and they’ll never ever ever be gay!!!!

the chad showrunner:

#spirk sweep #spirk #star trek tos #tos #star trek #spock #spock/kirk #jim kirk #gene roddenberry #paramount+

[filmjunky-99]

s t a r t r e k t h e n e x t g e n e r a t i o n created by gene roddenberry [a fistful of datas, s6ep8] 'Worf Feeling the Part'

#star trek #star trek the next generation #the next generation #gene roddenberry #tng season 6 #the next generation season 6 #tng a fistful of datas #a fistful of datas #lot: st tng season 6 ep 8/26 (ep 134/178) #michael dorn #worf #Worf Feeling the Part

[vulgarvulcan]

i adore in fics when people find out about julian’s enhancements and then julian lets down his guard and people can see an actual a change, like suddenly there’s something unfamiliar about him? something much deeper and mature? not because everything about julian before the revelation has been a SHAM or anything, i just like the idea of all these intelligent people having totally underestimated julian, the young, naive doctor, when really julian’s been one step ahead of them the whole time, letting them see him a certain way. the concept of others finally getting to see they had the wrong idea, especially back when they sort of saw julian as somewhat less than, the whole time. it’s about that moment of oh. he’s been the smartest guy in the room the whole time. them suddenly not seeing naivety, but seeing power. that. i like that.

#i guess this is another moment of me kinning julian a little too hard #i would love a moment like that #like oh. we had no idea did we #only i’m too much of a) an oversharer and b) a dumbass #julian bashir #star trek ds9 #alexander siddig #star trek deep space nine #st: ds9 #doctor bashir i presume #augment #star trek deep space 9 #genetic engineering #star trek #ds9 #trekkies #fanfiction #doctor bashir #gene roddenberry #garashir #fanfic #headcanons

[noxequusart]

"Forever in Space"

On January 8, 2024 an American moon lander Peregrine was launched into space, it was supposed to reach the moon’s surface. Besides scientific equipment on board Peregrine was biomatter (DNA and human remains) of 70 people, among them were those of the first “Star Trek” series’ actors. It was the creator of “Star Trek” Gene Roddenbury, along with his wife Majel Barrett who played nurse Chapel, as well as actors Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan and DeForest Kelley, who played Lt Uhura, Chief Engineer Scott and Dr McCoy respectively. Even though the mission wasn’t successful and the lander didn’t reach the moon, one could say that the actors and the creator of the series stayed in space forever.

With my great love❤️

#star trek tos #Star trek #gene roddenberry #nichelle nichols #deforest kelley #james doohan #majel barrett #lieutenant uhura #scotty tos #montgomery scott #doctor mccoy #leonard bones mccoy #nurse chapel #Peregrine #Space #Illustration #Art #Portraits #the original series #Mccoy

[niccoguedes]

This is the USS Enterprise.

#Not participating fully on #pleinairpril2023 #but decided to post some. :) #uss enterprise #starship #star trek tos #star trek tos fanart #hazeilus #star trek fanart #space art #space science #brazilian artist #background art #visual development #visual design #space #the final frontier #kirk fanart #gene roddenberry