Saturday, October 29, 2005

This post is a Mr Sulu 'needing more thrust' joke free zone

NB In keeping with my new hip, trendy image designed to encourage yoof readers, elements of this post will be written in Internet Leet Speak. I will also mention how cool my iPod is at least once


I’m a big Star Trek fan.

I don’t dress up and Lieutenant Uhura and recite Shakespeare in Klingon or anything like that but ever since I saw my first episode I have been hooked. Though my introduction to Star Trek was delayed a little by me thinking that it was something to do with middle class kids on pony holidays and always changing the channel when it was announced (honestly). That would have been when I was about seven.

Anyway, I’m one of those people who believe that certain TV series' contain all of life’s wisdom in their body of work if only you study them enough. Some people swear by Seinfeld, others by the Simpsons but with me it’s Star Trek.

And even as an eight-year-old, the sheer camp tackiness of its production added an additional layer of appeal. Profound, thoughtful scripts combined with hammy over acting and wobbly sets make for a potent combination.

And so, it came as absolutely no surprise to discover this week that Mr Sulu is gay

Of course he is. I don’t recall being so underwhelmed by an outing since Richard Chamberlain was forced out of the closet. The really surprising aspect to most outings is that some people appear to be genuinely shocked by the news. I’m particularly mindful of 70s sex symbol Peter Wyngarde. Peter played a character called Jason King, the undisputed model for Austin Power’s teeth and fashion sense, in two hugely popular TV shows – Department S. and Jason King. I loved all of Wyngarde’s stuff, then and now. It was campy and bizarre and left the Avengers looking grey in comparison. That was until I was old enough to develop a 'thing' for Diana Rigg.

I can still remember my mother’s reaction when Peter Wyngarde was arrested for gross indecency in a public place in 1975.

But he was so sexy. How can he be one of them?

Even as a ten year old my response was ‘quite easily actually’. For the life of me, I was baffled by my mother’s surprise. I’m not claiming to have been a child prodigy when it came to assessing people’s sexuality, it’s just that Jason King was such an astonishingly camptastic old poove that I’d twigged that there was something a little ‘special’ about him even before I knew what being gay involved.

Fortunately, we live in more enlightened times and a minor cottaging conviction is a lot less likely to ruin a brilliant career in the way that it could in the 1970s. Mind you, allowing yourself to be portrayed as a heterosexual sex bomb when you hang around gents toilets for fun and recreation probably isn’t the smartest of moves at the best of times.

Fair play to the mainstream media on their reporting of the Mr Sulu story so far. I have detected absolutely no references to Mr Sulu ‘needing more thrust’ or ‘beaming up other crew members’ in their coverage. That would just be so cheap :)

MP3 of Star Trek – The lost gay Episode. (50undz v3ry k001 0n my iP0d)

‘One of them’. Now there’s an expression you don’t hear used very often these days.

On the subject of people who are a little bit special, anyone who enjoys looking at pictures of middle-aged men dressed in nappies and baby clothes as much as I do will approve of this site here.

W311, 7h3y’r3 n07 h4rming 4ny0n3 4r3 7h3y?

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