Alright, this is just getting out of hand. Shields up, red alert, because we have some major lunacy occurring regarding the lead up to the new Star Trek film, ‘Star Trek Beyond’. In the past few days, it’s been revealed by actor John Cho, who plays the younger version of Hikaru Sulu, that in the latest incarnation of Trek films his character will be revealed as being gay. OK, great. Got it. Not an issue. However, not so fast when one factors in the extremism of social media.
Since that admission, this tidbit about his character has unleashed a box far greater than Pandora’s and instead of going away, more people/fans keep chiming in as to whether or not it’s acceptable or unacceptable for an original series character to prefer males to females. It has literally become obsessive to the nth degree. Don’t believe me, check out my screen-grab from tonight, after I did a search on Google for anything related to Star Trek Beyond “news”:
Everyone from Star Trek Beyond co-writer/co-star Simon Pegg, Zachary Quinto (Spock), and especially George Takei (original Sulu), have debated whether this development is OK in the Star Trek universe. Mind you, this isn’t even factoring in the explosion of talk-backs that have shown up on Facebook, Twitter, etc- Good grief!
At this point, I not only don’t care anymore, I’m quite frankly sick of hearing about it every turn in regards to the film that will be out in less than 2 freaking weeks… And that’s the main issue I have: why are we hearing more about Sulu’s sexual orientation, and not about whether the bloody film itself is even halfway decent??
More importantly, in case anyone wasn’t aware, it just premiered down under, in Sydney, Australia. So with that, I would have thought by now there would be ample amounts of leaks in terms of how well it was or wasn’t received by audiences out that way. But nope, and why? Because “Sulu-Mania” has taken over the news cycle for this 3rd entry into the rebooted Star Trek film series.
Additionally, I did find it somewhat hilarious that Pegg and Cho had mentioned they didn’t want this news politicized, and yet damn, nice try! It’s being debated, politicized, fantasized, and the horse is dead at this point. Get on with the show I say…Who wants to walk into a film they’d been really looking forward to filled with all of this back and forth over the concept of a gay Sulu? In my humble opinion, it begins to overshadow the actual movie, and remaining characters themselves– That isn’t to say it isn’t positive news a character in Trek lore has been established as gay. If anything, I’m more surprised it’s taken this long since Trek has always prided itself on depicting a future where everyone gets along, and celebrates their similarities, and even better, their differences!
Regardless, my issues don’t stem from having one iota of a problem with those that have one sexual orientation over the other so don’t take this column as anti-gay/lesbian, etc. I’m the farthest thing from that. However, there comes a point where one says “enough already!”, and you’d prefer the focus on a given subject matter to move on, not look back, and concern itself more with (in this case) are fans going to get a heckuva Star Trek film, or will it be a disappointment? Seriously people, has anyone seen the film? Does it recapture some of the Original Series charm? Is it formulaic? Is there too much action? After all of this laser focus on Sulu’s matters I’d be down for some uber spoilers at this point.
Hopefully by the time the film is released in North America (July 22nd), and elsewhere, there’s more of a discussion as how Justin Lin’s Star Trek Beyond succeeded or failed as a motion picture, along with how it stacks up to previous Star Trek flicks. Nuff said! 🙂
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