And now, a for a moment of extreme geekiness:

It's eight o'clock, Saturday night...and I am sitting at home watching Star Trek.  And although this may seem like a completely looserish way to spend my Saturday night, it's actually kinda nice to just sit back and relax like this (especially since I hate cigarette smoke, and Saturday nights at bars are especially smokey). 

And with that lovely intro, here is a Star Trek rant.  (Yes, I admit that I can do these, and I am perfectly confident in my geekiness.) But this rant is not the classis Kirk vs. Piccard argument (and by the way, Piccard is infinately cooler).  Instead, here is the question of a Kiyomi-style Star Trek rant: Does Start Trek have an obligation to stretch and challenge the boundaries of gender and racial roles depicted on television? 

Let's begin.  When Star Trek first came out, it was the first mainstream television show to feature as full-time cast members a Black woman and an Asian American man.  On top of that, one character was also Russian, a fact that is probably lost on many young people now adays, but more notable when the show first came out during the middle of the Cold War.

With these characters, Roddenberry was showing a picture of the future different from that put forth by many of his contempoaries.  Instead of depicting a future where all ethnic minorities have suddenly disappeared, or where white males have managed to maintain their strangle-hold on all positions of power, Rodenberry's future (though unremarkable in 2005) was near revolutionary for its time.

The next Star Trek series to come out was admitedly less notable in the ethnic and sexual make-up of its characters, with the possible exception of casting a woman as the ship's doctor and a Black man as chief engineer.  And all this with the only other Black man on the ship being so done up in makeup that all you could gess was that he was a Klingon who stood a little too close to the sun-lamp.  Indeed, the only recurring Asian American character barely made any appearance, and then she was only the ever-safe Japanese woman married to the white man, and participating in nothing more daring than being the preschool teacher.  For this second series, unfortunately, although it did have some individual good messages from episode to episode, did fall short of the legacy started by George Takei and Nichelle Nichols. 

The third spinoff in the Star Trek series did make a better attempt challenge social ethnic and gender rolls, casting a Black man as the commander of a space station, but again fell short in giving Asian Americans  any notable role besides (again) being the Japanese wife of the white man (incidentally, the same character). 

And while I am not universally opposed to these unions (afterall, I am the product of one, though I think my own parents should never have had children), it does disturb me that the Asian woman and the white man is the only multiethnic pairing widely accepted in America, but still seen as a progressive way for producers and writers to bring minorities into their plotlines.

The only other major character of any shade of color (and we're not counting the blue and green guys), is the doctor, the actor himself being half Middle Eastern.  To note, he is the only regularly occuring multiethnic character I can think of, even though (thinking logically) it'd make sense to see more multiethnic individuals in the future.  I mean, look at what's happening to America now, what do you think it would realistically look like however many centuries from now.

The fourth in the Star Trek series took the role of pushing social stereotypes to a further extent, though at times at the sacrifice of good plotlines or compelling writing.  Asian Americans finally made a comeback, with a Chinese American cast as "Ensign Kim."  I have often wondered why this character had to be Korean, since there is never any reference to that made in the series, but perhaps it was seen that some audience might find Japanese characters hard to believe if not bound in matrimony to a white male, and a Chinese character would be too confusing, as all the Klingon characters seem to also always have Chinese names.

And unfortunately, our Korean male character still seemed to have to go through the series as the quintisential geeky Asian guy.  Good at science and math, but unable to take any real leadership and eternally lost in all matters concerning sexual relations.

Casting of black characters in this series, unfortunately, seems to have turned into more of a joke, with a Black Vulcan called Tuvok (You'd just about expect him to come out with his own rap record.) 

Notably, though, this series finally did cast a Latina character, though being half Klingon, that is made more a point of than the fact that her last name is Torres.

And finally, to the most recent Star Trek show, incidentally taking place before even the original series.  (And let's leave aside any comments about technology showing up in the show or special effects, that's for another geek-out session). 

In this show, we have finally reached a point in our social advancement as to allow an Asian woman to appear in the show in a capacity beyond just being the appendage of a white male.  Just to note, though, a Japanese woman played by a non-Japanese American actress.  My friends tell me I should stop demanding more, and just be pleased with the fact that there are more than zero Asian Americans on television (and we're not counting Chinatown wait staff and prostitutes). 

Be all this as it may, final verdict on the most recent Star Trek series is still pending, though I a still not too impressed.  Perhaps someday, my kid or grandkids will be able to watch a TV show staring a cast that looks like them.  Then again, we can always take my brother's solution to the entire thing.  He plans to marry a white woman and have white kids, then he won't have to worry about then being biased against as minorities, or having no good role models on television.

But in conclusion, Star Trek started out as just a silly show with a side message that tried to make social statements, and over the decades has morphed into a silly show trying to make social statements, to a silly show trying too hard to make social statements, and finally it now seems to a  silly show (period).  Maybe someday we'll be able to have Star Trek Excellsior, and finally let Capt. Sulu back into the limelight.

And in all defense, I don't consider myself a Trekkie.  It's just that growing up, if my parents wanted me to see a positive Asian American role on TV (and they did not consider waiter, prostitute, or beaten wife a positive rolle), they only had so many options.

And now that you've all lost all respect for me, I'll sign off for now.  Bye bye.