10 Times Star Trek: The Next Generation Went Woke

"Gene Roddenberry is going to do it again." That's how then president of Paramount Television Group Mel Harris announced the brand new Star Trek series to the world on Friday 10th October 1986. The following month, Roddenberry was celebrating the 20th anniversary of the franchise at The BASH, a Star Trek convention held in Boston, and so was Original Series, and soon to be Next Generation, writer David Gerrold. In the crowd of fans was Franklin Hummel, co-founder of fan group The Gaylaxian Science Fiction Society (GSFS) of Boston, later the Gaylactic Network and Gaylaxians International.

Hummel proceeded to ask Roddenberry if, given the groundbreaking representation on the bridge of the original Enterprise, there would be a gay character on the new series. According to Gerrold, who was taking notes, Roddenberry gave the following reply:

Sooner or later, we'll have to address the issue. We should probably have a gay character.

Cinefantastique, Vol 23, No 2-3 (Oct. 1992) reported that, during a staff meeting later that year, Roddenberry reiterated his desire to include a gay character on the show, to which producer Robert Justman apparently replied, "What do you want, Lt. Tootie Fruitie?" "No, no, no! Seriously, it is time that we acknowledge this," Roddenberry hit back.

With Roddenberry's support, Gerrold then set about writing a script that would notably include two gay (male) characters as "lovers". Entitled Blood and Fire, the episode was also to serve as an allegory for HIV/AIDS. Gerrold had recently learnt that Michael Minor, illustrator/art director on Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, who was being considered as art director for The Next Generation, was seriously ill with AIDS. Minor sadly passed away at only 46-years-old in May 1987.

Unfortunately, as stated in Cinefantastique and further confirmed in Star Trek: The Next Generation — The Continuing Mission, the memos began to circulate. "People complained the script had blatant homosexual characters," Gerrold recalled. "Rick Berman said we can't do this in an afternoon market in some places. We'll have parents writing letters." Whilst others, like Dorothy Fontana, praised the script, Gerrold was still obliged to rewrite it, and to remove the gay characters. Strangely, and in spite of having sent a few memos himself, Robert Justman changed his tune, reportedly arguing for the gay characters to be put back in, stating, "Why are we afraid of showing gay characters on STAR TREK?" What are we, wusses?" More rewrites followed, but eventually Gerrold, frustrated, just abandoned the idea. He left The Next Generation altogether soon thereafter.

Gerrold did eventually release Blood and Fire in book form in 2003, and his script was rewritten and adapted to the TOS era for the 2008 two-part episode Blood and Fire of fan production Star Trek: Phase II (formerly Star Trek: New Voyages). In that, now Ensign Peter Kirk, nephew of James T., is in a relationship with Lieutenant Alexander Freeman, and the couple are engaged to be married, but not before the Enterprise encounters the Copernicus, a ship infected by 'plasmocytes' which 'transmute' into (Regulan) bloodworms.

All that was bold for a fan production even in 2008. In the late 1980s, Gerrold's original script would have been nothing short of revolutionary for television's 24th century. Ultimately, however, Gene Roddenberry's promise of a more sexually diverse future clashed with the reality, and Star Trek continued to trail behind on gay issues. It would be several years before Trek addressed the HIV/AIDS crisis too.

There is one other episode, The Host, which has sparked multiple reactions and interpretations over the years — from friendly-ish hint at homosexuality to outright homophobic rejection. As per The Next Generation in general, Doctor Crusher's "perhaps, someday, our ability to love won't be so limited" of The Host's final scene marked the deferral of queer potential towards a hypothetically queerer future of a hypothetical future that should have already been queer enough. Far from 'woke' or aware of the issue, The Next Generation forced its gay characters (back) into hiding. For them, and for gay viewers, all the Enterprise-D was a closet.