2022 Issue 5 Sept/Oct Focus - Mid-South magazine

fan for many years now,
starting out with The Next
Generation (TNG), and
then moving on to Deep
Space Nine, Voyager, and
more recently Enterprise
and Discovery. (Still, I
guess I’m what you would
call a late bloomer since
I didn’t come around to
the show until my late
20’s. But surely the queer
community will forgive me,
as we are very well-versed
with such phenomena. It
just takes some of us longer
to figure it out, okay!) I’ve
also been meaning to start
Picard as well, which picks
back up the characters
and narratives from TNG
and other Trek universes
around that same timeline.
While it hasn’t gotten very
good reviews from fans, the
character Seven of Nine, a
former Borg drone from the
Voyager series, is apparently
in a gay relationship in it, so
I’m in. That’s all it takes, two
women kissing on screen.
The narratives and
characters from Star Trek
may be from the future or
about an alien race, but,
don’t forget, they were
written by us, humble
humans, in the recent past
and now. These stories
are hopeful; they portray
a society and a world that
could be—one of tolerance,
integrity, abundance,
diversity, and equality.
In fact, just yesterday I
rewatched the last episode
of TNG Season 1 called “The
Neutral Zone” in which
the crew of the Enterprise
rescue three “ancient”
humans from cryogenic
stasis in a damaged space
capsule. The humans had
been frozen just at the
end of the 20th century,
and were shocked to find
themselves in the 24th
aboard a starship once
Siri Eroom as TNG's Geordi La Forge
Shelby County Star Trek Day celebration, 2022
they thawed. Among the
three humans is a wealthy
man who had himself
frozen right after he died
in hopes that his heart
condition would be curable
in the future. He’s what you
might call a stereotypical
capitalist—a businessman
whose entire identity is
wrapped up in making
and hoarding wealth. He
is assured that his law firm
is still operating, that a
pile of money is waiting
for him. He demands to
see the man in charge (the
captain)! He demands a
phone so that he may call
his bank to check on his
“substantial portfolio.”
He demands a copy of
the Wall Street Journal
so that he might see how
much his investments are
worth. However, all of this—
banks, law firms, individual
wealth—has become
completely obsolete by this
time in the future.
In a confrontation with
this entitled character, after
his repeated demands,
Captain Picard retorts “A
lot has changed in the
past 300 years. People
are no longer obsessed
with the accumulation of
things. We’ve eliminated
hunger, want, the need
for possessions. We’ve
grown out of our infancy.”
Additionally, earlier in the
episode, Commander Riker
corrects this man who
assumes he has woken
aboard an American ship.
Riker informs him that this
is a Federation ship, that
Earth is one of many planets
in a United Federation,
a federation composed
of many different types
of humans, species, and
cultures. This is one of the
first clues we get that hints
at what life on Earth looks
like in this sci-fi future.
Although Star Trek almost
exclusively takes place
out in space, on planets
far away from Earth, the
backdrop to the show,
the context that makes
their space travel and
multi-species inclusivity
possible, is that capitalism
has died. Similarly, our
emancipation, our hopeful
futures, our chance to
inhabit alternative queer
lives and stories is tied to
our material circumstances.
This is my way of telling
folks that queer liberation is
wrapped up with all of the
other injustices that plague
our planet— we must fight
together. The systems within
our society that propagate
homophobia align with
those that generate and
proliferate racism, poverty,
ableism, transphobia and
all the other inequities that
afflict our communities and
our planet. How might we
work together to dream up
a new world, to pave the
way, “to go where no-one
has gone before”? How
might science fiction and
our own imagination help us
get there?
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