Welcome to Discussions

Posted on: Sun, Jun 22 2008 2:46 PM

Posted by: Joel Posts: 631

My friend is a Trekkie...

He has a social disability similar to mine.

Posted on: Mon, Jun 23 2008 2:40 AM

Posted by: ducky01 Posts: 153

Joel:

My friend is a Trekkie...

 

He has a social disability similar to mine.

Joel, I'll bet you didn't mean for that to be as funny as it sounded when I read it! LOL. Or, maybe you did. Either way, in the media "Trekkies" have long been thought of as a bunch of goofy people in costumes running up the aisles at conventions and screaming for Spock or Kirk.  I just noticed your blog about your friend, and I posted to it. I've been a Trekker since the original show, back when I was a wee child in the late 60's.  The program was my favorite (yes, I know pretty much all 79 original episodes plus the unaired pilot by name, and have seen them all repeatedly, as well as the movies). Next Gen became my favorite when it came out (watched every single episode once again, for eight seasons, plus the movies). Not so much with Deep Space Nine after about the second season, and everything after that seemed like poor substitutes for Gene Roddenberry's original vision.  Then again, I believe he passed away shortly before Voyager started, and everything was in the hands of Majel Barrett Roddenberry and Lincoln Enterprises after that. And, yeah, I've been to the conventions, worn the occasional alien costume and such, even got to work security for one of the Creation Conventions back in about 1991 or so. While dressed as little blue space alien from the imaginary planet "U'una," I might add. Had my own homemade Starfleet credentials and everything!  It's an interesting universe, and they did address some issues in a unique way back in the day.  

I think what excited me most was the fact that they did not identify people by their quirks, shortcomings or disabilities, but instead defined them by their expertise, knowledge, and abilities.  The fact that Riva was deaf gave him a particular skill at helping others to communicate, and thus, he was given a job as an ambassador. And it wasn't a *Gasp! They have a deaf guy as an ambassador* kind of thing, either. He was just a guy who was good at his job, and even better qualified at his position because of his deafness. They didn't use the stereotype to turn it into some big morality play about how "everybody's different and we should be kind to others because they are different."  Instead, they reached forward and said, " It doesn't matter if they are different, there IS a place in our society for each and every one, according to the skills and gifts they offer."  It didn't matter if you were a black woman (Lieutenant Uhura), you were still serving as a chief communications officer on a military vessel because you were the one that was best qualified to do the job. It didn't matter if you were blind, you were Chief Engineer because you knew all the specs, knew how to make it run and how to keep it running. A blind woman became an ambassador to the Medusan world, because her blindness gave her a unique qualification to be able to work with them (people with sight would go mad if they saw the Medusan, and she would not).  Instead of saying "You can't do that" to people with disability/minority/gender issues, they found a way that they COULD do that, and in that future, it was perfectly normal for everyone to be able to do  something important and meaningful in our defined sense of the terms.

hugs from ducky  

Posted on: Mon, Jun 23 2008 2:59 AM

Posted by: Becky Posts: 1,551

Good point Ducky! I like that, they were chosen for their abilities, not their disabilities. Cool!

I was six when the series came out. I remember watching it later on with my older brother and two sisters. I loved that show! I don't think it's ever gone off the air. I love all the movies too.

Becky

Posted on: Mon, Jun 23 2008 3:01 AM

Posted by: Becky Posts: 1,551

ShimasChild:

 When I first got my power chair, I told the guy all we needed was a large cardboard box and I could play Christopher Pike from the original series.  I'm a big Trekkie, although I lost interest after The Next Generation was cancelled. It got too confusing, relying on a lot of tech talk and too many aliens. Somewhere in my stuff I have a Tribble.

How cute! Want to sell me your Tribble? Where did you get it from?

Becky