spider baby: Baby steps

SCIENCE FICTION HAS ALWAYS HAD an enthusiastic gay fan base whether it’s “Star Trek,” “Star Wars,” Superman comics or any other popular show or book. Several gay sci-fi fans recently geeked out hard over the new “Star Trek” trailer.

It’s a shame that most science fiction stories and series haven’t capitalized on this fanaticism, and much has been written about gay characters seemingly being banished from the genre.

The two most-watched current shows on television, “Heroes” and “Lost,” certainly lead the pack when it comes to dropping the ball. Rumor has it that “Heroes” writers did develop a gay character for its first season, but producers ended up cutting out all references to sexual orientation when the actor allegedly balked at the prospect of playing gay.

“Lost” has no excuse. Are we supposed to believe that there wasn’t a single gay guy on a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles? Clearly, fans are all about a little escapism and fantasy, but we can only suspend disbelief so much.

THOSE SHOWS PROBABLY WON'T integrate their burgeoning casts anytime soon, but there is hope that others will pick up the slack. If BBC’s “Torchwood” and its bisexual hero Captain Jack Harkness are any indication, there is a place for gay characters — and leading ones at that — in the sci-fi/fantasy world.

Comics god Stan Lee (Spider-Man, X-Men) seems to recognize it. He’s developing a series for Showtime about a gay superhero. And Sci Fi Network’s “Battlestar Galactica” recently revealed that two of its supporting players are gay.

The revelation of the more-than-friends relationship between Lt. Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani) and Lt. Hoshi (Brad Dryborough) occurred over the course of a four-minute Internet “webisode” and not on the actual show. There’s no guarantee it will get much play when the series returns on Jan. 21, but the seal has been broken.

Still, what’s written for the pair thus far in this 10-part “online series” is satisfying. The quickness of the webisodes seems to benefit the execution of the gay storyline; there’s no time for melodramatic introspection.

Without getting into all the fanboy minutiae, the gay angle is relatively simple. Right away we learn that Gaeta and Hoshi are in a relationship. Gaeta is ordered by his superior to leave the mother ship for some mandatory R&R. When the raptor carrying him and a group of strangers to the R&R location gets lost, Hoshi wants to do everything he can to bring Gaeta home safely.

THE CONCEIT IS UNREMARKABLE, but that’s what’s so perfect about it. The fact that the characters are gay does not drive the drama. Their relationship is treated no differently than their straight counterparts.

Gaeta and Hoshi’s relationship simply serves as a motivation, a reason why Hoshi would have a vested interest in seeing to it that Gaeta comes home safely. Something of a novel concept, since so often television writers want to milk the melodrama of being gay for all it’s worth.

But you wouldn’t expect anything less from webisode co-writer Jane Espenson; as a producer on “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer,” she helped craft the relationship between Willow and Tara, one of the most enduring and non-stereotypical lesbian relationships in television history.

Yes, it's just an online series. It's not the greatest of strides. But it is one small step for gay kind in space.


Source: southernvoice.com