Today, GLAAD announced the 32nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards. These awards are “to recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community and the issues that affect their lives.”
Star Trek: Discovery’s third season was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series. Discovery is going up against 9-1-1: Lone Star (FOX), Killing Eve (BBC America), P-Valley (Starz), Ratched (Netflix), Supergirl (The CW), The Umbrella Academy (Netflix), Vida (Starz), The Wilds (Amazon), Wynonna Earp (Syfy).
The official Star Trek social media accounts celebrated the nomination today, saying it was “an incredible honor.”
#StarTrekDiscovery has been nominated by the @glaad #GLAADawards for Outstanding Drama Series. It is such an incredible honor to be nominated! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 #FYC #StarTrekFYC pic.twitter.com/fjlISKBEcm
— Star Trek on Paramount+ (@StarTrekOnPPlus) January 28, 2021
In the GLAAD announcement, Discovery was amongst the shows praised for including “powerful and impactful stories about LGBTQ people of color” and for centering “transgender people and issues in new and diverse ways.” This nomination makes Discovery three for three with GLAAD Awards nominations for each season, but no wins so far. Season three of Discovery included the introduction of a trans character and a non-binary character, Gray and Adira.
Discovery actors Wilson Cruz (Dr. Culber) and Anthony Rapp (Paul Stamets) took to Twitter to show their pride in the GLAAD nomination.
So honored & proud. Thanks to @glaad for the recognition of the work we are doing on #StarTrekDiscovery to share the stories of a queer family. https://t.co/qdNW76WRRY
— Anthony Rapp Voted for Biden Black Lives Matter (@albinokid) January 28, 2021
Award recipients will be announced during a virtual ceremony scheduled for April 2021.
Find more Star Trek: Discovery news and analysis at TrekMovie.com.
The Expanse does a more skillful and effective job of representation.
The Expanse is better at literally everything than Discovery.
Yeah.
Nah
Accurate representations? Really?
Are you LGBTQ, Calastir? I am, and I think it’s a shame DSC still hasn’t been recognized. Maybe the addition of Gray and Adira will finally push the show over the top for the win.
Not trolling here (and full disclosure, I do banter about the shortcomings of Kurtzman Trek a fair bit on here, but I’m not on this thread), but do you not feel that the showrunners and writers have just – for want of a better phrase – checked some boxes? To me, it feels that the writing for the LGBTQ+ characters has been very sloppy. Stamets and Culber don’t seem to have much chemistry and they killed off original Culber only to bring him kind of back in a ridiculous way.
However, the poorest writing came with Adira and the scene in which Stamets’ pronouns are corrected. I would have thought that by the 23rd century… let alone the 31st… society would have come on to such an extent that an awkward coming out would no longer be required. A bit like in TOS when Abe Lincoln shows up on the bridge and says something about Uhuru that was offensive to the viewers and her reaction is one of confusion. It was powerful because it shows an optimistic future in which society has moved on. Instead, in Discovery, you have a very 21st century conversation happening and I felt like “ah non-binary people still almost feel like a minority by Starfleet officers… that’s a shame”.
However, I’m happy to learn/try to understand if I’m wrong. I’m a straight guy and I’m biased against Discovery, so perhaps I’m not being fair ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
I think the best way to handle Adira’s pronouns would have been to make that conversation completely off-handed rather than what they ended up doing. Like how in “Rejoined” where the characters gossiping about Jadzia and Lenara ask why they can’t get back together, never once mentioning gender.
Discovery is at times quite pretentious about how it handles LGBT characters and issues. Gray is just there to lead us to a trite “we see you” metaphor, for example. It also did “bury its gays” in season 1 for a stretch, which was an unfortunate detour they thankfully corrected. I like Culver’s warmth, but agree he and agree Stamets don’t have amazing chemistry. However, little domestic scenes like the two of them brushing their teeth together do wonders, more so than artificial reminiscing about shared experiences we never saw or Discovery’s signature emphatic exclamations of love that pretty much every single character is forced to engage in at some point.
Discovery’s heart is in the right place, though it’s looking for a pat on its oh so earnest head a bit too much I think.
That was my impression too. It was like it was set in the present. The TOS equivalent would have been Uhura saying “it’s so nice to be accepted as a bridge officer” and everyone smiles at her. The whole point was that it wasn’t a big deal, it was normal.
I happen to really enjoy Star Trek: Discovery, and will say without reserve that it is my favorite Star Trek. It gets so many things right in my eyes, and I honestly like it more than any other Star Trek story (except, perhaps, The Voyage Home). I think the characters themselves are the best written out of any Star Trek crew, and the most relatable. I will freely admit that in any discussion my opinions are significantly biased towards the show.
All of that being said, I totally agree with you about how the LGBTQ+ characters are handled. Hugh may be one of my absolute favorite Star Trek characters of all time, but that is because of how much warmth he brings to any scene he’s in. He and Stamets feel like a mismatch, and I can’t help but feel that he deserves better.
I was also really uncomfortable with how the Adira’s scene was handled. I got the impression that the writers were trying REALLY hard to get it right, and just missed the mark. I, like you, would hope that by the 23rd century, let alone the 31st, a person would be free to explore their identity and gender however they pleased without fearing rejection or the shaming of others. I do think that they got it right in how quickly Stamets accepted Adira for who they are, but I still think that they should have just been able to say it without the fear that they would lose the respect and love of the people around them.
ST: Discovery’s representation is close to pandering and is very sloppy. None of these key lessons is properly integrated into the story. It is a Check Box approach indeed. One would think that in over 1200 years that the pronoun thing would be a non-issue and that society had worked that out. Instead, it is presented as an in-your-face moment meant to teach but comes across as almost insulting to our intelligence. The Adira they/them moment did nothing to suspend disbelief. Enlighten today’s society by showing that tomorrow’s has already reached a new level of tolerance and understanding. The writing for Discovery has been and continues to be very weak. The amount of negative reactions and reviews for this Trek series is substantial when compared to previous Trek. I personally believe that this is due to the poor writing the create continuity problems, plot holes, and unappealing characterizations as well as a disregard for established Star Trek standards and canon.
Many come to the defense of Discovery by insulting the critics but never seem to be able to actually point-out the true moralistic and admirable lessons that these episodes are presenting. Seriously, in between all the slashing, stabbing, fisticuffs, disintegrations, shooting people in the head with phasers, and explosions where many, many people are slaughtered, where are the key teaching moments that are woven into the story found in ST: Discovery? Can someone point us to just a few?
As mentioned above, why can’t these writers show some skill and integrate these identities and orientations into the story in a matter-of-fact manner similar to The Expanse. The way The Expanse presents these alternative representations doesn’t distract and you never feel you are being indoctrinated.
Before the insults and personal attacks, this is all my opinion, if you like ST: Discovery then good for you. Some of us do indeed have problems with it and are just as entitled to dislike it.
Yes, really.
I’m not too big a fan of this show, but I do like Culber quite a bit, and Adira as well so far. So even a non-DSC-fan like me feels like the show has done pretty well in this particular arena. Granted, I’m just a straight dude, so I might not be the best judge.
Either way, I’m hoping for more Culber next season. The show is almost always better when he’s involved.
Slightly off-topic, but I always thought that Star Trek could use more characters with different colored hair. I mean, we never saw a Klingon with purple and black polka-dots in their hair, for an Andorian with bright-orange hair (why are Andorian’s all have white hair?). SO, I like the blue hair here.
Anyway, I also think that these are also “boxes” to be checked. My favorite representation of gay characters has been on Schiit’s Creek. And the relationship between Patrick and David felt way more real. On Discovery, not so much. I totally get that representation matters, and I applaud the inclusion of these characters, but not in such a forced way. It’s like they are tokens.
God, now there’s an award for that? Ok then…
You just joined this universe?
I know the Tony’s, but not the Glaad awards. And I’m not sure I’m glad I found out about them to be honest. But ok, if people deem it neccessary, then so be it…
There’s probably also an award for bigotry. You should submit for it! Might stand a chance of getting in there.
Grow up.
Trolling
idk… centering? the adira and gray was Pretty much sidelined and reduced to a handfull of scenes…
In retrospect, it is pretty obvious that beginning with S3, Discovery started to only focus on women and minority (whether racial or gender-based) characters. Personally, NP for me and I hope this is not an issue for other legacy Trek fans – especially since Picard and SNW are in production along with two animated shows and S31 is in the works. As long as the writing continues to improve and the stories are good, then I will continue to watch.
For the most part, I thought the majority of S3 stories (jumping to the future, Booker, Adira and the Trill backstory, Georiou and the GoF) were pretty good although the finale themes and storylines IMO came up disappointingly short. Overall, I am looking forward to seeing what is in store for S4.
Congratulations to the makers of Discovery, for being recognized!
And more Culber, please; his warmth and humanity light up every scene he’s in.
Good for them!
Forced representation. Minority ,LGBT representation should be subtle not feel like it has been forced in. It’s is needed and star trek had always done it brilliantly in the past. Discovery really went OTT
And then on top of that some of the embarrassing writing thats been written for Stamets culver (and adira). Then they have a very diverse bridge crew that might as well be cardboard cutouts as they have nothing notable to do except high five each other.
I
Wow! Seriously?
Yes seriously. You have (outside Saru) the three most interesting characters in the show Stamets, Culver and Adira who suffer from some poor scripts and let’s not go into the ‘she,they’ line, forced. Stamets/Culver on/off/on relationship, feels forced. You then have a bridge crew who we don’t know enough about but all we know is they are all from different backgrounds (ageism going on here as they all look in their 20s and 30s) but we don’t truly know a thing about who they are 3 seasons in. It’s clear as day, they box ticked when casting this show…i’m a minority and I can see it a mile off!
DS9, black lead, middle eastern doctor, strong female characters, large diverse cast by age, sex and colour.it wasn’t forced, it was just …there. Discovery has a habit of trying to force things to the front almost like they want to say ‘look at us everyone!!!’ aren’t we amazing and diverse!’
Doctor is Puerto Rican.
I also feel like they didn’t try very hard to find a great actor to play Gray.
You can’t win with guys like this.
Which is why I have pretty much stopped participating here. Well..: after this post, completely stopped. Ta ta.
Not sure how realistic having an imaginary alien trans boyfriend who died is? But, kudos!
Imaginary Boy Friend Ian would be more interesting if there was actually some type of relevance for their presence in the actual story. As it stands now, they are just there to compliment and identity representation and to create a gay/trans family connection for Stamets, Culber, and Adira in the show. If you are going to do that then at least do some competent and significant WRITING to make all of this something meaningful and substantial instead of just having these characters exist. As it is now they are not doing anything with it. So far, the Ian character has done very little.
A question on the finale episode, how come Ian remained as a Vulcan when exiting the holodeck area to go to the bridge of the Kelpian ship? Wouldn’t they have changed to their original Trill form when outside the influence of the holodeck? Yet another inconsistency that these writers create by being sloppy.
I still wonder how realistic relationsships between different species are, which have been part in Star Trek from the beginning (Kirk seducing an alien) and which part of the majority these relationsships represent.
Of course these aliens had the appearance of female terran women, but as we know, not every species has its genitals at the same place. And in the very first aired episode the villain was a shapeshifting monster which seduced its victims and didn’t have a specified gender. Indeed, if you would try to classify it, it would be a trans-character!