Oh Myyy! (5 page)

For my fans born in the 1960s, Spock, Kermit, and Batman were icons of their early childhood that, to the delight of us all, maintain continued cultural relevance today. Indeed,
Star Trek
movies still roll out to entertain and inspire whole new audiences, even if the cast comprises a whole set of new, fresh faces. Kermit and Miss Piggy have made a comeback, moving back into their original stage in Hollywood. And meanwhile, after many franchises, The Dark Knight still rises in theaters.

I cannot mention the last fact without feeling profound sadness and loss for those killed by a lone, deranged gunman in Colorado while gathered for the midnight premiere showing of that film. I was so struck by the senselessness of it that I was compelled to put out a simple message that day:

MANY VICTIMS OF TODAY’S TRAGEDY WERE FANS OF SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY. THEY STOOD IN LINE TO BE THE FIRST TO SEE, TO BE INSPIRED, AND TO ESCAPE. AS A COMMUNITY OF DREAMERS, WE MOURN THIS TERRIBLE TRAGEDY AND THIS SENSELESS TAKING OF INNOCENT LIVES. (GEORGE TAKEI)

Beyond well-known characters, like the Muppets or Batman, many fans share a love for other lost symbols of an “America-that-once-was.” These fans were children when cassette tapes were wound by No. 2 pencils, when “film” was held in black plastic cases resembling Tupperware, and when young artists drew cityscapes using control knobs on a red television-like screen filled with magnetic powder. They grew up knowing what this meant when you came into the classroom in the morning:

Photo Credit: Steven Karns. Used with Permission

In fairness, when I was growing up, we didn’t even have VCRs or Movie Day at school, but Generation X and the Baby Boomers did. I am mindful of the generational divide, and I sometimes even test it — as when I post lyrics side by side from today versus the 1970s:

Young people are quick to jump to the defense of the music of these times, but a part of me wonders whether music has somehow peaked. Listening to Lady Gaga today, it sounds an awful lot like Madge in the 1990s. Boy bands are pretty much still boy bands. The only new developments seem to be the incorporation of rap moments in otherwise melodic pop tunes and the prevalence of auto-tune, neither of which appear to have advanced the art form appreciably.

But I digress. My Facebook page has become a sort of cultural barometer that I find truly fascinating. Nothing much happens by the way of pop culture without at least some fan posting about it on my wall. So even at the age of 75, I feel more or less current in today’s goings-on. Some may find it surprising that my fan base, according to the statistics posted on Facebook, is not made up of mostly aging Trekkies over the age of 50. To the contrary, the largest demographic on my page is males between the age of 25 and 34 (what I call the Comedy Central crowd — they love anything I post about
South Park
or
Family Guy
), followed closely by females in the same age bracket. I’m not exactly sure when this shift occurred, but it delights me to know that, though I am separated in age by some forty or fifty years from most of my fans, they have welcomed me into their lives. As my fan base tilts ever younger, fewer and fewer fans will know me merely as “that guy who played Sulu.”

Perhaps my page carries some favor because I often explore the common cultural ground beneath us. Take, for instance, the world’s nearly unanimous love for Harry Potter. The Baby Boomers, now mostly in their 60s, are beginning to read these stories aloud to their grandchildren. At the same time, young people are quick to embrace it as their own epic saga. Who among us hasn’t dreamed of waking up to find that we are destined for more than mere Mugglehood? The children in these stories awaken universal desires in us: the quest for greatness, the pull of companionship and love, a sense of clarity in our moral choices, an abiding belief in the magical and wondrous, and the ability to talk to snakes.

Compare
that
to the banal, static and self-absorbed story that is
Twilight
. Now, it’s no secret that I am not a lover of this series. I made this clear in my call for the Star Alliance, which I’ll cover in my next chapter. You see, cultural icons stand the test of time because they speak to our deeper convictions and ignite our dreams. There is more story in a minor character like Boba Fett than there is in all the clutter of various vampires in the
Twilight
franchise.

If it is our collective adoration for these characters that brings us together, then I am more than happy to be the purveyor of such images on a daily basis. Like holiday carols, Rubik’s cubes, and reruns of
The Brady Bunch
, they remind us all that we were shaped by common cultural experiences that carried with them a common guiding set of values. While critics often wring their hands over the presumed superficiality of these icons and values, particularly given the poverty and afflictions of most of the rest of the world, they fail to offer up a workable alternative. If leadership requires a fired-up sense of purpose and imagination, it also demands a profound connection to the society to be led. Like it or not, this is our culture, and we should embrace and celebrate it, even while we strive to refine and shape it.

Meanwhile, I’m going to go watch some
Muppet Show
reruns and work on my best Yoda.

The Star Alliance

About a year ago, I received a tweet from a fan informing me that the
Chicago Sun Times
film critic, Roger Ebert, had called upon me to broker a peace. It was intriguing, to say the least. Mr. Ebert had been following a growing online feud between two of sci-fi’s heavyweights — Carrie Fisher and William Shatner (no pun intended, Bill).

Bill had begun the spat by ridiculing the
Star Wars
franchise during an interview. He claimed that
Star Wars
was less original than
Star Trek
, and that
Trek
had a leg up over
Wars
when it came to character development and story line. “
Star Trek
had relationships and conflict among the relationships, and stories that involved humanity and philosophical questions.
Star Wars
was special effects,” he stated. “
Star Wars
was derivative of us by - what, 10, 15, 20 years?” He then took the character of Princess Leia on directly: “As beautiful as she was, and as wonderful an actress as she is, (she) can’t compare to the marvelous heroines we had on
Star Trek.
”

Now, Bill likes to stir the pot, particularly if he has a new show coming out, and he does not do things without knowing the consequences. You can’t fire a photon torpedo across the bow of an Imperial Destroyer without some kind of response. It wasn’t long before Carrie Fisher hit back with her own interview, “
Star Wars
was sooooooo much better than
Star Trek
,” she said. She compared Klingon to a laundry detergent (I confess, I chuckled when I heard this), and noted that the original series appeared to lack any kind of budget for special effects. To add some personal insult to injury, she mocked Bill’s weight gain since retiring as Captain of the
Enterprise
, then cheekily added that her own “space buns” were superior to Spock’s ears.

The Shat then fired back, in yet another video, claiming he could in fact still fit in his uniform with a bit of pushing on the stretch material, but that he doubted Fisher could still fit into her bikini worn in the third movie. Yes, it had turned quite personal.

Of course, it was all in good fun, but beneath it all a nagging question remained: Was Bill correct that
Star Wars
’ use of special effects detracted from the story and characters? Was Ms. Fisher far off the mark in criticizing the admittedly shaky effects of the original series?

It didn’t take long for the Internet to grow abuzz, with sci-fi fans rushing to the defense of their favored “Star” series. While
Star Trek
had lasted through the ages,
Star Wars
concededly had gained far greater pop culture penetration. Geeks everywhere were taking sides, and a rupture in the sci-fi continuum seemed possible. So when Roger Ebert’s blog covered the feud, he wondered aloud whether a peace could be made between the two warring sides: “One can only hope George Takei (
Star Trek
’s Lt. Sulu) can be brought in to broker a peace settlement before blood is shed.”

I’m not exactly sure why Ebert chose to ask for my assistance. Did he know that I had worked on
Star Wars
as well as
Star Trek
and thus stood in some unique position? Did he pick me because I had already successfully begun an online presence, and had a few viral videos under my belt? Or was there something authoritative about my delivery that he believed could quiet the growing storm?

I jest of course. I happily accepted the challenge, and I did not take this assignment lightly. I told them both to shut their wormholes, before images like this began to appear: