Was Chekov considered controversial at the time when Star Trek originally came out? Russians and Americans working together during the Cold War? Or was it overshadowed by having a >gasp!< black woman on the Bridge?
Not quite star trek, but I do know that in The Man From UNCLE Illya Kuryakin, the Russian/USSR operative working for UNCLE was so popular that in the second season he got promoted from side character to full on protangonist and that aired a year or two before star trek. So if an explicitly USSR aligned spy could get that popular to the point the producers felt comfortable making him a main character, I imagine one from the far off future where Russia is more of a off hand mention in comparison would be even less controversial
Funnily enough the 2015 movie version of him is way more critical of the Soviets than the show made in the height of the cold war ever was
I am too young to know. I had to catch reruns as a kid in the 70s. Both were bold, awesome choices.
The 1960s were peak cold war, fear the Russians type shit. To put it in perspective, the Cuban missile crisis happened just a few years prior! People were building fallout shelters in their back yards at this point.
What I love is that none of the characters call special attention to it on the show. In that time is totally normal and expected and no big deal. That’s the kind of world I want to live in where all these differences are accepted and everyone is cool with everyone. (Minus the blatant misogyny obvs)
TNG, Voyager, or even ironically Strange New Worlds episodes would have failed badly in the 60s because they showed progression that was far out of range of that time. A “real” glimpse at a Star Trek universe would probably upset a lot of people now because it would be so different. While it’s a show about optimism for the future and betterment of society, it is still a show that has to cater to the present audience.
It’s like looking back at older books or shows and critiquing their ethics and language based on today’s standards. Not a very fair assessment, especially if you use a few “infractions” to toss out the good parts.
The thing about not calling attention to things in the show is Gene’s “show don’t tell” philosophy. He believed the audience was smarter than the networks gave credit.
Gene Roddenberry did consider the diversity of the cast to be a big victory for representation on television. Having prominent female (in a military fleet role), African American, Japanese, Russian (and even Scottish) core characters wasn’t typical in US broadcast prime time TV when TOS aired in a prime time slot. It seems like it was important to Gene to show a version of humanity that had forgotten “old” country borders.
It’s worth noting that Gene claimed to have added Chekov in response Russian criticism of the show at launch, along the lines of “we were first to space, but there’s no Russians on the Enterprise”.
Gene told the story a few times, but I’m not aware of any hard corroboration. Not that it really needs any.
And as someone pointed out - Walter Koenig has, perhaps joking, commented that his looking like a member of the Beatles was probably really why he was cast.
Was Chekov considered controversial at the time when Star Trek originally came out? Russians and Americans working together during the Cold War? Or was it overshadowed by having a >gasp!< black woman on the Bridge?
Not quite star trek, but I do know that in The Man From UNCLE Illya Kuryakin, the Russian/USSR operative working for UNCLE was so popular that in the second season he got promoted from side character to full on protangonist and that aired a year or two before star trek. So if an explicitly USSR aligned spy could get that popular to the point the producers felt comfortable making him a main character, I imagine one from the far off future where Russia is more of a off hand mention in comparison would be even less controversial
Funnily enough the 2015 movie version of him is way more critical of the Soviets than the show made in the height of the cold war ever was
I am too young to know. I had to catch reruns as a kid in the 70s. Both were bold, awesome choices.
The 1960s were peak cold war, fear the Russians type shit. To put it in perspective, the Cuban missile crisis happened just a few years prior! People were building fallout shelters in their back yards at this point.
What I love is that none of the characters call special attention to it on the show. In that time is totally normal and expected and no big deal. That’s the kind of world I want to live in where all these differences are accepted and everyone is cool with everyone. (Minus the blatant misogyny obvs)
TNG, Voyager, or even ironically Strange New Worlds episodes would have failed badly in the 60s because they showed progression that was far out of range of that time. A “real” glimpse at a Star Trek universe would probably upset a lot of people now because it would be so different. While it’s a show about optimism for the future and betterment of society, it is still a show that has to cater to the present audience.
It’s like looking back at older books or shows and critiquing their ethics and language based on today’s standards. Not a very fair assessment, especially if you use a few “infractions” to toss out the good parts.
The thing about not calling attention to things in the show is Gene’s “show don’t tell” philosophy. He believed the audience was smarter than the networks gave credit.
They sugarcoated it by making him have “hey hey were the Monkees” hair.
Gene Roddenberry did consider the diversity of the cast to be a big victory for representation on television. Having prominent female (in a military fleet role), African American, Japanese, Russian (and even Scottish) core characters wasn’t typical in US broadcast prime time TV when TOS aired in a prime time slot. It seems like it was important to Gene to show a version of humanity that had forgotten “old” country borders.
It’s worth noting that Gene claimed to have added Chekov in response Russian criticism of the show at launch, along the lines of “we were first to space, but there’s no Russians on the Enterprise”. Gene told the story a few times, but I’m not aware of any hard corroboration. Not that it really needs any.
And as someone pointed out - Walter Koenig has, perhaps joking, commented that his looking like a member of the Beatles was probably really why he was cast.