George Takei panel took place on September 15th 2013 during the Montreal Comiccon. Here is the Q&A (taking a video of the panel wasn't allowed.)
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| Photo by Anna Li |
Having spent a week-end here, I'm slowly becoming Canadian.I have an apology to make: I've been here 4 times before. I have a branch of my family that is here in Canada, in Toronto, in Ottawa. And yet, after all that time spent here, I can't speak French! I will try to do better, but I'm going to be dependant on a translator.
I must say that I'm so happy to be here and grateful for the tremendous support that you have given us. To be in this huge hall and every seats seemed to be filled here. It is really heart-warming. But beyond that, I've been an actor for over 50 years now and Star Trek now is 47 years old. In 3 more years Star Trek is going to celebrate his 50th anniversary. This is thanks to all of you. I can't see the audience out there, you're in the dark, but if the lights were on, I've could pick out all of the original fans by looking out there. I just look at the top of the heads, the colour of the hair of the lack thereof.
I want to thank you all for your devotion, your tenacity and your love for Star Trek over all those many decades. You were the originals and thank you very much for your undying support for Star Trek.
The other thing that I'm grateful for the original fans for is that you reproduce yourselves like tribbles, because now the children of the original fans and also the children of the children of the original fans. Three generations and sometimes four generations of Star Trek fans all coming from the same family. So I love you original fans and I love you the next generation fans and I love you the third generation fans.
And because of the support that you have given me, I've been able to do so many things. I've been able to have access the microphones of newscasters, the cameras of the television people and the editorial pages of a lot of newspapers of both our country. Because of that, I've been able to be much more effective as a social values activist. In many ways, I have to thank you all in Canada because Canada have been leading the way in the quality for gays and lesbians. You have been at the leadership and America is following on your footsteps. The US is still behind. We're making progress, We have marriage equality in 13 states, that's 1/3 of the country and we're very proud of that victory. However 2/3 of the country doesn't have marriage equality. Each state get to determine whether they pass a law. Our mission as US citizens is to make sure that the whole country ultimately becomes an equality nation. Because when I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States, I pledge allegiance to the words one nation, indivisible with liberty and justice to all. And we intend to make that pledge genuine, true and in fact, for all Americans. And I thank you again for the leadership of Canada. We got many frontiers in space and galaxies but we also have frontiers in our own country and we thank you for showing us the way.
Question (The person that asked the question was disguised as an extraterrestrial with a tribble on his shoulder): Of all the worlds that you have visited, which one is the queerest?
George Takei:You know, I find that the one that is the most challenging, also the queerest and that's the world of George Takei of this planet Earth. Human aren't the only queer creature on this planet. What makes us a very queer planet is that we have all sorts of life forms. For example, the penguins have been known to mate with their same sex partners. There are other animals and insects that mate. So humans shouldn't be arrogant and say that:"We are the only ones".
Question (The young woman that asked the question lived for 6 years in Japan): I was always confused by the name Sulu. In Japanese, there are no "L" so its Suru which means "to do". To do Hikaru. Have you ever thought about that?
George Takei: I've asked Gene about how did he come up with the name Hikaru Sulu. He told me that the starship Entreprise was a metaphor for starship Earth. And the strength of the starship laid in its diversity, coming together and working in counsel, as a team.He wanted the ship to reflect that diversity. So the captain was to represent North America. And he cast not only a Canadian, but Canadian from right here in Montreal. For communications officer, he chose an African. He wasn't necessarily thinking of a woman, because in the pilot, we had a male playing that part. Europe was represented by a Scotsman. A Canadian played that Scotsman. However, he was not Scottish-canadian, he was irish Canadian from Vancouver, the other side of the country. And Gene wanted an Asian character, someone to represent Asia. But every asian name is nation specific: Tanaka is Japanese, Wong is Chinese, Kim is Korean. Mid 20th centurt asia has a turbulent history of warfare, rebellion, and he didn't want to bring that element in. So his problem was to try and find that suggested all the asians. He picked up a map and he saw the off the coast of the Philippines, there is a Sulu sea. The waters of the sea touch all shores. That how the asian character name came together, Sulu. When he cast the role, he cast a Japanese-American. So he gave the character a Japanese first name. He thought that by the 21rst century, that asian will be multiracial. So he gave the name Hikaru, that was also the characters name in The tale of Genji.
Question: I would like to know how you feel about Howard Stern and the show itself.
George Takei: I really didn't know Howard Stern when I first did the show. I was doing a play in New York and when you do the play , you were given our assignment from the publicist to do regular shows and television shows to promote the play. I went to the radio studio and here's the skinny, tall guy. I walked in and sat down and I said: "Good morning." He said:"Oh, you have a deep voice. Anybody that have a voice that deep must have a big dong." I said:"Are we one the air?" And he said:"Yup!" and I said :"OH MY!" Over the years he will invite me occasionally.In 2005-06, I got a call from the producer Gary Dell'Abate, Baba Booey. Theyve prank me a lot and I get sucked into it. When he call and said: We are condering you to be our official announcer for our show. I said:" I'm going to hang up. Why are you calling me directly, I have an agent.You should phone him. I'm not going to discuss it right now." And I hung up. I immediately called my agent and I said: "There a guy that says hes Gary Dell'Abate, he may call you. And sure enough he did. And that's how my official title of the announcer of this show came about.
George Takei: You know, the thing is homophobia is really an irrational and insecure fear. I mean, if they are confident of your own sexuality, they wouldn't have to hate other people sexuality. It so easy to make fun of them. And particularly politicians who are homophobic. I suspect that many of them a really closeted homosexuals.
Question: Do you believe in extraterrestrials?
Humans like to think that we are a unique, extraordinary species. And people say: "Do you believe in extraterrestrials? " What basis make you believe or not believe? Until we really experience it. It's better to think that I'm going to explore and see what might be there and then I will adjust to the facts that I find. But when you put it on the basis of belief like a religion if become that of the arrogance of humans to think that our beliefs can determine whether there is something or not. I'm for space exploration. It's an exciting frontier. I had the opportunity to visit the space camp in L.A. a few months ago. This man Elon Musk. He started a paypal. NASA is winding down. Government funding is limited now. He's taken private initiative, private money to do what NASA have been doing. Gene Rodenberry was thinking like that too. Our starship is named the Entreprise, because he felt that we have to enterprise it. We have to be confident of our problem-solving capabilities, our inventive genius and our entrepreneurial spirit to take what we invent or innovate and put them into practical use. That's why the ship is named the Entreprise. Since NASA is winding down, someone has to take the initiative and that's what the billionaire Elon Musk is doing as a private entreprise. He is the only person to use this phrase: "Humans are the only multiplanet species." He's already envisioned human that inhabit other planets and spending all our lives exploring and learning more about those planets. It's science-fiction right now.
George Takei: Gene Rodenberry saw the same thing. You look into the future and you imagine a science-fiction goal. We walked around the starship Enterprise with a tiny gizmo attached to our hip. And everywhere we were on the ship we could rip it off and start talking. Back in 1960s, it was astounding, it was amazing, no cords attached to it. Now it became a real nuisance for us. Not only does it demands attention to us. But we can take pictures with it. We can play games with it. Watch movies with it. It's gone way beyond the Star Trek vision. And that what will happen with Elon Musk vision. I think we will become that multiplanet species
Question: What did you think of the new Star Trek movies?
George Takei:The first one was spectacular especially the opening. We always knew that Kirk was born in Iowa, but who would have thought that he was born in space and in a middle of a galactic battle. It was a sensational way to start the movie. It was a pounding, pounding space opera. It was fun and I thought the actors were fantastic. They really bought fresh blood and energy to Star Trek and I’m so glad that they cast a younger cast. Chris Pine was dashing down those corridors. Can you picture Bill Shatner doing the same? What I think was lacking was the philosophy and the idea of our relation with our environment , each other, with the galaxies or social/political issues. But it was a great action/adventure space opera. It was fun. And the second one is like that too. What I envied is John Cho had a spectacular space dive, galactic dive. I didn’t get to do that.I’ve skydived and that is a thrill, but doing out in the galaxy, that would have been fantastic.
The Q&A ended with a surprise for George Takei. He received a lifetime achievement and humanitarian efforts plaque designed by Stephane Roy.
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| Photo by Anna Li |
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