Pendell

@pendell

Current Hyperfixation: Wizard of Oz

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I use outdated technology just for fun, listen to crappy music, and watch a lot of horror movies. Expect posts about These Things. I talk a lot.

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Pendell @pendell9/10/2023, 10:53 PM

There's some interviews about the Enterprise episode "Stigma" which is a clear allegory about HIV/AIDS, and in one of them, Scott Bakula says, and I quote:

... the fact that Viacom is interested in developing a world, a global philosophy, a global attack, if you will, on HIV and AIDS, it is tremendous and I think we need to do that as a country more and more, and I'm thrilled that I work for a company that is spearheading some of that.

Why's he sucking off Viacom so hard here? I there a Viacom executive just out of frame pointing a gun at this man? Were we as a country really just that naïve about media megacorporations as relatively recently as 2003?

#Star Trek Enterprise #HIV/AIDS #viacom

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in reply to @pendell's post:

MATTERTRANSFER @mattertransfer9/11/2023, 1:09 AM

God it's so funny because like, Scott, alot of TV talked about HIV/AIDS in the 90s. If anything, enterprise is late for doing so

Pendell @pendell9/11/2023, 2:30 AM

Yeah this is especially weird coming in 2003/2004, like "this has been a topic for a minute, bud..."

Remember when TNG approached transgenderism and non-binaryism and the institutional prejudices against self-expression and non-conforming sexual or gender identities, in 1992. Whether or not it was a perfect example of representation, it tried and was very clear about its topic, in 1992.

John Colagioia @jcolag9/11/2023, 12:40 PM

It's possible that he was absurdly naive, there. He had done a fair amount of charity work for HIV-related charities (for example, the Anyone Can Whistle concert show), so an executive pitching the idea to him might have made him think that he had personally changed the culture.

It's also possible that they paid him extra to make a big deal about this, since the wound was still raw from TNG rejecting an HIV-analogous script (David Gerrold's Blood and Fire) on the grounds that how dare it feature a sympathetic possibly gay couple.

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