Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Rose

SPOILER ALERT

So…it’s being confirmed all over the internet that Benedict Cumberbatch’s role in the new Star Trek movie is…

Khan.

There are no words for how angry I am. Why would you give one of the most iconic roles in Star Trek, a major role for an actor of color, to a white person? Why?

Not only is this gross on its own, but it goes against everything original Trek was about, everything it means and stands for.

I just…I guess it’s not officially confirmed yet and until then I will hold out hope it’s not true, but several different sources seem pretty sure. I am crossing EVERY PART OF MY BODY right now.

I’m sure there will be all kinds of amazing essays about this soon that will express how I feel better than I can, but in the meantime, here are two articles I’ve linked to before.

This one is about Uhura in the new Star Trek movie. I’ve always found it really, really difficult to describe or articulate how this invisibility feels, how it affects you and the way that you view and experience media. I remember someone posted a one page article or somesuch wherein all of the actors in STXI had just one little soundbyte type quotation about their character and their feelings about the original version. John Cho’s was him noting that his reaction to Sulu was essentially: “OMG AN ASIAN GUY IS ON TV.”

This one is a moving essay about the Earthsea trilogy and how it felt to the author to finally read a fantasy story with characters of color in it. Seriously, read this. I cried. But I remember Dad saying, how come you never see anybody like that in the stories you like? And I remember answering, maybe they didn’t have black people back then. He said there’s always been black people. I said but black people can’t be wizards and space people and they can’t fight evil, so they can’t be in the story.

Remember that story about how Whoopi Goldberg saw Uhura on TV and told her mom, “I just saw a black woman on television; and she ain’t no maid!”, and how that empowered her to believe she could be a successful actress?

It makes me miserable to think that little kids watching the new movie will get the opposite message: You can’t do this. No one wants to see your face or hear your voice.

5 thoughts on “Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Rose”

  1. Khan was probable Ricardo Montalban’s greatest role. Just prior to the role he did advertisements for Chrysler’s Cordoba. His much used line “rich Corinthian leather” must have been tiring for him. He came to the movie looking and acting very pumped up. I think he made the movie.

    1. Hee, I didn’t know that! “Rich Corinthian leather” IS a phrase that just rolls off the tongue. I agree, he was absolutely fantastic as Khan, both in the movie and the original 60s episode. He brought SO much energy and charisma, he’s one of the few dictator-type fictional characters where you really understand why people follow him!

      1. Yeah I think he was happy to make the most of his “big screen” opportunity, I would say this was his best role, ever.

  2. Although he was looking older he was so buff that he did look like some genetically superior person

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