Primitive Culture: A Star Trek History and Culture Podcast - 22: Finding the Big Mama

22: Finding the Big Mama

02/21/18 • 93 min

Primitive Culture: A Star Trek History and Culture Podcast

Cinematic Influences on Star Trek: First Contact. As a first-time movie director, the stakes could not have been higher for Jonathan Frakes when he signed on to helm the Next Generation crew’s first solo outing, Star Trek: First Contact. Aware that his small-screen experience might not cut it at the cinema, he immersed himself in the work of three science-fiction masters-Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, and James Cameron-from whom he borrowed cinematic touches. It was an approach that paid off handsomely, as the resulting film was both a commercial and critical success, cementing Frakes’s reputation as a safe pair of hands.

In this episode of Primitive Culture, host Duncan Barrett is joined by Chris Nunn, a lecturer in film at Greenwich University in London, to look at some of the movies that influenced the making of First Contact. Together, they put themselves into Jonathan Frakes’s screening room, teasing out connections between the works he viewed and the movie he ended up making, and how First Contact’s mélange of cinematic nods and styles contributes to its success as a work of art in its own right.

Chapters Intro (00:00:00) Jaws (00:03:25) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (00:24:15) Alien (00:37:00) Blade Runner (00:52:10) Terminator (01:13:55) Final Thoughts (01:19:40)

Host Duncan Barrett Guest Chris Nunn Production Clara Cook (Editor) Duncan Barrett (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Amy Nelson (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager)

Chapters Intro (00:00:00) Jaws (00:03:25) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (00:24:15) Alien (00:37:00) Blade Runner (00:52:10) Terminator (01:13:55) Final Thoughts (01:19:40)

Previous Episode

21: So, What's the Problem?

When Star Trek: Discovery debuted in September 2017, it brought to our TV screens the first explicitly gay couple in the franchise’s fifty-year history. Lieutenant Stamets and Doctor Culber, played by LGBT “actorvists” Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz, quickly won their way into the audience’s hearts, presenting one of Star Trek’s most realistic onscreen relationships. But why has it taken half a century for Star Trek to get to this point? Is sexuality the true final frontier for Gene Roddenberry’s inclusive agenda?

In this episode of Primitive Culture, hosts Duncan Barrett and Clara Cook are joined by Kay Elizabeth Shaw to trace the history of LGBT representation in Star Trek, from the early 1990s to the present day. Looking at iconic episodes such as “The Outcast,” “The Host,” and “Rejoined”-as well as taking a brief trip to DS9’s sexually fluid Mirror Universe-we consider some of the reasons that true representation has taken so long, as well as some of the people who played a role on both sides of this long-running debate.

Chapters Intro (00:00:00) Allegorical Representation (00:04:50) Misplaced Pronouns (00:14:50) Roddenberry’s Plan (00:22:30) Slash Fictions and Resistant Readings (00:26:48) Mirror Sexuality and Kira Nerys (00:48:35) Gatekeepers and Fan Fiction (00:54:40) Straight Actors and Gay Roles (01:12:20) Bury Your Gays? (01:23:00) Final Thoughts (01:33:10)

Hosts Duncan Barrett and Clara Cook Guest Kay Elizabeth Shaw

Production Clara Cook (Editor) Duncan Barrett (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Amy Nelson (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager)

Next Episode

23: An Englishman, an Irishman, and a Scotsman Walk into a Bar

The British Isles in Star Trek.

For an American TV show, Star Trek was multinational right from the start. The bridge crew of Kirk’s Enterprise included an African communications officer, a Russian navigator, and a Japanese-American helmsman. But down in the ship’s bowels, other nationalities were represented, including a Scottish engineer, an English transporter chief, and an Irish communications specialist. Throughout Star Trek’s 51-year history, the British Isles have offered Starfleet their best and brightest-even as attempts to recreate the history and culture of those countries in the Federation’s high-tech future often failed to hit the mark.

In this episode of Primitive Culture, host Duncan Barrett is joined by Lee Hutchison and Tony Robinson to discuss the portrayal of their homelands over a few synthales at the Grosvenor Hotel in London. We consider the varying ways-some more successful than others-that our nationalities have been depicted in Star Trek. Looking at characters such as Scotty, O’Brien, and Bashir, and taking trips to Fair Haven and the Scottish heritage planet Caldos IV, we examine real-world nationalist independence movements, the thorny questions of cultural appropriation and community representation, what exactly European heritage might mean to an American audience, and the impact widespread transporter use might have on cultural identity on a united Earth.

Chapters Intro (00:00:00) Sub Rosa (00:03:08) Fair Haven (00:09:24) Accents (00:18:55) O’Brien and Scotty (00:22:50) Cultural stereotypes and International Fandoms (00:35:25) Nationalism (00:41:25) English stereotypes (00:49:10) Class (00:56:00) Final Thoughts (00:59:08)

Host Duncan Barrett

Guests Lee Hutchison and Tony Robinson

Production Tony Black (Editor) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Amy Nelson (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager)