My Deaf Actors on Star Trek post got good comments, and yes, I'm familiar with how the show is fantasy and sci-fi. Some of the storylines have reflected real life to an extent. Some things have become reality, as their communicators have become today's cell phones and PDAs to name a few things.
However, even though it's set in the future, with the the occasional mention over time of how the common cold was eliminated as well as a few diseases, there's always the subject of disabilities that you almost never see. In the original series, Captain Pike is in a wheelchair-like device after an accident in "The Menagerie, Part I" (first season, episode 15) in November 1966.
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Christopher_Pike
We also see Bill Cobb as Emory Erickson in a wheelchair in Star Trek: Enterprise in the fourth season, tenth episode, due to a transporter accident.
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Daedalus_(episode)
Consider for a bit that if certain disabilities were not quite eliminated, but helped to an extent. How would other deaf communicate with the computer and other people? Would they type and read the responses? Would they have duties on the bridge as well as other key areas on the ship? One might also have an interest in the subject of bionics, which could be used on those with hearing losses. They could be used in the Star Trek time frames, and they have.
One interesting thing... A commenter in that previous post mentioned a beautiful empathic woman with incredible healing powers. That would be The Empath on the original series (season 3, episode 8) in December 1968.
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/The_Empath
Kathryn Hays played the empathic character and is still performing today in her 70s.
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5 comments:
I thought Captain Pike was in a pilot episode, Captain Kirk in the series. As to what life is like in the 23rd Century, we don't know, it's up to our imagination.
SMOKEY
Take a look at Pike's listing under Biographical Timeline and Appendices' Appearances. Seems The Cage was supposed to be a pilot or something, but it never aired til late 1988. After that, it was Kirk.
Check the TOS episode guide as well. I'd like to hear from someone who knows Star Trek better than I do. I didn't really start watching til The Next Generation, then Deep Space Nine. I sometimes watched the original series with dad, but they weren't captioned at the time. He got me started.
Ah, yes... Part three coming up. Remind me to check on captioning the original series. Jamie Berke's doing just this, and I'm watching what's happening.
Wasn't Jeffery Hunter the firstcapatain ?
Don't forget Geordie with his prothsetic visual system or whatever they called it.
Jeffrey Hunter (the actor for Captain Pike) was established as a previous captain in The Cage. That was produced as a concept show, and then chopped up and interwoven with the regular series (as a flash back, explaining Spock's irrational behavior) as the two part pilot for the TOS.
In the animated series, Robert April shows up as a previous captain of the Enterprise as well.
oh you like to watch Star Trek! I think there is Deaf Star Trek Club but I may be wrong about that.
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