From: mears@hpinddf.cup.hp.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.info
Subject: Plot a course, Mr. Sulu
Followup-To: rec.arts.starrtek.misc
Date: 22 Jul 1992 19:37:54 GMT
Organization: Vulcan Science Academy, Tau Ceti Sector
Distribution: world
Reply-To: mears@hpinddf.cup.hp.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: xcf.berkeley.edu
Originator: griffith@xcf.Berkeley.EDU

The following article appeared in 'eye,' an entertainment supplement
that appears in the San Jose Mercury News on Fridays.  The article
begins on page 9, and is written by Stephen Whitty, Mercury News Staff
Writer.

[Note - the following is reprinted by permission of the San Jose Mercury
	News.  My thanks to them for their cooperation - ed.]

 
                        Plot a course, Mr. Sulu
 
                Takei drops by to thank the people, sell Tribbles
 
        Captain Sulu is supposed to beam down to Valley Fair Shopping
        Center.  But there's a traffic jam.
 
        A chunk of Highway 101 is closed, Interstate 880 is backed up,
        and Sulu -- George Takei, out of uniform -- arrives late.
 
        ``I pray for the early invention of the transporter,'' he says,
        striding into the office of Macy's store manager.
 
        Takei is on the road to promote a line of ``Star Trek''
        collectibles -- pins, autographed plaques and ``official
        electronic Tribbles'' -- as well as the videotape release of
        ``Star Trek VI:  The Undiscovered Country.''  He'll be auto-
        graphing color glossies for two hours at Macy's.  But he's a
        little hazy on the souvenirs he's supposed to be plugging.
 
        ``You know I think you should ask these folks,'' he says,
        looking over to the Macy's PR staff.  ``They have a better idea
        of what the products are.  I know there's a mug with a Klingon
        Bird of Prey that disappears when you pour in your coffee.''
        Takei says the cast members get ``a minuscule percentage'' of
        the souvenirs' profits.
 
        Takei, 52, is more comfortable talking about substantial stuff
        -- Asian-American images in the media, constitutional rights,
        the importance of mass transit.  And the debt he owes the fans.
 
        ``In just the first three months of this year, I made 12 appear-
        ances at conventions,'' Takei says.  ``It's an obligation, I
        think.  We need to thank people for their support and, just like
        politicians, we need to hear what they say.''
 
        Unlike politicians, ``Star Trek'' has kept the love of the
        public for 25 years.  Why?  We need answers, Sulu.
 
        ``I've had 20 years to think about that one and I have two
        answers, a verbose one and a quick one,'' Takei says.  ``Which
        do you want?''
 
        We've got time.
 
        ``The first answer is that `Star Trek's' message was extraordi-
        nary -- a positive, affirmative, optimistic view of the future.
        Much of science fiction, like `Blade Runner,' portrays a failed
        society, a civilization in ruins.  We said that's not what
        happens.  As long as we have our imagination and confidence and
        the will we can meet the challenges.''

        He sips some iced tea.  No Romulan Brandy, please -- he's on
        duty.
 
        `` `Star Trek' also saw our pluralism as a strength,'' Takei
        says.  ``The Starship Enterprise became a metaphor for Earth
        and the seven characters -- although the '60s really was a
        period of the anti-hero -- all personified virtues.  That's the
        verbose answer.''
 
        And the quick one?
 
        ``Dump luck.  We were just very, very lucky,'' he says.  ``Now
        we've reached a point where our original fans are having children
        and they're becoming fans.  They're proliferating like Tribbles.
        Which we have on sale today.  There, how's that for a plug?''
 
        The Macy's staff smiles.
 
        ``Star Trek'' was very good for Takei, which is why he doesn't
        want it to stop (``Star Trek VII,'' he says, is in the planning
        stages).  Before the show, he was dubbing voices for Japanese
        monster schlocker ``Rodan'' and doing guest shots on ``Hawaiian
        Eye.''  After it, he was a star.
 
        And although he's called Sulu a ``fifth-banana'' part, Takei's
        grateful for the chance it gave him.
 
        ``There are usually two choices if you have a face like this,''
        Takei says.  ``You either play the meek, servile role or the
        villian out to destroy the world.  But I was given a heroic
        role.  I played a full professional, a full member of the crew,
        someone who carried his weight.''
 
        Even if Sulu often said little more than ``Steady as she goes,
        Captain,'' it was an image TV needed at the time, Takei says.
 
        ``When `Star Trek' was on we were in the Vietnam War, and you
        saw the enemy on the TV news every night -- and they wore black
        pajamas and had faces like this.  `Star Trek' served as a
        balancing factor, something we didn't have during our earlier
        wars in the Pacific.''
 
        During World War II Takei, a second-generation Angeleno (``but
        I claim Northern California, too -- my maternal grandfather
        was a strawberry farmer up near Sacramento'') was interned
        with his family.  ``I was very small when it began, around 2.
        I do remember being in a camp in Arkansas -- later we were
        transferred to Tulelake -- and the fun of running around by a
        swamp, or seeing snow in winter.
 
        ``But I rememeber the barbed wire and the guard towers, too.
        And the impact of it later.  I remember hating my second grade
        teacher ... `That Jap boy,' she called me.  I hated it, but I
        didn't protest.  We didn't talk about it then.''
 
        Takei doesn't have the time to talk about it now, although he's
        ready to start in on a bunch of topics -- the FBI interrogation
        of Arab-Americans during the Persian Gulf War, the need for
        mass transit, San Jose's light rail system, his friend Norm
        Mineta and his own upcoming appearance on ``The Simpsons''
        (``I play George Takei and I show up when Springfield is trying
        to start a monorail'').
 
        He doesn't have time because there are already more than 200
        people waiting for his autograph.  The line stretches from the
        Star Trek Collectibles counter all the way back to men's shoes.
 
        Takei is ushered downstairs and a cheer goes up from the fans
        -- some have been waiting for three hours.  ``The transporter
        wasn't working,'' Takei shouts.  ``Thanks for waiting.  That
        traffic jam made me really appreciate Scotty!''
 
        The crowd ranges in age from about 4 to 40.  One pale man wears
        a Star Trek uniform.  Another holds a Dungeons and Dragons book.
        There are plenty of cliched techo-nerds -- T-shirts, shorts,
        white socks, plastic sandals.  But there are mothers and business
        people, too.
 
        First in line is J.R. Adams of San Jose.  `` `Star Trek' widened
        the imagination and gave us hope for the future,'' he says.
        ``I've seen all the episodes.  You feel like you're a part of
        it.''
 
        Meanwhile Takei smiles at everyone, tells the same jokes over
        and over, poses for pictures and signs everything.
 
        A Macy's handler shakes her haed at a young man with a laser
        disc.  ``He's not going to do that,'' she says.  ``I'll do that,''
        Takei says.  ``Please do not ask Mr. Takei to write personal
        inscriptions,'' the handler announces over a loudspeaker.  ``What
        did you want me to write again?'' Takei asks, signing another
        autograph.
 
                `Hug me I purr'
 
        Once they get their pictures, fans are politely -- but firmly --
        blocked from leaving until they pass the sales counter where they
        can buy Tribbles for $29.90 (``Hug me I purr, squeeze me I
        squeal!'') or a signed autographed plaque of the Enterprise crew
        for $499.  A salesperson says they've already sold two of those,
        but they're losing money on the ``Star Trek'' mugs -- a newspaper-
        ad typo has them selling for half-price.
 
        ``Thanks for waiting,'' Takei says to a fan.  ``Who shall I sign
        this to?''
 
        Sybil Kelleher of San Jose has brought her son Angus, 8.  But
        you get the feeling she's the real fan here.  How many other
        grown women have their own Lt. Sulu action figure?
 
        Of course Takei autographs her doll.
 
                A world of unity
 
        ``I was born and bred on `Star Trek,' '' Kelleher says afterward.
        ``It projects a world we wish we could have.  Shared technology,
        total unity, a world not based on capitalism -- not that I'm a
        communist, but it shows sharing.  It gives me hope.  Does that
        sound corny?''
 
        ``Sorry about the wait,'' Takei tells another fan.  ``The trans-
        porter wasn't working.''
 
        Mother and son navigate their way past the collectibles.  ``Live
        long and prosper,'' Kelleher calls out.
 
        George Takei is doing both.
 
David B. Mears
Hewlett-Packard
Cupertino CA
hplabs!hpda!mears
mears@hpinddf.cup.hp.com
 
-- 
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Edited by Jim "The Big Dweeb" Griffith - the official scapegoat for r.a.s.i.
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