Sexuality in Science Fiction

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Sexuality in Science Fiction
October 20, 2010
By Dominic Knight
ATV Network Today

Let’s face it; here in the UK it’s the soaps that have led the way in representations of homosexuality. EastEnders, Emmerdale and Brookside in the 1980s and 1990s had gay/lesbian characters and relationships much to the anger of the press at the time but it was these early representations that opened the flood gates to everything that has come since be it Queer as Folk, Dante’s Cove or gay snogs on The Bill or Torchwood. Talking of which it can be argued that the sci fi genre has been somewhat slow on the uptake of including regular LGBT characters but here we take a look back at some of the most memorable LGBT characters.



Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it could be argued, was one of the first major science fiction/genre programmes to feature a regular and major LGBT character. Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) came out as a lesbian during the shows fourth season. Willow had previously been in a relationship with Werewolf Oz (Seth Green) but after he left Sunnydale she slowly realised she was a lesbian and had a relationship with Tara (Amber Benson) and later Kennedy (Lyari Limon). Joss Whedon had always planned to have a gay character on Buffy but in the first three seasons was unsure whether Willow or Xander (Nicholas Brendon) should be gay and so dropped hints throughout the first three years allowing him to make either character gay; in the end he chose Willow to become a lesbian. This was hinted at in season three when ‘Vamp Willow’ from an alternative time-line is clearly bisexual. Willow wasn’t the only gay character to feature in Buffy but she was the only major, regular character to do so. Introduced in season six was Andrew Wells (Tom Lenk) who was obviously homosexual but ‘in the closet’. During season six he was considered one of the seasons ‘big bads’ but in the seventh season was redeemed by the writers.



Torchwood, the Doctor Who spin-off, has featured several bisexual characters though when it launched Russell T. Davies stated all the main characters were ‘probably bisexual’. In some ways this is certainly Eve Mylestrue as during its first 13 episodes each Torchwood member - bar Susie Costello who was killed in the season opener and briefly revived later on - had a same-sex encounter. However, two of these encounters can essentially be discounted as evidence of regular bisexuality of the characters. Owen (Burn Gorman) has a threesome in the first episode with a man and another woman but there is no further evidence of his bisexuality during the rest of Torchwood. It is later revealed he had an affair with Suzie (Indira Varma) and ends up sleeping with Gwen and later the lost-in-time Diane (Louise Delamere). Gwen (Eve Myles) herself as a lesbian kiss in the second episode but is under the influence of an alien entity at the time. However, Jack (John Barrowman), Ianto (Gareth David-Lloyd) and Tosh (Naoko Mori) all have gay relationships during the course of Torchwood.



Jack has previously had relationships with men and women; Estelle (Eve Pearce) and Captain John (James Marsters). Following the death of Ianto’s girlfriend Lisa (Caroline John BarrowmanChikezie) he embarks in a relationship with Jack which lasts until Ianto’s death - this leaves Jack grief stricken and is part of the reason he leaves the Earth following the events of Children of Earth. Tosh meanwhile though having an obvious crush on Owen has a fling with Mary (Daniela Denby-Ashe) who is later revealed to be a deadly alien. All three characters therefore are considered by us to be at the very least bisexual and Ianto and Jack’s relationship - which spanned three seasons - was considered by fans to be one of the highlights of Torchwood. The killing off of Ianto during Children of Earth proved to be particularly controversial.



Battlestar Galactica has also featured some LGBT characters but often it has done it in a more subtle way with the emphasis often not on the sexuality aspect of the relationship Lucy Lawlessdepicted but the relationship itself. In the special DVD Movie Razor it was revealed that Admiral Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes) had been in a lesbian relationship with Cylon Gina (Tricia Helfer) which explained her brutality towards the Cylon when her true nature was revealed. If the relationship came as a surprise to her crew - when they found out - it was more the fact that Cain was in a relationship rather than the lesbian nature of it. In season three - before Razor which was produced afterwards but set before - there is a three-way relationship between Six (Tricia Helfer), Three (Lucy Lawless) and Baltar (James Callis). Whether this relationship is sexual or not between all three isn’t stated but they do share a bed and Six is clearly heart-broken when Three and Baltar cuts her out of the relationship.



In the webisodes Face of the Enemy - produced to bridge the gap between the two halves of season four - it is revealed that the characters of Gatea (Alessandro Juliani) and Hoshi (Brad Dryborough) were in a gay relationship. However, the relationship itself and the sexuality of the two characters were barely referred to within the television episodes themselves but that’s probably because the Face of the Enemy webisodes were filmed after production had wrapped on Battlestar Galactica. In the Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica Sam Adama (Sasha Roiz) is in a gay marriage and his sexuality is spoken off quite openly - signalling again that sexuality is not a taboo subject for the 12 colonies.



In Babylon 5 there are hints that Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian) was in a relationship with telepath Talia Winters (Andrea Thompson). Things initially started very frosty between Talia and Susan when the telepath comes onboard as Susan is uncomfortably being around telepaths. This is partly because of unresolved issues for Susan surrounding her mother, her latent telepathy and also a strong distrust of Psi Corp which Talia works for - the distrust of Psi Corp is something shared by all non-telepaths. During the course of the first two seasons through Talia and Susan eventually strike up a relationship; dinning together and later its implied they shared a bed together. Following the departure of Talia from the station - when it was revealed she was a sleeper agent - Susan confesses to Delenn (Mira Furlan) that she was in love with the telepath but it isn’t stated whether it was platonic love or romantic love.



The most noticeable franchise without any major/regular LGBT characters is Star Trek which on television and film has yet to fully cover the issue. Though there were plans for gay characters to feature in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Enterprise they never did. This is despite having support for such inclusions amongst the various casts of the Star Trek spin-offs and the crews as well - but despite several attempts to include LGBT characters in the Trek universe it has not yet happened. However, in the various fan-produced Star Trek productions LGBT characters have featured but these are not considered cannon.



Our look at LGBT characters in Science Fiction only includes television/film and not novels or comics which we readily admit has been a bit better at including gay and lesbian characters. This feature is intended as a brief look at gay characters within science fiction and is by no means a comprehensive list of every gay or lesbian character to feature in a genre programme - there are some we haven’t included in our list. We have tried though to include all the major/significant ones but we welcome your suggestions and additions to our feature. So if you think we’ve unfairly missed off a character from a genre show then simply post below and say so!