Generic Asian or pan-Asian if you want to be generous. Sulu isn't a Japanese name. Not sure it's even a name outside of the Sulu Sea.
George Takei on why the original ‘Star Trek’ never featured a gay character
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I'm pretty sure Roddenberry got Sulu by looking at a world atlas and seeing it on a map. Takei rationalized it by saying "A sea touches all shores!", but when the show was dubbed in Japanese, his character became Mr. Kato. And the boss. I've heard that the Japanese made up their own stories for Star Trek episodes.
Was Sulu the character originally meant to be of another race then? African perhaps?
JB
True, but the point I was making that she was never asked back to do guest appearances or movies despite all of what you said. Ivanova and Marcus in Day of the Dead could have been cool.
The Sulu Sea is in the Pacific near the Philippines. How would you get African from that?Was Sulu the character originally meant to be of another race then? African perhaps?
JB
Is there any possibility that "Sulu" was another reference that meant something to Roddenberry personally from his war experiences? Like "Noonien Singh"?
He might have seen the name on maps he used as a pilot.
Maybe I was thinking of Zulu perhaps?
JB
JB
I doubt Roddenberry was. So...
I have read, on this BBS I think, that GR was familiar with the Sulu sea and that was originally meant to be his only name. In the original bible, is he "Japanese"? I thought he was supposed to be a bit more generically Asian.
I also doubt that they all knew Trek was special. It was a show on for three years. Shows come, shows go. Maybe someone has trustworthy, contemporary primary sources for that. I.e. not 70s-con-material. These are actors and they tell stories.
I also doubt that they all knew Trek was special. It was a show on for three years. Shows come, shows go. Maybe someone has trustworthy, contemporary primary sources for that. I.e. not 70s-con-material. These are actors and they tell stories.
In the war he would probably not have charts for that area, he would be flying a long way away in the Solomon and Bismarck islands. But Pan Am did have routes such as Manila-Singapore, which would be right in that neighborhood. I don't know what routes he flew for Pan Am.
But of course anybody could see the name on a map and have it stick in their mind.
^^^
Yep, whenever George Takei launches into his - "And I knew this show was special from day one and reeked of quality" routine, it's ALL BS. Much of the Twilight Zone and a number of Outer Limits episodes had good writing too and presented adult science fiction and fantasy.
I'm sure most of them thought that unless it was a top hit, it wouldn't last past season one as it WAS expensive to produce in its day. If RCA had been the parent company of NBC and hadn't had surveys commissioned that showed Star Trek was one of the reasons RCA was able to sell (VERY expensive in 1966) a lot of their new color TVs, it might not have made it past Season one.
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I think the quality of WNMHGB and some of those early season one scripts would jump out as a quality show.
I'm a bit dubious about Star Trek selling lots of TVs because NBC was all color primetime in 1965 (with the exception of 2 shows) so Trek wasn't this unusual thing. Its supposed popularity with color set owners may have been one factor in its renewal, but middling ratings alone didn't necessarily kill a show.
As you say, Star Trek was expensive, not cheap. In its first season it's per episode average budget was ~14% greater than top-five NBC hit Bonanza's.
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