Why Star Trek's Colm Meaney accused Deep Area 9 of racism and altered course

By Chris Snellgrove
| Printed 1 hour in the past

Even when we keep on with the truth that New deep house is the perfect Star Trek collection, its first season was as tough in locations because the premiere of The subsequent technology. That is very true for the episode “If Needs Have been Horses,” which options the station crew's imaginations working wild and bringing a few of the strangest fantasies to life.

It seems that this episode was really ruined by not one however two fantastical creatures. They have been the offensive goblins within the authentic New deep house script and its try and be much less offensive, Rumpelstiltskin. The swapped character got here together with his personal large issues; his scenes with Chief O'Brien have been too tough to shoot.

It began with an concept so dangerous that Colm Meaney refused to do it

When the writers wrote “If Needs Have been Horses,” they beloved the thought of ​​a leprechaun coming to life as a result of O'Brien learn a fairy story to his younger daughter (as a result of aliensIn fact). That they had no concept it could be offensive till their very Irish actor Colm Meaney, who performed Miles O'Brien, summed up his downside with the leprechaun plot thus: “It's actually racist, and I don't wish to do it. .”

Colm Meaney was offended on a number of totally different ranges by the leprechaun within the authentic script. Because the actor instructed producer Rick Berman on the time: “Each Irish actor I do know has labored their entire lives to beat the stereotypes of Irish individuals and leprechauns. »

After Meaney flatly instructed Berman that it was racist, the writers and producers scrambled to discover a substitute fantasy creature that might exchange the leprechaun. Meaney later mirrored on how the preliminary concept was simply as probably offensive to followers of the franchise because it was to him: “Utilizing caricatures or clichés of a nation shouldn’t be one thing. Star Trek is or ought to be in.

As for then-showrunner Michael Piller, he remembers: “We had no concept that there was any leprechaun sensibility in Irish tradition, and we definitely didn't wish to power Colm Meaney to play a leprechaun, however that what the hell are you doing? after having a complete story structured round a leprechaun stealing a toddler? It was an comprehensible dilemma as a result of the script was virtually completed by the point Meaney received to see it. Piller and his workforce had to determine the best way to make the modifications essential to maintain Meaney pleased with out altering issues so drastically that it will require an in depth rewrite.

Star Trek's Accusations of Racism: Deep Area 9's Star Forces Them in a Unusual Path

The final word resolution to this dilemma got here from author Robert Hewitt Wolfe, who prompt changing the leprechaun with Rumpelstiltskin, one other fantasy character that Chief O'Brien may moderately relate to his younger daughter. Piller admitted that it wasn't a superbly elegant resolution as a result of “Rumpelstiltskin wasn't precisely the identical factor and wouldn't work within the construction we had.” »

Piller was answerable for rewriting the script to include the brand new creature and later admitted that “I had no concept the best way to resolve it or the place it was going to go” and “I wrote each scene to see if it labored and I had enjoyable with it.” he.”

As soon as the alternative was made, Colm Meaney was pleased that the leprechaun plotline had been eliminated, however he revealed that Rumpelstiltskin introduced his personal issues when it got here to filming as a result of the character “had the power to seem and disappear.” This meant they needed to do a “very sophisticated” reverse shoot, which typically required him to talk ahead to an actor behind him. Nonetheless, Meaney felt the episode “went nicely.”

Not all followers agree with this evaluation, particularly as a result of Rumpelstiltskin nonetheless visually reads like a leprechaun. Meaney himself appeared mollified by the substitution, however some followers nonetheless really feel prefer it was a unusually out-of-place racism in the midst of an in any other case enjoyable Star Trek episode. Possibly if in case you have a number of drinks on the Quark bar first, you may discover a pot of gold (or the bottoms of some bottles) on this scorching mess of a Star Trek: Deep Area 9 episode.