Star Trek and Asperger's

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In the Star Trek universe there are no fewer than three main characters who could be described as having Asperger's: Spock, Data, and Odo. I don't think this is a coincidence. I would be willing to bet Gene Roddenberry has Asperger's. Anybody else notice this? Anybody ever see Roddenberry at a convention and see any signs of Asperger's?

^^ This is a very interesting observation indeed. Although I have not come across Odo (I often only view The Next Generation episodes), Asperger's syndrome is a human condition. Therefore, although this may be partly applicable to Spock due to his half human heritage, his autistic traits appear to be caused more by his Vulcan genes. Also, Data is not at all human, therefore perhaps may not have this condition.^^ I must say, I believe Data is a very magical character. ^^ Alas, I am very sorry if you intended not to imply that they possess the condition but wished to imply that they appear as an individual with the condition.

I wasn't trying to imply that the characters have AS. I was wondering if the creators of Star Trek might have had it. The prevelance of leading characters with traits similar to those of AS as well as the general tone and message of the franchise in general are make it seem likely.

I think that's a very good point... and it might in fact be true. I've been a member of enough sci fi and speculative fiction societies to know that a lot of folks attracted to those genres are ... how can I put this... like me. So yes, someone... not necessarily Rodenberry, but maybe the authors, must have had aspie traits.

I know that the Star Trek universe is one that appeals to me, because the Vulcans always feel like my natural kin. I was gutted with the new film... not that I didn't think it was good, but something happened to the Vulcan's which made my stomach flip. Don't want to spoil it on anyone, but argh!

Anyhow, yes... I think that's a good point. Actually, thinking of it, I'm sure Harlan Ellison, an original think tank guy and exceptional author on Trek is aspies.

the only one I see as close is Reginald Barclay...

I know what you mean about the Vulcans. I hated that.

If they make any more television series I hope they turn it over to an Aspie. That would be awesome.

Some of the more ridiculous stories of the original Star Trek, particularly the ones dealing with emotions and love, looked like it was written by an Aspie who didn't have a good understanding of such things...

It's an interesting question. I went to a space conference a long time ago, and Roddenberry was going to be the keynote speaker. Turned out he didn't show and the guy that played Riker showed up. He was a good speaker btw. Maybe it was significant that Roddenberry didn't want to go to a conference.

BTW, I don't think Barclay is autistic. Really anxious or something. But it seems that despite its difficulty Starfleet Academy allows some behavioral diversity.

--des

Frankly, I'm not fond of looking at Sci-Fi and comparing characters who are non-human and comparing them to having AS. It's really the other way around.

An actor tasked with being an "alien" would have to reject his conditioning as a human and immerse himself into a character who knows nothing about how humans interact (unless his new species has similar rituals and customs). That the come across as having AS is really just a reflection of how people with AS act due to their inability to understand most normal human behaviors.

Aliens in TV and movies are not modeled after AS. They are just doing exactly what an alien might do.

Good points. At first I was in agreement but after thinking about it for awhile I realized two things. The first is that the characters in question are already accustomed to humans and how they act, so their behavior is not part of any kind of adjusting phase. Second, and far more telling, is the AS related behavior is a part of their personality and not just adaptive behavior. It is something they always exhibit, whether around humans or not.

But I do agree that for a new alien meeting humans for the first time would have many AS behaviors, assuming they put aside whatever behavior they innately have and want to fit in with human culture.

7of9... I believe her name is... the borg from Voyager. She seems to be quite the candiate. Mind you, I find many robot / android / cyborg characters seem to be autistic in some sense.

Thank You! I was trying to figure out who from Voyager would be the AS type figure.

Tuvok would be another Voyager candidate. You also have T'Pol on Enterprise.

I've heard that Gene Roddenberry was a very warm and gregarious, empathetic person. Doesn't sound too Aspie to me. But you're right that there are a lot of Aspie characters on Star Trek. There's Spock, Data, Barclay, Odo, Tuvok, The Doctor, 7 of 9, T'Pol...
The weird thing is, there wasn't one person who created all these characters. For some reason, a whole bunch of people created a whole bunch of characters with a whole bunch of autistic traits.
My theory is that since Spock was a really popular character, other writers tried to duplicate that success by creating characters that were like Spock. And the result was a lot of Aspie characters.

That makes a lot of sense.