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Today the Telegraph (U.K.) reports that an important 1973 letter from Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, will be auctioned in Saturday in England. While the Telegraph story focuses on the intended appeal of Spock to women (because of a "slight look of the devil"), a comment from Roddenberry in the letter that will resonate with all fans is included:

"It is important to the typical Star Trek fan that there is a tomorrow. They pretty much share the Star Trek philosophies about life, the fact that it is wrong to interfere in the evolvement of other peoples, that to be different is not necessarily to be wrong or ugly."

The letter, Lot. 58 at International Auctions Ltd., is described further on the auction website, and reads in part:

"Star Trek says that it has not all happened, it has not all been discovered, that tomorrow can be as challenging and adventurous as any time man has ever lived."

The Telegraph story has provoked a lot of twittering, both about the Spock-as-sex-symbol idea and the underlying philosophy of Star Trek. One of those tweets was from the Twitter account of a new site that launched today, seetreklove.com. SEETrekLove (SEE stands for Social Equality Effort) describes itself as "a fan-based movement advocating the fair and equal representation of sexual minorities in mainstream media, specifically in subsequent Star Trek films. We endeavor to continue the precedent previously established by the Star Trek franchise of envisioning a future wherein love is not limited by boundaries of race or gender."

The SEETrekLove petition demands portrayal of an overt relationship between Kirk and Spock in a Star Trek film:

"We, the undersigned, request that the director, producers and writers of the new Star Trek films include a romantic relationship between the characters of James T. Kirk and Spock in the execution of Star Trek sequels."

The petition also quotes a 1991 letter from Roddenberry to The Advocate, suggesting that an openly gay character would soon be featured in a Star Trek television series:

"In the fifth season [of Star Trek: The Next Generation] viewers will see more of shipboard life [including] gay crew members in day-to-day circumstances."

Of course, many believe Star Trek has been dealing with gay themes from the beginning, and that a relationship between Kirk and Spock has been there all along. The SEETrekLove website site has a link to an essay by Laura Goodwin about the relationship between Kirk and Spock; if "slash" studies intrigue you, this is for you. (A personal note: the very first slash fiction I ever encountered, 27 years ago, was about Kirk and Spock, so the idea has been around for awhile.)

Star Trek: Enterprise danced around the gay character issue a little in its final season, with Dominic Keating's Lt. Malcolm Reed swaggering leather-clad around dark San Francisco streets for clandestine meetings with--his spy chief. According to the plot these meetings were counter-intelligence missions, the character having been recruited years before as an intelligence operative. The Reed plotline was a nod and a wink to covert sexuality. It was sly and sexy and fun, and light years away from the mainstreaming (and taming) "my two mommies" mindset. But to many who wanted an openly gay character, Star Trek: Enterprise was a disappointment. According to remarks by Keating to fans at a convention, Lt. Reed was once intended to be the first openly gay character in a Star Trek series.