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New Podcast Will Hear From Asian Actors Who've Appeared On 'Star Trek'

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "STAR TREK")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Space, the final frontier.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

For as long as there has been "Star Trek" - and it is a lot longer than a five-year mission at this point - people have analyzed the TV program and movie series, the universe of "Star Trek." Now a new podcast out this week aims to take a different look at the franchise.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "ALL THE ASIANS ON STAR TREK")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Space, the final frontier. These are...

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

PHIL YU: Hello. And welcome to "All The Asians On Star Trek," the podcast in which we interview all the Asians on "Star Trek."

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

That's creator Phil Yu. He runs the Angry Asian Man blog, a site about news in Hollywood and pop culture. He's also a huge, huge "Star Trek" fan - and so this podcast.

YU: It's kind of a collision of the two interests. "Star Trek" has been at the vanguard of diversity in a very inclusive vision of the future, but it's always been a little bit lacking in its depiction of Asians and Asian Americans.

INSKEEP: "Star Trek's" most famous Asian character as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu played by George Takei. But Yu wants listeners to go beyond.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "STAR TREK")

GEORGE TAKEI: (As Hikaru Sulu) Mr. Spock has orders to kill you, captain. He will succeed.

YU: Like I watch anything else, I watch "Star Trek" going like, there should be - I feel like there should be more Asians in the future. And then so whenever I spot a guest star or a background extra even, I take note of that. And then one day I just thought, wouldn't it be funny if you just talked to each of those people and give them their proper shine?

GREENE: No character is too small.

YU: There was someone who walked by in the background of a episode of "Star Trek: Voyager," and I could see, like - oh, wait, she's Asian; I want to talk to that person.

GREENE: Yu already has a list of some 50 people he wants to interview, and he plans for the podcast to eventually explore the diversity of Asians and Asian Americans represented throughout all of the "Star Trek" universe.

YU: I think "Star Trek" represents our best ideals, and it's a vision of a future where humanity has come together and kind of put aside a lot of our differences. And I would hope that Asians have a place in that vision of humanity.

INSKEEP: That is highly logical.

(SOUNDBITE OF ALEXANDER COURAGE'S "THEME FROM STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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