George Takei has been an ambassador for Star Trek for over 40 years, since appearing in the second pilot as Hikaru Sulu. He's now almost as well known for his role as Hiro's father on Heroes, and for his campaigning on various issues, including gay rights. Takei recently visited London to promote the release of the first season of the original Star Trek, remastered with new computer graphics. He took time out to speak to Dreamwatch Total Sci Fi.

What do you think of the remastered episodes?

The remastered series is technically much improved. But we're not destroying the original. They are there for archival purposes. We now have the best of two possible worlds. We can take advantage of the advances made in technology to create that dazzling reality.

There's a lot of interest again in the original Star Trek, with the remastered episodes and the new movie. Why do you think people have returned to the original incarnation?

It's Gene Roddenberry's core philosophy I think. With each succeeding spin off series I think the producers got a little further and further away from Gene's philosophy: to look to the future as a bracing challenge. So much of science fiction looks to the future with doom and gloom. Gene said that if we have confidence in our creativity, our inventive capacity, our problem solving capacity, we can make positive progress.

Looking back from 2007, that core philosophy was prescient. The reality of the 1960s was the polar opposite of what we depicted on the Starship Enterprise: a multi-racial cast working together in concert. But in reality, in the United States certainly, our great cities were exploding in fiery race riots. We had a war in far-off Vietnam which was tearing the fabric of our country apart. The entire planet was gripped in the coldest of Cold Wars.

Today we do in fact have a spacecraft called the International Space Station. The crew of that space station is made up of people from all over this planet, from many different races and nations, speaking many different languages, holding many different faiths, and most astounding of all, with one time Cold War mortal enemies, Americans and Russians, working together side by side. It would have been unthinkable back in the 1960s. That was pure science fiction, social fiction, political fiction. And yet it is reality today. Yes, on planet Earth, we still have some of those ills but we are making progress.

In the middle of shooting Star Trek, you went off to film John Wayne's war movie The Green Berets, which had a totally different philosophy to Star Trek. How easy was it to go between the two productions?

Back then, I was an anti-war activist. But I also believed in honesty when you went for interviews. When I was interviewed by John Wayne himself for that role, I felt compelled to be forthright with him. I said, "We have different political philosophies, and certainly on the war we are very different. This is a reality of our times, and we are on opposite sides." John Wayne said, "I respect you for having the guts to stand up for your position. This is what makes America what it is: we believe in the freedom of speech. You're a good actor and for this role there aren't too many people who can do the role as well as you can, so I want you to do it." I was impressed by that. I had a great time working with him despite the fact that the movie was a John Wayne statement.

You recently reprised the role of Sulu for the internet film Star Trek: New Voyages: World Enough and Time. Did that feel odd?

It was a wonderfully written episode. It was written originally back in the 1970s when NBC and Paramount considered remounting us as a TV series again. They commissioned about half a dozen scripts including World Enough and Time. It had just laid on the shelf all these many years.

I was just delighted to be in it. If that had gone in the 1970s, I would have played the young Sulu, as well as the older Sulu with make up. I regret that part – however I was able to provide my own make up for the Sulu that returns as a barbarian!

Will you be coming back to Heroes following the events of the first episode of season two?

Nothing is ever as it seems on a series like Heroes. Stay tuned, and you will be surprised. And there will be a surprise after the surprise as well!

What do you think it is about Heroes that has captured the zeitgeist?

It really does reflect our times today. We are a global society now. Our economy is global, our politics is global. To me, it's just amazing that on primetime network television we have whole scenes played out in a foreign language with English subtitles. That used to be arthouse territory – it is before the masses now.

Star Trek was so optimistic: we were able to work together for our common good. On Heroes, we explore more the grey area. Those with powers don't necessarily work together. There are those who let their human fallibilities come into play, and use their powers for that. The powers are an exaggeration of what we all have: it's how we use those powers that make society better or worse.

What's been the best part of the experience?

When I was a child, my parents sent me to Japanese language school on Saturdays and I complained bitterly. Now I'm very grateful, because it opened up another area of employment for me. This role requires fluency in Japanese, and most Japanese Americans do not speak Japanese. Ando is played by a Korean, but he has an amazing ear. He can listen to the Japanese that the consultant provides him and is able to memorise those sounds and make it very credible.

What do you think of the casting of John Cho as Sulu in J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek film?

I'm the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the East West Players. It's the oldest minority theatre in America. John Cho has appeared in about three or four productions. He's known more as a comic actor, but I've seen him do dramatic work, and he's a fine actor. I think he's going to do a fine job, but I think he's going to have to reach for the youth – I was 27 when I began work on Star Trek. This is a prequel, so it's a Sulu younger than I was when I started. John is 35. We'll see how good an actor he is! He has one spectacular scene that's going to be wonderful.

I've had conversations with J.J. He has some real daunting challenges. When Star Trek first came on, the technology was just mind-boggling. This compact device, they flip it open and they can talk…. That's gone now. The mobile is a nuisance in our society. How do you create that reality for this jaded 21st Century audience? But he's a very inventive and creative guy!

Where do you think the future of Star Trek lies? On the big screen? Or back on TV?

I used to be surprised by each new manifestation of Star Trek. When we were cancelled, I thought that was it. Every series eventually gets cancelled. We'd go on and build the rest of our careers. When they revived us as a movie, I was just astounded. But that was it. When it turned into a series, I was amazed by that. When they announced they were going to bring back Star Trek on television, all of us assumed it was going to be us, and then when we heard it was going to be called The Next Generation, Jimmy Doohan was particularly irate about it. He forecast doom for that, and that doom would infect us as well. It didn't happen. We were surprised by that. Other spin offs, we were surprised by.

There have been so many surprises now that we're now pleasantly expecting another movie to happen after this. Walter Koenig and I have talked, and we are expecting a 50th anniversary celebration with another Star Trek movie in 2016!

Star Trek: The Original Series Remastered is out now on DVD and HD-DVD (region 1 & 2).

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