I swear people that don’t watch trek think it’s just about lasers and technobabble.
I know people that refused to watch Discovery because ‘they made it all woke and now it’s all about women’.
Discovery has problems (I still like that show), but being woke it not one of them…
For me it was all the screaming.
It’s got a very TOS-style of writing and story to it.
I remember seeing a fair few people pitch a fit about the Burn, for example, even though “angry man has a tantrum and nearly blows up the universe”, and “child with godlike powers” are common TOS plots.
They tried something new, which I don’t mind them for, but I don’t think it mixed well with people being used to more TNG-styles plots, and the writing not being that great. Still, it managed to help kickstart the modern revival of Trek, and gave us (non-wheelchair) Captain Pike, so it wasn’t all bad.
This. I don’t watch Discovery anymore because I couldn’t stand a lot of the characters but it had absolute nothing to do with progressive views.
Since the beginning!
Star Trek in 1966: *has a bridge crew containing a black female, Russian man, and faaaabulous Japanese man, each of whom holds the rank of full Lieutenant on their own abundant merits*
And a Russian navigator at the height of the Cold War.
Oh yeah, I completely forgot about Chekov! Editing my comment now. Thank you!
And a Russian and Japanese crew member at the height of the Cold War. Not just as background, but as one of the main crew.
Not to mention, it featured the first interracial kiss on television.
In Nichelle Nichols’ autobiography she talks about how the network insisted the scene be filmed both with and without the kiss, and of course, being good loyal actors, they complied. But, on takes without the kiss, something always seemed to go wrong… Shatner flubbed a line, the boom was in the shot, the cameras weren’t quite set up correctly… eventually they ran out of time and were forced, “reluctantly”, to submit only the takes with the kiss. I recommend Beyond Uhura. Also Kate Mulgrew’s “autobiography” of Captain Janeway is a great read too. :)
And then, just as now, many said “I wouldn’t have a problem with it if they weren’t rubbing it in my face!”
*American television. IIRC British television had an interracial kiss over a decade earlier.
I’m sure they also watch Starship Troopers and completely miss the fact that it’s a satire.
That’s also the problem with any kind of forum that satirizes conservatives on the internet: sooner or later, it will get flooded with right wingers who completely fail to understand that they’re being made fun of, and who will start posting the satirized content in all seriousness.
Eventually, the original people who started the venue leave, and what’s left is just another right-wing echo chamber.
Thats not even the craziest part of that episode
‘Make It So’: ‘Star Trek’ and Its Debt to Revolutionary Socialism
Beginning in 1966, the plot of “Star Trek” closely followed Posadas’s propositions. After a nuclear third world war (which Posadas also believed would lead to socialist revolution), Vulcan aliens visit Earth, welcoming them into a galactic federation and delivering replicator technology that would abolish scarcity. Humans soon unify as a species, formally abolishing money and all hierarchies of race, gender and class.
Two things happened:
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culture wars are at an all time high due to right wing lies and attempts to push everyone not like them back into a culture of fear and hiding. So they are more sensitive to stuff they would not have batted an eye over before.
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stories no longer have men controlling everything and having all the authority/adventures
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Star Trek has been utopian space communism from the very beginning.
Science fiction has always been a vehicle for exploring woke ideas. Separating an issue from its current context allows the audience to set aside their biases and look with fresh eyes.
I hate this reaction to removal they want, I’m a big fan of the placement card at the start of these things that say “What you are about to see is wrong and shouldn’t have been done,” but not that removal of the content. I think it’s way more powerful to put that content warning placard before a show from the '90s as proof there are still things that need to be done and it’s not a “distant” past thing.
Edit, I guess '80s for this episode.
What’s been removed?
Frakes recently renewed his call for the episode “Code of Honor” from season 1 to be completely removed from reruns, home video, and steaming platforms. He made the call in the past. So while they might not ever remove it, some people would like it to be removed.
“But I was told or I was under the impression that it had rubbed so many people the wrong way that it was pulled. I think they should take it out of the rotation. I think it is a great time to make that kind of – as small as it is – to make that kind of a statement would be fabulous.”
Also, I just realized I posted this on the completely wrong article that I thought I was, I thought I was posting to a different topic about Frakes’ request to remove the episode after finding out it was on Paramount’s streaming service.
which episode was that? pulling it is a dumb decision. just put the damn thing in context. i’m not going to pretend I didn’t do something stupid decades ago just to try to look good now. people (and franchises) grow and change.
Code of Honour
A.k.a “Dark men from Space Africa steal our white women”
In fairness, apparently when the episode was first pitched, they wanted the alien race to be reptiles, but it was subsequently changed to just be black people wearing tribal African clothing.
