Is it time to put Star Trek to rest?

[Starflight]

Meh. TNG did a direct drug PSA that would not be out of place elsewhere for the 80s

Trek bring on the nose doesn't strike me as out of step. If Hawking can be on TNG why not politicians, regardless of one's political affiliation?

I suppose the difference is that Hawking wasn't, in himself, politically charged, nor was he voting on policies that directly impacted people's lives during the time of his Trek appearance.

Let's be honest - if SNW's next season had JD Vance (or, say, Nigel Farage) pop up as "The President of the Federation", our reactions here would range from bewildered laughter to total outrage, and rightly so. We'd be asking serious questions about what the producers' intent was, and if they intended it as an endorsement of his political platform.

There probably are some non-politicians you could get the same effect from - if Pike went to visit "a wise oracle" who turned out to be played by Joe Rogan, we'd again be thinking "what the fuck is this".

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Some would call it fitting; others would laugh at the (in their opinion) irony. Everybody finds something to love or hate or ignore about it.

 

[Set Harth]

Ugh. Is this the final version of the matte painting that they were going to use had the scene been included? It really looks more like a rough sketch.

Washington looks really unhappy about the whole thing.

 

[Firebird]

Ugh. Is this the final version of the matte painting that they were going to use had the scene been included? It really looks more like a rough sketch.

Probably just a rough concept to quickly composite for the workprint I’d imagine.

 

[Tallguy]

But Abrams wasn't playing herself. Hawking was.

Casting Abrams was intended to send a political message. Featuring Hawking was not.

Hawking: We're Star Trek and we're sciencey!
Abrams: We're Star Trek and we're Democrats / lefties / ethnically if not politically diverse / or even the W word (was it still in favor then?)

Let's be honest - if SNW's next season had JD Vance

When Disco opened you could have had Vance just as you had Elon Musk junior high school.

 

[Set Harth]

Casting Abrams was intended to send a political message.

They had to give her an election win somehow!

 

[fireproof78]

There probably are some non-politicians you could get the same effect from - if Pike went to visit "a wise oracle" who turned out to be played by Joe Rogan, we'd again be thinking "what the fuck is this".

I'd get a sensible chuckle out of it, like seeing Weird Al on a kid's show as a yoga teacher.

 

[Nyotarules]

Star Trek has always talked about political and social issues, and it usually (though not always) leaned left.

The thing I find different is that older Trek, meaning basically anything from TOS through Enterprise, went out of its way to avoid directly referencing or including anything contemporary. They did everything through allegory -- though admittedly, some more on the nose than others. But they always kept a safe distance from current society. Even to the point of maintaining that stylized method of speaking that was sort of timeless, not matching up with any one era's style of speech.

I think modern, streaming era Trek has gotten a little too contemporary in a number of ways. I think they can do more good, and persuade more people, by keeping things disconnected from the present and instead delivering messages in more subtle ways.

Or, if Trek viewers are not going to get it after 50 years, since legal, cultural and social progress was made in our society, they never will. So being subtle it ain't cutting it, especially as too many people today are boldly determined to take backward steps and return society to the pre civil rights era.

 

[Etbj SMY]

Then they are too late, Trek has been woke since it aired

Hell, even the two TOS Pilots were "woke" by 1960s TV standards.

May I remind you had M'Benga hadn't subbed for McCoy, Spoke would not be woke at all, even though he could talk perfectly anyhow. I guess that episode's fourth act required more drama.

 

[Crewman Commander]

When it came to Nazis, TOS did not reference them indirectly. There was nothing subtle about "Patterns of Force". TOS was head-on and explicitly anti-Nazi, even when the Zeons were themselves (barely) allegorical. The premise that TOS was always indirect and that it never made direct social commentary is incorrect.

 

[GhoulEddie74]

Even the Vietnam War analogy in "A Private Little War" was about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the kneecaps. "The brush wars on the Asian continent" during the 20th century? Yeah, Roddenberry, Coon and others knew what they were doing. TOS was overtly political.

 

[Etbj SMY]

Even the Vietnam War analogy in "A Private Little War" was about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the kneecaps. "The brush wars on the Asian continent" during the 20th century? Yeah, Roddenberry, Coon and others knew what they were doing. TOS was overtly political.

That week, certainly. And it provided us with my favorite Kirk-McCoy argument from the entire TOS run.

 

[fireproof78]

Even the Vietnam War analogy in "A Private Little War" was about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the kneecaps. "The brush wars on the Asian continent" during the 20th century? Yeah, Roddenberry, Coon and others knew what they were doing. TOS was overtly political.

Subtlety thy name is not Star Trek.

 

[GhoulEddie74]

It never has been. Trek is one of the most openly progressive franchises in the history of popular entertainment, even when it gets things completely wrong as in the case of, say, "Code of Honor(TNG)."

 

[Crewman Commander]

That week, certainly. And it provided us with my favorite Kirk-McCoy argument from the entire TOS run.

It's a powerful scene.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I'll take a cameo from a decent human being like Stacey Abrams in Star Trek over a fascist piece of trash like Elon Musk in Iron Man 2 any day.

 

[Shawnster]

When it came to Nazis, TOS did not reference them indirectly. There was nothing subtle about "Patterns of Force". TOS was head-on and explicitly anti-Nazi, even when the Zeons were themselves (barely) allegorical. The premise that TOS was always indirect and that it never made direct social commentary is incorrect.

Not quite the same. Nobody in the 60s was in favor of Nazism. "Patterns of Force" is not the example of taking a moral stand on anything controversial.

 

[Weyoun 251]

I suppose the difference is that Hawking wasn't, in himself, politically charged, nor was he voting on policies that directly impacted people's lives during the time of his Trek appearance.

Let's be honest - if SNW's next season had JD Vance (or, say, Nigel Farage) pop up as "The President of the Federation", our reactions here would range from bewildered laughter to total outrage, and rightly so. We'd be asking serious questions about what the producers' intent was, and if they intended it as an endorsement of his political platform.

There probably are some non-politicians you could get the same effect from - if Pike went to visit "a wise oracle" who turned out to be played by Joe Rogan, we'd again be thinking "what the fuck is this".

Tell you what - I kinda want to see Farage turn up as himself now, if only to prove that cockroaches can survive anything