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One of the repeated critiques by the modern dudebro is that New Star Trek (NuTrek) has gone “woke.” From what I gather, “woke” means anything that doesn’t center heterosexual white men, unless it’s a sexy chick in a body-hugging catsuit. ST:DIS gets hit especially hard for its Black female lead. “She cries too much,” I can hear the dudebros, uh, cry. There’s a prominent gay couple in senior leadership. One of the female ensigns is not a skinny little thing. Later seasons have a trans and nonbinary character and so on, and it is true: There are very few white heterosexual human males on the show. But Star Trek has always been woke.
The first scene of the first episode of Star Trek broadcast, “The Man Trap” (s1e01 1966), reveals the senior bridge officers are an alien sitting in the command chair, a Black woman at navigation, and a white guy at the helm. First episode. First scene. First frame. We all know about Uhura and Kirk being forced into the first interracial kiss in 1968’s in “Plato’s Step Children” (s3e10), but Lt. Uhura is more than comms. Besides helm, she also has some engineering chops in “Who Mourns for Adonis” (s2e02).
Dr. McCoy is a bit of a parody of southern racism at times like when he says “I’m trying to thank you, you pointy-eared hobgoblin!” in “Bread and Circuses” (s2e25). Or when he refers to Spock as “That green-blooded son of a bitch.” in “Star Trek III,” but we get the gag, and we all love Bones.
Star Trek takes a direct (if hamfisted) look at racism in “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” (s3e15), but also in the excellent “Balance of Terror” (s1e14). ST:TNG explores gender identity in “The Outcast” (s5e17) in 1992. That’s pretty danged woke.
ST:DS9 has a main character Dax who changes genders. Klingon warrior Kor (“Blood Oath” (s2e19 1994)) doesn’t even blink when he meets his old male friend Curzon Dax, who has transitioned to female Jadzia Dax. He instantly switches to using her new name and pronouns. I wonder how the anti-wokesters would respond to that episode today? There’s also some very mild lesbian kissing in ST:DS9, but no one freaked out about it back in the day.
Star Trek has never been afraid of tackling political topics like slavery in “The Cloud Minders” (TOS s3e21). Then there’s the Bell Riots, which are about income inequality with poor Americans in 2024 living in government ghettos finally rising up against the rich in “Past Tense” (DS9 s3e11,12). Star Trek is also explicitly socialist – from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs – in a society that doesn’t use money anymore, for example in “In the Cards” (DS9 s5e25) and in the movies “The Voyage Home” (1986) and “First Contact” (1996).
Finally, there’s the ultimate wokest quote ever in all of television and movie history in “Is There in Truth No Beauty?” (TOS s3e05 1968).
Amanda: The glory of creation is in its infinite diversity.
Spock: And the ways our differences combine to create meaning and beauty.
Infinite diversity, in infinite combinations.
Star Trek is woke. It always has been.
Let us know other examples of Star Trek being woke (or not!) in the comments below.
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2 Comments
Interesting perspective! I grew up watching ST:TNG, and it is my favorite show of all time. The storylines of the older shows were quite progressive for the time. They were boldly going where no TV Show had gone before. But the tone of ST:Discovery is different. It feels they are trying to check all the gender identity boxes in an effort to include everyone at the expense of good storytelling – and that is the real problem with DIS. Giving us this “woke” content is not the same as real progressive ideas woven into a compelling storyline that challenges the way we think. DIS, on the other hand, comes across as virtue signaling, and fans can see through that. If the writing was good, we would stick around, but it’s not – it’s just a big mess in space powered by mushrooms.
I love a woke show, so Star Trek has always been one of my favorites. When I was a kid I grew up on TNG, and we watched every episode as a family. My father watched and loved TOS and made a pretty smooth transition to TNG. However, when Voyager came out, my father said something disparaging about having a woman captain, so we did not watch VOY as a family and I had to catch episodes when I could on my own. I didn’t realize at the time how woke Star Trek was being by putting a woman as a leader! Thank you for the read!