In the very first episode of Star Trek: the original series, we see a white Captain reporting to his black Admiral boss, a black woman on the bridge just a couple years after Jim Crow was abolished, wearing a short skirt (a symbol of feminist liberation at the time), a Japanese helmsman on the bridge only 20 years after the internment camps, a Russian crewmate on the bridge during the Cold War [edit: actually did not appear until Season 2 but the point stands], and the foundation of the modern concept of queercoding.
In the very first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, we see male crossdressing crew members, a female officer on the bridge in charge of security, a literal ship’s counselor stationed at all times on the bridge, a single mom raising her teenage son on her own while juggling a full career in medicine, a blind mechanic whose “disability” is shown to be a strength, and an angry, all-powerful godlike being who is revealed to be simply a petulant child masquerading as a deity.
In the very first episode of Star Trek: Deep Space 9, we see a black man gain a powerful command position, respect the hell out of the customs of a religion he didn’t understand, show respect and equal treatment to members of three other alien races he didn’t understand, appoint a female guerilla fighter who defeated imperialist fascists to a position of authority within his administration and defer to her judgement in areas of her expertise, accept his friend’s gender change, and tell his son he loves him.
Star Trek has always been woke. You just grew up to be a bad person.
Hard disagree.
People are criticizing 'woke’ness- you’re assuming that’s idiots who don’t want to see progressive storylines but somehow didn’t notice that Uhura was a black officer when it was assumed black people couldn’t do much more than cook and clean.
I think the reality is that people are happy to take progressive storylines, but people strongly resent the specific combination of progressive storylines delivered ham-fisted which one might call ‘wokeness’.
I’m saying that for myself too. I am STRONGLY in favor of inclusion. I have NO problem seeing any race, gender, sexual orientation, etc of character on screen, and I want to see all groups represented fairly.
A great example of that was The Expanse. It’s part of the overall series plot that since humans went to space, former national borders no longer applied much so cultures mixed together. So you get this major disconnection between name ethnicity and physical appearance ethnicity (IE, Japanese guy with a French name, Black character with a Japanese name, etc) and nobody bats an eye. One of the first plots revolves around a man and his husband who are going to retire together and nobody gives a shit they’re gay. Like it’s not even brought up, it’s just ‘me and my husband are going to retire on Mars’ and this is treated as a perfectly normal thing that a man of advanced years would say.
Like myself, I bet you’d find a lot of the same people unhappy at ‘wokeness’ in Trek have NO problem with The Expanse- because it’s not woke, it’s inclusive.
Now full disclosure- I’ve not actually seen any of the new Trek- didn’t have Paramount+ until my partner wanted to watch Landman and nothing I heard about any of the new stuff made it sound like a must-watch. So I’m speaking conceptually on wokeness.
But in my experience, wokeness is pretty much the same no matter who’s writing it or in what venue. It’s NOT the same as inclusion.
BTW- if you haven’t watched The Expanse I highly encourage you to do so…
I’ve seen (and read) The Expanse, and you’re right, it’s fantastic. One of the authors has also repeated gone on record as doing his best to fight the patriarchy.
And that is exactly my point.
You think The Expanse would be better if Avasarala was a strong woman leader fighting to make her mark in a male-dominated world? I think not. The whole thing that makes her so great is that she can be herself, by not needing to prove herself worthy she proves herself worthy. Or Bobbie Draper- if she was the GI Jane, struggling to be taken seriously in a male-dominated MMC? No, then the story stops being about a badass woman being badass, and starts being about the men who don’t recognize that badassery. And that’s a MUCH less interesting story. Or Drummer- I’ve not yet read the books but I understand TV-Drummer was a combination of two characters-- after the mutiny on Tycho she’s wounded, someone tries to help her up but she pushes them away, grabs the guys sidearm, blasts the two mutineers, and hobbles off to the infirmary on her own… would that scene be better if someone was saying ‘I guess women can have balls after all’?
No, the way you fight patriarchy, or racism, or homophobia, isn’t to fight patriarchy or racism or homophobia. It’s to show people what happens after patriarchy, racism, and homophobia are defeated, and let people decide that’s the world they want.
The Expanse took great strides to fight a number of prejudices. But never once was it ‘woke’.