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Infinite Diversity In Infinite Combinations: Star Trek Was Woke From The Beginning
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this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2023
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There are always going to be people that are offended by diversity, but if anything we've witnessed from the fan response to these recent Star Trek shows like lower decks, STD, Picard, and strange new worlds, It's that there's different ways of using diversity in a story.
Diversity that seems natural to the plot and diversity that seems to be the plot are treated very differently by different kinds of fans. The former seems to be well received even by people that aren't huge fans of diversity. The latter seems to be grating on a large number of fans.
What I think almost all of Star Trek except STD did very well is to use the infinitely diverse universe to tell stories about the human condition and the future of hope. Why I think STD failed at this is not for the inclusion or the diversity but because it made it the A plot repeatedly in a time when the society we are shown the universe through is supposed to take diversity=strength for granted.
Other treks wouldn't care that you are gay, black, trans, or the descendant of a bad man, but there was still inter species conflict and an intense fear of genetic engineering that created a context for exploring various modes and motives for conflict.
I actually really like social commentary, I don't like tired, hamfisted, and insultingly performative puppet shows of social commentary. STD gave me vibes that a boardroom full of old white guys in expensive suits had a conference call with the writers that went something like "market research says progressive bullshit sells well to our target demographic, so I want 24 scripts about being ethnic or queer or something on my desk by morning. Make sure you really spell it out, too, the [slur]s are fucking stupid to get it otherwise."
Oh, it felt more then that. After the pile of garbage was written, the editors and the showrunners were bypassed to the marketing department and senior execs who decided to cut continuity and plain "making sense" to "make sure we cram in more woke" (and not real "progress by a strong person that identifies as a certain way" but outright insubordination), poor decision making to make controversy at every level, or heroin induced flights of fancy... My favourite was that time some producer wanted a fight on top of a turbolift, so they showed that 90% of the interior of the ship is empty space where turbolift apparently just fly around. https://www.cbr.com/star-trek-discovery-turbolifts-season-3-finale/
I 100% believe that this ham-fisted diversity bullshit is what happens when a board room of old white guys are just checking boxes instead of anyone actually trying to tell a cohesive story.