Bolding Going Where No One Wants to Go
I’m a Star Trek guy. I don’t call myself a Trekkie or a Trekker or whatever people used to argue about in the golden age of Trek. In fact, you will never hear me refer to myself as a nerd or a geek. I think it’s stupid and limiting as a human being to define yourself like a Saved by the Bell character. Nonetheless, I am all of those things.
My friend Jon and I have spent literally hundreds of hours talking about Star Trek over the course of our nearly twenty year friendship. There’s a running gag that his wife knows to tune out when we get into it.
Ben Sisko is my homeboy.
I’m primarily a Deep Space Nine guy, though I love the original Trek movies, TNG, Voyager and Enterprise. Weirdly, I’m not a TOS guy.
I may not own a Starfleet uniform or any collectibles, but Star Trek is one of my things.
Recently I heard about this article on The Mary Sue about Star Trek fans. If you don’t know, The Mary Sue is one of many Leftist comic book websites that popped up in the early 2000s. Their whole thing is talking about comics, scifi and anything nerd-related from a feminist angle. Which, you know, if that’s how you like your tea, have at it.
The writer, Rachel Leishman, claims that anyone who leans Right and hates modern Trek is a Dudebro fake fan who buys Spock dolls and doesn’t really get Trek. I’m paraphrasing, but that is what the article is about.
She was prompted to write this unintentionally hilarious, hypocritical drivel because Star Trek has become a dead franchise and she needs someone to blame.
Writer, showrunner and producer Alex Kurtzman was given the reins to Star Trek about a decade ago and has utterly driven it into the ground.
There have been a few bright spots. Season three of Picard was blissful. I’ve seen some of Strange New Worlds and it’s decent, though I’m reluctant to watch all of it because of the gimmick episodes. Lower Decks was a pleasant surprise.
But that is just a fraction of the Kurtzman Nu Trek output. Most of it has been garbage. I’ve seen exactly one episode of both Discovery and Picard season one and immediately passed on ever watching another second of it. As a DS9 fan, the Section 31 trailer made me physically angry (actually every Section 31 usage for the last twenty years has been varying levels of awful). And the newest dumpster fire is Starfleet Academy.
Unlike Section 31, I’m not angry about it. Well, what they did to the Jem’Hadar is sticking in my craw, but at this point, who cares? Mostly I see an effeminate Klingon, a Starfleet chancellor behaving like a cat mom having wine with the ladies who lunch, and a cast that looks like they just stepped off the set of Wicked… and I think “she’s dead, Jim.”
But I’m not mad. I don’t think most of us are. Even the specific targets of her article, youtube personalities Nerdrotic and the Critical Drinker don’t seem to be angry. I think we all view it with a sort of sad amusement at this point.
When we see a trailer for Nu Trek, we can’t help but think “who is this for?”
To her credit, Leishman points out that Star Trek has always been pushing humanity in the vision of creator Gene Roddenberry. It was historically a reflection of modern Progressive society.
And that’s true… to a degree.
I said earlier, I am not a fan of the original series. I respect Gene Roddenberry’s creation, but I think his philosophy was garbage. He was a hippie who wanted the future to be a socialist utopia filled with sexual liberation.
People forget that Trek’s best years were in the 90s, when Roddenberry no longer had control of the Enterprise. Gene hated the movies, because he had no control. And the first two seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the seasons he had ironclad control over, are universally considered the worst seasons.
While Roddenberry’s passing was sad, it allowed Star Trek to blossom. It became less about social engineering through fiction and more about an exploration of ideas. At its best, Star Trek examines moral and ethical quandaries.
One of my favorite episodes of Deep Space Nine is In the Pale Moonlight. In it, Captain Benjamin Sisko enlists a Casdassian spy (and the best Star Trek character of all time) Garak to help him trick the Romulans into joining the Federation in a war against the Dominion. Throughout the episodes, he breaks more and more of his moral boundaries, all in service of the greater good. Finally, a line is crossed and he has to ask himself if he’s still a good man and if he can live with his actions. It’s literally one of the best Trek episodes ever. I wrote a whole piece about it if you want to read it.
My point is that is what Trek is about, despite its creator’s intent. Star Trek examines humanity and questions it through the lens of allegory. In fact, that is what most great science fiction does.
Kurtzman Trek fails because it isn’t about that. It’s about explosions and current era societal politics. Classic Trek used subtext. NuTrek just overtly puts modern stereotypes and dialogue front and center.
Can you do a story about a Klingon being gay? Yes. If done properly, that would be an interesting examination of Klingon culture.
What you can’t do is make a Klingon soft and effeminate! That doesn’t make any sense. We know that because even Klingon women –while feminine– are not soft or effeminate! The closest we see to a weak Klingon is Worf’s son Alexander, who was raised by humans. And he seems to be an aberration, because B’elanna Torres is almost totally Klingon in nature, despite being half-human. Their culture revolves around being warriors. Every aspect of it is steeped in battle, even their weddings. Aggression is an inherent part of their nature as a species. It is clearly biological. Having a weak Klingon only serves to chastise the history of Star Trek. We don’t need the commentary on Klingon culture because we’ve already seen it done better through Worf’s story.
And don’t even get me started on the overweight, half-klingon female Jem’Hadar in an interspecies lesbian relationship.* It makes zero sense.
My disinterest in Starfleet Academy isn’t because of my politics. It’s because it isn’t Star Trek.
Back when Enterprise came out, Trek fans largely trashed it because it went against some of the conventions of the franchise. It certainly wasn’t as heady as a lot of what came before it, but over time, people came around because it had some great characters and still feels like Star Trek.
In twenty years, who will remember the characters of Discovery? What exactly does Starfleet Academy have to say that is worthy of note?
The reason people loved season three of Picard is because it finally felt like a Star Trek show. Unfortunately, it was a falling star; we made a wish and it was gone.
The true irony is that Rachel is attempting to gatekeep the fandom. She is one of the real fans, you see.
If that is the case, why is Star Trek failing? Why did a Nerdrotic livestream of a Spock action figure get more views than the Youtube debut of Starfleet Academy? That can only mean one of three things…
One. The reeeeealllll faannss agree with the Right Wing Dudebros. No one likes this. No one wants this. It is bad and it isn’t Star Trek.
Two. The Critical Drinker has magic Scottish dudebro powers and has been hypnotizing the Left. Seems like a waste of Scotch in my opinion. Do better, Drinker.
Or three. We’re all fans.
If you notice, I never refer to Rachel as not being a true fan. I pointed out that she doesn’t understand Trek the way she thinks she does, but that doesn't mean her love isn’t genuine… just her intelligence.
I have a buddy that hates Star Trek Beyond. I love it. I think his perspective on it is cynical and boring. But it’s valid. He is allowed to dislike what he wants. And politically, he leans way more into Rachel’s lane than mine.
I also loved Lower Decks. I thought I would hate it, but I don’t. A lot of people who agree with me politically do not like that show. That’s okay. Both positions are acceptable. Neither position makes you a villain.
I find it very strange to blame the death of Star Trek on the Right, because in doing so she only reinforces her misunderstanding of what makes it great. Historically, Trek stories attempt to address questions with nuance. They don’t just say “this is the right answer!” They make you question if it is the right answer and the truth isn’t always clear.
In the end, I think the reason Star Trek is dead has nothing to do with Conservatism versus Progressivism. It isn’t because it’s woke, though many have argued the point.
It’s because classic Star Trek was reflective of a society that was hopeful and introspective. Nu Trek is reflective of a broken, narcissistic society that gives answers before they even understand the questions.
If you want to label me MAGA, a dudebro or a fake fan because of that?
Okay. I’m good with it.
*I know I said don’t get me started on this, but I have to point this out. Even if Jem’Hadar had genitalia compatible with a female Klingon and suddenly had an interest in mating, this is a really horrible story concept. Jem’Hadar are cloned as adults, biologically, but they’re essentially child soldiers. They don’t live long, because they’re constantly in battle. That means a Klingon woman would have had to sex up someone who is intellectually a child.
#startrek #starfleetacademy #criticaldrinker #nerdrotic #themarysue #maga #discovery #deepspace9
