Roddenberry himself was a pie-in-the-sky leftist, whose futurism must have, in the 60s, seemed so far-fetched as to be totally harmless. On top of that, whether due to his writing or the studio, all 3 of the leads in the Original Series embodied a different ideal masculine archetype, so the cons were counterbalanced by the pros.
It was in the 80s and 90s, with the Berman-Trek era, where things really went downhill. DS9 is the only one of those series that I enjoy, mostly because it's so well-written, but also because you've got female characters who aren't afraid to be feminine, and a couple of male leads who are actually respectable. Sisko, especially, and the father-son dynamic with his kid, was uncharacteristically based for later Trek.
Even Roddenberry Trek has a bunch of right-wing themes sprinkled throughout: hierarchy, duty, honor, order. Starfleet and the Federation unapologetically preserve and defend their culture and expect citizens coming from other cultures to conform to theirs.
They also have the Prime Directive, which I think a lot of right-wingers would love the West to adopt as regards to less developed parts of the world.
If real-world leftists were more like even what Roddenberry envisioned they'd be far more tolerable, even if I still wouldn't want to live in their world.
DS9 was the most "Berman" of the shows. Both TNG and Voyager were restricted to artificial Roddenberry-inspired rules. DS9 is where they put the blindfold around the bust of Gene and broke the rules.
Roddenberry himself was a pie-in-the-sky leftist, whose futurism must have, in the 60s, seemed so far-fetched as to be totally harmless. On top of that, whether due to his writing or the studio, all 3 of the leads in the Original Series embodied a different ideal masculine archetype, so the cons were counterbalanced by the pros.
It was in the 80s and 90s, with the Berman-Trek era, where things really went downhill. DS9 is the only one of those series that I enjoy, mostly because it's so well-written, but also because you've got female characters who aren't afraid to be feminine, and a couple of male leads who are actually respectable. Sisko, especially, and the father-son dynamic with his kid, was uncharacteristically based for later Trek.
Even Roddenberry Trek has a bunch of right-wing themes sprinkled throughout: hierarchy, duty, honor, order. Starfleet and the Federation unapologetically preserve and defend their culture and expect citizens coming from other cultures to conform to theirs.
They also have the Prime Directive, which I think a lot of right-wingers would love the West to adopt as regards to less developed parts of the world.
If real-world leftists were more like even what Roddenberry envisioned they'd be far more tolerable, even if I still wouldn't want to live in their world.
DS9 was the most "Berman" of the shows. Both TNG and Voyager were restricted to artificial Roddenberry-inspired rules. DS9 is where they put the blindfold around the bust of Gene and broke the rules.
I don't know what happened with Enterprise.
Enterprise taught me to actually enjoy Voyager a bit. At least from about season 3 on.