I'm watching TOS again. I never finished it back in the day. Not because I didn't enjoy it, it's just that TV shows, especially long episode length ones are easy for me to get bored of.
But TOS is the only Star Trek I like. I forced myself to watch all of Next generation and didn't care for it. Haven't seen the others, but with Deep Space Nine not being as much about self contained stories but long archs, I see myself hating that even more.
But this is about TOS.
I hear all the time "Star Trek was always a woke show...it's not for you right wingers, yadda yadda yadda".
Well after I watch an episode, I check out the review for it on Jammers reviews and I read the comments.
I swear about 90% of the comments for the original series are pointing out all the stuff they find "problematic".
"I love the plot in this episode, but I hate the portrayal of "insert woman character"
or
"Wow this episode basically took a pro-colonialism stance, that did not age well"
To me, if you have to constantly dodge landmines of things that irritate you in a show, then you're not the target audience.
It would be like me claiming that Marvel movies are right wing entertainment because of things like law and order, justice, etc. Then I'd have to go "but I hate this feminism inserted here, and this race pandering here" and on and on. It would be absurd for me to claim that Marvel movies are conservative if I'm having to constantly express my frustration with woke elements.
Likewise, while there are some philosophical underpinnings to the writers of Star Trek that are subversive and leftist, 98% of what comes through in practice is stuff that's refreshing to me as an old school Conservative Christian.
The very stuff they gripe about is some of the most appealing aspects to me about the show. The Star Trek writers essentially understood the nature of women and wrote them accordingly and realistically to reality as just one example.
And while they did have some left leaning tendencies that sometimes comes through, the thing people don't talk about is how influenced in Christian Conservative thinking even atheists were in their thinking back then by virtue of having grown up and lived in a Christian culture.
Modern Star Trek is an example of how post-Christian thinking has worked it's way into writing.
Well the original 60s Star Trek has so much thinking and viewpoint that was right in line with how normal people viewed things. Yes some liberal stuff got through, and they probably would have gotten away with more if they could have, but there are just generally character attitudes rooted in how men are supposed to be, and how women are supposed to be, and values rooted in at least the concept of objective morality, which they unknowingly are getting from the Christian society.
So I wouldn't claim that Star Trek is a Conservative show, but my point is that when I watch it, it's like a breath of fresh air, while the so called die hard Star Trek fans, have to scrape through with a fine tooth comb to extract the few things they like while having to give caveats about all the "problematic" things.
When there's a show with as much wokeness as the so-called "bigotry" that these Star Trek fans are finding in TOS, then I stop watching that show, I don't claim that I like it, and I certainly don't claim it for my side.
If Star Trek TOS was as "progressive" and "woke" as they claim, I'd be having a hard time watching it, instead of it being like a refreshing gulp of crisp water contrasted with the sewage that is modern day ideology and these "fan" comments wouldn't be filled with statements about how much this and that element are "tough to stomach" and "a product of its time".
Star trek could be considered progressive especially for its time but its extremely difficult to argue that it is woke. Wokeness consists of three key components:
-Hatred of tradition and the past to embrace new ways of doing things regardless of how flawed. This includes the destruction of beauty and history
-Minority worship and anti-white
-Emphasis on emotion over professionalism
All of these three components do overlap to some extent with each other (Hatred of tradition and history is often inspired by an emphasis on emotion and anti-white beliefs).
Star trek TOS wasn't anti-white and it respected history (the oft quoted scene where Abraham Lincoln says an oopsie word, apologies and is then told that he is not at fault comes to mind). The series regularly states that emotion and empathy are important but do not override duty and professionalism. The show did not appear to be hiring people based on immutable characteristics nor did it elevate minority characters in the cast as being above what the context would allow. Star trek clearly understood what beauty was so there's no need to even check if they were intentionally hiring horrifically deformed whales.
There is very little in Star trek TOS that could be called woke. An interracial kiss is hardly even all that noteworthy since interracial marriage was already allowed a year prior to the episode and received no noticeable backlash by the general public. It's most likely a product of the racially sensitive minds of our time that made this scene seem more important than it actually was. So we can't even argue this scene was progressive for its time when it was unanimously accepted by the people at the time.