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".
I always felt like Star Trek and especially TOS/TNG/DS9/VOG were what left-wing (liberal) boomers envisioned peak society to become after everyone took-on their left-wing values. However, these values "progressed" past a point where these same boomers would have been happy with it.
Today, most of those boomers are living a fantasy and still think society is as "progressive" as what Star Trek portrayed. And unfortunately, the TV/Media has programmed these same boomers into progressing into the very kind of creature their former self would have detested.
A good episode to truly highlight the difference in values/beliefs is the TNG episode where SPOILER ALERT a Cardassian boy is being raised by a Bajoran family. The Cardassians are a warring civilization that conquered and enslaved the Bajorans. Over-time, the Cardassians relaxed their hold on the Bajorans and pursued a more peaceful relationship. The Bajorans held grudges though and this Bajoran family that was raising the Cardassian boy would teach the boy that he was from a race of evil colonializes that oppressed their people and he needed to live a life paying reparations for his ancestors choices despite the boy having no influence on the past. Anyhow, the episode is a near perfect parallel for White people = Cardassians and Bajorans are non-White races that see themselves victims of something White people did.
Immediately, in the episode the entire federation crew (the good guys whose morals the boomers thought everyone should emulate) realized that the Bajorans were abusing the Cardassian boy by teaching the boy that his ancestors were bad people. The boy was rescued from the Bajoran family and a family was found for the boy in which he would be taught to be proud of his race's lineage.
Yet, here we are 20+ years later teaching White people that their ancestors were bad people.
Also, I find it ironic that in Star Trek all the humanoid races have specific behavioral stereotypes that are significantly different for each race yet here we are today pretending all humanoid races on Earth are exactly the same... Klingons were all dark skinned and they were a violent aggressive race with voodoo-type symbolism. What were they trying to tell us?
Star Trek is overall a liberal/progressive show but it was written at a time when the liberal/progressive ideology was not wholly formed such that Star Trek ends up being "based" by accident without realizing it because the people who wrote it at the time understood what the truth was and wrote to an audience that still understood the truth of things.