remade meme with higher quality image
When did it become so dog shit at tackling social issues?
- 2009 is the answer. Its been dog shit ever since.
Do you hear that whisper in the wind?
watch the orville
As both a trekie and a leftie, I must say that the conservatives who complain about modern Trek are not 100% wrong. Yes, Trek was always about social justice, but the episodes were about exploring why something was right or ethical. The new Trek takes this for granted, while half the population is not in agreement, or in a state of confusion. Instead of showing WHY something is good and just and explore it within an episode, they just present it as fact, and then they go off to some random adventure. This rubs off badly half the population. Yes, you can go all out and say that it’s the conservatives’ fault, and it is, but the reality is, the delivery HAS changed. New trek is not the same as old trek.
The Orville was a much more old trek-style show, and people universally loved it more than the new trek, despite being progressive.
Instead of showing WHY something is good and just and explore it within an episode, they just present it as fact, and then they go off to some random adventure.
This is an odd sentiment to me, because I feel like you’re describing what Star Trek always did, and is generally seen as one of its great strengths. We didn’t need to be told that black women and white men could serve together as equals, they just showed Uhura on the bridge functioning like any other officer as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
And this is one of the many respects in which I think Orville falls on its face. Topa never appears in any episode that isn’t about her oppression in one way or another. She’s not allowed to just be a character like any other, taking part in random stories about growing up aboard ship. That casual representation is missing.
The Orville was a much more old trek-style show, and people universally loved it more than the new trek, despite being progressive.
I’m an old school Trekkie and pretty leftist myself and I absolutely hated the Orville. I didn’t see it as doing anything worthy of such praise. It had a lot of tired humor and (badly) recycled story lines from Star Trek. And I have thoroughly enjoyed just about every bit of new Trek that’s come out.
I also don’t agree with your point about them just presenting things instead of subtly insinuating. The only things they present without integrating it into the story are LGBTQ characters and their personal situations. And that’s only because those things should be absolutely normal and unremarkable at this point. The fact that conservatives still have issues with this is entirely because conservatives are socially backwards. And they’ve been made that way by a constant stream of backward propaganda via Fox News and local media outlets that have been taken over by multibillion dollar corporations who have injected their conservative views onto local news outlets en masse.
In other words them not getting it or enjoying it isn’t a problem for Star Trek it’s a problem for conservatives.
Edit: I also find it hilarious that you think that old Trek was in any way subtle about their social commentary. Having the first interracial kiss on national TV on top of several story lines dealing directly with racism was far far from subtle.
You are not alone in feeling like that about The Orville. I hated that Seth MacFarlane just filed the serial numbers off of TNG and forced in enough lazy jokes about dicks and beer to make it lawyer-proof, and the masses called him some kind of TV scifi pioneer for it.
It doesn’t have to be subtle to show why something is good or bad.
My favorite recent example was the TV adaptation of the Last of Us. The third episode makes it very clear that it’s a statement that a gay couple can have a beautiful life together. I was watching through the show with my parents, who were incredibly homophobic. They got very upset when they realized that it was going to be about a gay couple, but by the end they had tears in their eyes.
There was zero subtlety, because the story was so beautiful it didn’t need it.
You misunderstood my comment. I NEVER said that the old Trek was subtle. Your whole reply is hinging on that point, which is not true. I said that they made the focus of an episode to EXPLORE ethical issues, while on new trek, they take them for granted and then they go on to have a formal adventure.
That is a product of the change in television style and nothing else. These are the same stories being told just through a slightly different lens. Still progressive. Still pushes for equality. Still does all the things that you claimed. The only difference is that this time it isn’t screaming at the top of its lungs and shove it down your throat thinking that you are going to be incapable of being able to pick it up on your own. Thing that baffles me is that so many people aren’t able to pick it up on their own. They do, apparently, need it screamed at the top of their lungs with a really hacky speech.
It’s not a product of conservatives. It’s a product of the evolution of television. Everything people want from Star Trek is still there and still being screamed just in a slightly different accent. But calling old Star Trek subtle is one of the funniest things that I’ve ever fucking heard. Mainly because it’s the dead opposite of what’s actually happening. New Star Trek is subtle. Old Star Trek wasn’t. New Star Trek is able to be subtle by telling a story over the course of an entire season and having each episode focus on a different part. Old Star Trek had the entire moral, entire story and everything wrapped up into 45 minutes. That immediately means that you cannot be subtle because you have to make it as obvious as humanly possible so that you can get the point across in 45 minutes. But saying that the half-white, half-black people and the half-black, half-white people are somehow a subtle representation of the racist things happening in the 60s is ridiculous.
Modern woke trek. No I’m not old it just came out…30 you say
edit: @ummthatguy wasn’t being pedantic, I dylexia’d the maths and edited from 20 to 30 about the same time they commented.
Try 31 years for this episode…
Aaand now I’m sad. And tired.
Lucille Ball helped get Star Trek going … it was ALWAYS meant to be forward thinking.
It’s like those guys who say one piece isn’t political. Are we even reading the same thing? I guess we all interact with media differently
Whenever someone says One Piece is political, I have to wonder what makes them say that.
Like. … There are way too many reasons to pick from, I don’t know which one you’re thinking of.
Most of the best episodes are about debates, social issues, and general talking.
MORE SPACE COURTROOMS, LESS SPACE LASERS
It turns out the photon torpedoes’ onboard targeting systems are sentient, now what do we do?
do they want to blow up?
It’s about 50/50.
Star Trek, you are creating new episode,you must choose now. Will you pick :
- Cerebral talks about ethics and humanity and its potencial
- Or Schlocky sci fi BS that you execute poorly
absailing with harnesses happens
EPISODE ABOUT USING MASS DRIVERS TO SHOOT ASTEROIDS AT PLANETS WHEN
Please, no! Asteroids are a finite natural resource!
Okay chill out Cartagia
okay sorry.
edit:
FUCK THAT LET’S CRASH TWO BROWN DWARFS INTO EACH OTHER AND SEE IF IT MAKES NEW COLORS
Say it louder!
The Measure of a Man. A solid 50 minutes of mostly talking at desks. 💯
Hot green dancing girls have entered the chat…
I started watching Discovery and Strange New Worlds recently. Honestly while it seems they are at least not so blatantly sexist as they used to be, in other ways, it seems like the newer shows are less political than the old ones. It’s almost like a hybrid between classic Star Trek, and the Star-Wars-in-Star-Trek-Clothing movies that JJ Abrams made.
I like em though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yeah, they’re very watered down by liberal ideology. It’s supposed to be gay space communism
Except that last season of SNW and its shudders eugenics. No idea what the fuck was up with that
Which one of you mf’s is ashamed to call themselves a Social Justice Warrior?
Ok but what about MY feelings? As I have grown older I have atrophied into more conservative views in a way I don’t want to admit may be toxic and Star Trek is forcing me to grapple with that. I don’t think that is fair, I just wanted some light scifi entertainment fluff with no substance to it.
/s
As I have grown older I have atrophied into more conservative views in a way I don’t want to admit may be toxic
less that, more “my views have not changed though the overton window has and i don’t want to admit i’ve been living with and perpetuating toxic values”
Maybe you’d be better off with Babylon 5
/s
I loved that show. Maybe that’s why I ended up trans
You mean the only sci-fi franchise with even more talking than in ‘Star Trek’?
Least it keeps away from politics
Spoiler
It’s been a ride given the state of the government of a certain superpower right now.
The real question is why they stopped and what the fuck SNW Season 3 is supposed to be
They stopped because Star Trek is a tent pole series for Paramount online or whatever they are calling their streaming service now.
They need to broaden the appeal and old trek doesn’t speak to the lowest common denominator.
The lowest common denominator fuck up a lot of stuff.
There have been entertainment execs who championed the notion that the common viewer is smarter than they’re given credit for, and that deep down they want to be challenged. (I don’t have the sources in front of me, but think of Norman Lear and Jim Brooks, and so on.)
The LCD is certainly a concern, but I really think today’s entertainment industry has become too spineless, too cynical, and too dismissive of their customers’ intelligence.
“I’ll protect you, fair maiden!”
“Sorry, neither.”
People have been dumbed down in those 50 years.
People are on high alert for “ideological content” sneaking into their entertainment. Especially Conservative Americans. They slept on the increasing representation of minority groups in fiction, and then all of a sudden, WHAM – a Black president. BAM – gay marriage! Now they’re so paranoid they won’t believe you when you tell them there’s a rainbow in the Bible.
Old Trek covered social justice issues by putting people who were being marginalized in our society in powerful roles, then having them do their fucking jobs, and do them well.
New Trek covers social justice issues by having bridge crew members sitting around crying about childhood issues from 20 years ago while the universe is actively being destroyed, and instead of being kicked off of the bridge so they can get their shit together, the rest of the bridge crew sits around and comforts them while some no-name ensign silently saves the day in the background. Or some member of the bridge crew, completely unfocused and not paying attention to the problem at all, accidents their way into saving humanity.
These are not the same.
Most of that rant is about Discovery. I hate Discovery. SNW is much better when it comes to this.
The 1969 episode “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” is a good example.
And, like, every episode with Uhura, Sulu, or even Chekov in it.
Pfft, they were clearly not the same; the first was white and black and the other was black and white!
No stars upon thars!
I almost posted about this same exact book!!
They could both run pretty good, though.
Hey, it’s a The Good Place meme in the wild!
