I like many people I am a Star Trek fan and I have been since I was but a small child watching the original series and Next Generation on the BBC. In recent years I’ve got to see the Star Trek renaissance with the new series Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks and Prodigy with many more on the way.
Unfortunately, I’ve also got to see what all fandoms have which is the darker gate keeping side of things with the, “Not my Star Trek,” “when did it become woke” and the famous “When did I become so political?”
I always wonder where these comments come from and if these people ever actually watched the show/shows. With the Original series addressing through the veil of Sci Fi the American Civil rights movement, racism, colonialism and even Vietnam it’s impossible to say Star Trek was ever not political. These views continued into the films and the later shows.
So, we come to the title of this article… the Shatner issue.
One of the main voices of these comments always seems be William Shatner, the 91-year-old actor behind Captain Kirk.
His comments always come out of the left field as he himself was there for most of the early political points and storylines for the franchise.
Some examples being;
A Private Little War which shows Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy going through a Sci Fi critique of the Vietnam war.
Plato’s Stepchildren in which William Shatner took part in one of he first televised interracial kisses on American television with the legendary Nichelle Nichols.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home which had a many environmentalist overtones.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier which dealt with religious extremism and trauma. Adding insult to injury he directed that one.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country which directly inspired by the fall of the Berlin wall and the Chernobyl tragedy.
With the growing feelings of self-imposed isolation Shatner and fans of the same ilk who feel Star Trek isn’t made for them any more I simply have to ask, do you ever think it was?