"when did Star Trek get woke??"

In the very first episode of Star Trek: the original series, we see a white Captain reporting to his black Admiral boss, a black woman on the bridge just a couple years after Jim Crow was abolished, wearing a short skirt (a symbol of feminist liberation at the time), a Japanese helmsman on the bridge only 20 years after the internment camps, a Russian crewmate on the bridge during the Cold War [edit: actually did not appear until Season 2 but the point stands], and the foundation of the modern concept of queercoding.

In the very first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, we see male crossdressing crew members, a female officer on the bridge in charge of security, a literal ship's counselor stationed at all times on the bridge, a single mom raising her teenage son on her own while juggling a full career in medicine, a blind mechanic whose "disability" is shown to be a strength, and an angry, all-powerful godlike being who is revealed to be simply a petulant child masquerading as a deity.

In the very first episode of Star Trek: Deep Space 9, we see a black man gain a powerful command position, respect the hell out of the customs of a religion he didn't understand, show respect and equal treatment to members of three other alien races he didn't understand, appoint a female guerilla fighter who defeated imperialist fascists to a position of authority within his administration and defer to her judgement in areas of her expertise, accept his friend's gender change, and tell his son he loves him.

Star Trek has always been woke. You just grew up to be a bad person.

@Lana Agreed, but Chekov didn't appear until the second season.
@roknrol damn I always actually forget that!!
@Lana I only know because I rewatch the entire run of TOS through Enterprise about every other year lol. (had to go to every other year because otherwise I would watch nothing *but* Star Trek, and I have other shows/movies in my rotation)
@roknrol it seems crazy to me that he wasn't in the original cast, seeing how iconic his character would eventually become.
@Lana @roknrol
Heck, *the writers of Wrath of Khan* forgot. It's a known continuity error that Khan's original episode was in season 1, yet Khan reacted to Chekhov with "I never forget a face".
@pteryx @Lana @roknrol At least they found a canonic excuse for that: He wasn't bridge officer by that time but had already a job on enterprise and Khan met him there off-screen (Koenig joked it had been in a restroom).

@Lana @roknrol

IIRC, they added Chekov as a "heartthrob" in order to appeal to teenage girls

In the mid-60s, the wild success of theBeatles, the Monkees, and even The Man From Uncle (bc Ilya) etc., were showing that teenage girls were an important and profitable demographic - and those teenage girls liked attractive young guys who had just a touch of an exotic/dangerous air about them.

@CaseyL @Lana @roknrol

Apparently Nimoy/Spock was a huge hit with American housewives.

@Wintermane @Lana @roknrol

In one of his Star Trek books, about working with the show, Gerrold talks about the fan mail Nimoy got (and that Mark Lenard also got, after playing Sarek). Very steamy, and sometimes pretty explicit!

@CaseyL @Lana @roknrol
Aye, that's what I mean. I saw it in an interview at one point.

@CaseyL @Lana @roknrol

May also be why they added a single man to the space family in "Lost In Space." Certainly the girl across the street was hot for him.

@CaseyL @Lana @roknrol Hadn't thought about it before, but he does have a strong Davie Jones quality.

@roknrol @Lana wait. My fediblock list is a mile long and I don't keep track of normie social media.

Are right wing snowflakes triggered by Star Trek? Genuine question, because it sounds ridiculous

@jeff @roknrol @Lana Aren't they triggered by literally anything?
So I would say: Yes.
@jeff @roknrol @Lana There seem to be surprisingly many people writing things like "I loved Star Trek since I was a kid, but not any more because the franchise went woke." on different social media platforms.
@Lana The problem is that loads of people didn't pay attention to Star Trek until The Wrath of Khan with it's space battles and action focus. I doubt very many of them got the literary references or bothered to look back at Space Seed or considered the consequences of the Genesis device if misused. There is a lot more core Star Trek than it seems on the surface.

I suspect this move towards more "Star Wars" style action made it a success (where The Motion Picture - a very underrated, genuine, Star Trek story didn't do well at the time).

@hamishtpb @Lana

Even so, many Star Wars movies after Wrath of Khan were also pretty woke. Especially my favourite: The Undiscovered Country.

Star Wars was also woke, although in a different way. When people wondered why that galaxy far away and long ago was so white, they immediately introduced Lando. Ewoks were Viet Cong, Stormtroopers were the US. And Leia was never just a damsel to be rescued; she took charge.

@hamishtpb @Lana Yeah, but also Carol Marcus predates Beverly Crusher as the single mom with a career. Beverly went and did it twice, though. Such an overachiever.
@hamishtpb @Lana And THEN they made peace with the Klingons, saved the whales, and blew up god. The movies are Woke AF.
@Lana Yep, Star Trek was always supposed to be woke. It hasn't always succeeded at being woke, and has regularly failed to be as woke as many people would like, but being woke has always been the point.
@TreeVor Well, back in those days they still had to learn a lot about that concept but clearly you can see, that they were willing to go the extra mile and learn.
@Lana IDIC, baby!! 🖖🏼
@Lana Yes, Star Trek was always “woke”. Credit Gene Roddenberry, the creator and writer. He was working to move America away the racism, warmongering and reactionary fear prevalent at the time and show a vision of society that was wonderfully different. I was fortunate to have been able to watch the show when it first aired and then subsequently. That period of the 60s was awful and forces for tolerance, peace and environmental care came out of it.
@lawyersgunsnmoney @Lana Credit also Lucille Ball for using her own money and connections to make Gene's vision a reality.
@KatS I was not aware of that! She should receive credit, it’s wonderful she did that. @Lana

@KatS oh, I had completely forgotten the lu part of Desilu!

How Lucille Ball Saved 'Star Trek' But Lost Her Studio (Exclusive) | Woman's World

<https://www.womansworld.com/entertainment/classic-tv/how-lucille-ball-saved-star-trek-but-lost-her-studio>

Cc @lawyersgunsnmoney @Lana

Lucille Ball Said Yes to ‘Star Trek’—and It Cost Her Desilu: ‘They Warned Her Not To!’ (Exclusive)

Lucille Ball’s decision to approve 'Star Trek' for production at Desilu defied industry warnings—and helped launch one of TV’s greatest franchises.

Woman's World
@Lana the ultra-logical people are like "INFINITE DIVERSITY IN INFINITE COMBINATIONS, BITCHES"
@Lana And that is exactly why people still find it relevant today!

@Lana

> “As early as 1964, Gene Roddenberry drafted a proposal for the science fiction series that would become Star Trek. […] he privately told friends that he was modeling it on Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, intending each episode to act on two levels: as a suspenseful adventure story and as a morality tale.”

Star Trek was woke *before* it aired

@Lana what is the foundation of queer coding? If I went back to watch that first episode, what would I be looking for?
@savanni Sulu. Just...all of Sulu.

@Lana Huh! I totally did not get that!

(from TOS, anyway. The JJ Abrams version makes it very explicit when we see his husband and daughter.)

@Lana I think Ster Trek is the very reason we associate progress with the woke stuff. That's the kind of futurism that defined the modern conception of progressivism

@Lana

a Japanese helmsman on the bridge only 20 years after the internment camps

I think that one thing missing from this commentary is: yes, this is shortly after the Japanese internment camps.

With the character portrayed by an actor who was actually detained in one of these camps!

@cjust @Lana -> and he still is very 🌈 @georgetakei

@cjust @Lana

Came here to say that.

@Lana Mildly annoyed you missed my favorite series, Voyager. Back to your point though. Yup, no notes. Star Trek has always, and I hope it continues to be, woke as shit! I hope the fiends at Paramount don't ruin it.

@ysotomayor @Lana Character limits exist! XD

But absolutely, it came out swinging with Janeway and the first thing she did was make Maquis fighters key members of her crew, one of which was a Hispanic half-Klingon. They also had a Black Vulcan (ironically, not his first time playing one, but canonically a different character), a disgraced pilot, and a virtual doctor who very much wanted to be turned off when not in use at first. The whole premise of the show started with "get along or else."

@Lana Note to self: I should watch the old star trek episodes again

@Lana

Sorry to ask, but what is a "shirt skirt"?
A typo, or is/was it a thing?

(Stoopid forrinner here, my dictionary doesn't help, i and o sit next to each other on the keyboard, but maybe it's just something I haven't come across yet… 🫣 😟)

@47363 @Lana I suspect it's a typo for "short skirt" but yeah it can be a shirt skirt too
@mrencyclopedia @47363 @Lana The official term for them in show canon is "skant"