This “people hate it because it’s ‘woke’” line has been repeated via the media over and over from when Disco started.
I’m not saying there’s zero people saying that, but whenever I talk to someone in real life who doesn’t like one of the Disco-era shows, it’s never because of ‘woke’. Maybe my circles have been blessed to be curated well enough to avoid the anti-‘woke’ folks, but because of that, it’s always felt odd that the instant one of these shows doesn’t meet the executives’ KPI expectations that there’s another article saying “people just hate progressive television”.
There’s a part of me that wonders if the PR team for the franchise is putting out these kinds of articles to try and guide the conversation away from criticism about writing, format and direction that I largely hear discussed and into this because they know a vast majority of the fans will bristle at the idea of something being criticized for being progressive and speak against that instead of voicing their other critiques.
Admittedly, that’s a bit conspiratorial, I just don’t ever run into these vast swaths of anti-progressive Trek fans. I do run into many people who have other critiques of the Kurtzman-era Trek shows, but not people mad at them including representation for minorities in it.
Imagine we’re normal people for a second, the kind that don’t spend as much time online as to be deeply involved in stuff like this. You see the reviews coming out about Starfleet Academy, read the generally positive (not glowing) reviews and then decide to scroll down a bit to see what the comments say…
I have seen people complain about all aspects of an openly gay skirt-wearing Klingon. So many batshit fucking complaints about Holly Hunter “disrespecting” the Captain’s seat by not sitting up properly and putting her feet on it. These websites’ comments sections are like 90% red-faced rants barely making any attempt at hiding their hatred of minorities. Some entertainment news websites are worse than others but they’re all generally like this.
There are way fewer comments highlighting things like the occasional plot hole or the really weird choices of background music that doesn’t really match the intensity of the scene.
It’s an incorrect/misleading title.
Shatner was mocking people who think new Star Trek is too “woke”.
The original Star Trek was known for its very progressive (at the time) themes, and especially for its integrated cast. Don’t have the energy to google it rn, but I think Shatner was one of the first white TV actors to kiss a black co-star onscreen.
I haven’t watched it, not because it is woke, but because fuck Paramount and the Ellison they rode in on. Rest in glory trek. There won’t be another unless it is focused on Terran universe, just like the oligarchs want it to be.
The Star Trek community still can’t decide whether it likes or dislikes William Shatner.
No amount of representation can hide poor writing and directing.
Yo Shatner can’t remember if he likes Star Trek these days. I saw him at a con last year and dude just talked over fans, couldn’t even remember being on Boston Legal, and largely just delivered this canned speech that was essentially “I don’t know why you guys like this thing I did in the 60’s but I’m happy you do because I’ve made a living off it.”
I’m surprised to hear he has an opinion about SFA, and this one specifically, because he’s made some weird non-inclusive comments in the past himself.
Janeway is the best captain because Kate Mulgrew told Shatner off for making fun of fans.
Nobody cares about Shatner and his opinions.
Starfleet Academy was a fun watch. I enjoyed it, critics be damned.
Guessing you did not read the article.
William Shatner wishes the latest “Star Trek” show had been given the chance to live long and prosper.
“It’s with sorrow that I hear about the cancellation of the new ‘Star Trek’ series,” he wrote.
In a follow-up post, Shatner mocked critics who celebrated the show’s cancellation because they claimed it was “woke.” He argued that the original “Star Trek,” which famously featured an interracial kiss between Shatner’s character, Captain Kirk, and Nichelle Nichols’ Uhura in a 1968 episode, would be considered “woke” today.
“During the first airing of my ‘Star Trek’ series where a kiss was objectionable; many southern stations pulled the episode & condemned the show,” he wrote. “Using today’s vernacular it would absolutely be called ‘woke DEI crap’ because it went against ‘norms’ of society for its time. Not a lot seems to have changed.”
I maintain that it’s my opinion that nobody cares about Shatner and his opinions.
I also maintain that it’s my opinion that Starfleet Academy was a fun watch and that I enjoyed it, critics be damned.
Those sentences were only related by them being in the same comment together, but were otherwise entirely their own. Only the second and third sentences were related what with them on the same line without there being an empty space between.
