Talking to my Dad About Star Trek (again)

Whenever something is released that’s related to Star Wars, Star Trek, comic books, and just tentpole blockbuster films in general, I wait in the shadows from my armchair, swirling some potent spirit in a whiskey tumbler, waiting for an email from my dad, asking for my opinion on an alt-right influencer convinced the “woke mob is at it again.”

The cadence of these emails increased with the recent deluge of announcements regarding Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Supergirl.

Regarding Supergirl:
DAD: The net dropped a trailer for Supergirl.  I watch it.  It seemed interesting, but with a touch of James Gunn.  His style of directing and story telling was good for the Guardians series.  Do you think it translates well into non Guardians types of movies?  Some online observers have not been kind to what they saw with the Supergirl short. 

ME: The short version is that I'm very, very excited about supergirl, mostly because the film basically will follow Tom King's one shot that he did called Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. The art in the book is beautiful and the generic plot is a sort of the Magnificent Seven, where a little girl is getting revenge when a desperado kills her father in cold blood. When she runs into Supergirl trying to get drunk on her birthday (because on a planet with a yellow sun, it's impossible) the two of them go off on an adventure to track down the person responsible. It's a really great book and I'd definitely recommend it. 

Regarding Star Trek: Starfleet Academy:

DAD: I know you are a Star Trek fan.  I too liked the original TV series.  It wasn’t political or woke, just great story telling.  One must admit that Kirk’s occasional over the top antics with female co-stars in some scenes were cringy.  Enterprise was also very fine.  Star Trek TNG was some of the best stories.  I also liked the series with the lady captain.

Most of the “Kirk” and “Picard" Star Trek movies were also pretty good.  The first Chris Pine movie was very good.  The other so-so.

Now to the crap that may be the streaming series.  Too many on line observer report the streaming Star Trek programs border on ridiculous to over the top woke/DEI pablum.  It appears too many writers are not of the old school Rodenberry type of scripts.

The critic below has a good reputation for telling it, like it is.  Have you seen any of the series discussed in the opinion below?  What say you?

ME: Hi Dad, Sorry for not getting back sooner! I saw the clip and honestly, I'm looking forward to Starfleet Academy. He also lost me when he said that Strange New Worlds was a "disaster". Honestly, it's probably one of the better Star Trek series in recent memory, with more of a return to form with the goofy science fiction exploits of the original series. Star Trek The Next Generation was more grown up by contrast because it was written during the late 80s, when the Soviet Union was still looming over Western Europe, and it had to cut through the noise of Cold War culture with strong philosophical dilemmas and very obvious allegories to the current conflicts around the world. 

"Woke", "DEI", and all that aside, I'm kind of at a loss. Not that I'm into any of these things in particular (Star Trek Discovery was way too obnoxious about it in my opinion), but Star Trek has historically been at the forefront of "progress". That's kind of the entire point. In post-world war 2, you're telling me that a Russian, a Japanese man, a black woman, and a female first officer (Star Trek: the original series) are all WORKING together on the same ship?! "Are you out of your fucking minds?" was probably what the studio executives said to Lucile Ball when she started making the show. That's about as "woke" and "DEI" as it gets. 

I say these in quotes because they have been repeated so much ad nauseum, that they've lost all meaning. 

All that aside, you have to understand what Star Trek is all about. It's imagining a better, positive future, where mankind can be who we were meant to be. If someone wants to be a fat ass, who honestly cares? There's still only one captain's chair, and if your weight stops you from achieving that distinguishing achievement, then that's what it is. There's also a parallel to Star Trek's vision, albeit unintentional, in the Gospels even, that Jesus is announcing the Kingdom. He says we as human beings will be able to participate in the new creation, which will ultimately be fulfilled when He returns. That means building it, which means protecting the marginalized, advocating for the poor, the widow, the immigrant, the environment, etc. We are certainly sinners and fallen people, but we are restored through Christ's resurrection to do newer and better things in His name.

Now, making something like "diversity" or "body image" your god/idol in your life is definitely bad. Because current culture lacks the understanding of total depravity (ie. the inherently sinful nature of humans), we will be forever chasing an ideal we can never reach. So it can be obnoxious when culture says "be like this" but they have no moral leg to stand on. (They might not even know that they need a leg to stand on at all!) All that aside, whether or not the preachy moralism of Star Trek Discovery is shoved in our faces on StarFleet Academy remains to be seen. I would hope though that you would at least watch a couple episodes first to get a better idea about what kind of tone the show is setting before making a blanket dismissal of the show. For example, when Charlie Kirk was assassinated, I actually listened to his podcast for a little bit because I was so tired of listening to people say this or that about him, and I wanted to develop my own opinion. Suffice to say, I discovered how awful and belligerent of a racist he was, how distorted his view of the gospel was, how vile his views were of immigrants and the poor, and how blatantly he curried favor with Trump by fawning over his every word. But that's my opinion that I formed myself. That should be the ideal way at least.

You can tell I’m invested in Star Trek, right? Sometimes all my creative, blogging energy (CBE) get’s dumped out all at once, and usually when I am gripped with a sudden burst of passion and inspiration. And most always, it’s with my dad. We should start a podcast, or something. Although I’m sure something like that already exists.

Anyways, off to dinner. See you next time, internet strangers!