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Oh, OG Trek was woke AF, but it wasn't done as ham-handed and hackey as what is happening now. It used to feed open-mindedness into everyone's living room and was generally welcome to do so. What we have now is just slapping you in the face with its floppy cock of wokeness every chance it gets. There is now almost no actual plot other than that. Doctor Who is doing the exact same thing. Can nothing of my childhood just be left the fuck alone? I mean, yeah, represent the marginalized. Make female heroes, or transgender, or whatever and whoever you feel needs to be represented or empowered. Do all of that, but do you have to rewrite absolutely everything ever written to do it? Have an original thought. Honestly, at this point, it is just lazy writing masquerading as woke.
Explain more about how your childhood is ruined by political messaging in checks notes
Modern Doctor Who and Star Trek. The best written and acted shows of all time, obviously.
it's done plainly in reference to real life now, as opposed to being integrated seamlessly into the show. a good example would be the episode where the doctor had to erase his mind and Martha (a black woman) had to try and protect him while posing as his servant because it was the 1800s when they were stranded. this was still in real history (aliens aside) but was integrated as part of the plotline and not randomly mentioned with no context. a good example of when they get this wrong is the special with the meep where Donna's daughter says something along the lines of "I'm nonbinary because the doctor-donna is binary" which doesn't make sense in the story because the doctor-donna is binary due to Donna literally merging with the doctor, not gender identity. these things can be integrated well and when you do they only enhance the story by making it feel more realistic, but you have to make them fit the story, not the other way round.
“I’m nonbinary because the doctor-donna is binary”
My eyes rolled all the way to the back of my head when i saw this bit
I get what they were trying to do but it was such a cop out instead of writing an actual explanation.
That, or:
Your brain wasn't fully developed because you were a child.
I rewatched the whole show just a couple months ago and I didn't watch TV much as a kid so I only saw a handful of episodes then. this is my current, up to date opinion.
I think this is generally what I hear when it comes to "woke" media. I always chalk it up to media having no clue on how normal humans function in a society.
but it wasn’t done as ham-handed and hackey as what is happening now.
I'd also drag out Angel One from TNG. It's the laziest way to write a matriarchy: everything is the same, except women are in charge instead of men.
I'm sure if we tried hard enough, we could find hackneyed, ham-handed episodes across all Star Trek shows.
For example, this attempt at discussing gender norms:
I think this comment really nails what's irking me amount newer Trek. It used to be a show that was written in a way that regardless of your politics, anyone could watch, and it would make you think. It was a show that would sneakily slip in progressive ideas that could make you second guess your perspectives on the world.
Now there is no depth to it, it just slaps you in the face with politics.
This is probably gonna be a hot take, but I think Star Trek should be written in a way that is appealing for conservatives to watch, but regularly slips in metaphors which challenges their world view. Trek was at it's best when on it's surface it was a fun adventure show, and the politics was on a deeper level.
Thank you, exactly that.