Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff and the architect of some of his most racist initiatives, is very mad that “Star Trek”—one of television’s first bastions of progressive ideas—is too progressive.
On Thursday, the “End Wokeness” X account, which is a serial purveyor of misinformation and bigoted smears, posted a clip from the newest “Star Trek” series, “Starfleet Academy,” lamenting that the show is “beyond parody.”
Accompanying the post is a clip showing three characters—all women—interacting.
In response, Miller wrote, “Tragic. But it’s not too late for @paramountplus to save the franchise. Step 1: Reconcile with [actor William Shatner] and give him total creative control.”
A clip of three women characters in “Star Trek” is shown, causing the White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and the X account “End Wokeness” to freak out.
Neither Miller nor the “End Wokeness” account elaborated on what the problem is with the clip, other than the fact that it shows women in leadership positions who are engaging in solving engineering issues in outer space—which might be news to all of the women in leadership positions in the very real NASA.
Miller’s proposed solution to the made-up problem is also strange and darkly humorous. Shatner, who played the iconic Captain Kirk in the original “Star Trek,” is a 94-year-old man—not exactly the type of person to be given “total creative control” over a major franchise.
But the core of his complaint is even worse. “Star Trek” being “woke” or progressive is nothing new; that’s always been the point.
Members of the "Star Trek" crew in 1988, from left: James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, Walter Koenig, William Shatner, George Takei, Leonard Nimoy, and Nichelle Nichols.
The late “Star Trek” writer and producer Gene Roddenberry, who is credited in the opening credits of every iteration, was famously a futurist with progressive beliefs. The show was set in a post-capitalist future where money no longer matters and society instead focuses on exploration and scientific advances.
In fact, a 1968 episode of the show featured a groundbreaking interracial kiss between Lt. Nyota Uhura, who is played by Nichelle Nichols, and Miller’s handpicked showrunner, Captain Kirk. The kiss broke racial boundaries at a time when the United States was struggling to confront its racist history.
In a 2010 interview, Nichols—who has since passed away—explained that she had a meeting with Martin Luther King Jr. who said that “Star Trek” was the only show that he allowed his young children to stay up late to watch.
“Don’t you see what this man is doing, who has written this? This is the future. He has established us as we should be seen. 300 years from now, we are here. We are marching. And this is the first step. When we see you, we see ourselves, and we see ourselves as intelligent and beautiful and proud,” King told Nichols, who was contemplating leaving the show at the time.
Seems pretty “woke” and progressive.
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Conservatives are obsessed with being mad about fiction that doesn’t parrot their world view. In October, they fumed about an—already canceled—Netflix cartoon because it featured a transgender character. And last summer, they attacked James Gunn’s new “Superman” movie because he accurately described Superman as an immigrant.
Even when the right is a dominant force in U.S. politics, controlling every major lever of power at the federal level, it insists that it’s the real victim.
But perhaps the problem isn’t that “Star Trek” is woke—because it always has been.
Maybe the real problem is that in the world of “Star Trek” and other fantasies, the right has more in common with the bad guys than the heroes.
