old star trek woke is best woke

i keep having this argument with newgens and discoverytards over how star trek is perceived and the message it's trying to convey these days

star trek has always been woke, but i see it as two different kinds of woke

proper woke, which ended in 2009 with the abrams movies

and then woke larp, which follows discovery - the early seasons of snw

old trek works with so many people because it establishes these "woke" ideas as if they're just... normal. that's the way things are! welcome to the future! 

TOS, for example, had a lead black woman with a short skirt! in the 60s! they had every ethnicity and gender on that ship and it worked because it wasn't a talking point! this show is so far in the future we're over that kind of bullshit, so there's no point in acting like it's a big deal! 

things kinda changed in TNG with a shift more towards leadership and how it should be done. much more traditional politics instead of social politics. the stories about how picard often has to put aside his personal history to look at things objectively, for example. other captains with much more xenophobic ideals following wars. discussing PTSD and how it effects leadership. it had the same unique casting, of course, but this series leaned heavily into "we all have different views and opinions, but nonetheless, we should work together."

it also tackled very... modern concepts in the early episodes. data, for example, being an artificial intelligence given form. a trial is called to determine if he has his own autonomy or should be turned into the federation for study. ironically, he gets little to no say! it takes picard pulling up "old earth history" to convince them. it's a whole ordeal.

old trek works by establishing these morals through fictional empires, species, people, etc. it does it so well because it will have you thinking super woke without you even knowing. that's how you instill ideas into people. you don't preach; you just show them the scenario where such an ideal can actually work. 

this is where new trek completely fails. ESPECIALLY in discovery. for context, there are two characters on the discovery (hero ship of that show) who are gay! and they're dating! awesome, cool, that's probably super common in the 2200s right? 

yet, there are multiple episodes where the entire focus is on them, their sexuality, hashtag love for each other, etc. no one needs to see that because these characters aren't likeable enough in the first place! tackle that kind of thing AFTER people fall in love with the characters!!! they get special relationship treatment BECAUSE it's a controversial topic in today's day. all that does is bring attention to it IN LORE and make it seem rare and somewhat different in the far future, which just doesn't make sense.

even from a nerdy standpoint, they broke so much of the established canon regarding warp, technology, empires, and the federation itself. completely retconned the original enterprise design (despite the fact that it was later shown in star trek picard that the constitution class DID in fact look like the one from TOS), made the hero ship super overpowered in a time where such a technology would be fucking EVERYWHERE (it can just teleport while warp at the time was slow), and painted starfleet as if they're just incompetent and evil? 

the final fight is literally a battle with starfleet itself. why is new trek so obsessed with this idea? it even happens in picard?? 

overall, the changes were so unlikeable they eventually made the decision to send the discovery into the 31st century. that's not a horrible idea! except...

they get there and the federation is just in shambles? because some magic force made all warp cores using dilithium (magic space crystal and controls subspace) explode? just because? and since all the ships are gone everyone freaked the fuck out and left the federation. even EARTH!! 

why

in canon, the federation was traversing GALAXIES like 3 hundred years before this.

THREE HUNDRED!

and what? we're just supposed to believe an event like this would shut them down? are there no colonies in other galaxies? no other forms of transportation? i mean shit, you can basically teleport between planets at this point in time thanks to extended beaming! what are we doing???

overall i think modern trek doesnt even know what it is

they want to comment on modern issues but they can't think of any way to do that without just shoving the issue, unskinned and naked, into your face and tell you to agree with them. you should not have to be "told" how to think, these ideas need to come naturally in the form of story. it's just poor writing. 

i miss old trek