Even the most even-tempered Starfleet captains might have had trouble keeping it under control in the past 24 hours. As with any group, there is a small, very vocal faction of fans within the Star Trek community who aren’t happy to see two women — especially women of color — taking the lead in the Star Trek: Discovery trailer that dropped on Thursday. As so many other fans pointed out in their responses to these hateful comments: Are these people even “real” Trek fans?
And by “real,” they assumedly mean to ask if the haters are aware of what Star Trek is all about. Star Trek was built on diversity. Gene Roddenberry intended for Star Trek to exist in a world where racism, sexism, homophobia, and just general xenophobia (defined as “fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign”) didn’t exist anymore. Money doesn’t even really exist anymore in the Star Trek universe, let alone racism or sexism.
Granted, the comment section of any YouTube video is a place most people know to stay away from, as even a thick-skinned person is bound to come away steaming. And certain sections of Reddit aren’t much better. But any xenophobic comment surrounding a franchise such as Star Trek, one where diversity is its core principle, is typically taken with more than a grain of salt — it’s attacked with fervor.
One Reddit commenter hopes that “there’s no emotional drama between the main character and the captain” because, of course, two female characters are going to be incredibly emotional and unprofessional if they’ve made it to the positions of captain and first officer in Starfleet. Male characters on Star Trek are never emotional.
Some referred to Discovery as being all about “forced diversity,” while others expressed they were “uninterested in a female lead character. It’s just my 0.02 that they are trying too hard to please the crowds that I feel left out as a fan.”
No matter your opinions on Star Trek as a whole, calling Discovery “Star Trek for social justice warriors” and “stupid politically correct bullshit” isn’t going to stop people from making appropriately diverse content in the year 2017. Especially when it comes to a modern Star Trek television series.
Star Trek: Discovery premieres sometime this fall.
