Yeah, that line always felt kinda strange. I rationalized it by thinking in the Star Trek world, there was no violent revolution, but more of a pseudo-Posadist realization of global unity in the wake of the third world war and First Contact with the Vulcans, thus Mao's axiom being less applicable.

Or, more realistically, Standards and Practices needed them to disavow what was being described as terrorism in that particular episode.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

i saw it as the latter considering how badly that era of star trek bungled social justice themes like lgbt rights.

[–] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Gah you are so right with that. Between the first Trill episode and the non-binary planet episode... just a rough time for queer Trek. At least we got some good stuff with DS9, though even the head writer wishes they pushed the envelope a little further.

I'm hopeful we can get some better stuff out of Strange New Worlds. While Disco had more representation, I did not care for that show for a myriad of other reasons.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

the attempt to turn star trek into a character driven drama with discovery has plenty of flaws, but i accept them in the spirit of trek like i do the sexist flaws in tos and the lgbt-averse flaws in tng, voyager & enterprise.

strange new worlds feels like a half step backwards in both respects because of that lack of representation and it's more glaring now that we have fascism in control of our country. to be fair: i suppose an argument could be made that it's needed considering that both liberal & conservative trekkies alike popularly decry leftism in star trek and its fandom despite star trek's clearly leftist premise and settings; but i still accept strange new worlds in that same spirit.

i'm crossing my fingers in the hope that strange new worlds doesn't end up bowing down to popular pressures in the same way that berman's star trek did in this respect and i hope that the abrams movies continue the stellar (double entendre intended) representation going forward.