This post is going to discuss representation of marginalized people in Star Trek: Discovery. You can read my thoughts on themes and continuity in the show here.
Star Trek has generally tried to push the envelope in terms of who gets to be on screen and has had some successes and some failures at this. It was groundbreaking for The Original Series (TOS) to even have a black woman on the bridge even though by today’s standards the show is not very diverse. Watching Next Generation today I’m constantly frustrated by the female characters and how they don’t get to do anything, but I get the impression it was about average for its time. In Deep Space 9 (DS9) we got to see a black man as captain (and a father), and the show featured some wonderful female characters. However, DS9 also featured some very problematic Jewish-coded characters. Voyager gave us our first Trek show with a female captain but also featured a very poorly done Native American character. Enterprise’s main crew seems to be about as diverse as TOS’s, but--given that there are are about 35 years between the shows--that’s not what I’d consider progressive. Discovery, too, has some big successes and some big failures in terms of representation. Its biggest problem is that it shows us glimpses of much more than it delivered on several counts.
( ”spoilers” )
Star Trek has generally tried to push the envelope in terms of who gets to be on screen and has had some successes and some failures at this. It was groundbreaking for The Original Series (TOS) to even have a black woman on the bridge even though by today’s standards the show is not very diverse. Watching Next Generation today I’m constantly frustrated by the female characters and how they don’t get to do anything, but I get the impression it was about average for its time. In Deep Space 9 (DS9) we got to see a black man as captain (and a father), and the show featured some wonderful female characters. However, DS9 also featured some very problematic Jewish-coded characters. Voyager gave us our first Trek show with a female captain but also featured a very poorly done Native American character. Enterprise’s main crew seems to be about as diverse as TOS’s, but--given that there are are about 35 years between the shows--that’s not what I’d consider progressive. Discovery, too, has some big successes and some big failures in terms of representation. Its biggest problem is that it shows us glimpses of much more than it delivered on several counts.
( ”spoilers” )
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