And Another Thing about SNW

[sasha_feather]

And another thing! about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

People talk a lot about how amazing it was, in 1966, to see a Black woman, an Asian man, and others, on broadcast TV, in a show set in the future. The original series was 57 years ago.

SNW is a prequel to TOS, using some of the same legacy characters and some new ones. It is still powerful to see Black folks, Asian folks, and a Latiné person in positions of authority on the Enterprise. But it feels that SNW is not pushing the envelope. Diversity on TV in 2023 looks different: imagine seeing a person wearing a hijab, a fat actress, an effeminate man. Even if you want to keep your legacy characters the same race and gender as their predecessors, you could still cast background and minor roles differently.

I feel that ST Discovery did do this; most of their characters (and actors) are queer and Tilly is played by an actual fat actress. Deep Space Nine has a North African/Middle Eastern person (Alexander Siddig / Dr. Bashir) and that was 30 years ago. I don't feel that we always need to compare one star trek show to the next. But it's a bit disappointing.

Comments

[emceeaich]

My sense is that white fans were so upset that a Black woman commanded a starship in a serious drama and not a sitcom (it was fine with them that the Cerritos isn't a 'ship of the line',) that the producers flinched. And more's the pity.

[sasha_feather]

Ah, so a backlash against Discovery. I was wondering if the simple, episodic plots were also meant to be in contrast to Disco. (though, I think it's a legitimate criticism that Disco is confusing.)

[starshipfox]

It's really disappointing -- SNW could be so much more than it is. After S1, I was sure we could get queer content in S2, but there was really only a few token mentions. And you're right about the lack of diversity in the cast itself. :( I wish they'd cast a fat actress for Uhura or No. 1 -- it would have been so meaningful.

[sasha_feather]

The lack of queerness is egregious!