Star Trek Week — When Did ‘Star Trek’ Become So Woke?

As the headline so eloquently asks, just when did the science fiction television and movie franchise Star Trek get woke? Well dear reader, there is a simple answer to that one.

September 8th, 1966.

On that date sixty years ago, one of the greatest science fiction franchises in pop culture history was born, and it was “woke” from the word go. With that, welcome to Star Trek week at Comicon.com, where we’ll spend the week celebrating sixty years of this franchise. Maybe debate some Kirk (William Shatner) and Picard (Patrick Stewart), before giving the crown to Sisko (Avery Brooks), and so much more.

So, if it’s been woke from the very start, the case is closed. Guess that’s the end of this article.

“But it wasn’t woke like this when I was a kid! Alex Kurtzman and the rest of the woke-a-nazis and their Nu Trek ruined everything!”

Okay Twitter Troll, quiet down.

Just because the themes and social issues, that the series has always featured, went over people’s heads doesn’t mean they weren’t there. We don’t expect children to pick up on everything. Then again some of these people were adults who still couldn’t figure it out because media literacy has always struggled. It just happens to seemingly be on it’s death bed at the current moment in time.

From the very beginning this was the way that Gene Roddenberry and company wanted things to be. In the original pilot his (eventual) wife Majel Barrett was set to play the first officer Number One, before the network balked at the idea. In the series as we know it now the bridge crew was purposefully diversified. It showed that the differences, squabbles, bigotries, and more that used to divide the people of Earth were in the past.

One of the core foundations of the Vulcan logical philosophy is IDIC, which stands for Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. Seems pretty on the nose for a show that was born to tackle social justice and exude progressive stances on issues.

“But it used to be more subtle with things!”

Subtlety thy name is not Star Trek. This was a series that tackled racism by having an episode with people painted one side of their face painted white and the other black who hated people with the half white and half black being on flipped sides of the faces.

It’s a series that had a kiss between two of its main characters, one of them a Black woman and the other a white man. While this moment is incorrectly deemed the “first televised interracial kiss,” it was still a watershed moment for television and was not subtle at all. By the way, I say incorrectly because other shows had already featured interracial kisses. That’s including Trek itself with Captain Kirk kissing biracial actresses a few times and the famous “Space Seed” episode with Khan (Ricardo Montalban) also has an interracial kiss.

The only reason the Kirk and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) episode drew fury from certain areas of the nation and had NBC on edge was because one of the kissers was Black.

Over sixty years the mission hasn’t changed. The series keeps growing and evolving to match the times and tackle more and new different social topics. From gender and sexuality to poverty and systemic failures to various bigotries and violence that arises to so much more. Hell, you can’t wave a stick around without accidentally hitting a Trek episode that would fall into the pejorative definition of “woke” that people throw around.

This growth includes casting as well as allowing more depth and diversity within the character base, well beyond the simple diverse base we began with. Even for how progressive Trek was trying to be at the time, there were still networks and others to appease. Over the decades Trek has pushed outside the box as much as possible while still staying within the box enough around to keep going.

Even today networks and studios are run by mostly old white men who lean conservative. Their only concern is the bottom line, lots of sacks of cash, and anything that threatens that has to go away. Thus, shows like Trek have always threaded the needle as carefully as possible to keep living up to their progressive diverse foundation alongside other “demands” put upon them.

One of the best things that shows like Trek have done to keep the so-called “woke” going is just the diverse cast. There doesn’t have to be a specific social issue on the line for the growing cast of women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, or others to have bigger parts in an episode. Just having an episode focused on a general relatable topic but having a marginalized person at the front does a ton.

Over sixty years, this franchise has gotten better and better at doing that. It leads to our recent golden era of Trek as far as the eye could see. Has the series and those behind it still stumbled or tackled a concept in the worst ways possible? Oh yeah for sure, their hands are not clean as some of them would like. I mean, Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s episode “Code Of Honor” exists.

Despite that, the series continues to excel and boldly go where we need to go as a society. Painting a picture of a world where bigotries and outdated thoughts can be eradicated or thwarted. Where those who fight for others, justice, and what is right more often than not triumph in their battles.

We will never see a future that is specifically like the one in Trek. At the same time this series, like so many other creations, asks us to dream and do better. To impact the world however we can, by staying aware, alert, and awake to what is happening.

So yeah, again, when did Star Trek become woke?

The first moment it came across our television screens. The first time people looked up and saw someone like themselves in a prominent place in this fictional space. The first time those who struggle under social issues were able to feel that maybe there is a light on the other side.

Star Trek has been woke for sixty years, and it’s not stopping any time soon, no matter who owns the production company currently.