Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Is Getting Review Bombed And That's Sad But Not Surprising

It's a day that ends in "y," which means some petty little hate machines are busy spending their precious time on this earth review bombing another movie or television series for being too "woke." This time it's the wonderful YA-flavored new Paramount+ series "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy," and the review bombers are out in force, decrying the series for straying too far from what they believe is the true meaning of the franchise. In this case, they're upset about women who aren't sex objects and positive LGBTQ+ representation, because to some viewers those things are scarier than a whole fleet of Jem'Hadar warships. As it stands, the critic rating for the series on Rotten Tomatoes is at 86%, while the audience score is at 43% (and dropping). 

Making things worse is human thumb Stephen Miller, the United States Homeland Security Advisor, who for some reason has decided to weigh in (instead of doing his job). Miller opined that Paramount should beg William Shatner to take over the whole franchise, posting a scene from "Starfleet Academy" to the website formerly known as Twitter and calling it "tragic." Yet "Star Trek" has always been progressive and will always be progressive, and anyone who can't wrap their minds around that needs to try a whole lot harder. 

Here's the thing: there can be bad "Star Trek," or "Star Trek" that just doesn't work for a particular viewer. There's nothing wrong with just not liking a part of the franchise or even giving it a wildly negative review. (Trust me, I have words for the first two seasons of "Star Trek: Picard.") But when your primary problem is that there are too many women who you can't fetishize, or the series is too progressive, you've completely lost the plot. 

For some reason, certain "Star Trek" fans seem to forget that the series has always promoted equal, inalienable rights for all sentient beings and that its ideals have always been wildly progressive. This is a show that had the first interracial kiss on television on "The Original Series" all the way back in 1968, people! "Star Trek" has courted controversy since its inception because of its willingness to put progressive storylines on air before mainstream America was ready, so in what universe is "Star Trek" too "woke" now? It's always been "woke," but some audiences only see what they want to see. 

While there have been a few "Star Trek" storylines over the years that have aged like milk, the vast majority of the franchise has taken a humanistic approach to our future that condemns all forms of bigotry. Even if you want to posit that Starfleet follows a kind of Manifest Destiny that's kind of morally complicated, the shows and movies themselves have routinely called out and shamed racism, misogyny, homophobia, and more. Heck, "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" even had Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) reckoning with his own prejudices and realizing he had become bitter and bigoted against Klingons. It's a brilliant examination of how even the most idealistic hero can become jaded, and what's most important is that Kirk challenges his own racism in the end. 

Unfortunately, it seems like there's a contingent of "Star Trek" fans who have completely missed the point, and while they might think that they're a part of the Federation, they're definitely one of the baddies. Hey, it happens — it even happens in "Star Trek"! But usually in "Star Trek" they grow after this realization, and the rampant doubling-down on hatred doesn't give me a lot of hope for the review-bombing types. In a world of Borg drones, be like Damar, and grow.