it’s the mlk / nichelle nichols bit that really hammers things home for me where jj dropped the ball on this franchise.
like, he wants it to be accessible popcorn entertainment without as much heady philosophy, i can get that, i can even get behind it to a point, except it’s also completely ridiculous coming out of his mouth bc //what do you think lost was jj//. also this and the other gifset misses out the part where he says he finally got way into star trek during production and now loves it. (though the preponderance of enterprise references and the dip in ambition between movies does remind me more of voyager playing it safe than ds9 taking risks, but paramount stopped believing in the idealism of the franchise themselves about fifteen years ago so that’s not even surprising.)
no, it’s the fact that uhura even //existing// was revolutionary in the eyes of martin luther king jr. in //nineteen sixty seven//.
in 2009? chekov being a russian dude wasn’t diversity. five of the seven main cast being white males wasn’t diversity. less than a third of the characters with names and dialogue being not-white-males wasn’t progress. //half of the female characters dying// wasn’t progress. the female uniforms being sexy sexy where the men get practical clothing was the //opposite// of progress.
and hey, they didn’t bother to mix up the core seven by making chekov a russian //girl// genius or bones idris elba or spock sendil ramamurthy or kirk katee sackhoff or whatever. but it’s okay, that’s only seven characters out of an infinite canvas. and they did another movie, they levelled up, they added nothing but diversity to the cast, right?
replaced tyler perry with peter weller. kirk wakes up in bed with //literal japanese catgirl twins// who aren’t named or seen again. all the poc and aliens are (still) background scenery. there are women wearing something other than the sleeveless gogo skirt //but only in the background//. the new villain, who was a man of color as strong, smart, and capable as kirk back in the 60s / 80s, is now a white man with a desi name. 8/10 of the major characters are still white men. and the only character written as a person of color is //still// zachary quinto.
jj, this is my problem. you have officially failed to represent the future as //better//. you’ve adopted a ridiculous colorblind ideology that amounts to ignoring the varied experiences of not-white-males, but failed to pair it with //casting mostly or even just 50% not-white-males//.
in the future, men are still disproportionately represented in the workforce? //white// men still dominate all the hierarchies of power? the only important places on earth are in the usa and great britain? less than half the named characters are women? we have transfer students from other planets but there are only terrestrial minorities in crowd shots? white people are a demographical minority worldwide //today// but don’t tell the future that?
in 2004 edward james olmos, talking about new galactica, commented that that was the first time we’d seen latinos in space. //that shouldn’t still be true//.
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