Can we talk about the “Star Trek was always woke” cliche? It is supposed to be the trump card to make critics of Kurtzman Trek shut up.

I have been watching Star Trek since I was three an it was in its first-run. Admittedly, I didn’t understand it, but over the decades I watched the episodes in syndication dozens if not hundreds of times.

I will concede that Trek leaned left and reflected controversial social issues of the time. However, the modern left has perverted that to mean it was a vehicle for “Important Progressive Messages” (you may insert Critical Drinker’s echo THE MESSAGE sound here).

Let me also insert that Star Trek, like Star Wars, The Witcher and the entire crop of post 2016 fantasy/sci-fi is intentionally designed to alienate and provoke the old white men demographic – something that the original Star Trek never would have dreamed of.

Kurtzman’s agenda was to super-charge Star Trek to be a vehicle of his own agenda as Nerdrotic points out in this magnificent YouTube video. I’ve put a timestamp in the link for the money quote.

So grab your Romulan ale and join me for a look at Star Trek TOS episodes and debunk the woke narrative.

In all, Star Trek, The Original Series (ST-TOS), had 79 episodes over three seasons. It had all sorts of stand-ins for the geopolitical landscape of the time. Klingons were the Soviet Union, the mysterious Romulans, China and Vulcans, probably Japan.

Most of the real messaging of Star Trek are themes like “mankind must be free” judging by how many times Kirk lectured a computer or god to death and that the future is better once we overcame our greed and hate. The rest of it was allegory without any particular agenda.

The obvious so-called left-wing traits of the show itself were things like Uhura and the interracial kiss and the diverse casting of Sulu, Chekov and Scotty.

Of those 79 episodes only two or three are clearly from the left side while others have liberal sensibilities. Most liberal thought is contained in a line or two of dialogue.

Let’s examine a few. And please note that these are from my informed opinion. Your mileage may vary.

These next two can be assumed to be left-wing by current sensibilities.

“Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”: Racism is stupid, m’kay. That is demonstrated by the painfully unsubtle fact that the only difference between the “superior” and “inferior” races are which side of their face is black.

“The Cloud Minders”: elites exploit and abuse their worker class. Ironically, class warfare is a left-wing message, but these elites could be the Davos crowd with their arrogance and entitlement. But commies own The Struggle™️. Similarly, “A Taste of Armageddon” tells us that war is absurd and cold in the hands of the elite.

The little lines of dialogue that may convey liberal thinking feature President Lincoln (“The Savage Curtain”) apologizing for referring to Uhura as a “Negress” with an explanation that we now have a more evolved way of thinking. When we first see the Romulans, an officer gets racist toward Spock because he looks like one of them (“Balance of Terror”).

More general messaging can be found in “The Doomsday Machine”, a likely play on the fear of nuclear annihilation. “Friday’s Child”, “Errand of Mercy” and “A Private Little War” touch on the meddling of the superpowers in Third World nations.

Like all good science fiction, many episodes did have messages, just not the heavy-handed progressive garbage we’re inundated with.

For example:

“The Gamesters of Triskelion” – slavery is bad, m’kay?

“Patterns of Force” – Nazism is bad, m’kay?

Then there are the episodes of no particular messaging that simply held a mirror to current events. “Journey to Babel” was a murder mystery cloaked in international diplomacy. “Arena” shows that mercy is better than brute-force (and a good thing m’kay?).

And the vast majority of the other episodes were just great storytelling; fun and thought provoking, action packed and engaging.

All this reminds me that science fiction used to appeal to curious and smart minds and not drones whose mission is seek to validate their identities and go along with whatever the cause du jour is. This is what we’ve lost.

UPDATED: one more thought.

Two episodes could even be considered right-leaning.
“The Way to Eden” is an unflattering portrayal of hippie dippy space slackers and “Bread and Circuses” is a fictional look at the rise of Christianity in the Roman empire.