Not really. McCoy made a very brief appearance in the pilot. But, it wasn’t until season 5 where Spock would show up in a pretty major role. Scotty showed up a season later. I wouldn’t say there was much fan service at all, given that the TOS crew was mostly all around and available.
giRrL pOwErRr
Hardly. Troi was the most important female character, but she was less important than the Captain, Number One, Data, Chief Engineer Laforge and of course Miles. It was a bit unusual to have a female head of security, but she didn’t even last 1 season before being replaced by Worf.
pushes gay agenda
Was there a single gay member of the Enterprise? The only hint at homosexuality I can remember is Riker going for an androgynous person. They even had to make it clear that Tasha Yar wasn’t a lesbian by having her fuck a sex robot.
handwavy magic “science”
It’s Star Trek…
retconned Klingons to look super weird
The brow ridges showed up in 1979’s Star Trek, the Motion Picture. They were a major departure from the TOS design. TNG just kept that design
disabled crew members
Geordi? I suppose. He definitely makes it seem like he’s “differently abled” though, because his visor lets him see things that other people can’t. But, I suppose they do have some occasions when someone takes his visor and he’s completely blind.
The only other one I can think of is Barclay, but that’s more neurodivergence than a disability.
unrelentingly woke
You already said that
captain with a goofy hairstyle
Sure
black people everywhere
Laforge and… Guinan? Sure, the actor playing Worf is black, but it’s hard to tell anything under all that makeup. There were remarkably few black characters in TNG, if you think about it.
Didn’t DS9 have someone in a wheelchair at some point? There’s some hand wavy explanation is to why she was in a wheelchair that I can’t remember but they even made the point that the space station isn’t particularly disable access compliant.
She is a member of a nonhuman species that evolved on a planet with low gravity. They evolved in a way that makes then physiologically incompatible with the gravity that most other species experience. It’s an example of how a person’s level of physical ability and required accommodation often depend on the environment. It also challenges the viewer to reconsider whether she should be treated like a disabled person.
You’re thinking of Ensign Melora Pazlar; her home planet’s gravity was less strong than what most humanoids are used to so she needed the chair. She was outfitted in a regular wheelchair because the Cardassians (as you might imagine) don’t care much about disability so the station had no way to be outfitted for use with an anti-grav. chair.
You could maybe argue that there was a hint at a pro-Trans story there. She falls for a guy, but the person she thinks she fell for isn’t actually the person she thought, and in the end it’s a girl. But, she decides not to continue the relationship after that final twist. And it’s also one episode in a very long series and Crusher is clearly straight… even if the Trill is maybe bisexual, or maybe pansexual.
I think that was the first time someone actually acknowledged the change. And then there was a short arc on Enterprise providing an in-universe reason for that change.
Never actually watched Enterprise (yet) so don’t know the cannon reason they gave but re: first mentioned, yes it was, and I think Worf, when asked why Klingons looked different said something akin to “we don’t talk about it”.
I mean, they’re trying to make a joke but it kinda works better with, idk, Voyager or something (well, maybe gay or black comment but certainly more diverse and highlighting stuff like cultural diversity).
That said, I’ve seen this exact joke about wokeness already but with TOS, so eh.
Sure, they’re trying to make a joke. But, when this kind of thing works as a joke you can go through each item in the list and say “hmm, yeah, I guess” even if as a whole it’s clearly not true.
In this case, some of the list items just make no sense, like “black people everywhere” or “pushes gay agenda”. If they’d stuck with “woke” and “a captain that Trekkies hated” it could have worked.
woke
By the standards of the 1990s, sure.
lame attempts at fanservice
Not really. McCoy made a very brief appearance in the pilot. But, it wasn’t until season 5 where Spock would show up in a pretty major role. Scotty showed up a season later. I wouldn’t say there was much fan service at all, given that the TOS crew was mostly all around and available.
giRrL pOwErRr
Hardly. Troi was the most important female character, but she was less important than the Captain, Number One, Data, Chief Engineer Laforge and of course Miles. It was a bit unusual to have a female head of security, but she didn’t even last 1 season before being replaced by Worf.
pushes gay agenda
Was there a single gay member of the Enterprise? The only hint at homosexuality I can remember is Riker going for an androgynous person. They even had to make it clear that Tasha Yar wasn’t a lesbian by having her fuck a sex robot.
handwavy magic “science”
It’s Star Trek…
retconned Klingons to look super weird
The brow ridges showed up in 1979’s Star Trek, the Motion Picture. They were a major departure from the TOS design. TNG just kept that design
disabled crew members
Geordi? I suppose. He definitely makes it seem like he’s “differently abled” though, because his visor lets him see things that other people can’t. But, I suppose they do have some occasions when someone takes his visor and he’s completely blind.
The only other one I can think of is Barclay, but that’s more neurodivergence than a disability.
unrelentingly woke
You already said that
captain with a goofy hairstyle
Sure
black people everywhere
Laforge and… Guinan? Sure, the actor playing Worf is black, but it’s hard to tell anything under all that makeup. There were remarkably few black characters in TNG, if you think about it.
politics politics politics
Yes, it’s Star Trek.
Didn’t DS9 have someone in a wheelchair at some point? There’s some hand wavy explanation is to why she was in a wheelchair that I can’t remember but they even made the point that the space station isn’t particularly disable access compliant.
She is a member of a nonhuman species that evolved on a planet with low gravity. They evolved in a way that makes then physiologically incompatible with the gravity that most other species experience. It’s an example of how a person’s level of physical ability and required accommodation often depend on the environment. It also challenges the viewer to reconsider whether she should be treated like a disabled person.
You’re thinking of Ensign Melora Pazlar; her home planet’s gravity was less strong than what most humanoids are used to so she needed the chair. She was outfitted in a regular wheelchair because the Cardassians (as you might imagine) don’t care much about disability so the station had no way to be outfitted for use with an anti-grav. chair.
Hey, not a sex robot, a robot capable of sex… there’s a difference…I think 🤔
Even as a joke, it felt wrong to refer to Data that way. XD
Forget Brent Spinner as data, give me that independence day drip
I’m glad someone caught that. :)
I’m glad you’re glad 🥰
Retconning Data as a Noonien Soong sex-bot would be wild
Data in the streets, Lore in the sheets.
Dr crusher also kisses a woman in that one episode that introduced the trill.
You could maybe argue that there was a hint at a pro-Trans story there. She falls for a guy, but the person she thinks she fell for isn’t actually the person she thought, and in the end it’s a girl. But, she decides not to continue the relationship after that final twist. And it’s also one episode in a very long series and Crusher is clearly straight… even if the Trill is maybe bisexual, or maybe pansexual.
Pretty handwavy when the context is a literal conversion therapy analogue.
Brow ridge change came up in the Tribble episode of DS9 too
I think that was the first time someone actually acknowledged the change. And then there was a short arc on Enterprise providing an in-universe reason for that change.
Never actually watched Enterprise (yet) so don’t know the cannon reason they gave but re: first mentioned, yes it was, and I think Worf, when asked why Klingons looked different said something akin to “we don’t talk about it”.
O’Brien: What happened? Some kind genetic engineering?
Doctor Bashir: A viral mutation?
The writers of Enterprise watched this episode and said, “yes.”
I mean, they’re trying to make a joke but it kinda works better with, idk, Voyager or something (well, maybe gay or black comment but certainly more diverse and highlighting stuff like cultural diversity).
That said, I’ve seen this exact joke about wokeness already but with TOS, so eh.
Sure, they’re trying to make a joke. But, when this kind of thing works as a joke you can go through each item in the list and say “hmm, yeah, I guess” even if as a whole it’s clearly not true.
In this case, some of the list items just make no sense, like “black people everywhere” or “pushes gay agenda”. If they’d stuck with “woke” and “a captain that Trekkies hated” it could have worked.