The values behind Star Trek and the values behind Canada’s success are closer than they might appear, and both are worth defending.
Following the news that Star Trek: Starfleet Academy would be cancelled after its second season, some of the online commentary surrounding the show has centred around it supposedly being too ‘woke.’ And while there are many critics of the show who have good-faith concerns, a portion focused their criticism on the race and sexual orientation of the characters. Of course, this runs completely counter to the ethos of Star Trek, which has always been about the importance of seeing past superficial differences and understanding the common threads that bind sentient beings.
Shatner’s defence
In response to some of the criticism levelled towards Starfleet Academy, Canadian actor William Shatner – who played Captain Kirk in Star Trek: The Original Series and many Star Trek movies – has issued a strong defence of the Star Trek ethos:
“Star Trek exists in more than one world. It exists in the fantasy of science fiction – weird and wonderful things that play unimaginable possibilities of exploration and human endeavor. But it also exists in the fantasy of human beings, the perfection of human beings, the exploration that human beings have made since the dawn of time and the continuing exploration – physically mentally and morally. It’s that aspect of Star Trek that I’ve always loved, to look at something physically that doesn’t exist now by these talented writers & designers but also to tackle the eternal human questions the agonies, the ecstasies. Star Trek should exist for a long time to come based on those truths. I for one would love to see its continuity. It’s with sorrow that I hear about the cancellation of the new Star Trek series.“
“During the first airing of my Star Trek series where a kiss was objectionable; many southern stations pulled the episode & condemned the show. Using today’s vernacular it would absolutely be called“woke DEI crap”because it went against “norms” of society for its time. Not a lot seems to have changed.“
By referencing the then-controversy around his kiss with actress Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), which was the first interracial kiss broadcast on U.S. television, Shatner makes an important point: The norms of society change, and things we take for granted now as basic human decency and human rights were once deeply controversial. Many rights we fully – and rightfully – defend today, such as women’s rights, interracial marriage, and protections for LGBT people, were once contentious and generated significant opposition, even within the lifetimes of people living today. And yet, slowly but surely, we have expanded the circle of rights, and our society is the better for it. Extending rights helps ensure the full participation of all members of our society.
Star Trek has often helped us reimagine those same debates over rights by applying them to non-humans, or to humans in contexts far removed from our current world. When we watch characters argue over whether an android deserves legal personhood, or whether a newly contacted species has the right to self-determination, we are really working through the same questions that have defined every expansion of rights in human history. The distance that science fiction provides, the fact that the stakes feel safely fictional, can make it easier to see the underlying logic clearly. And once you see it clearly in that context, it becomes harder to unsee in your own.
Canadian values
With his comments, Shatner is defending the Star Trek ethos, and doing so in a distinctly Canadian way. He grew up in a country that has long wrestled with how to build something genuinely pluralist, and that experience runs through everything he is saying here. While Canada, like all nations, has often fallen short of our stated values, we have long been among the most open and welcoming nations on Earth. We have welcomed people from around the world to join the Canadian family, served as a haven for those seeking refuge from war and oppression, and have done what some considered impossible: Built a successful and unique nation that balances shared values and a respect for difference. Canada is not perfect, and welcoming newcomers has sometimes come with real challenges, but those challenges should not blind us to what we have achieved. Time after time, Canada has been among the first countries to widen the circle of rights, recognizing that all human beings are worthy of dignity and respect. That is something to be proud of.
Star Trek has always bet that humanity can be better than it currently is, and that bet has never felt more necessary. The values Shatner is defending, the same ones that have shaped Canada at its best, have been earned through hard experience, and the world needs them now more than ever. Building toward that vision remains the most important work any civilization can do.
Spencer Fernando
Photo by John E. Manard – https://www.flickr.com/photos/145739041@N05/55003293166/, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=180685495
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