Posted in: CBS, TV | Tagged: Aaron Harberts, cbs, donald trump, gene roddenberry, HRL, star trek, star trek: discovery

Make America Klingon Again – Star Trek: Discovery Is An Allegory For Trump's America

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Star Trek: Discovery showrunner Aaron Harberts discussed what the underlying political themes of the continuation to Gene Roddenberry's legendary science fiction franchise are intended to be:

"The Klingons are going to help us really look at certain sides of ourselves and our country. Isolationism is a big theme. Racial purity is a big theme. The Klingons are not the enemy, but they do have a different view on things. It raises big questions: Should we let people in? Do we want to change? There's also the question of just because you reach your hand out to someone, do they have to take it? Sometimes, they don't want to take it. It's been interesting to see how the times have become more of a mirror than we even thought they were going to be."

In short, Trump's America is the Klingon Empire. Yeah, that's about right.

Star Trek has always had a tradition of tackling philosophy and politics, so you can't complain about how everything is so political now with this one — because it's always been that way.

Then again, people complain about how political comic books are now, despite the fact that comics have always tackled political themes (original "Secret Empire," Green Lantern and Green Arrow).

Anyway, there is something cleverly light-footed about this statement. It's not overtly stating that the U.S. is the villain in the new series, but one could glean that without thinking about it too hard. I think that's pretty damn delightful. A fundamentalist regime obsessed with nationalism and a growing voice obsessed with its own "racial purity?" Yeah, that's where the U.S. is at once again, so I feel that's a pretty damn apt allegory.

Also, some sort of metaphor for North Korea will likely factor into later episodes of the first season:

"North Korea is in our thoughts as we finish the series. What began as a commentary on our own divided nation — in terms of Trump supporters and non-Trump supporters — has blown out to North Korea and how we're right on the brink."

This sounds interesting. Of course, we won't know how well the series itself will handle it until the show debuts on September 24th. Star Trek: Discovery stars Sonequa Martin-Green, Chris Obi, Jason Isaacs, Doug Jones, Michelle Yeoh, and Shazad Latif. I hope for the best.

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