Star Trekhas never shied away from being socially progressive. Ever since its early days in the 1960s, it has tackled topical issues, not to mentionportraying a black woman as an equal crewmemberfrom the very beginning. Still, in the earlier days of the franchise, the shows and movies tended to revolve around male main characters: Kirk, Spock, Picard. These captains were the heads of their crew, the commanders of their ships, and the driving forces in their respective stories.
Over the years, the show has depicted more and more women as captains and admirals in Starfleet. Captain Kathryn Janeway, most notably, took on the role of the captain protagonist inVoyagerfrom 1995 to 2001. Since then, other shows have depicted female admirals and captains in major roles, fromDiscoverytoPicard. However, unlike the shining beacons like Kirk or Picard, high-ranking women in Starfleet tend to lean towards the grayer side of the morality spectrum. None ofStar Trek’s powerful women have had the chance to demonstrate their unwavering heroism — and it’s time for that to change.
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Captain Janeway was the first female captain protagonist of a main-seriesStar Trekshow. She was a powerful leader, but made plenty of questionable decisions. She’s considered morally ambiguous at best, and apotential war criminal at worst, having played a role in the genocide of an entire species. Other high-ranking women officials have fallen along the same lines. Philippa Georgiou ofDiscovery(at least, the version of her present throughout most of the show) is a cruel and iron-fisted character, and only begins to undergo redemption starting in the show’s third season. Less prominently, Commodore Oh in the first season ofPicardis a government official who is revealed to be part of a Romulan conspiracy.
Bearing this in mind, it’s worth noting that there have been plenty of women in the franchise who are consistently morally upstanding:Deanna Troiand Beverly Crusher ofThe Next Generation; Sylvia Tilly ofDiscovery. The difference is that these women are not officers; they are not captains or admirals. They are in prestigious positions that often require them to make difficult decisions, but they don’t call the shots on their ships or in Starfleet.
Of course, none of this is to say that the high-ranking men of Starfleet are portrayed without flaw. The shows have featured plenty of instances where the protagonists are hindered by corrupt or incompetent admirals, plenty of whom are men. What’s more, even the most honorableStar Trekprotagonists were often put in difficult positions, and didn’t always perform perfectly.Kirk made his fair share of mistakesduring his illustrious career. Picard, widely considered thebest captain across the franchise, made missteps too. Benjamin Sisko, commander of the Deep Space 9 space station in the series of the same name, is just as ethically ambiguous as Janeway.
This leads into a possible rationale behind this trend: it may simply come down to the direction in which theStar Trekfranchise has leaned over the past 20 years.VoyagerandDeep Space 9(particularly the latter) were both intended to tell stories that showed the grittier, less pristine side of the Federation. Janeway and her crew were stranded in unexplored space;Sisko was dealing with the messy aftermath of the Dominion War. Both of them made decisions in desperate situations, which forced them to do questionable things to protect themselves and their people. They precipitated a trend for the franchise as a whole which leaned towards darker stories.
As this trend takes place, time moves forward and our real-world views change, resulting in more female characters onscreen.Star Trek’stendency towards morally gray women in power is not necessarily due to direct misogyny or negative views towards women. Rather, it may be the result of two separate trends running concurrently within the franchise:telling darker stories, and incorporating more female characters. Yet, whether intentional or not, this can still play into the idea that women in high positions are conniving, underhanded, or power-hungry.
Discovery’s Philippa Georgiou is a prime example. Before her redemption arc, she uses her power to advance her own goals at the expense of others' lives. In the same show, Tilly’s mirror-universe counterpart, “Killy,” is another. Unlike the character in the prime universe, Killy is ruthless and sadistic — and instead of a position in engineering or as a captain’s number one, Killy is a captain herself, a powerful person that others fear.
But with the darker turns that science fiction has made in the last few years, plenty ofStar Trekfans yearn for the days when the franchise depicted a utopian future.Strange New Worldsleans lighter in its tone, giving fans old-schoolStar Trekwith a feel-good atmosphere and plenty of humor. Now that the mood of the franchise is shifting again, the time is perfect for a true heroine to emerge in Starfleet. It’s time for a female captain who’s not an antihero or an iron-fisted ruler, but instead has the compassion and bravado of Kirk; the gravitas and dignity of Picard.
