I Cannot Consider This Is What Is Getting Proper Wing Weirdos Mad About ‘Starfleet Academy’

Starfleet Academy, as with every new entry to the Star Trek canon—particularly those who had been hated upon launch solely to eventually become diehard favorites of the fandom—courts its justifiable share of controversy in terms of its method to the broader sequence. A few of that is in its nature as a successor to Star Trek: Discovery, a sequence that weathered its personal justifiable share of controversies over time. A few of that is the intention of the present itself, which sometimes appears to please in its younger grownup perspective, permitting it the prospect to bite its proverbial thumb on the franchise’s authority, virtually engaging detractors into an argument.

However a few of it’s as a result of persons are very silly, and typically, when these silly individuals simply occur to have the ear of the Trump administration and right-wing grifts are extra culturally lucrative than ever, even probably the most minor and shocking of flashpoints can grow to be the newest volley within the tradition struggle.

Such has been the case since Starfleet Academy‘s first two episodes aired late last week, when, above all of the noise of the professionals and cons mentioned about its premiere, one criticism rose above all due to it being platformed by none aside from White Home advisor and noted ghoul Stephen Miller. The difficulty Miller seemingly took umbrage to? There’s some gosh-darned glasses on this Star Trek present.

The foofaraw started when Miller took to Twitter to quote-tweet a clip of the sequence from an account named “Finish Wokeness” (seemingly factor for him to do), which featured a scene from the premiere of Holly Hunter’s captain, Nahla Ake, carrying a pair of thickly rimmed spectacles as she talks to her first officer, Lura Thok (Gina Yashere), and one other member of the academy’s senior workers, Lieutenant Rourke (Tricia Black).

Miller was initially imprecise about simply what had irritated him notably in regards to the scene—maybe the dialogue, maybe that it featured a number of girls speaking amongst themselves, who can say—however he described it as tragic, imploring that Paramount, now owned by Trump ally David Ellison, ought to “save” the franchise by relinquishing all inventive management to William Shatner.

😳 😱
I’m so on the identical web page with you @StephenM!
The truth that they haven’t remedy Hyperopia by the 32rd Century is an abysmal oversight on the writers!😤

Additionally @paramountplus must up the price range as a result of I’m positive {that a} nicely oiled group like Starfleet within the distant… https://t.co/96MtYUGGWf

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) January 19, 2026

Shatner’s social media account (it’s lengthy been debated over who precisely runs the account for the actor) replied to Miller in flip and seemingly revealed Miller’s supposed tragedy was Hunter’s selection of eyewear. “The truth that they haven’t remedy Hyperopia by the 32rd Century is an abysmal oversight on the writers,” Shatner’s put up learn partially. “Additionally Paramount must up the price range as a result of I’m positive {that a} nicely oiled group like Starfleet within the distant future may afford a couple of pair of glasses for a minimum of this hyperopic bridge crew.”

It appears Miller ignored that Shatner’s put up was clearly dripping with sarcasm, as he each reposted it and then directly responded with one other quote tweet lambasting Kirk’s death in Generations because the downfall of all Star Trek. However he didn’t dispute Shatner’s insinuation that the so-called “wokeness” on show was to do with the existence of glasses in 32nd-century society.

Clearly, to anybody who’s really watched and engaged with Star Trek at any level within the final 60 years, a part of the rationale for Shatner’s sarcasm is that Kirk himself is only one of a number of characters which were depicted throughout reams of Star Trek materials as carrying glasses. Though varied therapies for impaired imaginative and prescient exist in Star Trek‘s technological future, glasses had been nonetheless worn within the twenty third century—an Enterprise transporter technician is seen carrying them within the authentic present’s pilot episode “The Cage” (and seen once more when the pilot’s footage was repurposed for the two-parter “The Menagerie”), as are a number of different members of the Enterprise crew in The Animated Sequence. 

Kirk himself famously wears studying glasses in The Wrath of Khan, citing that he was personally allergic to Retinax V, a commonplace medical drug used to appropriate imaginative and prescient. Extra not too long ago, previous to Starfleet Academy giving them to Captain Ake, Jean-Luc Picard wore studying glasses in Picard‘s third season, and Discovery gave us David Cronenberg’s Kovich, who wore glasses as a vogue assertion somewhat than out of necessity, which is also the case for Ake (though we do see her carrying them to learn too). Different eyewear has additionally been seen all through the franchise, from sun shades to, after all, Geordi LaForge’s visor in The Subsequent Era.

However none of that is the precise level of the right-wing grift, identical to it’s by no means the purpose every time one in every of these explicit controversies bubbles as much as the floor of popular culture toxicity. We’ve seen this cycle throughout numerous movies and TV reveals which have gained the ire of being declared “woke” by their detractors, a feigned shock designed to generate a cycle of concern and social media chatter amongst their acolytes. The purpose isn’t a lack of knowledge or data, or that their minds will likely be modified in the event that they get a fandom wikia web page shoved of their ignorant faces. It’s in the posting, the technology of that hate and a spotlight, earlier than they transfer on to regardless of the subsequent controversy might be, just like the vultures they’re.

Stephen Miller in all probability doesn’t really care about somebody carrying glasses in Star Trek. He seems to have moved on, his Twitter—the place he’s now busy seemingly nodding towards one other Star franchise, invoking The Mandalorian‘s “that is the best way” slogan over a plan by Tennessee Republicans to persecute immigrants. Possibly he’ll come again to whine about one thing else Starfleet Academy does sooner or later. But it surely gained’t be the present that’s the purpose; it’ll be as a result of it’s simply one thing he and his ilk in right-wing circles can attempt to flip into one other spherical of synthetic backlash among the many slings and arrows of the tradition struggle.

Need extra io9 information? Try when to anticipate the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and every little thing you have to find out about the way forward for Doctor Who.