My problem with interpreting Garak and Bashir as gay is that theres no indication of this outside some after the fact behind the scenes statements and the implication is theyre in the closet and pursuing relationships with women to hide it if this is true, which isnt very progressive.
Yes writers wrote weaknesses in the replicators back then, which was a continuity issue even back then, but they didnt go as far as saying it tastes like shit and is made from literal shit.
Its a pattern in New Trek. PIC said the replicators make food that tastes like shit, then DIS said they are made from shit! I mean to be fair, even DS9 tried at times to weaken the replicator but it didnt go this far. Writers just tend to hate the concept for some reason.
I think conservatives in general have trouble understanding what allegories are. For example, some conservative fans of The Orville think its blatantly pro trans episode “Tale of Two Topas” is actually anti-trans because its wrapped in an allegory.
Easily DS9’s best episode, and it has little to do with the Dominion or Section 31 or even the Prophets/Pah-Wraiths. Runner up to my favorite Trek episode ever, the other one being The Offspring from TNG.
Roddenberry nixed it? I’ve heard different tales of that, that it was either Berman or Paramount, but never heard that Roddenberry himself nixed it. I remember reading old quotes that Roddenberry promised a gay character in TNG, but guess he was lying?
“Not much of a Star Wars fan, but I assume this is David Brin’s critique?”
I remember that critique. Funny because a lot of Youtube leftists now argue Star Wars is left-wing because it has rebels against an empire (because asymmetrical warfare is left-wing apparently? Lol) and because the prequels are about a democracy turning into an empire (An obvious roman imperial allegory, not limited to leftist thought).
Also hanging around Youtube’s and Reddit’s Star Trek communities (such as the now banned r/Star_Trek) has shown me that a lot of Star Trek fans simply don’t get the allegories and messages of Trek, and think liberal biases and allegories are something new in the franchise. It’s really bizarre. Same group of people were convinced The Orville was either apolitical or even conservative until it became aggressively pro LGBTQ in its last season, which pissed them off.
I considered bringing this up, but since his apparent conservative politics didn’t seem to impact his Star Trek and Odyssey Five scripts (the only things of his I’ve ever seen), it’s not a problem for me.