So, I thought I'd re-start this discussion, though not so much as in how it fits into Star Trek as a whole, but instead on the LGBTQ+ themes throughout.

DO NOT READ if you haven't watched through Season 4, as I make no qualms about revealing plot lines here! SPOILER ALERT!

To start, I am a huge Star Trek fan, I have been (when much younger) to more than a few conventions (tho not in DECADES now), and find something to enjoy in all of the spin-offs. I'm REALLY enjoying the "Strange New Worlds" that has newly arrived - especially with the return of episodic television! But this is about Discovery...

That said, here are some things I hated about the first 4 seasons of Discovery:

• The first few episodes make it clear we'll be focusing on Michael Burnham - a black, female Star Fleet Officer who right at the get-go ("The Vulcan Hello") decides that she's smarter than the rest of Star Fleet and disobeys direct orders from her captain - even to the point of mutiny! Like such a personality disorder wouldn't have shown up BEFORE she'd advanced to her rank of Commander! They should have made it less a choice of hers, and more a requirement of some kind - of a choice of bad options and worse ones... not just that she knows better!
• The first season circles around the whole "infinite alternate universes" plot line that is de-rigueur in current Sci-Fi (from Star Trek to Spiderman!) - while, of course, ignoring the obvious: how could you possibly "jump" into such an alternate universe and see the same people!?!?!? (I hate "multiverses" in SciFi, even in 1967's "Mirror Mirror" episode of TOS!) I was happy to see the end of Season 1, though less so with the carryover of the Philippa Georgiou character into later seasons.
• The Discovery writers weren't loath to copy another "cheap crutch" from TOS - specifically in "Operation -- Annihilate!" when Spock is blinded - except that he has an "inner eye lid" that magically protected him (and hid itself from all of the Dr.s scans until the final scene). Puke! There are several (OK, a few) occasions in Discovery where everything seems lost, save for some miraculous last-second capability or technology "discovered" that saves the day in the last 30-seconds of the episode. Puhleeeese!
• I did like the plot-line about Control - the self-aware AI that, like all good SciFi, decides to "protect us from ourselves" and eventually decides we should just be annihilated. (Sound a bit like "I, Mudd" from TOS? Yeah, I thought so too... but on a wider scale... I didn't mind the borrow here, as they took it in a whole new direction!)

But what I really wanted to talk about here were the efforts this version of Star Trek has taken to be "inclusive" in casting.

• The primary character is a black female
• Her captain (Philippa Georgiou) is an an Asian female
• The Dr and chief engineer are a gay-male couple - 1 white, 1 black
• During the course of the series, "partners" are mostly described with that word, though occasionally a "wife" or "husband" will slip through. I liked that - it seems "futuristic" to me
• The President of the Federation is a white woman (albeit a Cardassian/Human mix)
• The President of Vulcan (now named Ni'Var) is a white woman
• The head of the military on Earth (United Earth) is a black woman
• The President of United Earth is a black woman - laughably, Stacey Abrams, she of failed GA candidate for Governor, but successful GA Democratic activist, fame.
• There is also a young Trans couple: Adira (human) & Gray (trill) - for whom the other crew members dutifully use the pronouns "they" (for Adira) and "it" for Gray... but I did kind-of objected to the idea that the only "foster parents" these two would have are the gay couple. I also didn't like the idea that in the Star Trek future, LGBTQ+ people would still be considered "different"... I have higher hopes for our distant future, our current present course notwithstanding.
• I really REALLY enjoyed the casting of Tig Notaro, a lesbian comedian, as a bluntly brilliant, sarcastic, lesbian engineer (I know, save for the engineering degree, not much of a stretch from her comedy character). Still, I loved the dry wit of her character and felt she was a great asset to the cast! IMHO.

Honestly, though, especially when they popped Stacey Abrams on us as the President of Earth, I originally found the casting to be laughable and obvious - an about-face to standard casting! All the best, smartest (non-crazy, anyway), most important human characters were black women or gay men! (Save for 1 Admiral in the future...)

BUT - when I stepped back and considered this, I changed my opinion and NOW think "turn about is fair play" - not having white men in charge, or in any real "leadership" (or "hero") capacity is for me now (as a white male) what people of color and LGBTQ+ people (ok, like me) have been exposed to since the dawn of television!

So, please comment below - assuming you've watched the show - about the LGBTQ+ characters in Discovery - what you liked and didn't like about their storylines, or the casting, or whatever... I'm curious to hear how others feel...