10 Times Star Trek: The Next Generation Went Woke

Before Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was even a thing, The Next Generation introduced us to the Bajorans (or 'Bajora') through Ensign Ro Laren in the eponymous episode that was specifically designed for us to meet her. Ro was meant to shake up the Federation's typically comfortable morals and laurels with a "backstory that wasn't Starfleet Academy sweetness and light," as Rick Berman noted in Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages. "The introduction of a strong woman often embroiled in conflict and her acceptance by the fans […] was one of our greatest achievements of the season," added Michael Piller in The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion.

As for the thought process and inspirations behind the Bajorans themselves, producers have refused to pin down a real-world origin story. In an AOL Chat in 1997, Rick Berman stated:

We don't really try to make Bajor a direct analogy to any specific contemporary country or people. Blending the experiences of many Earth peoples and races into our storytelling allows us to comment on these subjects without advocating a particular political point of view, while at the same time allowing us to view the topics in a different light without the baggage of contemporary politics.

Politics they did do, nevertheless, via Ensign Ro. In Journey's End, we learnt that a demilitarised zone (the DMZ) had been established between Federation and Cardassian space as part of the treaty of 2370. As a result, certain Federation colonies along the border were handed over to the Cardassians and vice-versa.

One of those colonies was a group of Native Americans who had come to call the planet Dorvan V their home for over 20 years. In Journey's End, Captain Picard was ordered to 'relocate' them, but the colonists resolved to stay, with the Cardassians in charge. Soon, the Maquis Resistance formed to fight against Cardassian occupation of their homes across the DMZ. Ro, now lieutenant, seeing the injustice for herself in Preemptive Strike, decided to join the Maquis, as did several other Starfleet officers at the time. Still, even 30 years later, with everything that happened in the interim, Picard had to be talked out of his grudge against Ro.

The strength of The Next Generation is that 'the Ro way,' in spite of Picard's protestations, is never depicted as the wrong or, indeed, the right way. We are merely presented with the information, allowed to draw our own parallels, and invited to reason our way through.

That is the best message The Next Generation ever offered us, that to reason is always the 'woker' thing to do.