Star Trek: Discovery drops the F-word, and fans aren't into it

Ben Arnold
·Contributor

The debut series of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ appears to be breaking new ground all over the place – with an openly gay character, a poignant (sadly topical) plot around male sexual assault, and the show’s first black lead actress – but some have baulked at its latest move.

In the fifth episode, released by Netflix in the UK and called ‘Choose Your Pain’, the F-word was used for the first time in the show’s 51 year history. And not just once, but twice.

“We were aware of it, we embraced it, and we had a blast with it,” said Anthony Rapp, who plays Lt. Stamets, utterer of one of the f-bombs, in an interview with Indiewire.

“These people just put their brains to work in a really tough way and they had a breakthrough. And I imagine there are scientists in their labs who might do that any time. We didn’t drop the F-bomb in ‘Star Trek’ by telling somebody to go f**k themselves. We did it by saying, ‘this is f***ing cool.’”

Bot not everyone’s cool with it. In fact, the overriding feeling is that it was a step too far.

Some did enjoy the profanity, but on Twitter at least, they’re rather in the minority.

Showrunner Aaron Harberts has further tried to justify it, however, telling Entertainment Weekly: “Every writer’s impulse when you get to work on the streaming shows with no parameters is to go crazy.

“But then you look at things like: How does nudity play on Trek? Eh, it feels weird. How does a lot of [profanity] on Trek? Not so great. Are there moments where it merits it that we’re trying to push here and there?

“I would say we’re trying to push more by having the type of complicated messed-up characters who aren’t necessarily embraced on broadcast.”

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