For the love of all things Star Trek: the WGA strike is a just cause

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 17: Michelle Hurd takes a selfie with Ezra Knight, Johnathan Fernandez, and cast members from "Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin" Maia Reficco, Bailee Madison, Carson Rowland and Chandler Kinney near members of the Writers Guild of America East and SAG-AFTRA as they walk the picket line outside NBC Rockefeller Center on July 17, 2023 in New York City. Members of SAG-AFTRA, Hollywood’s largest union which represents actors and other media professionals, have joined striking WGA (Writers Guild of America) workers in the first joint walkout against the studios since 1960. The strike could shut down Hollywood productions completely with writers in the third month of their strike against the Hollywood studios. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

Call me late to the party if you will, but I, for one, assumed the strike would be over by now. As we close in on four months with no end in sight, the seriousness of the situation is becoming inescapable.

Part of the reason strikes are so effective is because economies are interconnected. Television and film productions support many many people directly and indirectly connected to the production, and all of those people are affected by strike action. Also among those affected are those in the significant portion of the blogosphere that’s devoted to writing about Star Trek. We’re not behind the scenes, we don’t see any inside scoops, but Star Trek is our love, our hobby, and as writers, a significant part of our livelihoods.

Star Trek is unique among franchises for its interconnectedness with its fans. Since the beginning, fans have provided a meta-commentary that’s an essential part of the franchise. We may be just fans, but we have a dog in this fight.

Because strike action affects so many people who aren’t on the picket line, sometimes with significant negative consequences, strikes require solidarity. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Any hardships that result from another person’s fight for justice should be born with pride.

We’ve already seen how this strike is taking away from us the things we love. No one wants that. But that is not the fault of the writers and actors who would like very much to get back to work. It’s the fault of corporate entities who will not pay the people who do the work a fair share. If we lose more Star Trek shows as a result of this strike, we shouldn’t blame the people on the picket line; the fault will lie squarely with those who lacked the foresight to understand that if people produce a product for you to sell, they are entitled to receive a share of the profits from what they produce. Without a fair share, they cannot produce the product. The studios are cutting off their nose to spite their face.

That’s why we must also consider that there was a tragic inevitability to this situation. The loss of quality content would have happened with or without the strike. Had the writers simply continued working with unlivable compensation, the quality of content would’ve suffered, as the industry lost talent. The lost talent would’ve been replaced with AI, a truly dystopian scenario. Though this is framed as a fight between studios and the people who work for them, it’s actually an effort by those workers to save the studios from themselves.

The issue of creative talent being replaced with AI is one of the biggest motivating factors behind the strike. Star Trek, and sci-fi in general, has been warning us for over half a century about the pitfalls of handing large portions of our lives over to machines. Ending this strike on fair, equitable terms would be in the spirit of Star Trek.