William Shatner has once again taken to social media to defend Star Trek’s modern direction, this time pushing back against conservative critics, and, notably, Elon Musk. The exchange kicked off after XPRIZE chairman Peter Diamandis lamented Hollywood’s reliance on “dystopian” storytelling, arguing that audiences need more hopeful visions of the future.
Musk echoed the sentiment, suggesting that earlier Star Trek series offered a far more optimistic blueprint for humanity. And he’s technically not wrong. The franchise was built on a progressive, post-scarcity ideal. It's a future where humanity has largely moved beyond greed, war, and tribalism.
While classic Star Trek was never a flawless utopia, it consistently framed progress as the end goal. Newer series like Discovery and Strange New Worlds, by contrast, reflect a messier reality, one shaped by trauma, instability, and existential anxiety rather than polished certainty.
Channeling the grounded logic of James T. Kirk, Shatner delivered a pointed philosophical rebuttal.
"That’s because their ancestors lived through these dystopian times and found the only way to survive was to hope for a positive future,” he wrote, punctuating the remark with a winking emoji.
His response draws directly from Star Trek canon. The enlightened 23rd century didn’t arrive effortlessly. It emerged from the devastation of World War III and the horrors of a post-atomic collapse. By invoking that history, Shatner reframed hope as a hard-earned survival strategy rather than naive optimism.
Shatner usually avoids political back-and-forth, but his message is clear. If modern Star Trek feels darker, it’s because it reflects the world we’re living in now, one currently navigating its own "dystopian" hurdles and still struggling to reach the hopeful future the franchise has always promised.
The legendary actor’s response to Elon Musk comes just weeks after U.S. Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller criticized Starfleet Academy and urged Paramount+ to bring in Shatner to “fix” the franchise. Much like his reply to Musk, Shatner answered Miller with irony and humor, brushing off complaints over a brief scene that showed three female characters on a starship bridge.