CBS To Stream Marathon Of Impactful Star Trek Episodes To Support Black Lives Matter

| June 16, 2020 | By: TrekMovie.com Staff 86 comments so far

ViacomCBS continues to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, today announcing a Star Trek marathon and donation drive.

#StarTrekUnited

Today, CBS All Access announced they will be running a free Star Trek marathon featuring 15 episodes which they consider the franchise’s most culturally impactful. The marathon will begin to stream on Wednesday, June 17 on CBS.com and run for a week. They will also be available for a week on StarTrek.com and Pluto TV, and for one day on Twitch.TV.

Also starting on Wednesday, if you use the hashtag #StarTrekUnitedGives (and remember to use the “Gives” part) to help raise awareness $1 will be donated to organizations supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, including Black Strategy Fund, Movement for Black Lives, and Black Lives Matter.

The 15 episodes chosen for the marathon are the following:

Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 3 Episode 10, “Plato’s Stepchildren”
Platonians use psychokinetic power to toy with the crew.

Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 1 Episode 25, “The Devil In The Dark”
An unknown monster threatens a critical mining operation.

Star Trek: The Original Series Season 3 Episode 15, “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”
Two survivors of a devastated planet remain committed to destroying one another.

Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 2 Episode 9, “The Measure Of A Man”
When Data (Brent Spiner) refuses to be disassembled for research purposes, Picard (Patrick Stewart) is enlisted to defend his rights in court.

Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 3 Episode 7, “The Enemy”
After Geordi (LeVar Burton) is stranded on a storm-ravaged planet, the crew’s attempts to rescue him are hindered by an aggressive Romulan warship.

Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 4 Episode 21, “The Drumhead”
A search for a spy aboard the Enterprise turns into a witch-hunt in which Picard is implicated as a traitor.

Star Trek: Voyager, Season 4 Episode 4, “Nemesis”
When Chakotay (Robert Beltran) is stranded on a planet that is in the middle of a major war, he violates the Prime Directive by helping the soldiers that discover him.

Star Trek: Voyager, Season 3 Episode 6, “Remember”
After Voyager encounters a telepathic species, B’Elanna (Roxann Dawson) starts having powerful dreams that depict the life of a woman and her lover in a time of great political and social upheaval.

Star Trek: Enterprise, Season 4 Episode 20, “Demons”
A xenophobic faction of humanity threatens to undermine talks to form a new coalition of planets.

Star Trek: Enterprise, Season 4 Episode 21, “Terra Prime”
A human isolationist leader threatens to destroy Starfleet Command unless all aliens leave Earth immediately.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Season 6 Episode 13, “Far Beyond The Stars”
Sisko (Avery Brooks) has visions of himself and his crew as writers for a science fiction paper in 1950’s Earth.

Star Trek: Discovery, Season 2 Episode 6, “The Sounds of Thunder”
When a new signal appears over Saru’s (Doug Jones) home planet, Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), Saru, and the crew embark on a perilous mission that puts Saru in danger and raises questions about the Red Angel’s intentions. Hugh (Wilson Cruz) struggles to come to terms with his new reality.

Star Trek: Picard, Season 1 Episode 1, “Remembrance”
At the end of the 24th Century, and 14 years after his retirement from Starfleet, Jean-Luc Picard is living a quiet life on his vineyard, Chateau Picard. When he is sought out by a mysterious young woman, Dahj (Isa Briones), in need of his help, he soon realizes she may have personal connections to his own past.

Star Trek: Picard, Season 1 Episode 2, “Maps And Legends”
Picard begins investigating the mystery of Dahj as well as what her very existence means to the Federation. Without Starfleet’s support, Picard is left to lean on others for help, including Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) and an estranged former colleague, Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd). Meanwhile, hidden enemies are also interested in where Picard’s search for the truth about Dahj will lead.

Star Trek: Picard, Season 1 Episode 3, “The End Is The Beginning”
Completely unaware of her special nature, Soji continues her work and captures the attention of the Borg cube research project’s executive director. After rehashing past events with a reluctant Raffi, Picard seeks others willing to join his search for Bruce Maddox, including pilot and former Starfleet officer Cristóbal Rios (Santiago Cabrera).

UPDATE: Star Trek stars talk StarTrekUnited

#TrekkiesTogether grows, and takes it to the streets

Last week TrekMovie helped lead the effort of a number of fan sites and podcasts asking readers and listeners to make donations to groups fighting for racial justice, all under the banner of #TrekkiesTogether. The fan effort garnered some media attention from SyFy Wire and Inverse.

In the last week, a number of additional sites and podcasts around the world have joined in, both making personal donations and asking their audiences to do the same. The outlets joining #TrekkiesTogether include the Inglorious Treksperts podcast, the TrekGeeks podcast network, Australia’s TrekZone.org, the band Five Year Mission, the Star Trek Discovery Pod, Canada’s Ladies Who Trek podcast, the Measure of an Episode podcast, and New Zealand’s Half Measures podcast. Benjamin Harrison and Adam Pranica of the popular Greatest Gen podcast started their own fundraising drive by each donating $1701, and have since helped raise over $30,000.

Some Trek celebrities also helped out by retweeting and amplifying the message, including Star Trek star George Takei, Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan, Star Trek: Picard guest star John Ales (Bruce Maddox), and Star Trek: Discovery star Mary Chieffo.

And there was at least one example of a fan who took the #TrekkiesTogether message to the streets. Gershon Wolf made his own #TrekkiesTogether sign featuring an image of Captain Sisko and a quote from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and carried it at a protest in support of Black Lives Matters in Salem, Oregon.

Gershon Wolf takes #TrekkiesTogether to the streets of Oregon

Keep up on all the Star Trek events at TrekMovie.com.

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Interesting episode list from CBS All Access. At least it is available for free. Thank you CBS, I really appreciate that as a black American Star Trek fan.

Black Lives Matter is a once in a generation cultural movement. It is time to bring about real change in this country and around the world.

#TrekkiesTogether
#BlackLivesMatter

Well, I’m glad that they’re not including Code of Honor in this marathon.

Code of Honor is bad optics on their part. Yeah, I’m glad that’s not in there.

We have had enough racism portrayed in media… Don’t need to see Code of Honor or Gone with the Wind ever again.

Time to seek reconciliation and a more inclusive society for all.

Was waiting to see how soon Code of Honor would come up in conversation. You did not disappoint.

Far Beyond the Stars is a beautiful episode…
#blacklivesmatter

Yes indeed! I’m sad that they only picked one episode of DS9, but agree that’s the one that NEEDS to be shown everywhere! I would’ve added “Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang” too or maybe “Past Tense”, even though it’s a two-parter. Show those instead of “Nemesis”? Not sure we even need those Voyager episodes, both of them suck! Might as well add “Threshold” and call it the “worst episodes of Voyager” marathon.

This is not the “Best of Star Trek.” This is about what’s relevant to BLM. The 2 Voyager shows are just that. “Nemesis” and “Remember.” And I am surprised as well they didn’t have more of the only Black Captain other then, “Far Beyond the Stars.” Which is probably the best of the lot.

Yes, the two part episode dealing with the Bell Riots and Sisko replacing Gabriel Bell in history seems to be very relevant to what is going on today. I haven’t seen them in 20 years to remember if there is something in them that CBS doesn’t want to touch now . . . But wouldn’t you think the subject matter in those two episodes are starting to hit close to home in 2020? I’ll be sure to look up the Past Tense episodes in the near future and revisit them.

Past Tense should be in there! It’s the second-best episode DS9 had on this theme. They have the PIC three-parter, so a DS9 two-parter should be part of it.

Anyway, Far Beyond the Stars is brilliant…

Past Tense absolutely should be in there.

Completely agree with others. Past Tense should definitely be there but I like most of them. It is odd in general DS9 only has one when its probably the show that generally tackles these issues the most IMO. But yes Far Beyond the Stars is definitely the best choice if you only had to go with one. The PIC picks are just odd to me out of the others.

So, they do realize that they kill a black character on screen in the Picard premiere, right? It seems in very poor taste to choose that episode.

If they were going to take anything from Picard, they should have taken the last one, definitely not the first three.

I’m not getting the choices around Picard either.

Episode 6, where Picard comes to understand the XBorg as victims and that he is part of a minority that needs his representation, would seem more appropriate.

They are hoping that people will like the first two episodes and subscribe to All Access to see the rest. Pretty craven.

That’s probably true but you don’t need to use something like this to do that with. Just make the episodes free. In fact they did that last year with both Discovery and Twilight Zone. The first episodes of those shows were shown free on Youtube for about a week IIRC.

It’s amazing how many sites are showing free things right now thanks to the pandemic. It’s a way to get people to watch longer obviously but they don’t need some special reason to do it either.

It’s more a commercial for their Star Trek shows than it is for anything else. Consider that when you think about the episodes they chose for this.

You have a lot to learn about equality.

plato’s stepchildren culturally impactful? What, as a fun exercise showing how conservatives would like to abuse liberals (except they don’t have the mind power, just the ability to ignore and trample the law when convenient.)

Really not getting that one at all.

It’s the history of Plato’s Stepchildren that makes it impactful. The fact that it was the first interracial kiss on television in America. The fact that it was banned in many southern States because of that kiss, regardless of how the kiss came to be. Impactful because it helped to normalize something that should have always been normal and that’s people loving whoever they want to love.

First scripted inter-racial kiss. The actual first inter-racial kiss on US television was between Sammy Davis Jr. and Nancy Sinatra on her TV special a few months before “Plato’s Stepchildren.”

Love it, very nice note.

According to Wiki that is not quite true. Can we agree it was the first inter-racial kiss in Star Trek? Oh no, according to the same source even that is not true. Lol.

Oh pleeeese. The Davis/Sinatra kiss was what you give your sister. On the cheek no less.

The one is “Plato’s Stepchildren” is even less noble — it only happens because mind-controlling aliens force it to happen, and you don’t even see it on screen due to the way it is blocked. It’s culturally significant, but as gestures go, it’s a weak one.

Well thanks for that update. Probably the last time I saw that episode has been decades ago. Don’t remember the circumstances. Only seen the photo of the kiss.

That’s why it is so impactful. Your example proves that point. I don’t except those political labels of “liberals” or “conservatives” in our public discourse. Tribalism is the reason why America is more divided then ever.

Well, we’re divided now. But this is nothing at all compared to 1861-65. 618,000 died because of that divisiveness. The 1950s and 60s were also far more violent in terms of protest than what we are seeing now. We’ve seen uprisings recently, but nothing approaching the level of Watts in 1965.

“We’ve seen uprisings recently, but nothing approaching the level of Watts in 1965.”

As they say, the best is yet to come. Throw in the Pandemic, high unemployment, automation, inequality and climate change just to mention a few. Especially with a culture that can’t think past what’s happening this weekend.

Throw in the enormously divisive war in Vietnam in the 1960s, and two horrendous asssasinations, including that of the most important and influential black person in America. No, nothing happening today will even come close.

34 died in the Watts riot. 23 were killed in the Detroit riots two years later. 63 were killed in the Rodney King riots in 1992. No, today’s uprisings are positively peaceful in comparison.

These are unsettled times, but let’s try to keep some perspective.

I’m talking about the future. Apparently, you can’t see the signs. BLM is long overdue but it’s not the end all, be all by any stretch of the imagination. Just like the right thought Trump was the end all, be all. BLM has just scratched the surface. Let’s try to keep some perspective and think beyond what’s happening next weekend.

BTW, don’t forget, the Vietnam war was so unpopular because white kids were dying. They corrected that by abolishing the draft.

“We’ve seen uprisings recently, but nothing approaching the level of Watts in 1965.”

Wait until the men who murdered George Floyd are acquitted.

…

Yup, it’s conservatives who trample the law. Got it.

Yes, it’s about the interracial kiss, but it’s also about Alexander. Persecuted because he is different – looked down upon, not given the same opportunities. And then when he offered the opportunity to take his revenge on his masters, he looks at how much their power has corrupted them and refuses to be like them.

What??? Did we see the same episode? If anything the Platonians might be perceived as representing the academic elite but even THAT is a stretch.

It’s there because of the Kirk Uhura kiss.

As much as people make a big deal about Kirk kissing Uhura, for me, I always think of Shatner pretending to be a horse first that really just makes that episode infinitely bad and always over shadows that key moment. I think I only seen it three times in my life but it is funny one of the most iconic moments in both Star Trek and TV history comes from one of the worst episodes in that series.

I always found the horsey ride stuff embarrassing. I understand the significance of the kiss but yes, the episode itself was one of the dogs.

Tiger2,

I always felt the cringeworthy stuff impressively conveyed the depravity produced from the Platonians’ ersatz absolute powers corruptions of their Platonian ideals that they foolishly believed they were maintaining.

One tangent thing I always thought the episode firmly established was that Nimoy was a better poet/songwriter/singer than Shatner – not that that was a significant hill for him to climb.

ML31,

Well, it was largely lip service, or at best something short of the dedication to it of the USA’s Founding Fathers, but the Platonians did claim to be followers of Plato’s proselytizing of the musings of Socrates, who was a political prisoner.

I believe the telekinetic Platonians regarded themselves as Philosopher Kings and Queens, very political animals.

This is why I rock so hard for Star Trek! Always have, always will… #Blacklivesmatter

Insert generic complaint here.

What an edgy comment.

All Trek Matters (facepalm)

The placement of Deep Space Nine between Enterprise and Discovery threw me, so I was briefly thinking “Wait, did they exclude the series with the *black captain*??”

Though still unfortunate that it’s the only series to only get a single episode. “Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang” might’ve been appropriate.

CORRECTION: Not the only series to get only one entry. Discovery too… So the two series with black leads were the ones with single episodes. Not trying to ascribe any intent or anything (it was probably hard to find Discovery episodes that fit the theme), but kind of unfortunate that it came out that way.

That one DS9 episode here was culturally impactful on its own. You have a point. Both shows feature black characters in positions of authority. They could have added a few more but I digress.

I guess the elephant in the room is that showing “Past Tense” would open a can of worms. To not include it is like we are going with you, but not that far.

If I were black, I imagine I’d be marginally annoyed / marginally amused at this kind of korporate promotion. Hashtag.

Meanwhile, the group that constitutes 90% of the victims of all crimes involving black and white people (guess!) can go to…

I ask you an other question. WHat is the right way to protect these people? Disarm criminals or kill unarmed citizens because of their skin color?

That’s the wrong question.

The question was rhetorical.

I’m black and I’m proud of this promotion of cultural significance.

Tragically, this is how it works. I’ve been working for BLM for 50 years. Baby step changes at best. Once you get the corporations involved, everyone and their auntie wants in on the action. Take advantage while you can because it won’t last.

The sad truth of it all.

The question is, is America (corporate and individuals) having a reaction to a video of something horrible, or has the epiphany occurred that there is a deeper problem here that needs to be addressed?

No epiphany. The council people in Seattle who are supportive of CHOP fought off big, big money from corporations like Amazon to elect more business friendly candidates. Stay tuned for the next election for your answer.

Well done to CBS for this. Hopefully episodes like VOY: Nemesis and TNG: The Enemy will help people take away that even when faced with people you have been brought up to oppose, dislike or even hate, to have some perspective/objectivize and realize that they are still other sentient beings about whom you may have misconceptions yourself.

It seems to me that a lot of people in real life are quickly dismissing others from any part of the other side of the political spectrum as they themselves. Most Democrats/left leaning folk aren’t automatically authoritarian commies and most Republicans/conservatives aren’t bigots. There are extremes on both sides who we should both allow ourselves not to be radicalized by and try to work together peacefully to make the world a better place.

I’m not on any side of the political spectrum. Democrats and Republicans are the same thing, no difference. You said a lot of good points here.

Boy howdy, do those Discovery and Picard episodes not fit in with the others.

It’s a pretty lazy and pointless gesture all around, to be honest.

Since these are ongoing shows, they have to get their advertisement in for them.

I’m sure that’s how they’re thinking about it, in which case it’s a worse gesture than doing nothing. “Hey, your life matters, and to prove it, can I sell you a low-cost insurance policy?”

While that’s probably true, there’s at least one less-cynical reason for including them: If they want to draw attention to the fundraiser, it helps to have at least *some* content that people can’t easily watch with their existing Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime accounts.

Though, three-part premiere or not, three hours of Picard seems oddly balanced.

One day later:

“CBS apologises unreservedly for accidentally broadcasting TNG ‘Code Of Honor’ during this marathon.”

Somewhere, Luton silently nodes in approval…

Only one ds9…. Huh?

Unfortunate that they didn’t include Past Tense in the list. Such a good narrative with current world events. Also somewhat disappointing that the two shows with black leads have the least number of episodes on this list.

Let That Be Your Last Battlefield for sure.
Also loved the Captain in Star Trek IV, she really came off as commanding yet empathetic!
TNG should have been her getting promoted to an Excelsior class, how awesome that TNG would have been!

That would’ve been wonky, since both the ST4 character and Geordi’s mum were both played by actress Madge Sinclair.

They could have brought Geordi in to be Chief Engineer on the ship, he was a good character. Wouldn’t have had them related though.
Looked up her resume, did you know she was the Mom in The Lion King???

It’s good to see it’s the remastered versions. And they have captions! As a hearing-impaired person, I really appreciate the captions.

For what it’s worth. All of the Voyager episodes have multi language subtitles as well as audio if you buy them from Europe on Amazon. Not sure why but the price is about 1/3 of the U.S. price. Just have to be careful because Europe is a different region code. I have no problem playing them on my computers. I also bought a DVD player ($35) with a European region code (Region code 2). I couldn’t find DS9 or Next Gen with subtitles though.

This is a really cool idea CBS is doing! It’s kind of crazy how mainstream the BLM movement has become considering just a few years ago they were seen more as a divisive and polarized group the same way many viewed the Tea party when that group started. It’s amazing how quickly things change when corporations are now promoting and standing with the movement.

It’s so great to see Star Trek as part of it. For people who think the show isn’t political obviously doesn’t watch it enough. Some of these picks are a little weird but most speaks to the issues today. I haven’t seen any of the TOS or VOY picks in ages so may give those a watch. I seen all of the TNG picks right before Picard started and watched the ENT two parter late last year but those are all great choices.

Far Beyond the Stars is easily the most relevant and definitely proves why DS9 is just an amazing show. Past Tense should be there as well.

Also loved the Star Trek United video of the many Trek actors involved in the franchise and standing with it too. Marina Sirtis said it best that in the universe of Star Trek no one has to say black lives matter it just does. Why Star Trek is so great, especially for black people like myself.

Agreed, Tiger2. Great to see the Star Trek family involved in all this. I also love Gershon Wolf’s sign in the photo at the end of the article, especially that DS9 quote.

This won’t be popular, but I don’t think using Star Trek to promote a particular political organization is necessarily a good thing.

Question… How do you run a marathon on a streaming service? Aren’t all those episodes available on CBSAA already? Why can’t some subscriber just stream the episodes they feel are relevant whenever they want?

Not sure what this is about either. I clicked on CBS streaming and all I could find was a 7 day free trial. Which I was going to do anyway to watch Picard. They’ve had that offer for at least a couple of months. I have NG, DS9 and Voyager on DVD.

I think the distinction is that you will be able to watch these episodes for free. Normally you would have to be subscribed to their service.

I think you are right. The free part is the key part. Even I mentioned earlier this was done more for a commercial for CBSAA than anything else. I was just thrown off by the term “marathon”. That implies something that streaming just cannot do.

Well, they could stream the episodes one after the other like a more traditional marathon on TV. But that’s probably not what they are going to do.

Good choice of episodes, I think. Though the last three feel like extended advertisement for CBS All Access xD

As a white kid brought up in a small town with not many people that don’t look like me, Far Beyond the Stars really made the history stories make sense and give me more empathy. No one should be judged based on the colour of their skin, disability, physical shape or any of that.

Now to the episode list,some great choice, some I’m scratching my head on…but, cool! They should have included the DS9 ones that take place in the poverty ghettos on the 2020’s or 2030’s too!

They also should have used the visitor from ds9 one of the best st episodes per showing a fathers son relationship esp black father and son

Kudos to CBS for doing this. Agree with others pointing out some odd choices and omission on this list. Especially having only one DS9 episode and the obvious omission of Past Tense.

I Have Been A Star Trek Fan Since Watching The Originals As A Kid… But Using A Fan Base To Support A Cause That Supports Only One Side Is Wrong… All Life Matters… Blacks Are Know More Deserving Of It Than Any Other Race… We Are All Humans Nun The Less !!! So I Have Decided To Erase A Lifetimes Collection Of My Star Trek Videos… Both TV And Movies And Sadly No Longer Watch Anything Star Trek… The Fantasy Is Lost !!! I Wonder If I Am The Only One ???

Richard,

Re: Using A Fan Base To Support A Cause That Supports Only One Side Is Wrong…

So you are saying STAR TREK should use their fan base, to support The Confederate States of America, slavery, Nazism, etc. because in your world view there’s no such thing as a mistaken, wrong or evil side? When was THAT ever true for STAR TREK?