Star Trek has taken it on the chin of late for its ill-conceived championing of Elon Musk, the formerly celebrated entrepreneur who destroyed what remained of his reputation with the disastrous purchase of Twitter in October 2022 and the subsequent train wreck that followed. The situation remains ongoing as of this writing, but it’s clear that Trek‘s reference to him — coming amid the first season of Star Trek: Discovery — has aged like week-old fish.

Ironically, the franchise itself is very aware of the trap it later walked right into, namely that contemporary references rarely turn out the way the showrunners think. Star Trek‘s presentation of a bright future is rife with the potential for bad predictions, of which the Musk business is a textbook example. There’s even a funny joke in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home about the folly of projecting the present onto the future. With Musk, the franchise became the uncomfortable subject of its own mockery.

What Seemed Like Nothing Turned Into an Embarrassment for Star Trek

The Musk reference comes in Discovery Season 1, Episode 4, “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry.” In an effort to convince Paul Stamets to use his spore drive for military purposes, Captain Lorca rattles off a list of innovators whose ranks he can potentially join: the Wright Brothers, Zefram Cochrane (the fictional character who invented faster-than-light drive) and Musk. The series compounds the error multiple times in Season 2 when Sylvia Tilly reveals that she went to Musk Junior High. The show has a few built-in escape hatches — Lorca comes from the Mirror Universe, while Musk Jr. High is apparently a miserable place to go to school — but it’s still proven a difficult bell to un-ring.

The central issue stems from granting historic status to a figure whose super-genius persona was already springing leaks. Star Trek is far from the only entity to fall for Musk’s hustle, but the franchise’s durability puts the reference on display for all to see. It’s doubly notable because of Discovery‘s sterling credentials overall: responsible for the latter-day Trek renaissance and easily the most important step forward for the franchise since Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered in 1987. Its prominent success won’t make this particular misstep fade any faster.

Star Trek IV Turned a Joke Into a Warning

Star Trek has fallen victim to poor aging more than once: making references that seemed reasonable at the time but turned into active embarrassments. For example, the original series Season 3, Episode 24, “Turnabout Intruder,” states that women can’t be captains in Starfleet, an observation whose cringe factor eclipses the Musk riff. By the time the movies arrived two decades later, the franchise had been around long enough to observe the problem. Star Trek IV found a typically self-effacing way to mock it — and similar efforts from other franchises — in one of its most beloved gags.

Shortly after Mr. Spock dispatches the punk on the bus, he and Kirk discuss the use of “colorful metaphors” in the admiral’s speaking habits. (He uses swear words — ineptly — in an effort to blend into the 20th century.) Kirk observes that harsh language is the only way to get any attention in this era. When Spock asks for examples, he cites the work of Jacquelin Susann and Harold Robbins: notorious hacks who nevertheless sold a staggering number of books in their time. “Ah!” Spock nods with recognition. “The giants.”

It’s a specific dig at specific authors, yet the implication cuts far deeper. Today’s purveyor of literary trash may be tomorrow’s William Shakespeare, and a show set in the future — especially one with a long shelf life — should take care with presumptive references. Similarly, today’s super-genius may be tomorrow’s exposed con artist, a lesson Discovery had to learn the hard way. As a cautionary example, it won’t fade soon. Star Trek IV‘s oblique joke should have been ample warning.