Star Trek: Strange New Worlds draws complaints for using footage from a 2014 protest in Ukraine to depict an alien riot

Gizmodo

The first episode of the Paramount+'s newest Star Trek series uses footage taken from the late 2013-early 2014 civil unrest in Ukraine known as “Euromaidan,” or the Maidan Uprising, which started when then-President Viktor Yanukovych and the Azarov Government choosing to not sign the European Union-Ukraine Association Agreement. Some people on Twitter found the use of the Ukrainian footage to be tasteless, especially amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers didn't comment on using the Ukraine footage, he did explain why Strange New Worlds uses footage from the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol Takeover. “Star Trek has always been a show that deals with social issues and we really didn’t want to shy away from that. It was really important for us to make sure that piece, it’s an essential piece of the Roddenberry legacy,” he told Cinemablend.