Andy Weir, whose novel The Martian became a massive hit and whose Project Hail Mary is currently dominating theaters, has apologized for calling modern Star Trek shows "shit" on a podcast. He claims he was "trying to be funny."

Narrator voice: He was not funny.

Here's what happened: Weir appeared on a podcast and was asked about modern Star Trek shows. Instead of doing what every media-trained creator knows to do—offer a bland, diplomatic response about different creative visions—he went full honesty and said the shows are bad. According to Variety, he specifically directed his criticism at showrunner Alex Kurtzman, who oversees the current Star Trek franchise for Paramount+.

Predictably, the comments became a headline. Social media erupted. Star Trek fans—who are, shall we say, passionate about defending their preferred era of the franchise—turned it into a whole thing. And now Weir has walked it back, apologizing to Kurtzman and clarifying that he was joking around.

Except, of course, he wasn't joking. He was being honest, realized it was a mistake, and now has to pretend it was all a misunderstanding. This is the classic "I'm sorry if you were offended" non-apology, dressed up in nicer language.

Let's be clear: Andy Weir is entitled to his opinion about Star Trek. Plenty of longtime fans share his view that the Kurtzman-era shows lack the optimism and intelligence of earlier iterations. That's a legitimate critical stance. The problem isn't that he said it—the problem is that he said it in a context where it would obviously become a story.