Agency of Female Characters

[Pauln6]

I'm not a huge fan of Star Trek androids because the series' approach is sloppy and inconsistent but What Are Little Girls Made Of at least had the advantage of being the first.

Apparently the part was not originally for Chapel, which may explain why it's her best episode. We learn that she's actually a biologist, a biomedical researcher, and a student of the Louis Pasteur of archaeological medicine. That intriguing and diverse pedigree is why I get so frustrated that Chapel spends the rest of the series handing out hypo sprays while McCoy does all the thinking for her.

We see in her interaction with the Kirk robot that she is capable of at least some deductive reasoning and her command of Rukh saves Kirk's life but other than that, she's frustratingly passive.

Andrea becomes the first, but not the last, fembot to be overcome by Kirk's mojo. She's actually quite an interesting character despite being most famed for her space bikini.

It's fun to see Kirk's early attempt to out think a robot go disastrously wrong, and nothing more needs to be said about the prop from a Russ Meyer movie but there are a lot of inconsistencies in the episode, such as why the human robots are so weak compared to Rukh, why Korby is choked by Kirk (possibly programmed to react like a human), and why they just fly away and forget about such useful technology.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

even if her ultimate goal to be a housewife is perhaps setting her sights a little low.

As long as it fulfills her...

such as why the human robots are so weak compared to Rukh

He's the bodyguard and servant - the others don't have to be as strong.

 

[Timo]

Umm, why would Ruk share attributes with the other bots? Ruk was made by the Old Ones, perhaps using utterly different manufacturing machinery. The four humanlike robots were all made by Korby, who might not even know how to operate the machinery (and Ruk wouldn't tell unless ordered to, and might lie even if ordered, as he doesn't really share goals and standards with Korby).

Or perhaps all the Old Ones were simply like Ruk physically, while Korby wanted bots resembling humans, for obvious reasons.

We don't know how much of Korby remains after the process. Did he, too, just lie down on the turntable and let a mechanical lookalike be crafted, then quietly die after his mind had been copuypasted? Or did he repair himself, leaving a chokeable respiratory system and lots of humanity (which Chapel is blind to, only fixating on his body)? His dialogue rather supports the latter idea, even if we don't see "repairing" machinery and do see "copying" tech.

Why leave the tech behind... Well, why not? It's not going anywhere. Korby was good at digging up stuff like that after thousands of millions of years; surely Starfleet can dust it off in a few months and start making use of it, while Kirk puts his starship to better use.

Starfleet or the Federation has never had trouble building robots or androids AFAWK. It just hasn't found much reason to do so. But Dr. Mulhall seemed convinced that she (or at least the Enterprise specialists, or at the very least people back home) could build androids for Sargon's trio in no time flat. Perhaps some of this skill comes from the ruins of Exo III?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Pauln6]

As long as it fulfills her...



He's the bodyguard and servant - the others don't have to be as strong.

I meant rather that she comes from an agricultural background, it might have been nice to see her offering up more examples of what she brought to the table beyond cooking, cleaning, and sewing.

Given that Korby 'faked' choking, it's possible that the android bodies emulate their templates, including strength. The old ones were possibly just physically powerful so Rukh is too.

Just watching Miri. The most annoying and unnecessary plot element is the duplicate Earth. Shades of the Walking Dead could have made this an awesome two parter.

I don't recall it as one of my favourites but it was not that bad. I like it because it's the the only episode where all four leads join a landing party. If Rand had stayed, it's possible that the standard landing party in seasons two and three would have included her I suppose. That said, her contribution is minimal. She does once again display some rudimentary psychological insight but they don't give her any one on one time to question Miri (all their interactions occur off camera, including her kidnap scene). Something more akin to her role in Charlie X might have worked. Instead, they focus on Kirk's ruthless and rather creepy manipulation of Miri. Even when captured Rand's only interaction was to tell the brats that Kirk would save her.

It's a shame that they didn't feature Chapel on the Enterprise running point in her area of biological expertise. It makes no real sense that Farrell on the bridge should be their liaison. I've noticed Farrell quite a bit in these early episodes. He always looks like he's about to burst into tears. Maybe he and Rand ran off together.

Miri isn't a bad character. Her motivation as a jealous teenager is certainly more believable than many of the adult women who feature later on in the series.

There are a few oddities in the episode. Surely tricorders could track the children easily? It might have been an option to put the crew in stasis given the odds of finding a cure in 7 days.

The episode needs more Walkers.

 

[Commishsleer]

While I too am annoyed by the duplicate Earth angle here and in other episodes I don't think they could get out of it in this particular episode. One of the messages of this episode was to highlight the danger of how science experimentation could conceivably destroy the world. Our world. Our stupidity. Not an alien world.

 

[Pauln6]

While I too am annoyed by the duplicate Earth angle here and in other episodes I don't think they could get out of it in this particular episode. One of the messages of this episode was to highlight the danger of how science experimentation could conceivably destroy the world. Our world. Our stupidity. Not an alien world.

I think the audience is sophisticated enough to spot an allegory without being this heavy handed. Rand's astronomy is up to scratch though as she recognised Earth purely from its description! It's odd that she'd say Earth, rather than something like, that data is exactly the same as Earth, oh wait look, it is exactly the same as Earth.

 

[Pauln6]

Dagger of the Mind is today's episode. Helen Noel is great because she's cheeky but Kirk's (and Spock's) initial reaction to her, and Kirk's comment that she'd better be the best assistant he'd ever had are appalling and blatantly rooted in sexism. Helen's 'professional' opinions also make you wonder if she spent all her time fraternising during her medical degree, especially considering that the brief she would have been given by McCoy would have been to be critical of what she sees.

Although she's very naive, she at least gets a solo mission on which Kirk's plan hinges and she even wins a fight.

Kirk's dedication shines through. Despite his manufactured feelings, he's still happy to shove his beloved into the ducts and send her into danger. I admire that in a Captain!

While I love Helen, this episode could have been a game changer for Rand, letting her be an action heroine, and potentially drawing a line under the will they won't they undercurrent. How could Rand ever believe that any feelings Kirk might show for her in future were not manufactured? There's nothing major that Helen adds from a professional perspective that could not have been tweaked for Rand. In fact, Rand's previous dialogue demonstrates a rudimentary understanding of psychology that could easily be layered onto her character as a trained skill.

Grace stated that she was frustrated that Rand was never allowed to get stuck into a plot. This episode, plus the initial scenes in City on the Edge of Forever where she is left in charge of the security team, could potentially have stretched her character into a broader role going forward. It's a great injustice that Grace was treated so terribly.

 

[Pauln6]

The Corbomite Manoeuvre was today's episode and IS one of my favourite episodes. There's not much for the ladies, Uhura only really announcing that hailing frequencies are open and Rand delivering lunch and hot coffee but Uhura doesn't look bad in a command uniform. There is a definite TMP vibe before Scotty shows up on the bridge. There is some great interplay between the leads directly and even Kirk's exchange with McCoy about Rand speaks volumes in a nicely understated way.

Sulu is the stand out officer by far, and, while I like Bailey's meltdown, it was very unrealistic that nobody else manned his station in the crisis.

Rand making coffee with a phaser is a nice touch. I wish it's something that they would have expanded on - that she was good at improvising in a crisis - breaching safety protocols to save the day and so on. They could have had a lot of fun with that.

The ending is something nice too. I watch shows like the Walking Dead where acts of kindness are punished repeatedly. This episode is a great reminder that in drama, doing the right thing in the right way can also be the way to go.

 

[Pauln6]

Watched the Menagerie and Concience of the King this week.

Looking at the contribution of the three women in the pilot footage compared to the new footage, sadly, it's clear that the Cage marked the high point for female crew. Even if they did edit out the dialogue of Yeoman Colt, confirming she had the same training as the men, she still had plenty of to tomboyish pluck that could have been expanded. Vina is one of my favourite sci fi heroines. She's smart, active, takes agency for her own fate, even if she has been broken by the keepers.

It's no secret that I wish Rand had remained and I think this episode could have used her at Spock's hearing to give a fresh character perspective on his behaviour. The mute court stenographer and Uhura's drama 101 overacting pale in comparison to Vina's manipulation of Pike and Number One's dispassionate computations.

Concience of the King does give us Lenore Karidian who is a great character, manipulating Kirk as much as he manipulates her. I find it irritating that she had so much free reign to carry out her plans though. If you caught the look Rand gives her stepping out of the turbolift, you can't help but wonder how Lenore could stalk the halls unnoticed let alone access engineering or the Captain's quarters.

Uhura gets to sing at us some more. I don't blame Riley for drinking the poison. Rand's two lines were cut but it sounds like they added little more than the look at the lift. They should have shown her suspicions of Lenore. They could even have had her rock up to Kirk's quarters with her tricorder, running into danger to locate the phaser on overload. Their lack of imagination for the women remains very annoying.

 

[Commishsleer]

I agree with you about Lenore. Why did any civilian have full run of the ship? Especially where Kirk things one of the group may have committed murder? How did she get a phaser?
I love this episode, it has a cool vibe and I like the style but Kirk was highly irresponsible. He endangered his ship and crew because it seems he was beguiled by Lenore.
He gets the players on his ship because he things Karidian is Kodos but he seemingly ignores the murder of his friend, the attempted murder of Riley and even the overloaded phaser. Surely he needed to put guards on the players Lenore clearly outplays Kirk on his own ship.

 

[Timo]

I don't really see Kirk "beguiled" by this child. Rather, it's standard Kirk fare: he uses his male wiles to manipulate a victim into furthering his mission, in this case entrapping Kodos/Karidian. It's just particularly easy going here because the childish villainess is out to manipulate, too - but less capable of seeing what is going on.

The end result is much the same, though. If Lenore is spotted snooping around in Captain's Cabin, it's obvious that those doing the spotting will just turn and walk away, careful not to speak their piece! Which is pretty much what Kirk wants, anyway, as he already knows exactly who Anton is and who Lenore is, and will benefit nothing from throwing either of them into the brig.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Pauln6]

Hey!

I love Uhura's singing really. It adds a dimension to her character. If only Chapel could breakdance.

I don't think Kirk is beguiled either, unless it's by Kodos. He takes his eye off the ball though, underestimating the woman. The issue for me is that we know from court martial that the bridge is monitored. One would expect that engineering, where an error is even more likely to doom the ship, and other key stations, would be monitored too (not Kirk's cabin). Maybe Lenore had a red dress and a beehive in her costume box?

Today's episode was the Balance of Terror. This is my favourite episode, although it has many inconsistencies with canon technology. I wish the Romulan superior firepower had been something they had retained in future appearances.

It's interesting that the way phasers are portrayed here is more like photon torpedoes. If it really took three steps to fire phasers the ship would not last beyond season one. It's odd that sensors are less accurate than manual targeting - that didn't last long (not beyond TWoK for sure). That repairs to phaser control should be effected from the science station is as silly as the crew keeping quiet just in case any sound should pass through the vacuum of space. It's also silly that bridge officers need to be drafted in to replace phaser crews - what do the other 300 people on the ship do during battle stations? They can't spend all their time running up and down corridors.

I noted that phaser control is a command position. One or two engineers might have helped! I also noted an oddity that Tomlinson is cited as a 'specialist' which would make him a petty officer but he has a lieutenant's braid and claims to be Martine's superior (and I thought she was an ensign).

As far as the women go, Uhura gets to sit at navigation again and it suits her. She can even operate communications from there. Martine is pretty cool although her scenes lack any professional context. She's really just the fiancée. Rand's scenes are rather empty. She doesn't even pass comment, such as, "For what it's worth..." when pointlessly delivering Starfleet's response long after the crisis has passed. It makes her look rather dumb. It's probably her worst episode.

 

[Timo]

Regarding shipboard monitoring, this would have solved many a mystery plot. And we know there is realtime monitoring (Spock can track intruders and stowaways and the like once he knows they are there) and recording. But perhaps there's no "realtime recording"? That is, perhaps viewing the records is an action under careful lock and key, for obscure reasons of privacy or wanton juridization (or for keeping the ship's top three officers from forging the records too often), and getting them opened would be slower than doing conventional sleuthing.

Interesting to see Uhura falling asleep at the conference table. She's clearly there to offer some sort of advice, opinion or expertise. What could that be? She may be a competent fill-in for navigation and the like, but surely Kirk would ask the actual gal or guy Uhura fills in for to sit down there.

Perhaps the officers already discussed the problems of comms delay or intercepting of Romulan messages, indeed exhaustively so, and Kirk has simply failed to send Uhura to catch some sleep now that she is no longer needed?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Pauln6]

I think Uhura has a line in that scene about fly paper that is in the extended version. Still, plop her in red and she doesn't get invited to the Romulan briefing.

I think I'd rather they used a throw away line about the cameras being scrambled than just ignore them but even then, the ship is not that big, especially the saucer, which is unconnected cabins and labs. With 400 people intruders should be spotted every ten feet or so...

The show has pretty much lapped itself now so I may as well cite my conclusions but not before noting from Shore Leave that Uhura contacts the landing party at the end. Sure, that's her job, but normally the officer of the watch would do the talking. Since Spock was in charge until he beamed down, it looks very much like Uhura is in charge of the bridge. Off camera, but I'll take it!

There is a fairly clear divide between female crew, who get crumbs of agency after the pilot episodes, and guest aliens, who are a mixed bunch. The writers were ludicrously preoccupied with making the women emotional and in need of protection, much to the frustration of many of the actresses it seems. It's been a long road to Discovery. The tone may not be to everyone's taste but they have, at least got the gender balance correct. TOS, despite citing a third of the crew as female, almost never features anywhere near a third of the cast or landing parties as women unless the women are transported in as prisoners or playthings.

Apart from the lost opportunity of Number One, I lament the loss of Rand the most because her loss crippled the female dynamic in the show. Uhura certainly got some decent development in episodes that featured Rand, and Rand's absence was not really Uhura's gain, with the exception of City on the Edge of Forever.

The role of the yeomen was almost universally awful because the writers refused to grant them any agency or transferable skills beyond turning on a tricorder, and even then one of the other characters, often Spock, would get the dialogue when anything useful was found. Landon's combat skills could have been a way to go or just let Mears do some useful repairs on the shuttle.

I would have loved to see Rand pop up in a few season two and three episodes. Even one Ensign Ro episode per season in TNG was better than none. There were many opportunities to feature her in episodes where her close relationship to Kirk and Spock could have added something, or where interaction with a female guest star could have benefited from a female perspective. I curse the vile executive that abused Grace and if she's watching the current developments in Hollywood from on high I hope she feels vindicated!

Uhura as seen is a better command officer than Chekov IMO and I'm puzzled as to why they made no effort to build a career path for her into the movies. I'm very annoyed when just the Big 7 are cited, leaving out Chapel, let alone Rand, Leslie, and Kyle :-P I was seething when the reboots added insult to injury by ignoring these characters even further.

I'm currently collecting the Qmx 1/6 figures and if they don't make the ladies, I'll be making my own!

 

[Commishsleer]

Was watching the "Cloud Minders" and while I don't like this episode all that much I see that the women Vanna and Droxine have agency.
I think the two women even had a discussion that wasn't about men.

 

[Tenacity]

you can't help but wonder how Lenore could stalk the halls unnoticed let alone access engineering or the Captain's quarters.

Lay her hands on a Starfleet miniskirt uniform, remove two-thirds of her make up and put her hair into a bun. As a trained actress, she likely knows how to change her appearance.

Walk down any corridor on the ship.

 

[Commishsleer]

I was watching "Dagger of the Mind" today and Helen Noel today and was surprised to see that Dr Helen Noel was not an air-head like I remember. If you ignore her fantasy/memory of Kirk at the Christmas party stuff and grabbing Kirk stuff then she carried herself quite well.
I know she was a big fan of Adams but so was Kirk initially so I don't hold that against her. And after she got into the ventilation shaft thingmy she conducted herself with honours even (gasp) holding onto a phaser with similarly armed Kirk and Spock by the end of the episode

 

[Pauln6]

I was watching "Dagger of the Mind" today and Helen Noel today and was surprised to see that Dr Helen Noel was not an air-head like I remember. If you ignore her fantasy/memory of Kirk at the Christmas party stuff and grabbing Kirk stuff then she carried herself quite well.
I know she was a big fan of Adams but so was Kirk initially so I don't hold that against her. And after she got into the ventilation shaft thingmy she conducted herself with honours even (gasp) holding onto a phaser with similarly armed Kirk and Spock by the end of the episode

Noel is one of the better characters , although her characterisation of Lethe as well adjusted makes you wonder just how qualified she is. I love her character but I can't help wondering what character development for Rand was sacrificed for a one shot character . Action heroine Rand would have been a welcome change of pace.

 

[Commishsleer]

Noel is one of the better characters , although her characterisation of Lethe as well adjusted makes you wonder just how qualified she is. I love her character but I can't help wondering what character development for Rand was sacrificed for a one shot character . Action heroine Rand would have been a welcome change of pace.

Rand could have been substituted for Noel such was her medical expertise shown.
(Although to be fair maybe Lethe had previously been a sadistic mass murderer so she seemed good in comparison - you know not killing everyone she saw)
However there are a lot of male fans of Noel out there if you know what I mean

 

[mb22]

Rand could have been substituted for Noel such was her medical expertise shown.

Noel was originally supposed to be Rand, but was changed.