Pa Cartwright had three sons from three different women. He was getting busy in the 19th century.
Kirk drift—misremembering a character…
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That's a workable retcon in response to reasonable objections to that scene, but that clearly wasn't the intent back in the 1960s. For better or worse, we were meant to assume that Kirk got it on with the sexy, seemingly enthusiastic slave girl.
It was meant to add a bit of sex and titillation to the episode, not demonstrate an ethical message about the importance of consent.
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Would that be considered as a "ladies man?"
That's nothing. You should have seen Shirley Partridge's kids. It was obvious they had five different fathers, or six if you count Chris twice, but the Seventies were a pretty hip time, and nobody was going to rub her nose in it.
IIRC, he married each woman one at a time, they had one son, and died. A widower re-marrying wasn't unheard of or considered promiscuity by 1960s or 1800 and something standards.
You're right, except for the word retcon. Saying that Kirk didn't consummate with Drusilla is a valid interpretation of the visuals that does not contradict anything in the show. The makers meant it one way, but they didn't say it or show it, and thus left it open to interpretation.
Fair enough. It's like that horribly dated line in "Turnabout Intruder" about women not being Starfleet captains. Never mind the writer's original intent; better to rationalize it away somehow rather than take it literally.
Well, she was clearly unstable; the rationalization is already there.
I take it as literally true there were no female starship captains at the time of Turnabout Intruder. Why should we assume Starfleet was enlightened at that point?
I consider it debatable. The next time we see Kirk, he is fully dressed. Not pulling on his boots like with Deela.
Janice says, "Your world of starship captains doesn't admit women". I suppose you could take that to mean, "There's no room in your life for long-term female companionship (with me) because your career takes precedence."
However, later, Kirk claims she traded bodies with him "To get the power she craved, to attain a position she doesn't merit by temperament or training. (steal his job and have his authority, ill-suited with no experience, leadership qualities or aptitude) And most of all, she wanted to murder James Kirk, a man who once loved her. But her intense hatred of her own womanhood made life with her impossible." (she was so obsessed with what she couldn't have and why she believed it was closed off to her that it was all she'd talk about and think about.)
So she couldn't have the job because she, Janice Lester wasn't suited for it, but she got it in her head the idée fixe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idée_fixe_(psychology)) that what was holding her back was her womanhood, and determined to change that, and seek vengeance against the person she blamed. Kirk is her scapegoat.
However, later, Kirk claims she traded bodies with him "To get the power she craved, to attain a position she doesn't merit by temperament or training. (steal his job and have his authority, ill-suited with no experience, leadership qualities or aptitude) And most of all, she wanted to murder James Kirk, a man who once loved her. But her intense hatred of her own womanhood made life with her impossible." (she was so obsessed with what she couldn't have and why she believed it was closed off to her that it was all she'd talk about and think about.)
So she couldn't have the job because she, Janice Lester wasn't suited for it, but she got it in her head the idée fixe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idée_fixe_(psychology)) that what was holding her back was her womanhood, and determined to change that, and seek vengeance against the person she blamed. Kirk is her scapegoat.
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Another convention quite common in that day.
Yeah, I recall reading that it was considered surprising that pulling his boots on in “Wink” actually got by the censors.
And better for it.
Because its non-sensical for a military service to allow women to be officers (and even executive officers) but simultaneously bar them from captaincy. And because the rest of the franchise has explicitly placed female captains into every era of Starfleet history.
I have always wanted to know if after Roddenberry’s bullshit that NBC objected to a female second-in-command (where in reality NBC objected to the actress in the role rather than the character) if no one ever again even suggested showing a woman in a command position or was it ever suggested and the notion shot down?
The female Romulan Commander in “The Enterprise Incident” doesn’t count if we’re talking about women in Starfleet. Number One from “The Cage” is the most obvious argument given if a woman can command in the Captain’s absence then why couldn’t she rise to actual command? And you can’t dismiss “The Cage” as “an unaired pilot” because the bulk of said pilot was used in “The Menagerie” so it’s on-screen canon. We also have indirect evidence of Commissioner Nancy Hedford from “Metamorphosis”—and we know (from “Galileo Seven”) that Federation Commissioners can exercise authority over Starfleet personnel.
All TOS would have had to do was just once cast a woman in the role of a Starfleet Admiral or even a starbase commander. Or they could have had a woman (in a non-speaking role) on Kirk’s board of court martial in “Court Martial.” Anything like that would have cemented Janice Lester’s ravings as nothing more than bitter self-delusion.
The female Romulan Commander in “The Enterprise Incident” doesn’t count if we’re talking about women in Starfleet. Number One from “The Cage” is the most obvious argument given if a woman can command in the Captain’s absence then why couldn’t she rise to actual command? And you can’t dismiss “The Cage” as “an unaired pilot” because the bulk of said pilot was used in “The Menagerie” so it’s on-screen canon. We also have indirect evidence of Commissioner Nancy Hedford from “Metamorphosis”—and we know (from “Galileo Seven”) that Federation Commissioners can exercise authority over Starfleet personnel.
All TOS would have had to do was just once cast a woman in the role of a Starfleet Admiral or even a starbase commander. Or they could have had a woman (in a non-speaking role) on Kirk’s board of court martial in “Court Martial.” Anything like that would have cemented Janice Lester’s ravings as nothing more than bitter self-delusion.
Not only doesn't Lester say what some remember, but she's pretty clearly unreliable. And even if what she said was really intended by the writers as some remember it, Starfleet might not have had any woman starship captains at the time by happenstance, not due to some written policy - which makes even more sense if one subscribes to the "not every Starfleet vessel is a starship" theory.
Yeah, died...
And maternal mortality, not to mention young mortality in general, was more common in those days.
Were any other Trek characters similarly mis-characterized (not necessarily as lovers) in people's collective memory?
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