Code Of Honor: What Do You Think?

[Skipper]

Not sure I want that image in my head.

Roddenberry. First season. Everything was possible.

I recently saw "Chaos on the Bridge" and Gene had gone out of his way (at least in the beginning) to have absolute creative control. Seriously, it gave me the idea that at least in the first few episodes the only limit for him was the FCC regulations.

 

[fireproof78]

I don't know if it's been said already or maybe I even said it already, but in the original script the Ligonians were the Tellisians and were reptile people, and based on TNG makeup I like to imagine them looking like these guys from "Lonely Among Us." I've thought about making some art with some of the original concepts for the Season 1 episodes and for "Lonely Among Us" I thought about doing the same fight from the aired episode but with Tasha fighting a lizard woman instead.

Remember what you studied about Kirk and the Gorn.

 

[Frontis]

Code Of Honor just confused me to be honest. I guess it was ment as a feministic message but I didn't really get it watching it. So I guess it was well intented, but poorly executed.

 

[Moviefan2k4]

Code Of Honor just confused me to be honest. I guess it was ment as a feministic message but I didn't really get it watching it. So I guess it was well intented, but poorly executed.

I think more viewers in 1987 would probably have noticed that story element more, if the supporting cast hadn't been black. Either way, you're still left with an episode that even 37 years later, some people are perfectly content to bitch about.

 

[Phoenix219]

I love the very-TOS episode score... even Yar entering the holodeck is memorable.

thats why i love S1 to be honest - it wears its TOS DNA proudly, the score, the comedy, the planet set, etc. its probably my favorite season, before things fell into their more polished yet boring configuration. everything was so new and fresh and you could see some of the ideas they were going with and backstory they were implying and it just feels more legit then some of the later stuff IMO.

 

[Skipper]

Code Of Honor just confused me to be honest. I guess it was ment as a feministic message but I didn't really get it watching it. So I guess it was well intented, but poorly executed.

You mean the scene when in the midst of a diplomatic crisis that could lead to the death of millions of people a woman asks another woman kidnapped against her will how hot her captor is?

Yeah, strong feminist vibes there

 

[Guy Gardener]

You mean the scene when in the midst of a diplomatic crisis that could lead to the death of millions of people a woman asks another woman kidnapped against her will how hot her captor is?

Yeah, strong feminist vibes there

That's not what happened.

The empath tricked Yar into admitting that she was attracted to her captor, because she could "feel" that that was what Yar was Feeling, and just wanted to put it out there.

 

[Skipper]

That's not what happened.

The empath tricked Yar into admitting that she was attracted to her captor, because she could "feel" that they was what Yar was Feeling, and just wanted to put it out there.

So... Literally what happened?

And exactly what was the point of it? He can be the most handsome man in the galaxy, the most hideous. He still kidnapped her against her will.

 

[Guy Gardener]

So... Literally what happened?

And exactly what was the point of it? He can be the most handsome man in the galaxy, the most hideous. He still kidnapped her against her will.

TASHA: Captain. Deanna.
PICARD: Did you have any idea, Lieutenant, that Lutan was suddenly going to announce that he wanted you for his First One?
TASHA: No, sir.
PICARD: Tell me what you know about this?
TASHA: Nothing, sir.
TROI: But it was a thrill. Lutan is such, such a basic male image and having him say he wants you
TASHA: Yes, of course it made me feel good when he. Troi, I'm your friend and you tricked me.
TROI: Only so you'd think about it, completely and clearly.
PICARD: We're all being manipulated, Lieutenant, myself most of all.
TROI: How simple all this would be without the Prime Directive.
PICARD: That thought had passed through my mind, Counsellor.

They may have to leave her behind.

Picard will feel less bad about leaving her, if Tasha is not %100 percent opposed to the situation, or that it is all her fault. Picard asking Yar if she sent any signals to Lothar, that she wanted to be kidnapped, is either the 80s being awful, or the author explaining through example that "victim blaming" is awful.

Or

Deanna & Jean-Luc are being turds.

 

[Skipper]

They may have to leave her behind.

Picard will feel less bad about leaving her, if Tasha is not %100 percent opposed to the situation, or that it is all her fault. Picard asking Yar if she sent any signals to Lothar, that she wanted to be kidnapped, is either the 80s being awful, or the author explaining through example that "victim blaming" is awful.

Or

Deanna & Jean-Luc are being a turds.

They all focus on the racism while not noticing how the rest of the episode is horrendous and sexist.

 

[Ragitsu]

It's nice to know that tempers have cooled.

 

[cgervasi]

They all focus on the racism while not noticing how the rest of the episode is horrendous and sexist.

I didn't notice the obvious racism when I first saw it when it first aired because I was 12. But I was confused by gender politics. In their society women officially own the wealth, but they require a husband to use the wealth? So Lutan was politically powerful, but he needed a wife to own the wealth? I took that has a symbiotic arrangement in their society to make wives and husbands need each other.

If that's the case, wouldn't Lutan's wife be confused if he publicly said he wanted to leave her for a foreigner with no wealth? Why would Lutan's wife fight to the death to stay with him. She needed a man with political power to be able to use her wealth, but she could just find another powerful man looking for a wife with a lot of wealth. And I was baffled by why Yar would want any part of this. She already has a job and is not seeking wealth or power on this alien planet. Maybe they were saying Lutan was physically attractive, but it seems like she could find an attractive guy without fighting an alien to the death.

Maybe they were trying to turn the idea of wealth men fighting over an attractive woman on its head, making it the reverse. But the fact that Lutan kidnaps someone spoils that idea. I don't know what they were going for.

 

[Skipper]

I didn't notice the obvious racism when I first saw it when it first aired because I was 12. But I was confused by gender politics. In their society women officially own the wealth, but they require a husband to use the wealth? So Lutan was politically powerful, but he needed a wife to own the wealth? I took that has a symbiotic arrangement in their society to make wives and husbands need each other.

If that's the case, wouldn't Lutan's wife be confused if he publicly said he wanted to leave her for a foreigner with no wealth? Why would Lutan's wife fight to the death to stay with him. She needed a man with political power to be able to use her wealth, but she could just find another powerful man looking for a wife with a lot of wealth. And I was baffled by why Yar would want any part of this. She already has a job and is not seeking wealth or power on this alien planet. Maybe they were saying Lutan was physically attractive, but it seems like she could find an attractive guy without fighting an alien to the death.

Maybe they were trying to turn the idea of wealth men fighting over an attractive woman on its head, making it the reverse. But the fact that Lutan kidnaps someone spoils that idea. I don't know what they were going for.

Great points. I'm sure this would still have been considered one of the worst episodes of season one, even if there had been a different casting choice for the alien planet.

 

[Laughing Dragon]

Calling racist. What about the one where the native Americans got displaced again? And the Federation was helping in it? They seemed annoyed and put out about these zaney ingins. Very disrespectful.

I hate to compare fish people to actual minorities, but the Enterprise were real snobs with them as well.

 

[Orphalesion]

With due respect to everyone involved, I never understood the hatred for this episode. People say its a racist story, but I disagree, and here's why: At different times in our history, there have actually been periods where individuals of every color and background have been fiercely tribal, territorial, and short-tempered. \

Oh come on!

It is not about a question of having an antagonist played by a non-Caucasian actor. It's about the fact that the one civilization portrayed *exclusively* by African-American actors was portrayed as tribal and brutal, employing several stereotypes of colonial adventure literature, including a conniving "primal male" tribal chief who goes after the whitest woman available, kidnaps her. And then it's all topped off by a "aww look they think *they* are the civilized ones! Isn't it droll?" ending.

And even if that weren't the case...the episode is still horrible with its implication that the female security chief who spent her childhood running from "rape gangs" secretly enjoys being kidnapped.

 

[Skipper]

And even if that weren't the case...the episode is still horrible with its implication that the female security chief who spent her childhood running from "rape gangs" secretly enjoys being kidnapped.

Yep!

Troi was the worst. Let's say that, by some odd chance, due to some unresolved trauma, Tasha, in some recesses of her subconscious, found some aspects of the kidnapping intriguing:

1) It's obvious that Tasha rationally understood how wrong the situation was and what was at stake.
2) Troi starts to discuss Tasha's fetishes right there, in that context in front of the captain. Why?!?

Someone please give me a vaguely plausible, in-universe explanation for why she had to do it.

What. The. Hell. Did. that. have. to. do. With. What. Was. Happening?!?!

 

[Guy Gardener]

Yep!

Troi was the worst. Let's say that, by some odd chance, due to some unresolved trauma, Tasha, in some recesses of her subconscious, found some aspects of the kidnapping intriguing:

1) It's obvious that Tasha rationally understood how wrong the situation was and what was at stake.
2) Troi starts to discuss Tasha's fetishes right there, in that context in front of the captain. Why?!?

Someone please give me a vaguely plausible, in-universe explanation for why she had to do it.

What. The. Hell. Did. that. have. to. do. With. What. Was. Happening?!?!

Tasha spent her youth being kidnapped or almost kidnapped, every night.

By comparison what was happening to her in this episode was "boring".

She was used it.

 

[FederationHistorian]

“Code of Honor” is racist in the same way that “Justice” and “Up The Long Ladder” are racist – they rely on casting groups of people to play stereotypes of themselves. And the episode would have been just as bad if the black characters were swapped for Asian characters or white characters.

But that the director for "Code of Honor" is the one that decided to make the entire population black, and that this is the first planet-of-the-week in the franchise with a black population, makes this particular episode all the more egregious.

 

[Guy Gardener]

“Code of Honor” is racist in the same way that “Justice” and “Up The Long Ladder” are racist – they rely on casting groups of people to play stereotypes of themselves. And the episode would have been just as bad if the black characters were swapped for Asian characters or white characters.

But that the director for "Code of Honor" is the one that decided to make the entire population black, and that this is the first planet-of-the-week in the franchise with a black population, makes this particular episode all the more egregious.

TOS era Klingons, even the TOS era Klingons on Enterprise, were all in Blackface. That's almost the same thing, or worse, so much worse?

 

[Humanoid #77]

What bothers me most is he Enterprise crew committing fraud.

The law is fight to the DEATH. The black chick had not died. They let her get piosoned , then instantly transported her to their super ICU where Doc Crusher saved her from the poison using her advanced futuristic Medicine AND THEN issued a fraudulent death certificate that the Ligons, their brains smoother than a billiard ball, incredibly accepted. So the land and riches now belong to a dead person, whom the other black guy married making him a necrophyliac too. All this is absurd.

If not, next time Crusher could reasonably pronouce dead anyone breathing and walking according to convenience, where's the diff?

For me, Racism is the least of this episode's problems