Spoilers Canon, Continuity, and Pike's Accident

[Donald G]

Re: Yeoman Colt: "She does a good job, all right. It's just that I can't get used to having a woman on the bridge. No offense, Lieutenant (Number One). You're different, of course."

Star Trek was not always full speed ahead on equality. But they tried.

I can't speak to Roddenberry's actual motivation for giving Pike that particular line, but I like to think that it was put there to make Pike relatable to a 1964/65 audience - "See, we're X years in *THE FUTURE* and we have a woman executive officer and a guy with pointy ears, but don't worry, guys, our lead's still just like you folks at home."

I also note that when "The Cage" footage was reedited into "The Menagerie" two-parter in 1966, that whole exchange was eliminated from the aired version. No one except studio executives and convention and college lecture audiences to whom Roddenberry had shown his black and white 16 mm print had seen that segment until the mid to late 1980's. Given those circumstances, should we really give that line of dialogue so much weight when it comes to characterizing Pike?

 

[Tallguy]

I like to think that it was put there to make Pike relatable to a 1964/65 audience - "See, we're X years in *THE FUTURE* and we have a woman executive officer and a guy with pointy ears, but don't worry, guys, our lead's still just like you folks at home."

I've said elsewhere it was actually written to show how progressive they were. But actual progress overtook it.

Given those circumstances, should we really give that line of dialogue so much weight when it comes to characterizing Pike?

No. It's just an interesting point in time.

 

[fireproof78]

Given those circumstances, should we really give that line of dialogue so much weight when it comes to characterizing Pike?

I didn't give it weight even on my first viewing. Pike clearly isn't himself.

 

[T'Bonz]

The ladies should have put Exlax in his coffee for that remark.

 

[Tuskin38]

some things from TOS should just be ignored because they are of the period the show was written.

 

[Tallguy]

some things from TOS should just be ignored because they are of the period the show was written.

Like the Eugenics Wars being in 1996.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Like the Eugenics Wars being in 1996.

Which was silly even in 1967.

 

[fireproof78]

And nuclear platforms in orbit.

 

[Nerys Myk]

And nuclear platforms in orbit.

Oddly enough I find that acceptable.

 

[Commander Troi]

And Janet Lester's diatribe about women starship captains.

 

[Noname Given]

Like the Eugenics Wars being in 1996.

1992 to 1996. 1996 was the year that Khan and his followers launched the SS Botany Bay.

 

[Tallguy]

1992 to 1996. 1996 was the year that Khan and his followers launched the SS Botany Bay.

I haven't remembered that for the last 50 years and I'm not going to start now.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I haven't remembered that for the last 50 years and I'm not going to start now.

Well there's no long a reason to, now.

 

[Sci]

Yeah.

As a line it was completely nonsensical even within the episode itself.

Having trouble connecting the dot here. He not used to women on the bridge because his last yeoman, a woman, died??

The clear intent of the line is to establish that women serving as bridge officers is a relatively new development; that Number One was the first to do so and the only woman to do so for a significant time until recently; and that Pike was used to Number One serving as a bridge officer as an exception to the rule but had not yet gotten used to there being women serving as bridge officers as a routine matter.

In other words -- we're meant to learn that Number One was a pioneer and that the as-yet unnamed space service to which Pike and the others belong is male-dominated and has only recently begun to change.

 

[fireproof78]

The clear intent of the line is to establish that women serving as bridge officers is a relatively new development; that Number One was the first to do so and the only woman to do so for a significant time until recently; and that Pike was used to Number One serving as a bridge officer as an exception to the rule but had not yet gotten used to there being women serving as bridge officers as a routine matter.

In other words -- we're meant to learn that Number One was a pioneer and that the as-yet unnamed space service to which Pike and the others belong is male-dominated and has only recently begun to change.

Which...is nonsense even in the episode itself.

Because there is already another female on the bridge:

 

[Mytran]

Which...is nonsense even in the episode itself.

Because there is already another female on the bridge:

Maybe she was "different" too, just like Number One?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

It's all really ham-fisted. Best would have been to say absolutely nothing.

It was one of the brilliant aspects of Starship Troopers (1997) that each of the female troopers was just one of the guys. It seems Lower Decks also runs with unisex accommodations.

 

[Sci]

Which...is nonsense even in the episode itself.

Because there is already another female on the bridge:

And the implication of the line is this is a relatively new development.

 

[Dar70]

Which was silly even in 1967.

Why?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Why?

Because 1992 is less than three decades in the future.