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Did The Jihad live up to its potential?

Did The Jihad live up to its potential?

  • Yes

    Votes: 8 36.4%
  • No

    Votes: 7 31.8%
  • Maybe

    Votes: 2 9.1%
  • Not sure

    Votes: 2 9.1%
  • I'll tell you later

    Votes: 3 13.6%

  • Total voters
    22
I don't need the credits, just my ears. Unless Majel does an amazing Nichelle impression which nobody's ever spoken of.

Majel didn't voice Lara either.

Yes Lara was way too assertive for me. Maybe thats how they chatted up the guys on her planet.

I think she actually mentions this in the episode. Lara says there's not a lot of men on her homeworld so that's why she acts this way toward Kirk. It's kind of an evolved trait, necessary for the propagation of their people. She can't help being as forward as she is. It's just what they do.
 
That would be my guess, and the word "Crusade" has a bit of a religious feeling to it, something Star Trek largely avoided back then. Jihad was a less familiar word at that time. I imagine it had a more exotic feel, or mystique as you noted. Oooh, Jihad, that sounds different.

Nowadays of course the word Jihad has much larger consequences and significance, and I doubt it would be used if this episode were written today. They'd probably use something like The Quest or something like that.


Similarly Frank Herbert used the term "Butlerian Jihad" in his Dune books.
 
I know. My point was that just because someone might find that off putting from a woman doesn't mean we think it's ok in reverse either.

See, I just don't see what's so objectionable about Lara's forwardness. It's not like she's copping feels or trying to roofie his drink. Here's the extent of what she says:

LARA: Maybe you got different customs. My world there's a lot of females, not so many men. Come we find a man attractive, we say so. I'm saying so. How do you find me?
KIRK: Fascinating. But we're not here on a pleasure trip, Lara.
LARA: All the more reason to take what pleasure there might be in it.
...
LARA: I tell you true, I find you an attractive man. If we were together, the trip would be easier. And if anything happened, why, we'd have some green memories.
http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/TAS014.htm

I don't see how that's objectionably pushy. All she does is forthrightly let him know she's interested. And when he turns her down, she just says "Oh" and lets it drop, which is the opposite of being pushy. Pushy would be refusing to take no for an answer, and Lara doesn't do that. She doesn't disrespect Kirk's wishes or violate his boundaries. She just lets him know she's interested, without any games or deceptions. She's matter-of-fact about her interest and matter-of-fact about his rejection, with no drama or conflict. If anything, that's a very healthy and honest way of going about it.

The dialogue also makes it clear that Kirk is attracted to her. He says he finds her "fascinating," and after the "green memories" bit, he says "Maybe some other time, Lara. We still have our work cut out for us here." These are two adults who acknowledge a mutual attraction but don't let it get in the way of their immediate responsibilities. It's actually very mature of them both.

The one thing about Lara's behavior that I find objectionable is her expression of distaste for Vulcans. But then, it's not much worse than what we generally heard from McCoy and other characters.
 
Maybe a Vulcan once done her wrong? :vulcan:

Lara strikes me as one of those no-nonsense women who would have settled the "Ancient" west had she been born in another time.
 
See, I just don't see what's so objectionable about Lara's forwardness. It's not like she's copping feels or trying to roofie his drink. Here's the extent of what she says:


http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/TAS014.htm

I don't see how that's objectionably pushy. All she does is forthrightly let him know she's interested. And when he turns her down, she just says "Oh" and lets it drop, which is the opposite of being pushy. Pushy would be refusing to take no for an answer, and Lara doesn't do that. She doesn't disrespect Kirk's wishes or violate his boundaries. She just lets him know she's interested, without any games or deceptions. She's matter-of-fact about her interest and matter-of-fact about his rejection, with no drama or conflict. If anything, that's a very healthy and honest way of going about it.

The dialogue also makes it clear that Kirk is attracted to her. He says he finds her "fascinating," and after the "green memories" bit, he says "Maybe some other time, Lara. We still have our work cut out for us here." These are two adults who acknowledge a mutual attraction but don't let it get in the way of their immediate responsibilities. It's actually very mature of them both.

The one thing about Lara's behavior that I find objectionable is her expression of distaste for Vulcans. But then, it's not much worse than what we generally heard from McCoy and other characters.

Ok...ok. I concede :beer:. I'll grant she's not overly pushy. I might feel personally uncomfortable if she asked me how I felt about her. My first inclination would be to say I'd like to get to know her better first, but be afraid that might offend her. But I'm a bit shyer around women. Kirk isn't so much. I took his reaction a bit differently then others is all.
 
See, I just don't see what's so objectionable about Lara's forwardness. It's not like she's copping feels or trying to roofie his drink. Here's the extent of what she says:


http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/TAS014.htm

I don't see how that's objectionably pushy. All she does is forthrightly let him know she's interested. And when he turns her down, she just says "Oh" and lets it drop, which is the opposite of being pushy. Pushy would be refusing to take no for an answer, and Lara doesn't do that. She doesn't disrespect Kirk's wishes or violate his boundaries. She just lets him know she's interested, without any games or deceptions. She's matter-of-fact about her interest and matter-of-fact about his rejection, with no drama or conflict. If anything, that's a very healthy and honest way of going about it.

The dialogue also makes it clear that Kirk is attracted to her. He says he finds her "fascinating," and after the "green memories" bit, he says "Maybe some other time, Lara. We still have our work cut out for us here." These are two adults who acknowledge a mutual attraction but don't let it get in the way of their immediate responsibilities. It's actually very mature of them both.

The one thing about Lara's behavior that I find objectionable is her expression of distaste for Vulcans. But then, it's not much worse than what we generally heard from McCoy and other characters.

When looking at the script it doesn't look like she's being that assertive but my overall impression of "The Jihad" rightly or wrongly was the TAS episode where that girl with the loud voice kept chatting up Kirk and he sounded afraid. Very afraid.(He he)

I think it suffers from being animation and not being live so that you can't see the actor's body language or expressions. Shatner had quite the charm when he was on screen in full romantic mode. Filmation couldn't translate Kirk's charisma or even Lara's charms.

When Kirk says he was fascinated by her I heard the delivery and felt he was letting her down easy. No use having someone critical on your team angry with you.

Anyway what did Lara mean by them "being together"? Is that some sort of sexual reference ? If so what was it doing in a Saturday morning cartoon?
What would be the logistics in that anyway?
It didn't look as though anyone was getting any alone time on the mission. Anywhere to ahem lie down.or "get together". Perhaps I just have a filthy mind.

Maybe a Vulcan once done her wrong? :vulcan:

Lara strikes me as one of those no-nonsense women who would have settled the "Ancient" west had she been born in another time.
She would have made a great asset on a Starship. Maybe captain or head of security.
Ok...ok. I concede :beer:. I'll grant she's not overly pushy. I might feel personally uncomfortable if she asked me how I felt about her. My first inclination would be to say I'd like to get to know her better first, but be afraid that might offend her. But I'm a bit shyer around women. Kirk isn't so much. I took his reaction a bit differently then others is all.
I too thought she was way too pushy. Maybe its the voice actors fault. Or maybe we're not used to women being so assertive in TOS/TAS.
 
When Kirk says he was fascinated by her I heard the delivery and felt he was letting her down easy.

Yeah, but Shatner's delivery in TAS was never all that good. He wasn't used to voice acting and didn't really give that much of a performance. So you can't really judge from that.


Anyway what did Lara mean by them "being together"? Is that some sort of sexual reference ? If so what was it doing in a Saturday morning cartoon?

It's not as if discussions of romance have always been completely off-limits in kids' shows. You can talk about romance without mentioning the specifics, and kids will probably just assume it's about hugging and kissing and mushy talk. Heck, most of the romance on TOS never went beyond that.

Besides, I think "The Lorelei Signal" would raise more questions about the birds and the bees in kids' minds than Lara's throwaway line here.


Or maybe we're not used to women being so assertive in TOS/TAS.

Welcome to the 1970s! Women are equal now! And things will never ever go backward again!
 
Rayna, yes, he definitely fell in love with her, which, imo, is the worst part of that episode. His instant (the whole episode takes place in like 1 afternoon) head over heels affection there was so wildly out of character that it honestly felt like the original script called for him to be under some sort of alien influence and then they just dropped that part without changing the effects.

I'm making this up but I always assumed he was sick with the space disease that they were there for the rare medicine in the first place. I don't know anything about the made up symptoms, but when a person is not feeling well they don't always act like themselves, necessitating their Vulcan friend to try to forget about how goofy they acted afterwards. Spock didn't try that after any other times Kirk suffered a loss, which makes me think even more it was because he wasn't himself because of illness. As I said, this is my story, I didn't read this anywhere.

Meanwhile, just as Flint decides to be a nice guy, a huge man named Victor Kruger comes and chops his head off with a sword.
 
I've always ascribed the landing party's strange behaviour to them being affected by the mystery plague as well
 
Rigelian fever. And McCoy didn't notice because he can only ignore his own symptoms and make a cure if he ignores Kirk's as well?

I kind of think it would be interesting to revisit "The Jihad" in a 5YM TOS novel. Though it'd probably go the route of "Tchar escapes from the looney bin and seeks Kirk and Spock."
 
Rigelian fever. And McCoy didn't notice because he can only ignore his own symptoms and make a cure if he ignores Kirk's as well?

I kind of think it would be interesting to revisit "The Jihad" in a 5YM TOS novel. Though it'd probably go the route of "Tchar escapes from the looney bin and seeks Kirk and Spock."
Or Lara seeks vengeance for Kirk not returning her calls ala Janice Lester style.
 
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"Beware the power of my Jazz Hands!"
 
Okay, now I have a mental image of the bridge crew forming a band and doing preachy Fat Albert-style song numbers at the end of each episode. Somebody do fan art of that, please!

Hey hey hey, here it is! :D (I apologize for the rough cut, Dr McCoy should be blowing the bong instrument...)

Fat_Trek.jpg
 
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