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Female Characters in the J.J.Verse

If they bring in Rand she should be a senior officer or captain aboard another vessel that Kirk has to deal with, rather than the TOS geisha.
 
If they bring in Rand she should be a senior officer or captain aboard another vessel that Kirk has to deal with, rather than the TOS geisha.

You're kidding? Much as I love her, Rand is WAY too dumb to be a captain! I prefer her as a non-com - the crew from the lower decks should get some action too! Bring in Number One to fill a female command role if required.

Senior officers have staff to take care of their needs because they are busy people - that's true today too but these 'geishas' will just be serving members of the military assigned that as their job. All that needs to happen is for her role to be treated more like a real world position with a sci fi twist instead of what we often see in TOS.

TOS shouldn't really be the benchmark for many of the women in the new franchise. I used to think it was hilarious when Kirk had to slap around his astoundingly unprofessional female officers just to get them to do their jobs properly. It was the sixties - we need to move on!

This might also be the time to point out that Gaila, a very popular character in the last movie, also had her role reduced to little more than a geisha or sex object. I think that if the writers can elevate their principle women above that sort of thing it will be good all round.
 
You're kidding? Much as I love her, Rand is WAY too dumb to be a captain!

Why, because she was a blonde and a junior officer?

Rand is whatever the writers say she is.

The first six TOS-based movies featured dimwitted captains - hell, every single one in TSFS other than Kirk was completely useless. Abrams has already improved on the oldTrek record, and if Rand were a captain I'm sure he'd continue that trend. :)
 
So, ST:XI had 3 female characters with speaking parts and they killed off two of them. Now all we have left is Uhura. I'm hoping there will be at least one more main character added who is female for ST:XII and it would be very cool if the character comes from TOS. Now Nurse Chapel, mentioned by name in ST:XI but not seen, is an obvious choice but I hope to have a character less in the background.

I would love to have Lieutenant Marla Magivers in a main role because we would always know that in the prime universe she ultimately betrays her Starfleet vows and comes to a nasty end.

Eh, I prefer woman in real life. And what the heck are you talking about? What is Street :11?
 
Well, not all of us are capable of getting women in real life. See, all of us here are virgins who sit at home in our parents' basements and get really sad when people spend great amounts of time to hurl generic stereotypes at us while thinking they're hilarious. Why, I'm getting sad right now!
 
So, ST:XI had 3 female characters with speaking parts and they killed off two of them. Now all we have left is Uhura. I'm hoping there will be at least one more main character added who is female for ST:XII and it would be very cool if the character comes from TOS. Now Nurse Chapel, mentioned by name in ST:XI but not seen, is an obvious choice but I hope to have a character less in the background.

I would love to have Lieutenant Marla Magivers in a main role because we would always know that in the prime universe she ultimately betrays her Starfleet vows and comes to a nasty end.

Eh, I prefer woman in real life. And what the heck are you talking about? What is Street :11?

As opposed to the internet where you prefer men?

And its Saint Xi.
 
So, ST:XI had 3 female characters with speaking parts and they killed off two of them. Now all we have left is Uhura. I'm hoping there will be at least one more main character added who is female for ST:XII and it would be very cool if the character comes from TOS. Now Nurse Chapel, mentioned by name in ST:XI but not seen, is an obvious choice but I hope to have a character less in the background.

I would love to have Lieutenant Marla Magivers in a main role because we would always know that in the prime universe she ultimately betrays her Starfleet vows and comes to a nasty end.

Eh, I prefer woman in real life. And what the heck are you talking about? What is Street :11?

As opposed to the internet where you prefer men?

And its Saint Xi.

It IS a holy film :D
 
You're kidding? Much as I love her, Rand is WAY too dumb to be a captain!

Why, because she was a blonde and a junior officer?

Rand is whatever the writers say she is.

The first six TOS-based movies featured dimwitted captains - hell, every single one in TSFS other than Kirk was completely useless. Abrams has already improved on the oldTrek record, and if Rand were a captain I'm sure he'd continue that trend. :)

Heh, I'm not wholly convinced by NuKirk's description as a 'genius level repeat offender' myself. I thought that some of his decisions were recklessly foolish but that is another story.

I don't think there is anything wrong with featuring characters of differing levels of ability in different areas. Not every character needs to be astoundingly intelligent to be a valid, interesting character. Take a look at the differing Dr Who assistants over the years; some of them were as dumb as hay but they were still fun to watch.

Since this type of science fiction wasn't common in the sixties, I suspect that part of Rand's purpose in TOS was to ask questions that the audience might need answered so she was necessarily dumb (Troi suffered from this sometimes too). If Trek wants to appeal to a wider audience, you do sometimes need characters to explain stuff but obviously this kind of franchise is no longer new and many of the technologies featured are now available in the real world so characters like Rand needn't be quite so dumb today.

I suppose I agree that the writers could take the established characters in any direction they like and I'm not against placing established characters outside the Enterpise crew (like Sulu in STVI) but Rand would be very young for a captain so I just don't see it. Plus she wasn't a junior officer but a senior non-commissioned officer - most likely a senior petty officer since she became a chief petty officer in TMP. I like the idea of experienced non-commissioned crew being shown in the movie as it makes it feel less elitist. The yeoman position gives her every reason to be in the action. It had a certain simplicity in the sixties and the logic holds good today.

It's far more of a challenge finding something significant for Chapel to do unless they are prepared to send her on a landing party (without McCoy) as medical support.
 
Well, not all of us are capable of getting women in real life. See, all of us here are virgins who sit at home in our parents' basements and get really sad when people spend great amounts of time to hurl generic stereotypes at us while thinking they're hilarious. Why, I'm getting sad right now!

My parents don't have a basement. What do I do? WHAT DO I DO?!!!!!!

:lol:

Besides, I am not in the least interested in getting women. :p
 
Pfft - please! Kamalayka knows you're not really women. Women don't like things like Star Trek. You must be nerd guys pretending to be gals.
 
And what the heck are you talking about? What is Street :11?
It's a thoroughfare in ancient Rome.

I suspect that part of Rand's purpose in TOS was to ask questions that the audience might need answered so she was necessarily dumb (Troi suffered from this sometimes too).
To be fair, Doctor McCoy frequently filled this role too.


but Rand would be very young for a captain so I just don't see it.
AIUI, Yeoman Rand was originally conceived to be Kirk's equal in age (so she could be a confidant), and she could be made any age in ST twelve, look at what they did with Chekov.
 
but Rand would be very young for a captain so I just don't see it.
AIUI, Yeoman Rand was originally conceived to be Kirk's equal in age (so she could be a confidant), and she could be made any age in ST twelve, look at what they did with Chekov.

Actually her canon non-canon age was 24 (so 10 years younger than Kirk) from a line that was in the original script for Miri. Apparently, her canon age was adjusted to the actress's real age in Flashback on a computer screen (although I can't confirm or deny this as I've never looked). So while I agree that she is probably meant to be roughly the same age as Kirk, I think that he's probably a bit young (albeit he is meant to be so exceptional that his age is no bar to command), ergo I don't favour them repeating that for a less exceptional character.

I also accept that they can do what they like with the TOS characters, applying canon names to completely different characters by relying on the Butterfly Effect but I'm not wholly in favour of that. While I loved NuBSG, including Starbuck, I was troubled by the fact that so many of the characters were completely different and instead of being given a modern make-over, the original female characters were largely absent.
 
Since this type of science fiction wasn't common in the sixties,

Perhaps true (I don't really know ;))

If I had to name a strong, intelligent female SciFi-character from the 60s, it would be General Lydia van Dyke:

orion_lydia_van_dyke.jpg.scaled500.jpg
 
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