Female command officers in TOS

[Wingsley]

Let's dare to go where no woman has gone before...

People have taken Janice Lester's line about starship command in "Turnabout Intruder" to mean that TOS depicted a sexist future in which women were barred from positions of power, presumably starship command, flag rank and maybe even political positions in the Federation. We saw nothing but men in those positions in TOS, to be sure. But does the absence of evidence have to mean the evidence of absence?

My favorite TOS guest-starring top dogs were Commodores Decker and Wesley, Admiral Komack and High Commissioner Ferris. Komack really looked like what you'd expect in a 1960's TV portrayal of a flag officer, right down to the early Cold War hairstyle. But why can't we imagine a woman in one of those roles?

Who would you choose from that era would've made a good female guest star as a starship captain? A flag officer? A high commissioner?

 

[Warped9]

^^ I've always felt that the best way to interpret Lester's references is from the perspective she was an embittered loon. Starfleet evidently couldn't miss that she was psychologically ill-equiped for the command track and kept her from it. She wouldn't be the first to perceive this as sexism rather than accepting her own shortcomings.

I simply accept that there are indeed female command officers in the TOS era and that we regrettably just never got to see them.

A good guest star as a female Captain or Commodore or Admiral could have been Honor Blackman.

 

[willg]

Diana Rigg maybe if we want to go on an Avengers theme. I just want to make an additional comment, I mean outside of Uhura the communications officer how many other of the female crew aboard Enterprise had a significant position? I do recall an episode where there was some female lieutenant who manned science and the navigation console, but I don't remember which one it was.

But, to give Roddenberry credit he did put Barrett as the first officer in The Cage, but the network apparently threw that out. Consider Enterprise had the captain of the Columbia. However, simply the climate of the 1960's did not allow everything Roddenberry wanted to portray to be portrayed.

 

[Zameaze]

Mother nature created a sexist world. The question is, why do we have so much trouble with it? I’m quite happy that women are not all muscle-bound feminists (read lesbians). I mean, if it were so, it might be some fun from a voyeuristic standpoint, but not enough to give up normal women.

 

[Xerxes1979]

Mother nature created a sexist world. The question is, why do we have so much trouble with it? I’m quite happy that women are not all muscle-bound feminists (read lesbians). I mean, if it were so, it might be some fun from a voyeuristic standpoint, but not enough to give up normal women.

Who was unhappy at the end of TNG Angel One? The pairings were completely free of sexual dimorphism.

I find the rest of your comment unenlightened.

 

[Zameaze]

Angel One[/I]? The pairings were completely free of sexual dimorphism.

Well, as they say, let's just agree to disagree. I myself am a big fan of dimorphism. Women don't have to become men to be interesting to me. In fact, the more feminine the better.

 

[Wingsley]

Diana Rigg maybe if we want to go on an Avengers theme. I just want to make an additional comment, I mean outside of Uhura the communications officer how many other of the female crew aboard Enterprise had a significant position? I do recall an episode where there was some female lieutenant who manned science and the navigation console, but I don't remember which one it was.

I believe you are referring to Ensign Jana Haines from "The Gamesters of Triskellion" (TOS, Year 2) There was also the appearance of Lt. Rahda filling in for Sulu at the helm during "That Which Survives". Of course, these were junior officers in guest supporting roles.

 

[Gotham Central]

Mother nature created a sexist world. The question is, why do we have so much trouble with it? I’m quite happy that women are not all muscle-bound feminists (read lesbians). I mean, if it were so, it might be some fun from a voyeuristic standpoint, but not enough to give up normal women.

Wow, who knew that trekbbs could receive messages from another time period.

So how's life over there in the 1950s? A women still wearing pearls and heels while doing housework?

 

[JiNX-01]

I agree Diana Rigg would have been a good choice.
Other possibilities:

Anne Bankcroft
Erin Gray
Candice Bergen

 

[Xerxes1979]

outside of Uhura the communications officer how many other of the female crew aboard Enterprise had a significant position? portrayed.

In Return to Tomorrow Dr. Ann Mulhall held the rank of Lt. Commander, the same rank Dr. McCoy had prior to his promotion in 2269.

In addition she wore a red, not blue uniform. Take from that what you will.

 

[Xerxes1979]

T'Pau(Amok Time) was offered a seat on the Federation High Council.

 

[Red Ranger]

Just for the hell of it, imagine Barbara Eden as a TOS guest star, playing a young female captain who's even more hotheaded than Kirk and was his other academy nemesis after Finnegan! After all, her husband, Michael Ansara, played Kang in Day of the Dove! I also think Lee Meriwether could've been brought back to play a Starfleet Admiral! Same goes for Tallulah Bankhead.

Oh, and Wingsley? As I got older, I realized Janice Lester was a paranoid kook who most likely was just flat-out lying when she uttered that line that Kirk's world had no place for women. I think aside from Number One, the highest-ranking female officer we saw on screen was Lt. Cmdr. Ann Mulhall, but of course, that doesn't mean there weren't other higher-ranking women in Starfleet at that time. And if they showed a female captain, I would have liked to see her wear pants and a green wraparound tunic.

Red Ranger

 

[Lieut. Arex]

In regard to Number One, if a woman couldn't command a starship, one would never be allowed in a position where the situation might arise. When someone is made first officer, it's expected they are fully capable of assuming command in lieu of the captain.

Lester was a bitter psychotic.

 

[Zameaze]

Wow, who knew that trekbbs could receive messages from another time period.

Well, of course, Gotham Central, no one on a TOS site would be interested in a message from another time period-- say, 1966.

 

[Neopeius]

There was a red shirt Lt. Commander woman in "The Tholian Web" too.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Miss Barabara Stanwyck as an Admiral.

 

[C.E. Evans]

In hindsight, it could be considered that Janice Lester's remark was sexist in its own way, implying that starship captains was a "boys only club" and deliberately ignoring that there were indeed female captains out there as well.

But I think it would have been a real kick if Jane Wyatt's Amanda was revealed to have been not only Spock's mother but also a retired Starfleet admiral...

 

[UssGlenn]

I think the best way to interpret Lester's remarks is that there were female starship captains but that Lester believed that the majority male captains didn't welcome them into their social circle, something like a fraternity of captains. This would be easy for her to think if she read people's rejection of her as based on her sex rather than her flawed personality.

 

[Wingsley]

Wow! Neat ideas, folks. Keep 'em coming.

I googled an image of Stanwyck; she would be perfect as an admiral.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Wow! Neat ideas, folks. Keep 'em coming.

I googled an image of Stanwyck; she would be perfect as an admiral.

She kept the Six Million Dollar Man and Crystal Carrington in line