since im the only person that actually read the whole article, i might as well type the whole list of things that was mentioned in the damn article
10 Harsh Realities of Rewatching Star Trek: The Original Series (screenrant.com) that is the link to the website.
LOL! I had to read a lot of it to get some context, but...
Considering there were budget issues, right down to inexpensive placemats and shower curtains - even a cynic like me applauds how much they managed to do with so little, especially with as little reuse as they did. The stories on the ear prosthetics for Spock revealed quite a lot of difficulty as well... they went for what could be dealt with on a modest budget and with time constraints.
If nothing else, it's fiction. Let's let the story and acting draw us into
their world and look beyond the placemats and shower curtain costumes. Nowdays it's almost the other way around.
9. the treatment of Spock going too far.
Their points cannot be denied. McCoy is one thing, but the whole crew - it's like Barclay, for every episode, and not necessarily showing more camaraderie to balance. But it's not like Spock never gets a chance to announce his having to constrain his displeasure over working with humans ever...
8. "Far too many" episodes having misogyny and sexism. One of the most difficult aspects of watching Star Trek: The Original Series today is the rampant and obvious sexism. This is not so much a critique of the show itself, as it tried to be progressive in its own way, but more an acknowledgment of the problematic views about women that were widespread at the time. From historian Marla McGivers' (Madelyn Rhue) instant infatuation with Khan (Ricardo Montalban) in "Space Seed" to the portrayal of Harry Mudd's (Roger C. Carmel) former wife in "I, Mudd" to pretty much everything in "Turnabout Intruder," the sexism in Star Trek crops up in all three seasons. While this clearly illustrates the show as a product of its time, it's still jarring to hear even the ever-logical Spock reduce women to inaccurate stereotypes.
In the 1960s, this show was actually seen as being very progressive.
It also had to appease the censors, since "The Cage" apparently went "too far". People still whine about "the miniskirt", forgetting that - at the time - it was deemed as
EMPOWERMENT. Grace Lee Whitney advocated for their use and Nichelle Nichols even wrote about it in her autobiography. It's a bit of a good read...
But other points are valid; Kirk's treatment of McGivers is awful and a good captain knows who's on his ship and why. In the same episode, he was a bit of a a donkeyhind toward Uhura and others as well... Mudd's first episode is questionable, but a couple lines and their acting by Eve are trying to do more than what they otherwise directly could.
"Turnabout Intruder" had its writer unsure of WHAT to critique.
And, yep, Spock's quotes about women have definitely aged very poorly. Even other characters saying casual sexist lines are cringeworthy as well.
7. the "bad" Klingon makeup. what did she expect? it was the 1960s back then
Four in, and they're stretching what fits into the previous point - #10.
6. Uhura who rarely got to do anything
Ditto for Scotty, Chekov, Sulu... the show became about "the big three" and that was that. Go back and time and debate the makers. It's not like things were great and TOS was backtracking or anything...
5. the dangerous aliens looking too silly
See #10
4. the acting being over the top
I often laugh more at the "naturalistic" acting nowadays. That ties into one if not two of my previous responses above. TV was more like "televised stageplays" back then, anyhow.
3. the hand to hand combat looking ridiculous
Stuff shot on a stage looks stagey, what a shock. Nowadays it's the other way around, think of that movie from the early-2000s with a wide shot of a zillion people waving green and blue laser swords, plus one purple one, and chortle over how asinine that looks too. Or the mid-200s tv show trying to show half a million ships spinning around to "seriously" sell a threat. It's arguably more laughable, in a show with plenty of stories that prove that only one is really needed to sell a threat. It's never the quantity but the underlying reason and tension built by the script requiring it that drives the story. Even the slo-mo stagey stuff, bad as it is, isn't the worst by any stretch. We all know the captain wins in these shows, isn't that higher up on the list of whineyrants these articles tend to bypass?
2. Kirk making too many mistakes as Captain
Don't all captains do? There'd be no drama, otherwise. Even Picard got to and Gene was adamant that the Captain not do so, since this issue (among others) were brought up so many times back in the day that Gene wanted TOS decanonized, in favor of solely TNG. That's been talked about more than the bottle of glue being whipped. Assuming they still use dead horse bits as the ingredients for said glue.
1. some episodes are truly terrible
There's no tv show that
doesn't have them!
Plus, "Plato's Stepchildren" - as a high concept tale of forcing mind control upon others - is arguably chilling, and the actors playing it all
that seriously is worthy of a Guiness record. Going by that, any 60s show using any form of ESP as plot fodder should be just as summarily waved off.
Again, this is sci-fi and not a generic soap opera where all they have are people whining about their sexual relationships.
