My underlying problem with the approach in the franchise is the subconcious sexism and complacency. Women are not treated equally the world over so I don't think it ever hurts to challenge the status quo, which clearly still isn't equal. However, I'm trying to address the issue with humour and I appreciate that not everybody will get or enjoy my sense of humour. Offence and irritation are intended but none if it is malicious!
Spock or Kirk stealing the ship was a bit silly in many respects, but I take the point. However, that wasn't ALL that they got to do throughout their careers. That was one blip in a lot of varied appearances. It becomes a problem for the women if those kinds of themes and issues dominate too often.
It's not necessarily a feminism issue though. Some might view Kara Thrace as a feminist icon but she was also a total screw up. Her character's self-destructiveness became a bit wearing at times because it cropped up so often but overall she was an interesting character. If anything, I felt sorry for Dee - she had great potential, even dressing down Adama in one scene of season one but consigned to a background professional role while she played the wronged wife in later episodes. I think the contrast between the two characters is a good example of new school and old school women's roles in sci fi.
I would say that Spock was allowed to be too varied in TOS, doing there things that should have been gifted to other characters to give them more breadth (like working on communications devices and translations in TOS). It is one of my gripes about the Big 3.
I think that characters should have parameters and they should be given things to do within those parameters where the story dictates (e.g. Uhura is an officer so let her take the chair sometimes, since she's senior to some of the ensigns or, since she speaks fluent Romulan, use her on the Romulan ship). They should also be taken out of their comfort zone occasionally (such as Ripley fighting the alien, Picard looking after children or Wesley stuck in a shuttle with a wounded Picard) to add drama to the story. I suppose it becomes a feminism issue in TOS because there are so few women to start with, no steps have been taken to rectify that yet, and the ones we do have do seem to be shoehorned into realtionship stuff as the largest part of their story purpose. I've said before that I think Carol Marcus struck a good balance.
With Uhura it's probably 50/50 at the moment, partly because her role on the bridge is tucked away at the back. I'm pretty confident that the comic will help improve that and it's possible that, due to Saldana's increased popularity as an actor, and Abrahms history with decent heroines, she will be able to swing a bigger share of the plot more generally. I would still view that as tokenism though. They still need more women overall.
If doing my kinda feminism is wrong, I don't wanna be right!
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I think all the actors that have been cast to date have quite a lot to offer.