No female lead, eh?

[Skywalker]

Zuni Fetish Doll said:

JohnChod said:

Christopher said:
The writers are on record as saying that they intend to show more cool Starfleet captains than just Kirk and Pike, and there is reportedly casting underway for an as-yet-unidentified "Federation Captain" character in addition to Pike. That could turn out to be a woman.

Wait a minute. I thought Abrams said they would respect canon. If so, there can be no female captains until the TMP era. Dr. Lester said so! Do these producers want us to go and see this movie or not?

If she is played by Jessica Alba (and wears the TOS miniskirt), I would be willing to look the other way.

I wouldn't.

 

[PowderedToastMan]

for now the Trek film is not just a sausage fest, but those sausages are on white bread. Although one black woman and one asian male counted as 'diverse' in 1966, today this film is a bit white guy heavy (Quinto, Pine, Bana, Pegg, Urban). It is likely Pike will add one more white guy to the mix.

Mainstream films today tend to have much more diverse casts. If they do give Kirk a love interest and it isn't a recast (or maybe even if it is)...i think a person of color would be a good move. And why not a latino for Pike...maybe Jimmy Smits. Certainly if there are other roles like another captain they can add more diversity there. Star Trek is supposed to represent the 'our future'...certainly that future is totally dominated by late 20s white guys.

The film makers may also do what TOS did and use Admirals and other ancillary characters to carry the load for diversity, but it would be nice to see the it go beyond just a few tokens.

 

[Samuel T. Cogley]

I guess we can't count Gay Spock as the female lead?

 

[M'Sharak]

Not without confirmation; surely, you must realize that.

 

[Jack Bauer]

Stone_Cold_Sisko said:
I'll bet money Kirk has a romantic interest in this movie.

I'm placing my vote for Keri Russell as Carol Marcus.

 

[Deleted 2]

CaptainDonovin said:
Enterprise had a female captain so unless Starfleet changed their policy after the UFP formed there might have been.

Well, there's enough evidence that they did.

I thought there were no female captains because of the social views of the 60s.

The 2260s. It's canon.

 

[J47]

Absence of proof is not the same as evidence.

 

[Deleted 2]

There were no female Starship captains in TOS, and this is established in dialogue on screen.

 

[Franklin]

Zuni Fetish Doll said:
I guess we can't count Gay Spock as the female lead?

"He's just a sweet transvestite from trans-sexual Vulcan."

Nope. Can't do it. Sounds awful. Would have to change the name of Vulcan to Vulcanania. And, imagine the outrage that would create among canonites.

The last vestage of early 1960s TV sexism in TOS is that there were no strong recurring female lead roles in the series. Uhura was there, but she was just as a supporting character.
So, Abrams can't do much about that when casting the major characters short of a major reimagining. And, considering some are grousing that Pegg doesn't look enough like Scotty, imagine what would happen if Abrams had decided to make Scotty a woman.

Fuck canon in this area. Robert April is canon only through TAS. We know of no pre-Kirk Enterprise captains beyond Pike. Have the captain of the Enterprise before Pike be a woman. Captain Gertrude April. That's what I say. Seriously. Establish it on screen.

Or --
Want a strong woman in command without violating canon at all? Cast a man as the captain of the Lexington (or whatever secondary ship is needed in the story), and kill him off in the first two seconds. His first officer, Commander Julie Washbasin, assumes command of the ship. There.
To make it more authentic, at the end of the incident, Lt. Commander Trent Shabby steals all the credit and gets a promotion to captain, leapfrogging Washbasin. A lesson that the glass ceiling is alive and well in the 2260s.

Next problem?

 

[Photoman15]

Zombiemaster said:

SeamusShameless said:
I'm still hoping for Claire Danes as Carol Marcus.

That would be ridiculously HOT!

I'm a huge mark for Claire Danes.

DeathPoet said:
There better be some decent female roles. After all, it'll be impossible to tell how convincing Pine is as Kirk until we see him on the business end of a green chick.

So, which end is the business end?

How about Samantha Mathias as Carol Marcus. I mean she could pass for Dr. Marcus' daughter, right?

 

[Photoman15]

Zero Hour said:
There were no female Starship captains in TOS, and this is established in dialogue on screen.

No it's not. It's established by a mental patient that there are, at that time, no female captains of any of the twelve "Starhip" class (or "Constitution" class, if you prefer) Star Fleet ships.

Only twelve positions, so depending on who's giving out these assignments, it only reflects that time frame and the words of a insane, bitter woman who probably failed the pysch test and was passed over for captaincy.

 

[Photoman15]

PowderedToastMan said:
for now the Trek film is not just a sausage fest, but those sausages are on white bread. Although one black woman and one asian male counted as 'diverse' in 1966, today this film is a bit white guy heavy (Quinto, Pine, Bana, Pegg, Urban). It is likely Pike will add one more white guy to the mix.

Mainstream films today tend to have much more diverse casts. If they do give Kirk a love interest and it isn't a recast (or maybe even if it is)...i think a person of color would be a good move. And why not a latino for Pike...maybe Jimmy Smits. Certainly if there are other roles like another captain they can add more diversity there. Star Trek is supposed to represent the 'our future'...certainly that future is totally dominated by late 20s white guys.

The film makers may also do what TOS did and use Admirals and other ancillary characters to carry the load for diversity, but it would be nice to see the it go beyond just a few tokens.

Because Captain Christopher Pike was a white male. This is not Battlestar Moorelactica (no insult intended). It's not a re-imaging.

 

[Samuel T. Cogley]

J47 said:
Absence of proof is not the same as evidence.

Sure it is. It's called circumstantial.

 

[JohnChod]

PowderedToastMan said:
.....If they do give Kirk a love interest and it isn't a recast (or maybe even if it is)...i think a person of color would be a good move. And why not a latino for Pike...maybe Jimmy Smits....

It seems you suggest Jimmy Smits should play Pike's love interest? I think you've got something there! Perhaps that is why the Keepers had a difficult time getting Pike to "choose" one of the women.

 

[sturmde]

"Your world of starship captains doesn't admit women"... is the damn line. Read it correctly. It's Janice Lester whining that she's not with Kirk, because he doesn't have time for women in his life. (Unless they're grey ladies named Enterprise.)

More a comment on Kirk's world that includes a Ruth, Carol, Areel, Janet, Helen, Antonia, but never admits to them.

But in "canon"... NX-02's captain was female in the 2150s. Of course, one can argue Columbia was never in the UFP Starfleet, but that's silly.

 

[Photoman15]

That's how I always took it, but many don't so I offered an explanation of "their" view of her line

 

[Kurgan]

The Trek series didn't really have a female lead, but had quite a few prominant female roles that changed depending on what the storyline of the episode called for.Creating a leading female character for the sake of doing so isn't necessary and imo would simply be pandering to a certain demographic.If the movie is successful it's very possible they could cast Rand with a young up and coming actress, or add a character depending on what the storyline called for.It's also possible that the Uhura will be given an expanded role as she will be the only female in the main cast and somehow i doubt they'll keep her seated in her station chair the way they did for most TOS episodes.

In the end i think the new Trek movies are still going to be aimed at the male 16-40 audience.If the movie turns out to be as good as everyone is hoping for i doubt the abscense of a female lead will really matter.

To those that thought early Starfleet only made "white bread" males the captains of their starships.It's official canon that the captain of Starfleet's 2nd NX class starship wasn't just a woman, but was a Latina(Captain Erika Hernandez was captain of the NX-02 Columbia).So much for the thought that all early Starfleet captains were males, white or otherwise.