Star Trek's Sexist Legacy

[Orphalesion]

I just taped all the episodes off TV at Beta III speed. I could fit five eps on an L750 if I paused for commercials.

I think I once heard about that, didn't that mess with the quality really bad? Like it made the movements jerky or something because it didn't capture enough frames for it to be fluid?

 

[ThreeEdgedSword]

The Naked Now is not so bad. Of course back then before streaming and dvd's and having access to all of the episodes even Code of Honor would be a treat. Anything to feed your Star Trek fix.
Jason

I don't remember The Naked Now, but I remember Code of Honor made me cringe. I certainly wouldn't have bought it on any medium.

 

[Jayson1]

Code of Honor isn't good but it's good in a Mystery Science Theater 3000 kind of way. Lots of season 1 is like that. Unintentionally funny due to how bad it is. Season 1 has 3 really similar episodes that sort of fail in the same way.

1 Code of Honor=The racist one
2 Angel One=The sexist one
3 Justice=The Roddenberry perfect world one.

Then you got plenty of silly stuff within the others like the Creature things in Hide and Q and Shut up Wesley comes from this season and the Nancy Regan moment and the break dancing Ferengi and so forth.


Jason

 

[KennyB]

Plenty of these overly hyper "viewers" are nothing more than actors reading from a cue cards and about a show they've clearly never seen and it's as painfully obvious as it is pitifully obvious.

Wait.........isn't that how a fucking commercial works? You think all those guys throwing footballs are really tanked up on Viagra?

 

[Qonundrum]

Wait.........isn't that how a fucking commercial works? You think all those guys throwing footballs are really tanked up on Viagra?

LOL!!

Of course, that would also change the dynamics of the game... and wind resistance... equilibrium, too...

 

[Lord Garth]

the Nancy Regan moment

Yar (to Wesley): "Just remember, Wesley, users are losers and losers and users, so don't do drugs. Take a bite out of crime and Just Say NO!"

Wesley: "I'll say NO to drugs and I'll D.A.R.E. other kids on the Enterprise to stay off them too!"

Yar: "Wait a minute. Which kids?"

Wesley: ...

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

LOL!!

Of course, that would also change the dynamics of the game... and wind resistance... equilibrium, too...

At least it would give that sport something interesting

 

[Qonundrum]

Code of Honor isn't good but it's good in a Mystery Science Theater 3000 kind of way. Lots of season 1 is like that. Unintentionally funny due to how bad it is. Season 1 has 3 really similar episodes that sort of fail in the same way.

1 Code of Honor=The racist one
2 Angel One=The sexist one
3 Justice=The Roddenberry perfect world one.

Then you got plenty of silly stuff within the others like the Creature things in Hide and Q and Shut up Wesley comes from this season and the Nancy Regan moment and the break dancing Ferengi and so forth.


Jason

^^this

More about #3, albeit somewhat tangential: I had no idea of some of Roddenberry's level of Roddenberryisms (he really wanted open sexuality and free love, the very era made it easier to try (especially without the need of penicillin, or comparatively less compared to today), tried it in real life though his spouses of the time may not have been aware of "cheating", and even had the origins of the mind meld based upon a sex act too -- until censors had the dialogue changed to be more obfuscated to hide the intent (or to allow for more possibilities to be imagined by the audience, regardless.) If people knew the production issues of "Dagger of the Mind" in 1990, ST6 TUC would have a very different interrogation scene than the infamous "mind rape" scene as that now has a much wider meaning.)

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Yar (to Wesley): "Just remember, Wesley, users are losers and losers and users, so don't do drugs. Take a bite out of crime and Just Say NO!"

Wesley: "I'll say NO to drugs and I'll D.A.R.E. other kids on the Enterprise to stay off them too!"

Yar: "Wait a minute. Which kids?"

Wesley: ...

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While not quite as direct (thank goodness), their does amount to that. But it's more proof preachy television has always been around. And now, I'm gonna go find me a reefer and get some munchies while watchin' The Monkees:

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Well, candy reefer, like candy cigarettes... those tasted like chalk...

 

[Forbin]

I think I once heard about that, didn't that mess with the quality really bad? Like it made the movements jerky or something because it didn't capture enough frames for it to be fluid?

Nope, motion was fine.

 

[Orphalesion]

I never quite understoof why people react so negatively to Yar's drug speech. Nothing she says is wrong and it relates to her character having grown up in a lawless hellhole where, realistically speaking, abuse of highly addictive and harmful illegal drugs (of a heroine, meth and bathsalz like level) would be a huge issue. And season 1 is full of ham-fisted and artificial.
Plus its the only time her planned bond with Wesley actually made it to the screen.
So...what's so bad about it?

 

[Qonundrum]

I never quite understoof why people react so negatively to Yar's drug speech. Nothing she says is wrong and it relates to her character having grown up in a lawless hellhole where, realistically speaking, abuse of highly addictive and harmful illegal drugs (of a heroine, meth and bathsalz like level) would be a huge issue. And season 1 is full of ham-fisted and artificial.
Plus its the only time her planned bond with Wesley actually made it to the screen.
So...what's so bad about it?

IMHO, I didn't dislike the message at the time... and I didn't think it being too terribly preachy at the time either. It is quite ax expositiondump, but this is an episode of season 1 TNG aimed at early teens and not thirtysomethings like what "Justice" was showing. And despite the script, Denise's acting of it saves a very clunky scene that needs it the most.

But you nailed it - is it really exposition or her coming from her hellish background? Perhaps it's a bit of both.

This reminds of an article I read a few years ago, when the rock star went to Haight-Ashbury and had his expectations drop worse than a pigeon turd onto freshly-laid pavement?
https://www.beatlesbible.com/1967/08/07/george-harrison-visits-haight-ashbury-san-francisco/

How he described it...

We were expecting Haight-Ashbury to be special, a creative and artistic place, filled with Beautiful People, but it was horrible – full of ghastly drop-outs, bums and spotty youths, all out of their brains. Everybody looked stoned – even mothers and babies – and they were so close behind us they were treading on the backs of our heels. It got to the point where we couldn’t stop for fear of being trampled.
.
.
(snip)
.
.
Then the bloke turned round and said to the others, ‘George Harrison turned me down.’

And they went, ‘No!’

And then the crowd became faintly hostile

Knowing that, more of the Yar scene was due to Tasha's background and not just an expository upchuck. It's not the most direct parallel, of course... A little creative freedom in script writing would be inevitable, since "The Enterprise Incident" isn't a verbatim retelling of "The Pueblo Incident" either. But his visit isn't necessary; since 1967 and the prominent effects of drug and alcohol abuse... the scene is exposition and pretty much at the level of "in yer face", and there's still much one can read into the scene and in any number of ways.

 

[AlanC9]

I never quite understoof why people react so negatively to Yar's drug speech. Nothing she says is wrong and it relates to her character having grown up in a lawless hellhole where, realistically speaking, abuse of highly addictive and harmful illegal drugs (of a heroine, meth and bathsalz like level) would be a huge issue. And season 1 is full of ham-fisted and artificial.
Plus its the only time her planned bond with Wesley actually made it to the screen.
So...what's so bad about it?

It's not just that it was ham-fisted and artificial; I agree that it isn't all that far out of line with a lot of early TNG. It's that it's not even on-point for the episode, which lampshades the artificiality and ham-fistedness. Felicium wasn't being taken recreationally in the first place. The analogy might actually fly a little better nowadays, since the opioid crisis is a bit closer to the episode situation.

 

[Jayson1]

I never quite understoof why people react so negatively to Yar's drug speech. Nothing she says is wrong and it relates to her character having grown up in a lawless hellhole where, realistically speaking, abuse of highly addictive and harmful illegal drugs (of a heroine, meth and bathsalz like level) would be a huge issue. And season 1 is full of ham-fisted and artificial.
Plus its the only time her planned bond with Wesley actually made it to the screen.
So...what's so bad about it?

I think it comes down to Wesley being written as way way to naive about such things. Wesley is a teenager not a small child. It's sort of also connects to his "Were with Starfleet. We don't like" or the fact he never seems to be thinking about sex or getting into trouble and doing that typical teenage rebellion stuff teenagers usually do and then grow out of as they get older and mature.

Jason

 

[publiusr]

Nothing she says is wrong and it relates to her character having grown up in a lawless hellhole

You see that today. Code of Honor was the most cringeworthy, but a Marvel tie in can clear that up with Wakandan separatists leaving Earth to found their own colony.

I chalk the skimpy TOS outfits to a rediscovery of pro-sex feminists like Paglia.

I also have this idea of cyberpunk wizard and glass stuff frowned upon after virus wars, with simpler looking tech getting people’s eyes up out of consumer devices and back on tasks.

Everything old is new again.

 

[Orphalesion]

I think it comes down to Wesley being written as way way to naive about such things. Wesley is a teenager not a small child. It's sort of also connects to his "Were with Starfleet. We don't like" or the fact he never seems to be thinking about sex or getting into trouble and doing that typical teenage rebellion stuff teenagers usually do and then grow out of as they get older and mature.

Jason

I don't see anything wrong with Wesley being naive about substance dependency. Not every teenager tries drugs and it's not a necessary part of teenage rebellion (it's not a checklist, after all). And not only did Wesley grow up in the Federation, where substance abuse seems to be lower than today, but he makes the impression of having had a very sheltered upbringing with mostly Starfleet-aligned adults for company.