STC Episode 7
“Embracing The Wind” *** (3/5)
While the Enterprise tries to retrieve a derelict starship Kirk sits in judgment of a Starfleet commander vying for a starship command.
This episode is a mixed bag. On the one hand is an interesting story idea along with STC’s usual high production standards. On the other hand is unfocused and frustrating writing that undermines what could have been a genuinely interesting story.
In 1964 Gene Roddenberry pitched his idea for Star Trek that included a woman as ship’s First Officer. In the episode it is even stated the female character Number One was the ship’s most experienced officer (besides the Captain, of course). In the early to mid 1960s this was somewhat of a daring idea for television (although it had already long been done in literary science fiction), but then again inroads were being made for women in television during the 1960s. There were a number of television shows that were giving women prominent roles that went beyond the general convention of nurturing type character roles.
While there may have been some resistance to a female in command with some in the audience the network, NBC, actually didn’t have a problem with it. After all the character of Number One, while prominent, was not meant to be the star of the show. What NBC did object to was Roddenberry’s blatant nepotism in casting his well-known extramarital mistress in the role. That and they didn’t think Majel Barrett was strong enough to carry the role. So NBC told Roddenberry to recast the role as well as some of the other more minor characters.
Somehow this rejection of Majel Barrett—and not the character of Number One—got retold as NBC’s rejection of a female First Officer. And in extent of that the rejection of the idea of any woman in command.
As such we never did get to see a woman cast in the role of commanding a starship or starbase or anything else. And this despite the fact that much of “The Cage’s” footage was reused for the two-part episode “The Menagerie.” There viewers finally got to see Roddenberry’s original idea and the inference that if a woman could be a First Officer and assume command in the Captain’s absence then it only made sense that eventually she could attain her own command posting.
Alas that never came to be throughout the original Star Trek series. They simply never went there until the show’s third season where we finally saw a woman in command of a squadron of starships in “The Enterprise Incident”—only she was a Romulan, an alien.
Finally in the series’ final episode—“Turnabout Intruder”—we witnessed the ravings of a bitter and unbalanced woman ranting “the world of starship command had no place for a woman.” Since then for decades fans have debated the meaning underlying the words of Janice Lester. For many her words were dismissed as the ranting of a bitter woman spurned by Captain Kirk who years before chose his Starfleet career over her. Others accepted her words as a deliberate sexist declaration that women were not allowed to command starships. And this despite nothing else throughout the series itself stated definitively that women could not command and that it was counter to the message of inclusiveness Star Trek sought to convey,
Flash forward nearly fifty years and Star Trek Continues cast a woman, Erin Gray, in a command role—that of a Starfleet Commodore—in their second episode, “Lolani.” STC appeared to take the high-road stance that just because we never actually saw a woman in command in TOS didn’t mean there weren’t any given the rather small sampling of Starfleet personnel we actually got to see. This was a long overdue and very welcome element added to the TOS universe. It was a nicely understated way of addressing the issue without convoluted rationalizations.
However, now STC releases Ep. 7, “Embracing The Wind,” and they completely undermine what they had accomplished in “Lolani” by rationalizing the reason no women commanders were seen in TOS is because…the Tellerites objected to women in command as a price for helping Earth against the Romulans decades earlier.
Seriously? WTF!!! Or as Kirk says in the episode, “Why are we even having this conversation?” He’s right. It’s complete nonsense.
They built up this whole story just to continue straddling a line. The fact of Number One and later Commodore Gray completely blows the words of Janice Lester into the weeds. But, oh, a woman still cannot command a starship because the Tellerites don’t like it.
Seriously—WTF!!!
Instead of focusing on character flaws the character of Commander Garrett might have as well as questionable actions on her part—a potentially engaging story in its own right—they focus on whether a woman in general should or shouldn’t be granted a starship command.
Finally add in the frustration of leaving the issue totally unresolved because of a completely useless B plot in the episode. The B plot goes nowhere other than to serve more fannish connecting-the-dots and used an an out/excuse not to resolve the A plot.
Seriously—WTF!!!
The end result is occasional decent moments lost in a mass of frustrating storytelling that goes nowhere. Nothing is accomplished and nothing resolved. We get neither a positive nor a downbeat ending after everything is said and done. It just ends no different than it began.
That said there was something accomplished in this episode. There are plenty of connect-the-dots references to post TOS productions. There are multiple references aplenty to ENT, TNG, TMP, TWOK and TFF. After six episodes of mostly understated referencing to post TOS productions STC goes wading deep into fannishness and any semblance of being as close to TOS in overall feel as possible is thrown totally out the window.
As a result “Embracing The Wind” is just as disappointing and frustrating as “The White Iris.” Both episodes waste a lot of screen time trying to explain/rationalize something that doesn’t need to be addressed and neither accomplishes anything. “Embracing The Wind” goes one better by going out of its way to foreshadow events TOS would never have conceived of addressing.
There are good characters in this episode and occasional good moments along with admirable performances. But it’s all undermined by disappointing writing.
After enjoying Ep. 6, “Come Not Between The Dragons,” I found “Embracing The Wind” a disheartening letdown. It’s not bad, but neither is it excellent or even good. I also can’t call it outright poor because there are elements to it I do like. But in the end it’s disappointingly just okay.
*Sigh*
From the beginning STC has been an impressive production in terms of recapturing that elusive and distinct TOS vibe particularly in terms of production as well as in terms of casting and acting performances. In most cases their episodes have been founded on interesting ideas. But it needs to be said that STC's Achilles' heel, its weakness, is one shared by many fan productions: the writing. And included in that is the tendency to indulgence in fanfic style insertion of pointless connect-the-dots references to other productions. Sometimes individual stories transcend this (for the most part) and approach being on par with writing of better stories in the Trek franchise, but too often that isn't the case and fan productions become conventional fanfic only produced with live actors.
Just as TNG era style technobbable serves no purpose other to eat up screentime and sound convincingly technical, fannish callouts serve no purpose other than to substitute for a lack of engaging writing. It also serves to make the fictional universe seem ever smaller.
Good one!
