The Enemy Within

[Leela]

I first saw this as a little kid, so it flew over my head in terms of meaning. But as I got older and re-watched reruns, I wanted to smack them all upside the head for the way they treated Rand.

Spock gets extra special negative mention for taunting Rand about it at the end. Just because Rand liked Kirk did not mean she enjoyed being attacked and nearly brutalized.

 

[seigezunt]

Spock gets extra special negative mention for taunting Rand about it at the end. Just because Rand liked Kirk did not mean she enjoyed being attacked and nearly brutalized.

Yep, I agree.

That said, I generally like the episode, and overlook the "hey can't they just send down a shuttlecraft"? problem.

I've used this episode to explain ideas about the nature of evil in Jewish mysticism. The two halves of Kirk are like the Good and Evil Inclination in Jewish thought, which also makes the point that without the Evil Inclination, we wouldn't have ambition or drives to do things that can be good (procreating, etc.)

 

[Sir Rhosis]

^^^Hell, ya think that's bad. Follow the link below and read Rand's reaction in the original script!

Sir Rhosis

 

[Captain Robert April]

Yikes.

Were we to believe that Rand is so hot for Kirk that she'd take her near-rape as an opportunity to flirt with the captain?

I suppose it would've been easier to accept with her making the crack instead of Spock doing his dirty-old-Vulcan routine.

 

[Timo]

Just watching the Man Trap and I can't believe some of the racism in that! Uhura tells Kirk that a Space Commander Dominguez has requested they hurry with urgent supplies. Kirks response?

"Tell Jose he'll get his chili peppers when we get there. Tell him they're "prime Mexican reds," I hand-picked them myself, but he won't die if he goes a few more days without them."!

Umm, where's the racism in that?

Unless you suppose that Dominguez had in fact requested vital medication that would save the life of his little daughters, but Kirk decided that the world would be a happier place without a few outer space Mexican bitches and thumbed his nose at Dominguez.

Which would be pretty racist of you.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Pauln6]

I think it was a defining moment for her and said a lot about her strength of character. She stood up straight and said no, even though she fancied him like mad normally and as she said, she felt awkward standing her ground because he is her commanding officer. It has a lot more symbolism in today's society as date rape is a well-known phenomenon.

In a modern show it could have represented a change in their ongoing relationship as they dealt with the fall-out, which would have been a good way to keep their 'relationship' simmering. With the Trek reset button she was back to trying to get him to look at her legs in a trice. It also gave the Rand character fewer avenues to explore and contributed to her loss from the show.

 

[Leela]

Wow.


Rape-as-romance was a common plot device when I was growing up (I was born in the 60s). So this doesn't surprise me, but as I said, even as a kid, in the 70s, I thought Spock was a jerk for what he said. Had Rand actually said that and had it been earlier qualified with the same brutal scenes between dark-Kirk and Rand, I'd have been grossed out.

Buffy and Spike had a hard and violent relationship at times, but when he refused to take no for an answer (or even grok that her 'no' was real and that she wasn't able to kick him into tuesday because of an injury), the show didn't write off his behavior as 'what she wanted'.

^^^Hell, ya think that's bad. Follow the link below and read Rand's reaction in the original script!

Sir Rhosis

 

[MikeS]

Just watching the Man Trap and I can't believe some of the racism in that! Uhura tells Kirk that a Space Commander Dominguez has requested they hurry with urgent supplies. Kirks response?

"Tell Jose he'll get his chili peppers when we get there. Tell him they're "prime Mexican reds," I hand-picked them myself, but he won't die if he goes a few more days without them."!

Umm, where's the racism in that?

Unless you suppose that Dominguez had in fact requested vital medication that would save the life of his little daughters, but Kirk decided that the world would be a happier place without a few outer space Mexican bitches and thumbed his nose at Dominguez.

Which would be pretty racist of you.

Timo Saloniemi

You seem to have come up with a few prejudices yourself there. You know nothing about me and I will treat your snide comment with the contempt it deserves.

Watch the episode. See how the line is delivered. Kirk gets a message from a space commander with a Latin sounding name and delivers a racist joke. Or are you implying that chilli peppers are actually urgent supplies?

 

[Captain Robert April]

I think it means that starship captains are a politically incorrect bunch and aren't above making off-color jokes with each other.

Another reason to admire Captain Kirk.

 

[Pauln6]

I think it means that starship captains are a politically incorrect bunch and aren't above making off-color jokes with each other.

Another reason to admire Captain Kirk.

Put this in the historical context of the show. They were making the point that the captain was hispanic and a good way to do that to the 'ignorant' sixties audience was to underscore it by saying he was craving a racially stereotypical foodstuff. The key here is that, wow, an hispanic man made captain! It's such a non event today that we view the comments as derogatory but I bet it wasn't intended that way at the time.

Plus, I'm English and I like chili. Let the man eat his chili you green-blooded sons of b*tches!

 

[Brutal Strudel]

Just watching the Man Trap and I can't believe some of the racism in that! Uhura tells Kirk that a Space Commander Dominguez has requested they hurry with urgent supplies. Kirks response?

"Tell Jose he'll get his chili peppers when we get there. Tell him they're "prime Mexican reds," I hand-picked them myself, but he won't die if he goes a few more days without them."!

Umm, where's the racism in that?

Unless you suppose that Dominguez had in fact requested vital medication that would save the life of his little daughters, but Kirk decided that the world would be a happier place without a few outer space Mexican bitches and thumbed his nose at Dominguez.

Which would be pretty racist of you.

Timo Saloniemi

You seem to have come up with a few prejudices yourself there. You know nothing about me and I will treat your snide comment with the contempt it deserves.

Watch the episode. See how the line is delivered. Kirk gets a message from a space commander with a Latin sounding name and delivers a racist joke. Or are you implying that chilli peppers are actually urgent supplies?

I took it to mean that a flag officer was (slightly) abusing his rank to "demand" speedy delivery of a luxury item from a junior officer who was also a friend--and that's just it, I took Kirk's comment about picking the peppers himself as evidence that he was doing a personal favor for a personal friend, one parsecs from home and hungry for a taste of it. It was ham-fisted, maybe, but I look at this way: the very first aired episode is establishing a Latino flag officer who ranks the white captain. Later, but not much later, we'd get this kind of racial forward thinking done with more finesse in the personages of Mendez and and the presumably African-American Stone.

Not that this should sway you to accept my view, but I'll call racism in a second--never get me started on Planet of the Apes. I honestly don't see racism here.

 

[MikeS]

Actually, I hadn't thought of it that way. I am viewing it from a different perspective than the audience in the sixties. Shows how far we've come I suppose.

Thankyou to the last couple of posters for the more thoughtful insight and contributions.

 

[Neutral Zone]

I have always compared this to the Jekyll & Hyde story line showing the strong and weak sides of our nature or good and evil. I've always considered this one as enjoyable but average after watching other eps afterwards, this one was in the early days but are there really any bad eps, I never thought so when I saw them as a kid.

 

[Orcus]

As someone of arguable mixed race I find it disconcerting when people rush in haste to produce the race card.

I certainly didn't find anything racist in the above comments and I'm somewhat Latino (with a smattering of Moorish/Moroccan) myself...

 

[Basil]

Umm, where's the racism in that?

Unless you suppose that Dominguez had in fact requested vital medication that would save the life of his little daughters, but Kirk decided that the world would be a happier place without a few outer space Mexican bitches and thumbed his nose at Dominguez.

Which would be pretty racist of you.

Timo Saloniemi

You seem to have come up with a few prejudices yourself there. You know nothing about me and I will treat your snide comment with the contempt it deserves.

Watch the episode. See how the line is delivered. Kirk gets a message from a space commander with a Latin sounding name and delivers a racist joke. Or are you implying that chilli peppers are actually urgent supplies?

I took it to mean that a flag officer was (slightly) abusing his rank to "demand" speedy delivery of a luxury item from a junior officer who was also a friend--and that's just it, I took Kirk's comment about picking the peppers himself as evidence that he was doing a personal favor for a personal friend, one parsecs from home and hungry for a taste of it. It was ham-fisted, maybe, but I look at this way: the very first aired episode is establishing a Latino flag officer who ranks the white captain. Later, but not much later, we'd get this kind of racial forward thinking done with more finesse in the personages of Mendez and and the presumably African-American Stone.

Not that this should sway you to accept my view, but I'll call racism in a second--never get me started on Planet of the Apes. I honestly don't see racism here.

It all has to taken in context for the time, of course, and compared to such issues as what were common stereotypes for Latinos (hot-blooded, exemplified by food choices?; wanting to bend the rules or deal in the black market?), what were prevailing attitudes by the so-called general public, and how often non-WASP or non "American" characters were portrayed on American TV in a multi-dimensional light.

Imagine if the show had debuted right after WWII, and given the large amount of anti-German sentiment, the exchange went more like this:

Uhura tells Kirk that a Space Commander Oberdorf has requested they hurry with urgent supplies. Kirks response?

"Tell Fritz he'll get his wiener schnitzel when we get there. Tell him its "prime Bavarian veal," I slaughtered the calf myself, but he won't die if he goes a few more days without it."

Or what if he were African American?

Uhura tells Kirk that a Space Commander Brown has requested they hurry with urgent supplies. Kirks response?

"Tell Ivory he'll get his collard greens when we get there. Tell him they're "prime Harlem soul food," I hand-picked them myself, but he won't die if he goes a few more days without them."!

Or maybe he's Italian:

Uhura tells Kirk that a Space Commander Boyardi has requested they hurry with urgent supplies. Kirks response?

"Tell Guido he'll get his cannoli when we get there. Tell him they're "prime Neopolitan dough," I hand-fried them myself, but he won't die if he goes a few more days without them."!

I don't know that out of context the original quote was racist or even ethnocentric, but I can see where it relies on an oversimplified sense of what a name like "Dominguez" suggests about the culture and habits of the person.

 

[Kegg]

Man it really has been ages since I've seen this episode. It enver occured to me there was racism here - though who could forget the rape? And Shatner's delightfully hamfisted evil side? Never been a favourite of mine, but I did like the idea - even as a kid, and perhaps especially as a kid - that the evil innate in us is an essential part of what makes us human, we need our urges or we'll just wither away. Potent stuff, that.

I took it to mean that a flag officer was (slightly) abusing his rank to "demand" speedy delivery of a luxury item from a junior officer who was also a friend--and that's just it, I took Kirk's comment about picking the peppers himself as evidence that he was doing a personal favor for a personal friend, one parsecs from home and hungry for a taste of it. It was ham-fisted, maybe, but I look at this way: the very first aired episode is establishing a Latino flag officer who ranks the white captain.

Quite, and excellently put. The joke serves the function of 'get it? Yes, Dominiguez, you heard right', and also seems rather unremarkable with guys joshing each other if they're close friends. Maybe this is just my experience but entirely tasteless insults aren't uncommon among close male friends.

It'd be quite another thing if Kirk was resenting the idea this damn filthy Latino could order him around, fondling his copy of the Turner Diaries because someday, someday soon, his time will come...

 

[Brutal Strudel]

What I do find questionable and offensive, btw, is that, in the early concept for Trek, with Pike as the captain, Joe "Jose" Tyler was described as being the son of a Bostonian physicist and a woman who is little more than a spicy Mexican firecracker and thus he had to struggle against his hot Latin blood.

As much as I dislike Voyager, I'll always find it delightful it was Lt. Torres' Latino (read: human) side that was her mild, rational side and her Klingon side where her hot blood came from. Now if only they had embroiled her and Seven of Nine in a hot, antagonistic and passionate love affair...

 

[Kegg]

What I do find questionable and offensive, btw, is that, in the early concept for Trek, with Pike as the captain, Joe "Jose" Tyler was described as being the son of a Bostonian physicist and a woman who is little more than a spicy Mexican firecracker and thus he had to struggle against his hot Latin blood.

And then they cast a pretty white actor for Tyler, I had no idea through several watchings of "The Cage" the guy was supposed to be even half-Latino. For all the affection I do have for that pilot, if Trek went ahead in that incarnation the only racial boundary it'd break is that there's a nonspeaking Asian guy on the far corner of the transporter room (the shock!)

As much as I dislike Voyager, I'll always find it delightful it was Lt. Torres' Latino (read: human) side that was her mild, rational side and her Klingon side where her hot blood came from.

Which didn't stop every other would-be Internet wit from equating her Klingon rage to Latina rage, but yeah, that was a nice touch.

Now if only they had embroiled her and Seven of Nine in a hot, antagonistic and passionate love affair...

I don't like that idea one bit.

It needs more Kes.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

There's always room for one more...

 

[Kelso]

What I do find questionable and offensive, btw, is that, in the early concept for Trek, with Pike as the captain, Joe "Jose" Tyler was described as being the son of a Bostonian physicist and a woman who is little more than a spicy Mexican firecracker and thus he had to struggle against his hot Latin blood.

Did that tidbit come from the Whitfield book or another source?