Well, the first half of ENT season 2 is the most painfully boring and formulaic stretch of Trek I have ever seen, including any equivalent stretch of Voyager, and that is saying something. I dropped the show at that point.
I have since seen most of seasons 3 and 4 and, while there is definitely a marked improvement, the show still doesn't rise above mediocrity very frequently imo. The writing is never consistently good.
It's true that Troi, Jadzia and Kira wore tight outfits as well, but it never felt as gratuitous as it did with Seven and then T'Pol. There are probably a variety of reasons for that. On the one hand, the actresses that played those characters were all extremely good looking, but none of them fit so clearly into the sci-fi genre babe stereotype as Seven and T'Pol. In Seven's case there was also this blatant contrast between the sexiness of her appearance and the sexlessness of her character and general sterility of the show. Troi, Kira and Jadzia all had romantic relationships and were allowed to not only look sexy but express their sexuality in the context of the story. Dax and Kira gossip about men they are dating and discuss who and what they find attractive, basically like normal people would.
Thus it made sense, for example, that Kira might want to look sexy because she was sexually active, romantically involved and interested in appearing attractive, just like anyone else. When you combine that with the fact that the character was complex, independent and certainly not reduced in any way to being a sex object, then there is no real problem except the relatively trivial matter that such a sexy outfit does not make much sense as a military uniform (which, given how ridiculous Starfleet uniforms are from this point of view, is hardly even noticeable). With Seven there was an obvious disconnect between the character and her appearance, which was anchored soley in how she was meant to appear to the audience, rather than to any of the other characters. As Ron Moore pointed out in his Voyager "exit interview," it's just so wierd that you have this gorgeous woman standing there in this incredibly sexy outfit and no one seems to notice or care. Compare with DS9, where everyone is in love with someone or lusting after someone and Quark never fails to make a suggestive remark when Kira walks in the bar, at which point Kira will threaten to cut off his lobes or whatever. Why would the ex-Borg drone be the only one on Voyager wearing a sexy outfit?
A similar point could be made with T'Pol initially as with Seven. I mean, why would this aloof and reserved Vulcan have implants, wear tight clothes and just generally look like a pin-up model? A least other characters did seem to notice more or less immediately that she was hot.
Early on in ENT there were a lot of failed attempts to make the show sexy, including the absolutely painful scenes in the decon chamber. These scenes were so obviously trying to be sexy and were so horribly unsexy. Utter failure. When Trip and T'Pol actually got involved later in the show I thought this was good for the character and lessened the impression of gratuity that seemed to be following in the Seven of Nine tradition in the first couple of seasons. It was still a little forced at times, but anyway a big improvement over the decon chamber (almost anything would be).
I have since seen most of seasons 3 and 4 and, while there is definitely a marked improvement, the show still doesn't rise above mediocrity very frequently imo. The writing is never consistently good.
It's true that Troi, Jadzia and Kira wore tight outfits as well, but it never felt as gratuitous as it did with Seven and then T'Pol. There are probably a variety of reasons for that. On the one hand, the actresses that played those characters were all extremely good looking, but none of them fit so clearly into the sci-fi genre babe stereotype as Seven and T'Pol. In Seven's case there was also this blatant contrast between the sexiness of her appearance and the sexlessness of her character and general sterility of the show. Troi, Kira and Jadzia all had romantic relationships and were allowed to not only look sexy but express their sexuality in the context of the story. Dax and Kira gossip about men they are dating and discuss who and what they find attractive, basically like normal people would.
Thus it made sense, for example, that Kira might want to look sexy because she was sexually active, romantically involved and interested in appearing attractive, just like anyone else. When you combine that with the fact that the character was complex, independent and certainly not reduced in any way to being a sex object, then there is no real problem except the relatively trivial matter that such a sexy outfit does not make much sense as a military uniform (which, given how ridiculous Starfleet uniforms are from this point of view, is hardly even noticeable). With Seven there was an obvious disconnect between the character and her appearance, which was anchored soley in how she was meant to appear to the audience, rather than to any of the other characters. As Ron Moore pointed out in his Voyager "exit interview," it's just so wierd that you have this gorgeous woman standing there in this incredibly sexy outfit and no one seems to notice or care. Compare with DS9, where everyone is in love with someone or lusting after someone and Quark never fails to make a suggestive remark when Kira walks in the bar, at which point Kira will threaten to cut off his lobes or whatever. Why would the ex-Borg drone be the only one on Voyager wearing a sexy outfit?
A similar point could be made with T'Pol initially as with Seven. I mean, why would this aloof and reserved Vulcan have implants, wear tight clothes and just generally look like a pin-up model? A least other characters did seem to notice more or less immediately that she was hot.
Early on in ENT there were a lot of failed attempts to make the show sexy, including the absolutely painful scenes in the decon chamber. These scenes were so obviously trying to be sexy and were so horribly unsexy. Utter failure. When Trip and T'Pol actually got involved later in the show I thought this was good for the character and lessened the impression of gratuity that seemed to be following in the Seven of Nine tradition in the first couple of seasons. It was still a little forced at times, but anyway a big improvement over the decon chamber (almost anything would be).
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