--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, keithbjohn...@... wrote: > > That's an interesting point: just how big is the female following among Trek? And how does its appeal among women compare with other scifi giants like Babylon 5, Star Wars, Farscape?
Trek has always had an extremely strong female following. Had it not been for females the whole franchise might have never rearose. Females started the very first drive to bring Trek back when it was in danger of being canceled after season two of TOS as well as keeping the drive going for making the move to film. We also had a strong hand in starting the original fan cons. > > I agree that the women of Trek weren't very well utilized in the main. I read character sketches on TNG, for example, revealing that Deanna Troi was originally characterized as having a genius level IQ. The only hint of that we saw was one ep where she beat Data playing 3D chess, and even that might be more her ability to think outside his logical box. I didn't start liking Deanna until she started dressing in uniform and I really became a fan after she played the undercover Romulan. Beverly Crusher was a fav of mine, but she was woefully underused. She was a fav of mine as well and they really had not a clue what to do with her, besides kill patients.:) I guess you'd put Janeway in the "ultra butch" category, and Seven of Nine and T'Pol in the "ultra fem" category? I liked Janeway at first, until they turned her into a bad rendition of a female Capt. Ahab with earth as the whale. For some reason I liked Seven, okay the costume was a bit much, but I actually thought Jerry did an okay job. I never meshed with Enterprise so I can't really say much about T'pol. I do plan to watch the show from beginning to end one day. I have to, I'm a Trekkie.:) > > What about the women of Deep Space Nine? They seemed to be fairly well-rounded to me. Dax was sexy and attractive, but also smart and tough and serious when needed. She was never too far one way or the other. Same for Kira, who was tough as nails, but allowed to be a woman who could have tender feelings for a man. The DS9 ladies were as close to real women as Trek ever came, although here and there they strayed a bit. My fav was Kassidy and they sort of half-heartedly used her. Still DS9 is my favorite 'realistic' Trek. TNG's my fav 'fantasy' Trek. As for the others, Star War only had Leia and in the first movie she was just the 'bone' the heroes wanted. I do like her. One can't expect much more from Lucas, after all. I never saw all of Babylon 5, but I liked what I did see a great deal. As for Farscape, I'm still in shock that they took it off. I absolutely loved this show from beginning to end. They got it right. I'm still hoping for a movie or something. Meta
