Yeah, remember that Roddenberry was the first person on TV (to my knowledge) to have a woman in a significant command role: Number One, who was the second ranked bridge officer under Captain Pike. People looked to her for advice, she ran the ship and dictated tactics when Pike was kidnapped by the Talosians. But the network balked, and the character was scrapped, the actress recast as Nurse Chapel--not even allowed to be a full doctor. Even the term "Number One" disappeared until Picard resurrected it in TNG.
The funny thing? Even with that forward-thinking move in the pilot for Star Trek, sexism was still endemic. In that pilot ep with Pike, he looks at his female yeoman and grouses "I just can't get used to the idea of a woman on the bridge". He then looks at Number One and apologizes to her, the idea being she wasn't really thought of as a "normal" woman. So it was still hard for people in the 60s to conceive that two centuries hence, women would be considered equal to men outside of rare circumstances. I guess that, given the inborn sexism and the censors who couldn't deal with strong women, Trek still gets credit for trying to advance professional, capable women. Though the OS backed off on strong commanders, they did deliver other women who were more than eye candy: there were female officers portrayed as skilled psychiatrists, lawyers, historians, medical researchers, and archaeologists. The one woman who arguably was the highest ranked in OS was the Romulan Commander in "The Enterprise Incident". She commanded a ship, lead a small task force, and the Romulan men obviously followed her orders unquestioningly. Yet, she's then shown becoming "a woman" who loses her mind after Spock macks her, so again, that 60s sexism rears its head. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mr. Worf" <hellomahog...@gmail.com> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 12:49:05 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Series That Ended Badly I think that I remember watching a documentary about Rodenberry and how they forced him to change that episode to its final form. On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 8:16 PM, Keith Johnson < keithbjohn...@comcast.net > wrote: I'd rank the Trek series' endings as follows, best to worst: * TNG - irritating as hell with another time travel story, but at least Picard finally let his "hair" down and played poker with the gang * DS9 - actually a satisfying ending, but Sisko's abandoning his family still angers me, so not number one. And note that, will time travel isn't critical to the story, there is a time travel element with Sisko's newfound powers * Voyager - at least they got back to Earth. But over usage of the Borg, and another time travel story?! * Enterprise - crappy in writing, acting, and execution, a complete non-story. And like DS9, time travel per se isn't critical, but there is time shifting since Riker and Troi are telling history story. Crap. Again, what the hell is the fascination with time travel from B&B?? Oh--the OS doesn't count because it didn't get a planned ending, but the last aired show sucked. Named "Turnabout Intruder", it's the one where an old jealous girlfriend of Kirk's literally changes bodies with him and takes over as Captain. A sexist show: she did it because women just couldn't be captains in Starfleet, and the last line was a trip. Of Janice, Kirk says, "Her life could have been as fulfilling as any woman's, if only...." the idea being, "if only she'd accepted her limitations as a woman and just learned to be happy". ----- Original Message ----- From: "Martin Baxter" < martinbaxt...@gmail.com > To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, May 24, 2010 3:48:57 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Series That Ended Badly The V-Word series was a waste of both space, time and money, Daryle. And you hit it spot-on, calling "Endgame" the worst expected ending ever. (Pardon me... The Worst Expected Ending EVER. Deserves capitalization, that.) The only reason I tune din for it was because I'd caught this disgusting rumor that Paramount was going to take V-Word to the big screen, to replace Next Gen as the theater franchise. So I watched, hoping that I was wrong. Boy, was I. "We'regonnadiewe'regonnadiewe'regonnaDIEtheBABY'SHEREwe'regonnaDIE -- hey. We're back home." May all involved end in thirst. On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 3:09 PM, Daryle Lockhart < dar...@darylelockhart.com > wrote: "Voyager". What a complete waste of time. If you'll remember, I recently decided towatch the show from the beginning at the suggestion of Garrett Wang. I have now watched every episode of Voyager. "Year Of Hell" and "Unimatrix Zero" are worth the price of admission (episodes that remind me remarkably of where the "Lost" finale went left, but I digress) . But Endgame was the worst ending of any Star Trek show in history -- INCLUDING "Enterprise". On May 24, 2010, at 2:06 PM, Keith Johnson wrote: The talk of "Lost" and the less-than-spectacular ending (no Spoilers!) made me think of "The Sopranos", whose ending angered many fans. And that made me think of BSG, whose ending angered many fans. BSG made me think of "Enterprise", whose ending angered many--get the drift? So I was thinking of shows that we loved or at least were attached to, which ended in less than satisfactory methods. "Enterprise" ticked me off by using another time-travel type device, by killing Trip, and by inserting Riker and Troi unnecessarily. What other series can you think of whose endings you anticipated, but which disappointed you? I'm talking about shows that actually got an ending, not those that were canceled and simply stopped airing new eps. This can be scifi, animation, or any real life drama. -- "If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik -- Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/
