Most SEXIST Star Trek episode or moment?

[DrBB]

Since we're doing the Trek thing tonight, this is a question I used to toss out in the Sci Fi course I used to teach.

It's a crowded field, for sure--so MANY episodes to choose from that could top the heap. "Spock's Brain" is a pretty good one--the women who need to steal a brain in order to run their civilization--gotta love a theme like that. Great line: "Brain and brain! What is brain?" as one of the Givers of Pain and Delight stamps her little foot.

Still, I think the hands-down winner is the one (can't remember the name) where Dr Janice Lester uses the mind-transfer device and takes over Kirk's body in order to be Captain of the Enterprise. The closing line of the episode does it for me. "If only she could have accepted her limitations as a woman," Shatner somberly intones to Nimoy as the door closes--sssvvvviiIT--on the raving Dr. "I just want to be the Captain. Why can't I be the captain..."

[Character Assassin]

1. When Jean Luc Piccard and Beverly Crusher could have done it.

God, do I want her.

Jean Luc, you're a total dumb-ass.

[Plaid Adder]

2. You're forgetting the Jack the Ripper episode

You know...the one where Scotty gets accused of knifing some chick, and then it turns out one of the other characters has been possessed by the spirit of Jack the Ripper, who preys on women because they're naturally more prone to fear and terror?

Blech.

You can slice into TOS at any point and find sexism, really. It had a formative influence on me and I'm really glad it existed, but dang, it gets about a minus 100 for gender politics.

Got into a huge flamewar over this very issue on the first ever electronic mailing list I joined, which eventually led to me composing my first flame:

http://www.plaidder.com/tip.htm

Ah, the memories,

The Plaid Adder

[thermodynamic]

4. Lay off "Wolf in the Fold"!

Um, Jack the Ripper did attack women. Maybe it is a tad sexist, but (a) ol' Jack never attacked men, (b) some stereotypes are merely 'truths expressed outlandishly', and (c) you're being way too PC, lighten up!

You'd hate "Doctor Who" then, all the companions were female and all the did was scream a lot when some silly looking monster bounces down a corridor... :eyes: Even Barbara, the best companion ever devised, even screamed! *gasp*

Besides, TNG and later series are so PC they couldn't offend a flea. And they don't entertain either, what an odd coincidence... I apologize for offending fleas with my comment.

In the end, it's 60s sci-fi. Enjoy it for what it is and appreciate how we've evolved since then. Don't just it by modern day standards, in which case anythng made before 1990 is utter shit then. :eyes: Times were different and Trek of the time was still more powerful than most shows of the era. (As for more modern trek, it's much less daring due to its PC nature... Original Trek analyzed the human condition the best. Later series merely preached.)

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

8. I LOVE Doctor Who!

It's on late tonite, actually! I always plan friday nite around it.

You KNOW that whenever one of the women start running through a field (in Doctor Who), before she goes a dozen steps she'll twist an ankle. Sexism, or reality? (Just kidding-- I know it ain't reality-- I have no desire to have a DU woman sneak up on me and kick my ass...)

OTOH, it might just be fun! (Yes, I am a sexist pig. Big deal.) ;-)

[WoodrowFan]

24. the last one

Who was the companion with the Baseball bat? Ace? Now SHE wasn't a scream/run/fall type! Didn't she bash a Dalleck with her bat??

[thermodynamic]

3. The DS9 ep where Dax finds a symbiant in a new body...

...who happens to be a chick and they both get it on, kissing, complete with visible saliva streak... :eyes:

Trek and sex don't mix. Even Kirk only did it twice in TOS...

You're correct about "Spock's Brain" though... it's hilarious to watch, it's so camp!

The episode you mean with Dr Lester is "Turnabout Intruder" - another good episode, though obviously dated in 60s 'standards'. I don't recall Spock saying that line though...

On edit: OH! I thought you said "Sexiest"! :blush: Oops. Yeah, TOS was sexist at times - but it was the 1960s and TOS was still much more daring than most shows of the time. Even TNG and later are too PC to really be daring. They're so PC that when they try to be daring, they just come off looking stupid (e.g. the numerous gay and AIDS-themed stories. Why not REALLY be daring and have a prominent gay member or, oh my froot loops, an openly gay couple on board! *GASP!!!* :scared: But Berman is such a wussy diaper that he won't ever consider it. He's a slave to his preachy PC-ness; so much so that he can't be daring. Possibly because he doesn't want to upset the sponsors, but if Trek really was a serious show they would BE serious in its intent... All I've seen are pathetic jokes.)

[pop goes the weasel]

5. I think it was Kirk who said that line

That may be the most sexist episode of the original series, but I cut the old series some slack for its time. I don't forgive the later series, though. Remember that episode in TNG with the human boy who had been raised by the species that had killed his parents, and was taught to not only despise other humans, but women too? They resolve the situation through cultural toleration, the sort of toleration that people with a shaky hold on moral relativism have for present day societies that mutilate little girls with shards of glass. Of course, there was no such tolerance for the matriarchal Angel 1 society. And then there was the episode with the "perfect mate." And then there was Crusher explaining gender differences to the nongendered female-wannabe, as if putting on makeup was a female-specific trait through out the galaxy. Gah.

[tuck]

16. mmmmm

hey -- it was the first lesbian kiss ever on television..... that says a lot....

tasha yar was my first crush -- dax made me realize that it was a crush in the first place....

[newyawker99]

25. Hi tuck!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[soleft]

23. The Dax kiss, totally

[lolly]

6. "Turnabout Turnaround"

I think that was the title of the Lester episode.

[Maple]

7. The Dr Janice Lester

one was the most sexist. Irritated hell out of me even at the time.

However, it WAS 1965 guys...and normally Star Trek was over and above any other show of the time for non-sexism, and non-racism.

They had a woman on the bridge...an officer....and she was black! I was tickled! And no, I'm not black.

There were two other clunkers along with the Lester one, but for other reasons. The planet which had a Roman civilization and Jesus shows up as the Enterprise is leaving....and the one where a lost civilization recites...badly...the American constitution.

I never remember the titles of the shows.

But hey...in 1965 and for a couple of years...a black woman officer, a green Vulcan, and a Russian on board a starship....I loved it!

[TankLV]

15. I remember when Uhura (spelling) - gasp - was put in a romantic situation

with Kirk or some other white guy - THAT was scandalous at the time.

Especially like the half-white, half black planet that was extremely racist - because the other half had the white/black thing on the opposite halves.

Gotta remember the times. It WAS pretty ground-breaking.

Now somet look just lame - but always entertaining!

[DrBB]

9. Only for fun, and b/c they WERE so liberal. Except....

Obviously they did all kinds of things right, good social liberal stuff, having a Russian aboard, the first interracial kiss (Kirk and Uhura, coerced by telekinetic aliens--well, they would never have done it on PURPOSE), all good stuff. But this was such a blind spot. I suppose it's a little like shooting fish in a barrel and unfair, except....

How about this: in the original pilot episodes, Rodenberry's wife was cast as a senior officer--science officer I think--with straight black hair and she wielded a phaser--phallic symbol of male power and authority. According to one version of what happened, though, the cigarette companies wanted Roddenberry to put cigarettes aboard (futuristic ones of course) and he hated the idea, and the producers gave him an ultimatum: either the cigs, or the "radical fem" female officer goes. Might not be true, but in any case, he did back away from that casting decision, and she returned in the actual series as the blonde curly-haired spinster nurse who pines after the cold, unattainable Mr Spock.

Now that's sexism.

[Maple]

10. Roddenberry

spun it as the female Number 1 or the alien with the pointed ears who looked satanish.

But then Roddenberry spun a lot of things.

And in the end Majel Barret won the empire anyway.

[WoodrowFan]

11. Turnabout

As soon as I read the thread's subject line I thought of that episode. YEECH. That episode did NOT age well. But then, I don't think many of TOS's episode's aged well.

[ChillEB]

18. I disagree..

The third year was distinctly worse than the first two - they were kinda running out of ideas at that point. I think most of the ones that REALLY aged poorly are the third season ones. They often subtly touched upon what were at the time current issues, back on Earth, but during the third year, they did it a little too much, and a little too transparently. The episode with the hippy kids, all flower-powered and looking for 'nirvana' or whatever? THAT was a LAME episode. I think that Turnabout was one of THE very last ones to air, if memory serves. They were CLEARLY out of ideas by that point. The creators of the series should be forgiven for huge misstep, based on all they'd accomplished already at that point. They must've been SO burnt out by then.

Seriously, they did SO MANY episodes for a show that only had three seasons. They really had a LOT of great, quite diverse ideas for story lines, again, esp. in the first two years. TOS was, in my opinion, an unbelievable burst of creativity and a HUGE step forward for television - even if it wasn't appreciated at the time nearly as much as it is now...

[WoodrowFan]

21. Aging

I just like the later series better, for the most part. (Voyager being the exception). I agree it was very creative, but I think Roddenberry tended to get preachy and that it showed up the most in TOS (and early STNG).

Having said that I still like some of the TOS episodes a lot..

Doomsday Machine
Wolf in the Fold
Trouble with Tribbles
Piece of the Action (Fizzbin??)

Ok, one that really bothered me was "Patterns of Force". Kirk's old professor tries to unify a planet by recreating Nazi Germany but leaving out the anti-semitism. Ummm, wasn't the Nazi regime an evil dictatorship even without the Holocaust? Couldn't he find a BETTER model than Hitler????

[ChemEng]

12. At first, I thought you were asking....

what was the most sexiest Star Trek moment!!!

And I immediately thought of the movie where Voyager is returning to Earth as "Veger" looking for the creator. And i don't remember her name, but a woman crew member was "assimilated" by Veger. Later, she was "recreated" by Veger, and her former lover "joined" her at the end. I know I'm butchering the storyline, but it was a strange, but somehow sexy ending.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

13. ST:TNG Q-pid

In the Q-pid episode during the climactic sword fight, instead of fighting with swords, they have the women breaking pottery over people's heads. Not only sexist, but so cliched.

[Archae]

14. Don't forget in that episode,

"Turnabout Intruder," how Scotty and Bones can tell it's not really Kirk.

(Paraphrasing) "Kirk wouldn't get all girly hysterical like that!"

Oh right, men absolutely NEVER get hysterical. Right. Tell me another one.

Another one was "The Changeling."
Nomad says U'Hura's thought processes are all screwed up. :mad:

[ReadTomPaine]

17. Matt Jefferies has died...

All fans of Star Trek should take a moment to mourn.

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-tv.html?2003-07/22/10.00.tv

<I posted this in a similar trek thread as well>

[Cassandra]

19. The Dr. Janice Lester episode....

made me so angry that, when TNG came on, I couldn't watch it first-run. I've since seen all the episodes in reruns, but I still won't watch the last episode of classic Trek. Spock's Brain is also pretty stupid.
I might also include the decision from after the pilot episode; that an alien science officer was more believable than a female first officer.

[Paragon]

20. "Most sexiest"?

Highly illogical. ;-)

[Loonman]

22. Mudd's Women

Good stuff.