The Original Star Trek
Star Trek.... One of the Space Adventures television series I have not yet seen, and really had very little intention of seeing. Up until my first year of college, I had simply known of it as that weird old show that my grandfather used to shoo us out of the living room so he could watch it by himself. It was one of those things which every geek was supposed to know of, but in my efforts to fit in, I had scorned, along with the "best" of the snobs. Not that it made me more appealing to that elite crowd, but I tried. So when I first watched "The Wrath of Khan", it was my first real introduction to the wildly inconstant, incredibly complicated universe of Star Trek.
I have since grown to love the movies, and have enjoyed the very few episodes of Next Generation I have seen, been rather neutral about the episodes of Enterprise I've seen. But I had yet to see any of the original series which so snatched at the American imagination the second time the show aired and has generated so many die-hard fans over the years.
Recently, we discovered that our local public library had in stock the DVDs of most of (if not all) of Original Trek and, on a nerdy whim, we checked out quite a few of them. In watching them, I found myself taking notes and thought that I might compile my thoughts on my journey through the Final Frontier here, where I could get at them later and see what other people thought of them. I'm going to try and go through them in the chronological order of the series, but as the library doesn't have all of them in at the same time, I may be forced to backtrack occasionally. I note, I didn't watch them in chronological order, mostly, so the length of my commentary may fluctuate depending on my emotions, my confusion, when I watched it, and what writing surface I had available at the time. ;D
And so we begin with episode four, ominously titled... "Mudd's Women"
~~~*~~~
Miniskirt Sighting 1: 15 (if you count that the woman in a poncho didn't seem to have much [if any] dress on underneath)
Let me just note, the ship that we see on the scanners looks hilariously similar to a slice of orange zooming through the stars. I will never look at breakfast the same way again.
Oh hey! They must not have fully decided on what section of command Uhura fit into, because she's dressed in the yellow (which was actually green) that Kirk and the navigational crew are dressed in. ... Boy am I glad when she gets settled into red, later. The music is always hilarious. Particularly the Dramatic! bits. Violin tremelo~! Also, apparently they only have six lithium crystals, and when one drops, it shorts out the bridge briefly? Seems like a design flaw... Better include that in your report to Starfleet engineers, there, Captain.
And the villain visitor this episode is... what race is this guy supposed to be? I mean, human, but his accent says Irish, but he's wearing something that would look more at home on Don Quixote. In 60's coloring, of course. Ugh, what a horrible shade of orange. With that disco ball, lich's phylactery, Faberge egg, earring... thing.
Oh, and he's brought three Sexy Women. One's wearing pretty much nothing but a poncho, and the others are wearing slinky, sequined Hollywood Starlet Red Carpet dresses. Color coded, of course. Isn't it weird and interesting that we automatically assign blue and pink to blondes, and green goes to a brunette? What the heck, society? Why is that? Aaaand they've already hypnotized the men with their youth and beauty. Complete with one of them catching her lip in her teeth, fuzzy focus and lighting, sexay music and... a long shot of their butts. .... Really, Star Trek? Really? Really. Stay classy, Trek.
Ah! <3 Spock, that was awesome. Someone remarked to him that because he's a Vulcan he doesn't appreciate the women's charms, and he raises his eyebrows, smirks and jerks his head in a shrug that clearly says "Eh... I've seen better."
Wow, this visitor, Mudd, just gets worse and worse. He hasn't briefed his assets women at all, is a horrifically bad liar, and flips in and out of accent all the time. He doesn't exactly hide his plans, either, but lays them all out despite the presence of Enterprise security personnel in the room with him. Such a brilliant man. He wants to take over the world! control of the Enterprise, and all the women want... rich husbands as companions. Such ambition.
So of course the woman with the least (conventionally) attractive features (raw bone structure who looks like she's had too much plastic surgery) is the weak-willed one who can't go through with the plan meant to get her the best deal, is sort of half portrayed as pathetic and half as moral, and is given to hysterics. And her name is Eve.
I think I've read this fable before. The younger they are, the less intelligent but more manipulative they get, but they grow older and become smarter. Of course, when they're smarter, they realize the folly of the situation that they're in. But that just makes them leap for the magic pill that will make them more beautiful and attractive to men.
Only men obsessed with their job, or half-breeds with no appreciation for the human fairer sex, can see through the hypnotic, seductive power. Marvelous suggestion, there.
It seems that if you won't put out immediately, you'll be shoved aside for another, more amenable sort, whom people will fight over. But if you become upset about this sudden abandonment, you're portrayed as overly emotional, with no notion of self-preservation or the foresight to see how your melodramatic maneuver will endanger others. And this will cause the man who pushed you away to become retroactively concerned and rush into danger to fetch you back, making him a hero while you are a weak, silly-headed girl.
These two are just perfect models of civility. He makes a big deal of not touching her, she brushes it aside, she does chores and cooks, he objects but can't do anything well by himself, she makes a tart suggestion, he sneers but tries it anyway... "I guess I"m supposed to sit down to eat, too, and not roll my eyes. 'oooo, female cooking again.'" he says, dripping sarcasm. The arrogance in both of them is overwhelming. They're both incredibly defensive and scornful of each other.
The moment he comes back to see that the magic pill has worn off and she's "homely", he looses all interest in her and actually becomes angry, claiming that she tricked him. Turns out that this "Venus drug" enhances what's "already there". Men become more muscular and more aggressive. Women become "rounder and more feminine". What exactly is that supposed to mean? Well, she tells you.
-"You don't want women to help - cook, clean, knit, cry... You just want this. Don't you. Selfish, vain nuisances."
As soon as she takes the drug, he's immediately and visibly attracted to her. He can't take his eyes off her, he clearly wants to be as close to her as possible.
Turns out, Kirk gave her a placebo, not the real drug, and the change in her appearance was due to her belief that she would be pretty. A sort of confidence? That's sort of redeeming, Trek, but it still means that you still have to have a physical change in order to be beautiful. You have to decide to make yourself beautiful, effectively.
She gets told that she'll stay, and she just accepts it. Despite the contempt and hurt she was showing toward this same man not five minutes ago. Despite that he's clearly only attracted to her while she's concentrating on making herself pretty.
~~~*~~~
I have to say, I was extremely disappointed with this episode. It was one long patriarchal muck-up except for the one possible exception of Kirk's revelation. I had to stop the episode multiple times in order to froth and yell at the screen and discuss it with my fellow viewers. And, to make it better, I'm told that this is the one villain who makes a reappearance in this show. Wonderful. I'm sure I'll despise him just as much then. Even if I own the series later in my life, I will never watch this episode again. Not unless I really need to be angry at something for a while.
PS - if anyone has formatting suggestions that they'd care to make, please feel free to do so. ...Maybe I'd better cut down on my notes.
1 Miniskirt Sightings are counted as the number of shots - within all scenes - in which legs can be seen beneath a miniskirt. It doesn't matter if it's the same character in one scene. Example: In a bridge scene, we see Uhura at her station in her miniskirt (1) and cut away to Kirk conversing with Yeoman Rand who is standing on a step so that we can see her miniskirt (2) then back to Uhura, who spins her chair with a flash of leg and skirt (3). Back to Kirk, with Rand exiting behind him (4) and an unnamed blue-clad girl carrying a clipboard to one of the other stations (5). We pan over Uhura to Spock (6), then cut to Sulu, behind whom Blue is waiting for an officer to finish marking her clipboard (7). We then change scenes to McCoy in the sick bay with his miniskirt clad assistant (8). During the two minute scene in sick bay, we only see the assistant 3 times, once from the waist up, once more from the knees up (9). Etc, etc, etc.
I have since grown to love the movies, and have enjoyed the very few episodes of Next Generation I have seen, been rather neutral about the episodes of Enterprise I've seen. But I had yet to see any of the original series which so snatched at the American imagination the second time the show aired and has generated so many die-hard fans over the years.
Recently, we discovered that our local public library had in stock the DVDs of most of (if not all) of Original Trek and, on a nerdy whim, we checked out quite a few of them. In watching them, I found myself taking notes and thought that I might compile my thoughts on my journey through the Final Frontier here, where I could get at them later and see what other people thought of them. I'm going to try and go through them in the chronological order of the series, but as the library doesn't have all of them in at the same time, I may be forced to backtrack occasionally. I note, I didn't watch them in chronological order, mostly, so the length of my commentary may fluctuate depending on my emotions, my confusion, when I watched it, and what writing surface I had available at the time. ;D
And so we begin with episode four, ominously titled... "Mudd's Women"
~~~*~~~
Miniskirt Sighting 1: 15 (if you count that the woman in a poncho didn't seem to have much [if any] dress on underneath)
Let me just note, the ship that we see on the scanners looks hilariously similar to a slice of orange zooming through the stars. I will never look at breakfast the same way again.
Oh hey! They must not have fully decided on what section of command Uhura fit into, because she's dressed in the yellow (which was actually green) that Kirk and the navigational crew are dressed in. ... Boy am I glad when she gets settled into red, later. The music is always hilarious. Particularly the Dramatic! bits. Violin tremelo~! Also, apparently they only have six lithium crystals, and when one drops, it shorts out the bridge briefly? Seems like a design flaw... Better include that in your report to Starfleet engineers, there, Captain.
And the villain visitor this episode is... what race is this guy supposed to be? I mean, human, but his accent says Irish, but he's wearing something that would look more at home on Don Quixote. In 60's coloring, of course. Ugh, what a horrible shade of orange. With that disco ball, lich's phylactery, Faberge egg, earring... thing.
Oh, and he's brought three Sexy Women. One's wearing pretty much nothing but a poncho, and the others are wearing slinky, sequined Hollywood Starlet Red Carpet dresses. Color coded, of course. Isn't it weird and interesting that we automatically assign blue and pink to blondes, and green goes to a brunette? What the heck, society? Why is that? Aaaand they've already hypnotized the men with their youth and beauty. Complete with one of them catching her lip in her teeth, fuzzy focus and lighting, sexay music and... a long shot of their butts. .... Really, Star Trek? Really? Really. Stay classy, Trek.
Ah! <3 Spock, that was awesome. Someone remarked to him that because he's a Vulcan he doesn't appreciate the women's charms, and he raises his eyebrows, smirks and jerks his head in a shrug that clearly says "Eh... I've seen better."
Wow, this visitor, Mudd, just gets worse and worse. He hasn't briefed his assets women at all, is a horrifically bad liar, and flips in and out of accent all the time. He doesn't exactly hide his plans, either, but lays them all out despite the presence of Enterprise security personnel in the room with him. Such a brilliant man. He wants to take over the world! control of the Enterprise, and all the women want... rich husbands as companions. Such ambition.
So of course the woman with the least (conventionally) attractive features (raw bone structure who looks like she's had too much plastic surgery) is the weak-willed one who can't go through with the plan meant to get her the best deal, is sort of half portrayed as pathetic and half as moral, and is given to hysterics. And her name is Eve.
I think I've read this fable before. The younger they are, the less intelligent but more manipulative they get, but they grow older and become smarter. Of course, when they're smarter, they realize the folly of the situation that they're in. But that just makes them leap for the magic pill that will make them more beautiful and attractive to men.
Only men obsessed with their job, or half-breeds with no appreciation for the human fairer sex, can see through the hypnotic, seductive power. Marvelous suggestion, there.
It seems that if you won't put out immediately, you'll be shoved aside for another, more amenable sort, whom people will fight over. But if you become upset about this sudden abandonment, you're portrayed as overly emotional, with no notion of self-preservation or the foresight to see how your melodramatic maneuver will endanger others. And this will cause the man who pushed you away to become retroactively concerned and rush into danger to fetch you back, making him a hero while you are a weak, silly-headed girl.
These two are just perfect models of civility. He makes a big deal of not touching her, she brushes it aside, she does chores and cooks, he objects but can't do anything well by himself, she makes a tart suggestion, he sneers but tries it anyway... "I guess I"m supposed to sit down to eat, too, and not roll my eyes. 'oooo, female cooking again.'" he says, dripping sarcasm. The arrogance in both of them is overwhelming. They're both incredibly defensive and scornful of each other.
The moment he comes back to see that the magic pill has worn off and she's "homely", he looses all interest in her and actually becomes angry, claiming that she tricked him. Turns out that this "Venus drug" enhances what's "already there". Men become more muscular and more aggressive. Women become "rounder and more feminine". What exactly is that supposed to mean? Well, she tells you.
-"You don't want women to help - cook, clean, knit, cry... You just want this. Don't you. Selfish, vain nuisances."
As soon as she takes the drug, he's immediately and visibly attracted to her. He can't take his eyes off her, he clearly wants to be as close to her as possible.
Turns out, Kirk gave her a placebo, not the real drug, and the change in her appearance was due to her belief that she would be pretty. A sort of confidence? That's sort of redeeming, Trek, but it still means that you still have to have a physical change in order to be beautiful. You have to decide to make yourself beautiful, effectively.
She gets told that she'll stay, and she just accepts it. Despite the contempt and hurt she was showing toward this same man not five minutes ago. Despite that he's clearly only attracted to her while she's concentrating on making herself pretty.
~~~*~~~
I have to say, I was extremely disappointed with this episode. It was one long patriarchal muck-up except for the one possible exception of Kirk's revelation. I had to stop the episode multiple times in order to froth and yell at the screen and discuss it with my fellow viewers. And, to make it better, I'm told that this is the one villain who makes a reappearance in this show. Wonderful. I'm sure I'll despise him just as much then. Even if I own the series later in my life, I will never watch this episode again. Not unless I really need to be angry at something for a while.
PS - if anyone has formatting suggestions that they'd care to make, please feel free to do so. ...Maybe I'd better cut down on my notes.
1 Miniskirt Sightings are counted as the number of shots - within all scenes - in which legs can be seen beneath a miniskirt. It doesn't matter if it's the same character in one scene. Example: In a bridge scene, we see Uhura at her station in her miniskirt (1) and cut away to Kirk conversing with Yeoman Rand who is standing on a step so that we can see her miniskirt (2) then back to Uhura, who spins her chair with a flash of leg and skirt (3). Back to Kirk, with Rand exiting behind him (4) and an unnamed blue-clad girl carrying a clipboard to one of the other stations (5). We pan over Uhura to Spock (6), then cut to Sulu, behind whom Blue is waiting for an officer to finish marking her clipboard (7). We then change scenes to McCoy in the sick bay with his miniskirt clad assistant (8). During the two minute scene in sick bay, we only see the assistant 3 times, once from the waist up, once more from the knees up (9). Etc, etc, etc.