[kevin]

Having gone through season 2 there's a dubious message runs through a couple of season 2 shows.

Women are there to have their lives made complete by the love of a man, calling them 'beautiful' immediately puts them under Kirk's spell because they are so feeble minded on their own and generally 'love' is all you need.

It made more than a few of them hard to get through.

In fact, in watching 'By any other Name' I actually felt that it could have been what might be written had someone decided to do a parody of Star Trek. And yet, it is a TOS episode!!

[jla1987]

Originally Posted by DevilEyes

Actually, I think that Mudd's Women is far, far worse.

I, Mudd doesn't have a weird and dubious 'message' and doesn't involve sex trafficking taken lightly. Plus it has 10 or 15 minutes of pure dadaism at the end of the episode - something you don't normally see on mainstream TV.

TBH, I find the animated Mudd episode (Mudd's Passion) to be the best of all 3 chapters of Mudd. "I, Mudd" is just a tad worse than Mudd's Women IMO, but both are quite blah.

[kevin]

Mudd is one of those things where I guess you like him or you don't. Marmite like. Never been a huge fan myself.

[jla1987]

I enjoyed those episodes when I was little, but now if I'm gonna watch some TOS, that won't be it.

[DevilEyes]

Originally Posted by kevin

Having gone through season 2 there's a dubious message runs through a couple of season 2 shows.

Women are there to have their lives made complete by the love of a man, calling them 'beautiful' immediately puts them under Kirk's spell because they are so feeble minded on their own and generally 'love' is all you need.

Women in TOS generally tend to forget everything else when they set their eyes on a man. Christine Chapel will forgive her long lost fiancee for being a psycho kidnapper and crazy megalomaniac, although she is upset that he might be sleeping with one of his androids... Only the fact that he was an android himself rather than her real George was a bit too much for her. The rest of the time, she mostly mopes around and pines after Spock, looking like she's going to cry every minute. Janice Rand's main concern after finding out that she might have a deadly disease is that the Captain continues to admire her legs. And of course, there's the recurring theme of female crewmembers being smitten to the point of acting like a brainwashed cultist as soon as a charismatic, hunky, manly villain-of-the-week comes along and pays them a bit of attention.

[jerhanner]

Dudes, when I was in grade school and middle school, there were no girl's sports. Even in high school it was just soccer and softball. Things were so very very very different in the 1960's.

[Beetlescott]

In the 60s things were just so much different than now. Just think of the things we have now that we didnt' even think of back then! When Star Trek first came out, it was one of the best special effects on TV! I remember when we got our first color TV! We had never had the thought there would ever be anything like a VCR, Computer, 150 channels to watch, we had 3 channels, when it rained or snowed, I had to go out and turn the antenna around! Things were just so different, but troubling in the 60s. Star Trek, to me, back then, was just as up to date as ENT when it first come out. The themes about the females making goo goo eyes to the males of the week, was so normal! It was on all the other shows. I know everybody thinks of something different when they watch TOS, I personally think of running home to watch Star Trek, and then, especially on July 20th 1969, after Armstrong walked on the moon!!! That added fuel to the fire!!! Every day, I got off the bus, ran to the TV, turned on Star Trek at 4:30 every afternoon!!! Anyway I have such pleasant memories of Star Trek in the 60s!

[Howlin' Wolf]

Originally Posted by jerhanner

Dudes, when I was in grade school and middle school, there were no girl's sports. Even in high school it was just soccer and softball. Things were so very very very different in the 1960's.

No kidding, in the early 70's my sister ran track not because she liked it but because there were so very few sports available at our school for females. I was four years younger than her and had more choices.

[Howlin' Wolf]

Originally Posted by Beetlescott

When Star Trek first came out, it was one of the best special effects on TV!

Despite 2001 it seemed like it stayed that way for the most part in all mediums til Star Wars and Close Encounters came out. Most advances seemed to be in fantasy films.

[kevin]

Originally Posted by DevilEyes

Women in TOS generally tend to forget everything else when they set their eyes on a man. Christine Chapel will forgive her long lost fiancee for being a psycho kidnapper and crazy megalomaniac, although she is upset that he might be sleeping with one of his androids... Only the fact that he was an android himself rather than her real George was a bit too much for her. The rest of the time, she mostly mopes around and pines after Spock, looking like she's going to cry every minute. Janice Rand's main concern after finding out that she might have a deadly disease is that the Captain continues to admire her legs. And of course, there's the recurring theme of female crewmembers being smitten to the point of acting like a brainwashed cultist as soon as a charismatic, hunky, manly villain-of-the-week comes along and pays them a bit of attention.

Originally Posted by jerhanner

Dudes, when I was in grade school and middle school, there were no girl's sports. Even in high school it was just soccer and softball. Things were so very very very different in the 1960's.

Great thoughts!

And on a 'reality' level of course it's what was going on at the time, but in the context of the ideas of Star Trek it remained quite rooted in the conventions of the time - Uhura and some guest stars along the way aside - when it came to the portrayal of some of it's women.

It's just quite noticeably so all these years later.