sexism Archive

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Ménage à Troi”

– August 15, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

Menage a Troi “Ménage à Troi”
Written by Fred Bronson & Susan Sackett
Directed by Robert Legato

Season 3, Episode 24
Original air date: May 28, 1990
Star date: 43930.7

Mission summary

The Enterprise is hosting a trade agreement conference while in orbit around Betazed, which means it’s time for another installment of How I Studiously Avoided Meeting Your Mother starring Lwaxana Troi. Lwaxana seems happy at the chance to further berate her daughter for choosing a career over babies on Betazed, but gets derailed when a Ferengi named DaiMon Tog hits on her in the middle of the reception. For some reason “I would pay handsomely for you” doesn’t work on her, and she spurns him in front of the delegation before storming off. But Tog isn’t superficial–he wants her mind, too. To give him an edge on negotiations.

Riker gets assigned shore leave, so he and Deanna go for a walk down Memory Lane–and also the Huntington Library Botanical Gardens–on Betazed. But their little date is spoiled when Lwaxana and Mr. Homn arrive, and start Meddling. Mr. Homn goes off to pick some berries while Riker, Deanna, and Lwaxana get more and more irritated with one another. Just then, DaiMon Tog beams down! He still has the hots for Mama Troi, and won’t take no for an answer–beaming them all back to his ship.

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Tags: ferengis, Lwaxana Troi Daughter of the Fifth House Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx Heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed, Picard acts weird, sexism, shakespeare, troi is useless, wesley and picard are BFFs, wesley saves the day

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Hollow Pursuits”

Eugene Myers

– July 25, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Hollow Pursuits”
Written by Sally Caves
Directed by Cliff Bole

Season 3, Episode 21
Original air date: April 30, 1990
Star date: 43807.4

Mission summary

A lieutenant engineer we’ve never seen before, Barclay, is drinking in Ten Forward when La Forge reminds him that he’s on duty. Barclay blows off his superior, then wrestles even Commander Riker into submission and sends the two of them packing, while Counselor Troi looks on avidly. Just as she’s throwing herself at him, he’s ordered to report to one of the cargo bays. Guess they’ll have to pick this up later, which it turns out will be easy as easy as saying “Save program,” because he’s been playing out a fantasy on the holodeck.

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Tags: barclay surprises people, holodeck, holodreck, illusions, lack of holodeck privacy, loneliness, mysteries, not everyone loves riker, sexism, transporter malfunction, troi is useless, Wesley is a smartypants

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Captain’s Holiday”

Eugene Myers

– June 27, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

captainsholiday101 “Captain’s Holiday”
Written by Ira Steven Behr
Directed by Chip Chalmers

Season 3, Episode 19
Original air date: April 2, 1990
Star date: 43745.2

Mission summary

Two overdressed aliens transport to the paradise planet Risa… If this sounds like the opening to a joke, you aren’t far off. Unlike most of the people on holiday there, these aliens aren’t looking for a relaxing getaway on a suns-lit beach; they’re only after one thing: Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who wouldn’t be caught dead at a resort like that. When they’re informed that he isn’t there and has no vacation plans on the schedule, they confidently state: “He will come.” Spoilers!

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Tags: action hero, archaeology, ferengi, handwaving mumblemumble, picard gets in a punch, picard is a chuck norris joke, picard's love life, risa, rocks, sexism, sexual harassment, shore leave, time travel, transporters solve everything, wibbly wobbly timey-wimey

Star Trek Into Dimness

Torie Atkinson

– June 10, 2013 10:00 amPosted in: Movies

Star Trek Into Darkness After several busy weeks I finally got around to seeing the new AbramsTrek. I didn’t like the first one because it felt like a lame action movie with a Trek skin grafted over it. This is much, much worse. Warning: this will be a spoiler post, so do not proceed if you have not seen the movie and wish to remain unspoiled.

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Tags: angry klingons, diplomacy, emotional Spock, fully clothed man-wrestling, handwaving mumblemumble, kirk is a jerk, loyalty, mind meld, sexism, were they drunk when they threw this one together?, why did this have to happen to our beloved legacy

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “The Price”

Torie Atkinson

– February 21, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“The Price”
Written by Hannah Louise Shearer
Directed by Robert Sheerer

Season 3, Episode 8
Original air date: November 13, 1989
Star date: 43385.6

Mission summary

Troi has a fight with the replicator over chocolate, because she’s had an exhausting day or has her space period or whatever. But she can’t even enjoy it because Picard summons her to a diplomatic reception for a first look at a wormhole owned by the Barzans. The Barzan Premier, Bhavani, plans to auction off rights to the wormhole and so the Enterprise hosts delegates from several interested parties: the Federation, represented by Mendoza; the Caldonians, represented by Leyor; and the Chrysalians, represented by a humanoid named Devinoni Ral, with a sexy lady hanging off his arm. He and Troi lock eyes with the kind of vapid, sultry looks Calvin Klein models wear, making it really uncomfortable when Bhavani says “There it is, ladies and gentlemen, the first and only stable wormhole known to exist. It’s yours, for the right price. ”

I hope she means the space anomaly.

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Tags: emotional women, everyone loves riker, ferengis, hegemonic masculinity, negotiations, pick-up artists, sexism, total creepers, troi earns her paycheck, troi gets laid, women are emotional wrecks, wormholes

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “The Icarus Factor”

Torie Atkinson

– September 21, 2012 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“The Icarus Factor”
Teleplay by David Assael and Robert McCullough
Story by David Assael
Directed by Robert Iscove

Season 2, Episode 14
Original air date: April 24, 1989
Star date: 4268.4

Mission summary

Though it’s not on their official itinerary, the Enterprise is stopping at Starbase Montgomery to diagnose some funky readouts, as well as receive “priority personnel directives.” Picard meets his first officer in the observation lounge, where he praises Riker’s impressive manual docking from their first meeting, with a straight face, even. Now he has new congratulations to offer: the captain of the USS Ares is retiring, and Riker has been offered a promotion and his own ship! It’s an assignment way out in the boonies, but it’d be his. He has 12 hours to make his decision, and to help him, a “special attaché” from the Federation has come to brief him on the frontier region the Ares is studying.

Riker goes to the transporter room to meet the attaché and it’s none other than Kyle Riker, Riker’s estranged father. Man-off to commence in 3… 2… 1…

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Tags: age of ascension, boys will be boys, friends let friends spy, fully clothed man-wrestling, hegemonic masculinity, klingons, man-fighting, not everyone loves riker, sexism, what the hell is in that alakan water?

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Angel One”

Torie Atkinson

– February 23, 2012 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Angel One”
Written by Patrick Barry
Directed by Michael Rhodes

Season 1, Episode 14
Original air date: January 25, 1988
Star date: 41636.9

Mission summary

The Enterprise stumbles upon the remains of the Odin, a small freighter that collided with an asteroid seven years previous. While there are no life signs onboard, three escape pods are missing. The nearest class M planet where any survivors may have landed is Angel I, a matriarchal constitutional oligarchy with whom the Federation last had contact sixty-two years ago.

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Tags: everyone loves riker, half-naked man-chests, matriarchy, oh look what I found on the Paramount lot, oh the sexism it burns, patriarchy, romulans, sexism, sexy doom, sexy ladies, snoo-snoo, stop using sex as a weapon, troi is useless, very special episode, weird sexual politics, wesley endangers the ship

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Code of Honor”

Torie Atkinson

– December 15, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Code of Honor”
Written by Katharyn Powers and Michael Baron
Directed by Russ Mayberry; Les Landau (uncredited)

Season 1, Episode 4
Original air date: October 12, 1987
Star date: 41235.25

Mission summary

A devastating plague threatens millions of Federation lives and only one planet seems to have abundant supplies of the vaccine: Ligon II. The Ligonians, who are all black, are described as “proud,” “structured,” “ritualistic,” and “honor-based,” because I guess positive adjectives are supposed to make their African tribal vibe seem less racist.

Picard greets the leader, Lutan, and his first officer equivalent, Hagon, aboard the Enterprise. Lutan is immediately taken by Lt. Yar because on their planet “it is the duty of women only to own the land, and the duty of men to protect and rule it.” Picard gifts them some pottery and they get a tour of the Enterprise, then Yar gives them an aikido demonstration as a way to show off both the holodeck and her own physical skills. All seems to be going well, as Lutan appears both pleased by Picard and willing to negotiate for the vaccine. He politely says his goodbyes, but just as he’s beaming out he abruptly snatches Lt. Yar and transports her with them to the surface.

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Tags: 80s bodysuits, catfight, death matches, distinct lack of half-naked man-wrestling, emotional women, fully clothed woman-wrestling, planet of the hats, poledancing, racism, sexism, sexual harassment, were they drunk when they threw this one together?, why did this have to happen to our beloved legacy

Star Trek Animated Series Re-Watch: “Mudd’s Passion”

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– June 23, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: Animated Series Re-Watch

“Mudd’s Passion”
Written by Stephen Kandel
Directed by Hal Sutherland

Season 1, Episode 10
Production episode: 22008
Original air date: November 10, 1973
Star date: 4978.5

Mission summary

Enterprise makes a special trip to Motherlode in the Arcadian star system in search of one Harcourt Fenton Mudd, wanted on several counts of being annoying. They find the infamous swindler hawking a love potion to the human and ursine miners on the planet, claiming that all it takes is a drop of a magic liquid to compell any woman to love them with a single touch. “It matters not whether you are young, old, fat, ugly or repugnant,” he assures the crowd–and what better way to prove three out of four than by a personal demonstration? He brings up a young blonde who implores, “Please, darling, come back to the ship with me.” Yecch!

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Tags: breeding, emotional Spock, loneliness, lovable rogues, love, rocks, sexism, sexual harassment, why did this have to happen to our beloved legacy

Star Trek: The Animated Series Re-Watch: “The Lorelei Signal”

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– June 2, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: Animated Series Re-Watch

“The Lorelei Signal”
Written by Margaret Armen
Directed by Hal Sutherland

Season 1, Episode 4
Production episode: 22006
Original air date: September 29, 1973
Star date: 5483.7

Mission summary

Enterprise tempts fate by visiting an unfamiliar region of space where Federation ships have been disappearing for the past 150 years. A hot tip from the Klingons and Romulans reveals that ships disappear like clockwork, every 27.346 “star years,” give or take.

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