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Monday, August 8, 2016

Star Trek TNG Code Of Honor



Ugh... can we close our eyes and just pretend it never happened?  A lot of the actors would, from what I've read.  It makes me think that I should be reviewing more than one episode a week for the first couple seasons.  There are so many cringe-worthy episodes.  This is no exception.





I'll be going on about the negatives of this episode for a while.  There were no religious implications in this one.  But a lot of what would be considered political implications, especially now.  Many of the actors involved have complained of it as being racist and sexist.  I'll take each claim one at a time, starting with sexist.  




I don't really see anything sexist about it. The main reason why I'm not seeing sexism here is the way things turned out in the end.  Yareena lives, gets to keep all her property, and has the power to choose to have two husbands - one as clearly an inferior or subordinate.  She makes out like a bandit, really.  So, what's the problem here? I always roll my eyes when the characters are written as being shocked and titillated by the fact that a woman is strong, as in she can fight or is extra smart or whatever, because this is not anything out of the ordinary now or in the 80's.  Yet, perhaps more people shared my point of view back then.  I've been very weary lately of the way aggressive (not strong, but outright aggressive) females have been pushed on audiences over the last few years in particular.  They've been pushed with a sense that female characters are being sexually discriminated against if they are portrayed as anything less than superior to males in all aspects and the male characters are usually very smitten with this female dominance or submissive to it to a certain degree.  You see this sort of attitude in Lutan when he is intrigued and then awed by Tasha's fighting prowess.  So, what would be almost acceptable today was, back in the 80's considered sexist because people had known for several years at that point that women were as capable as men of being security officers.  It wasn't a big deal anymore and it shouldn't have been portrayed as such. (Which is exactly where I stand on it.  Just allow women to stand as equals without calling attention to it.)  So maybe that's where this whole sexist accusation is coming from.  Lutan's view of Tasha also didn't make a lot of sense within the episode.  His wife was a warrior type as well, and the death match that was set up between Yareena and Tasha was apparently something that wouldn't have been uncommon to the culture.  He obviously saw her as someone that could be a real challenge to his wife and able to make his dream of killing her for her property come true, but he still should've exhibited no unusual admiration of her capabilities as a woman that can hold herself like a man.  Then I thought perhaps that scene where Picard and Lutan were bartering over her may have had something to do with the sexism charge.  Well, perhaps, but the federation is always portrayed as chameleon-like when it comes to supporting other cultures.  Obviously Picard thought this society was very backwards and silly, but he was the diplomatic captain, not the space cowboy that Kirk was.




Next up, Racism.  I'm laughing right now and I can't help it.  At first blush even I'm profoundly uncomfortable with these beturbaned black people.  My first thought was that after all the racial advancements, this is how they choose to portray a planet of black people?  I was wondering if this is how they think black people are really still seen in America and therefore this is the only way they could safely portray them?  Can anyone really be that stupid?  So I researched it a little.  Evidently, the first draft of this script had made these aliens reptilian in nature.  Maybe they should've stuck with that, but I assume that the bulk of their first season budget was blown on the special effects for the pilot, so any attempt at reptilian makeup would've been awful.  But, it couldn't have been any worse than Gorn could it have?  




A couple of the actors are reported as calling this episode racist and yet one of them also goes on to point out that if they'd not been arbitrarily chosen to be African-American, then it wouldn't have been a big deal.  He may be right, but do you see anything wrong with that statement?  I do.  In the 80's the socialist agenda was gaining ground, especially in the entertainment industry, and movements like "hyphenate-America" were becoming bigger and more fashionable in order to promote division and hatred in the country.  Most popularly with blacks... "African-Americans."  It honestly makes me wonder if making these aliens a black, tribal people was, in fact, some misguided attempt to further the hyphenation cause that went horribly wrong.   After all, at the end they do claim that they are more civilized than the Federation and everyone thinks it's just so charming instead of being put off by their uncivilized (tribal) behavior in basically kidnapping and attempting to kill one of their officers as part of their rituals.  Just food for thought, anyway.  Some of the actors have fought to have it never shown again, but as with all of the old cinema and all other art works, I don't think that sort of banning procedure should be allowed. It's living in denial that mistakes were ever made. 


One more negative on this episode:  It's another rehash of a TOS script, Amok Time.  Kirk and Spock are forced to duel over some primitive mating ritual in which one party isn't even interested.  Kirk in the first; Tasha in this.  One of the characters "dies" and is revived.  Kirk in the first; Yareena in this.  It just added further insult to injury in another first season turkey.  It's no wonder Denise Crosby and Gates McFadden wanted to leave after the first season.  They were probably in fear of their potential careers at the time.  




Moving on to the positives.  I like the set designs in this one.  It had a classic feel to it, but instead of some generic barren landscape, they would lead in with an intricate cityscape and most of the scenes that took place on the planet were in richly decorated rooms, or in that large auditorium area.  You could see a hint of planet in the background but it was overshadowed by the furnishings, decor and light cage where the duel was to take place.  



I actually liked the fight sequence between Tasha and Yareena.  It was a unique set up and I liked the poison tipped spiked gloves.  It was a fairly exciting action scene for the early days of this Trek.




Also, we get to see more of the holodeck.  It is introduced in the pilot episode and from it you can easily gather that if they want to be in a nature setting, they don't necessarily need to be on a planet during the episode which is very liberating to the storylines.  In this episode you see a more practical use for the holodeck as a sort of training gym.  Even though they indicate later show that there are other gymnasiums and training areas on the ship, it is explained that the holodeck can make your training happen video game style, with increasing difficulty levels and combatants.  In this first view of the "naked" holodeck, the floor is not portrayed as being gridded like the walls and ceiling.  It's regarded as a goof, but I always liked to think that perhaps it was part of Tasha's standing aikido program that she punched in before they all entered the holodeck and called up the practice image.  




Anyway, there are many small things to enjoy in this episode and all of them are tweaked later on.  But, I still only give this terrible episode one of five stars.  Maybe I will start moving more quickly through this first season anyway.  



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