to think gene roddenberry either supported or at least sympathised with feminism ?

[MissBubbles]

what do u think ? i say this because while watching star trek the other day i thought this could be the case based on the klingon women ? has anyone noticed just how agressive and strong they are ? and bearing in mind star trek was created many years ago, i think he was trying to say that women can be just as strong & important in society :)

Look what they made 7 of 9 wear!!

Although I do agree that there is no gender/race things going on in ST. Haven't seen it all though.

DH tells me they did have Troy flying the Enterprise and she crashes it though. Isn't that saying women can't drive?

And Uhuru was a radio operator/telephonist - a traditional female role.

I think it started with good intentions, he did what he could get away with (by execs) at the time.

However, I think it went downhill as later series came along (but then character development was down across the board as well). OK they had a female captain, but it all seemed a token effort at the end. They lost their courage

There are loads of strong female characters in Voyager though, not just because they have a female captain. It is the best one anyway.

I secretly agree, as long as I don't think about it too much

midlandsmum, so you read all that just in order to post a rude comment dismissing what has actually been a rather interesting chat?

Biscuit yourself! I'll lend you some of my replicator ration!

Thats ok then. I haven't really watched TNG.

IIRC the 'banned' episodes were more due to them being unduitable before the watershed (when I watched it age 7). Miri wasn't banned - it was screened more than once. The Empath was banned (vivisection on humanoids) and Plato's Step children not shown for sexual content (although I can't imagine it raising eyebrows nowadays). One of the others was sometimes shown, sometimes not, depending on screening time (I think, and I can't for the life of me remember which one it was)

Spock's Brain was dreadful - but that never stopped it being shown.

I loved Enterprise - wish it hadn't been cancelled

And yes I'm a sad geek. But I enjoy life, have lots of friends and don't care!

Seven of Nine's outfit was something ghastly, wasn't it? And T'Pol's (in Enterprise), BUT Hoshi in Enterprise "got" to wear the same boiler-suit getup as the men, and it did nothing for her!

I have been thinking about this, and was interested to realise that the Enterprise boiler-suit uniforms actually looked reasonably nice on the men, as they are basically designed for the male shape. Is "sexless" garb for women actually male garb? How normalising is that?!

Gene Roddenberry was visionary, although had to compromise a fair bit to enable Star Trek to be screened. Majel Barrett, awesome. And they clearly respected and supported each other.
Gene R. quite obviously (IMO) supported equality for all. Star Trek has made the world a better place.

Uhm... the mini-skirts thing was actually Nichelle Nichols idea!

She (Uhura!) was horrified at the thought of wearing trousers and practically ordered the costume team to make something that would show off her figure.

In the original pilot, all the crew wore the same uniform!

It's a fair point to think Roddenberry (for all his womanising - Majel Barrett was his mistress when he cast her - not his wife!) has feminist leanings though. Vulcan society is Matriarchal and their leader, T'Pau, is described as 'the only person to turn down a seat on the federation council' with much hushed awe.

And, yes, I am a complete geek!

Re: Uhura's miniskirts:

Woman letting the side down, eh? Sigh....

I thought T'Pau was an ancient pop group

I'm a trekker newb!

IIRC there were two versions filmed of the interracial kiss, where you could see different amounts. Or something. Will have to go and Google now to check my memory...

Ah, I was hald-right. Wikipedia says "NBC finally ordered that two versions of the scene be shot?one where Kirk and Uhura kissed and one where they did not. Having successfully recorded the former version of the scene, Shatner and Nichelle Nichols deliberately flubbed every take of the latter version, thus forcing the episode to go out with the kiss intact." (source is given as Nichelle Nichols' autobiography)