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+--- Thread: For All Star Trek Fans (/Thread-For-All-Star-Trek-Fans)
RE: For All Star Trek Fans - FaceInTheCrowd - 06-06-2022
Yes, a lot of stuff on 60s TV is cringeworthy when viewed today and Star Trek is no exception. The fact that the infamously bluenosed network censors didn't flag Spock's comment - not to mention evil Kirk attacking Rand in the first place and not being stopped by someone - is yet another dark mark against the period in general.
The mirror universe environment for women wasn't much explored in that original episode. Were women subjugated by men and forced to survive by submitting themselves to the right male power figure, or was overtly weaponizing sex and gutting anyone who crossed the wrong line with a dagger considered socially acceptable behavior? Mirror universe episodes in later Treks where the Empire was ruled by women suggest the latter, but I doubt they gave it that much thought originally.
RE: For All Star Trek Fans - irukandji - 06-08-2022
I can think of another episode where Star Trek touched upon the subject of rape, indirectly. The episode was Return of the Archons, where Landru allowed the Betans to go completely wild during their Festival. What I also found about that episode was it was the first to introduce the Prime Directive. Even when I watched Star Trek for the first time as a kid, I wondered how Kirk could prattle on about the Prime Directive and then break it with no conscience about what he did.
RE: For All Star Trek Fans - FaceInTheCrowd - 06-08-2022
A common thread in all Trek series has been captains breaking or weaseling their way around the Prime Directive. In that episode, Kirk's rationalization was that they weren't interfering with the planet's development because a computer was preventing any development from taking place. In other cases, the argument was usually that it wasn't a less advanced society if it had the technology to pose a threat to a starship. Of course, the real reason was that not interfering and letting your starship be blown up would end your series.
RE: For All Star Trek Fans - irukandji - 06-09-2022
The Prime Directive was a silly plot element to begin with, especially with one of the opening lines of the series.............."To boldly go where no man has gone before".
RE: For All Star Trek Fans - FaceInTheCrowd - 06-10-2022
A common trope in action series is the rigid commander who is always telling the hero not to do something that the plot needs done, followed by the creation of fake "static" with the wrapper of a cigarette pack or candy bar and a claim that a signal is "breaking up." Since the Enterprise was supposed to be in deep space where it could often take days for replies to messages to come - and because the additional actor and the visual effects that would be required to put one of Kirk's superiors on a screen every week would cost money - the Prime Directive served that role. Skirting their chain of command was pretty much the furthest the network censors would ever allow any TV action hero of the time to "boldly go."
Years after the series ended, a narrative emerged about the Prime Directive being a critique of US foreign policies with non-aligned nations, most particularly about the war in Vietnam. The writer of the episode "A Private Little War" has said that his original draft was a much more overt reference to that war before it was watered down. Nothing like that was ever said when the series was being made, but you wouldn't have expected anyone to say that out loud at the time if they wanted to keep working.
RE: For All Star Trek Fans - irukandji - 06-10-2022
The Prime Directive stated that the captain could not identify himself or his mission. He was forbidden by the Prime Directive to interfere with the social development of the planet. The Prime Directive stated there could be no references to space or the fact that there are other worlds or civilizations.
From the episode, "The Apple", which is among the worst offenders of the Prime Directive.
The planet the Enterprise finds is assumed to be rich in resources and the team beams to an area where no one can see them. The team beams down, still wearing their uniforms and sporting their advanced equipment. Before long, Kirk loses three people from his team, as Vaal, the computer who protects the planet is doing its job. But, the primary actors survive and manage to capture a native, so it all works out. In the meantime, the planet exhibits some kind of energy field that is draining the Enterprise and preventing them from beaming up, so they head to the village. The natives are simple folk. The weather is perfect, they have everything they need to survive, and are young and healthy. They do not, however, have children. This of course, leads Kirk to believe they are not developing socially, so he decides Vaal, the computer who has taken care of the natives, must be destroyed. By doing so, he changes the world forever, and I'm not so sure it's in a good way.
So, going back to his opening mission statement of "to boldly go where no man has gone before", is this even something that Kirk could even seriously accomplish? You are right. There is no superior hanging around for Kirk's 20 questions. But in the reality of the series, Star Fleet could have had a think tank put together some kind of guidance and load it into their computer. This was supposed to be an important mission. Surely the Enterprise was worthy of the best resources Star Fleet could come up with. But then again, we saw their treatment of women.
Taking the statement of boldly going where no man has gone before, apparently someone has at least been to this area before the Enterprise boldly came along. It has a name and apparently the area has been mapped as the planet in question is Gamma Tranguli VI, and has five planets in the system that came before it.
As for the Prime Directive, Kirk has violated it in almost every Star Trek episode simply by virtue of bringing Mr. Spock with him. Spock's appearance has caused consternation and fear on more than one occasion.
RE: For All Star Trek Fans - FaceInTheCrowd - 06-10-2022
I expect that Starfleet and the Federation were much like the real life military and civilian government they were loosely patterned after. A lot of lofty, high-minded rhetoric, but if Kirk brought home a new source of strategic materials, signed up some new allies against the Klingons or managed to steal some Romulan tech, deviations from by the book behavior got quietly swept under some rug and forgotten.
RE: For All Star Trek Fans - irukandji - 06-10-2022
Actually, they did! In the Enterprise Incident, Kirk stole the Romulan cloaking device. So much for the ongoing mission of exploring strange new worlds and seeking out new life forms and civilizations.
RE: For All Star Trek Fans - FaceInTheCrowd - 06-10-2022
Oh, that episode was even worse. Kirk wasn't "forced" into doing it by unforeseen circumstances, and he didn't decide to do it on his own initiative; the dialog clearly stated that he and Spock were on an actual mission ordered by Starfleet.
However, this wouldn't have been a Prime Directive issue, because the Romulans were not a pre-warp society. It was just old-fashioned "Mission Impossible" dirty tricks espionage. And there's probably not a word about it anywhere in official records.
RE: For All Star Trek Fans - irukandji - 06-12-2022
No, this was clearly not a violation of the Prime Directive. That said, it is interesting to me how some missions are clearly communicated by Star Fleet, and others are of the "going where no man has gone before" variety. I suppose the creative team wanted to show just how a Star Fleet ship could work as a weapon on war.
But that said, I always wondered why Kirk didn't take a closer look at the technology than ran a world in "the Apple". It's not the first time he's run into that kind of technology, and one that can continue operating for thousands of years. Yet, he destroys it instead.