Daily OpusEverything I write is freely rebloggable. Just keep the source and tell people about my books :D [Until I decide otherwise, my pronouns are Ze/Hir/Hirself. As in "Ze went to the shops to get hir medication hirself". Thank you for the respect.]
Am I the only one that’s a just a tiny bit pissed off that this is still an issue?
The Original Series wasn’t even in the general VICINITY of fucking around yo
How many shows these days would do this, and do it this way? These days, it would be all, “Ohh, we have to be sensitive and show the nuances of each side” and try not to make either side seem wrong. It wouldn’t be clearly spelled out, “pro-choice is right, if you’re against it you’re the bad guys.”
Jim Kirk is not here for your anti-birth-control, anti-choice, pro-death-penalty BS
James Tiberius Kirk was written and portrayed as a feminist and I will fight anyone who says otherwise.
Yep. That episode is exactly what you think it is: pro-birth control, pro-population control, pro-choice, and pro-women’s right to choose. And yes, Kirk, the supposed playboy of the spaceways, is in favor of all of the above.
It was written and aired in 1969.
It probably couldn’t air today.
THINK ABOUT THAT.
Also LMAO at all the sad whiny geek boys who are like “I miss the GOOD OLD DAYS of SCI-FI when it wasn’t all about SOCIAL ISSUES and instead it was just about MEN HAVING FUN IN SPACE. Like Star Trek! Star Trek wouldn’t put up with all this SOCIAL JUSTICE FEMINISM IN SCI FI bullshit!” And meanwhile I’m just over here like “…did you actually watch the show?”
It’s also important to bear in mind that the Original Series had a predominantly female fanbase, and during its initial run, was widely mocked and dismissed by mainstream (i.e., male) science fiction fans as being fake sci-fi for girls. It’s difficult to overstate the influence women had on the franchise in its early days; most of the early Star Trek conventions were organised by and for women, and indeed, those same organisers were primarily responsible for the massive letter-writing campaign that prevented the show from being cancelled after the 1968 season. Without that campaign, the episode pictured in this post would never have been made.
The popular image of James Kirk as a sleazy womaniser is part of a conscious effort to erase that history and render the franchise’s roots palatable to the misogynistic geekboys of the modern SF/F fandom.
And a gentle reminder that TOS was a Desilu production, which its board of directors voted to cancel after the second pilot due to cost concerns, a vote that Chairman Lucille Ball overruled. There is no Star Trek without Lucille Ball.
Federation ships may have phasers and photon torpedoes, but those are only a distraction for the real weapon: the swiss-omnitool that is the main deflector array. That thing can do anything, take out any threat. It just takes some time to be adapted to the current opponent. That’s what the things everyone thinks of as weapons are for - to buy that time. – @recklessprudence
Throughout the galaxy, assorted species have learned one important lesson: Don’t mess with the Federation. Some, like the Klingons and the Romulans, are slow learners. Though the Romulans note with some pride that they have learned before the Klingons did, and purposely avoided becoming one of the Federation’s targets.
Other slow learners include the Cardassians, the Breen, and the Borg. And, lately, the Pelithant.
But then, you’d expect a species that’s essentially a hivemind fungal colony to be slow on the uptake. As a sentient species, the Federation expects them to learn eventually, and in the meantime, are keeping their expansion in check. More or less. Some Pelithant spores make it through the embargo line. Some land on lifeless moons, and are allowed to persist. Others land on colonies and have to be… excised.
Imagine the real results of Star Trek’s Transporter technology. – Anon Guest
It was for cargo, initially. And of course there were a subset of the populace who preferred things transported the old-fashioned way. Some who claimed to taste the difference. But by and large, many people didn’t care. You could beam produce straight from the farm to the store, with very little in the way of processing in-between.
People noticed when their food was fresher and lasted longer. People also noticed that bugs came along for the ride. Some even made it through alive. Some made it through inside the produce. Of course, someone had to fix that little flaw.
And it wasn’t long after that that someone started transporting livestock. No more travel sickness. No more cargo holds riddled with disease.
Trying to sell a specifically weapons design team as a pro-peaceful exploration move is sort of the zen apex of the art of budgetary committees, no matter how necessary self-defence is out on the frontier for Federation starships. – @recklessprudence
“Point of Order,” said Admiral Joubert. The rest of the budgetary committee moaned in anticipation. “These so-called science vessels you’re proposing look more like warships. The Federation has never stood for this sort of thing.”
“It’s called being _prepared_, Joubert,” growled Admiral Paredes. “Science involves investigation. Investigation means finding things out there that may shoot first and ask questions later!”
“That doesn’t mean we have to be prepared to do the same,” snapped Joubert. “We are a peaceful organisation. We should be investing in peace.”
While I love Humans as Space Orcs, can we get some exploration of this theory, that humanity’s ‘hat’ in the galaxy full of Planet of Hats that is Star Trek is that we’re Doc Brown? Please note the reason Scotty’s Chief Engineer of the Enterprise, as well as the Vulcan Science Academy’s interactions. (Also this might explain why the multispecies Federation ships in TOS-era seem to be crewed in an almost entirely monospecies manner, what with that all-Vulcan ship in one episode, and Spock and very few others on the mostly-human Enterprise). – @recklessprudence
Word association in the Federation tells a lot about expectations. 'Klingon’ leads to 'warrior’. 'Cardassian’ to 'soldier’. 'Vulcan’ to 'scientist’.
Speak the word 'human’ and most Federation members will say, 'insanity’. Except the humans of course, who will reply 'being’.
Some have been sent into Federation vessels to determine what their secret is. The earliest known investigator was Lieutenant-Commander Spock, deemed a doubtful source by many because humanity rubbed off on him.
Turns out humans can interbreed with almost any cogniscient species and produce viable offspring. This breaks several laws of physics, logic, and basic biology. At this point the rest of the galaxy just throws its hand up in defeat and stops trying to figure out how they do the things they do.
[AN: I have had it since Amalgam’s inception that Humans can’t spread
their genes around the cosmos like that. Ergo, this has to be Star
Trek]
Admiral Pavel Checkov took the roll before starting his lectures. This year, the F’s were taking up a majority of his time.
“Fitzkirk, Elaine,” a half-betazoid raised her hand. “Fitzkirk, Fukari,” a half-orion. “Fitzkirk, Glii,” a half-horta.
How the flying hell had his old captain managed that one?
After
that particular lecture (featuring a significant percentage of
Fitzkirks) Pavel meandered over to the central offices for Starfleet
Medical and asked them how the fuck humans could breed with anything
capable of communicating lust.
Starfleet Medical had been working on it since the first dozen Fitzkirks turned up. And would continue to work on for centuries.
