After watching all the other Star Trek series within a year, I've now landed on TOS. And when I watch those episodes, I really wonder how this series managed to build up such a huge fan base and became what it is today. This omnipresent objectification of women, the macho behavior of the men, this ridiculous 1960s style of the sets and wardrobe and this yawning boredom in every scene. So far, I've never had the feeling in any of the TOS episodes that there is any kind of hectic activity on the ship. Everyone is always pretty relaxed and takes their time to do their jobs. In addition, new people are constantly appearing on the bridge, so you can't relate to the characters. And the uniforms are probably more of a fashion accessory than a sign of rank and section. Uhura wears a red uniform, then a yellow one, and Kirk switches between yellow and green almost every five minutes.
So, here we have him: Harry Mudd. A con artist who we will meet again in later series. In this episode, however, he is just a sleazy space pimp. And Kirk and his crew apparently have no problem with the fact that his business is about "selling" a few pretty women to lonely settlers or dilithium miners. Kirk is more concerned about Mudd flying through the vastness of space without a flight plan or license. Where is the intergalactic flight control when a flight plan is suddenly needed? Picard, Archer and Janeway never checked whether all the villains who appeared on their sensors had a flight plan.
And once again, women in TOS are portrayed as pure, cheap sex objects whose only goal is to please men, cook them food and do the dishes. The moral message of this episode is: ugly women are undesirable for men, the only thing that counts is looks and sex appeal. And the undersexed male crew of the Enterprise can't pull themselves together again when three women come on board (at least Janice Rand gets a breather in this episode and is, for a change, this time not the target of sexual harassment from the crew). Bones and Scotty react like two pubescent teenagers holding a pin-up magazine in their hands for the first time. Their hormones are surging and the sight of the women drives them so crazy that they are barely able to do their work. Just like the rest of the crew. The TOS crew may be the exact opposite of the DIS crew, but they are just as incompetent and a disgrace to Starfleet.
And the three women's only goal seems to be to throw themselves at the first dirty, old hillbilly miner they find, and then get groped and humiliated by them. And this one bald-headed grump also makes demands on his future wife. He himself looks like a total bum, but the women have to be flawless and beautiful. I was actually waiting for a moral reversal at the end. That the randy old devil realizes that looks aren't everything and that he sees the real woman behind the beautiful facade. But this would be too much to ask for in a TOS episode. Of course, he only cares about looks. Gee! And in the end, despite the placebo, the woman turns back into an irresistible vamp - giving this lecher exactly what he wants: a beautiful shell that sweetens his lonely nights on this backwater planet. Nothing else.
All the feminists of our day who still think that nothing has changed for women in western societies should really watch a few episodes of TOS. We've come a long way!
So, here we have him: Harry Mudd. A con artist who we will meet again in later series. In this episode, however, he is just a sleazy space pimp. And Kirk and his crew apparently have no problem with the fact that his business is about "selling" a few pretty women to lonely settlers or dilithium miners. Kirk is more concerned about Mudd flying through the vastness of space without a flight plan or license. Where is the intergalactic flight control when a flight plan is suddenly needed? Picard, Archer and Janeway never checked whether all the villains who appeared on their sensors had a flight plan.
And once again, women in TOS are portrayed as pure, cheap sex objects whose only goal is to please men, cook them food and do the dishes. The moral message of this episode is: ugly women are undesirable for men, the only thing that counts is looks and sex appeal. And the undersexed male crew of the Enterprise can't pull themselves together again when three women come on board (at least Janice Rand gets a breather in this episode and is, for a change, this time not the target of sexual harassment from the crew). Bones and Scotty react like two pubescent teenagers holding a pin-up magazine in their hands for the first time. Their hormones are surging and the sight of the women drives them so crazy that they are barely able to do their work. Just like the rest of the crew. The TOS crew may be the exact opposite of the DIS crew, but they are just as incompetent and a disgrace to Starfleet.
And the three women's only goal seems to be to throw themselves at the first dirty, old hillbilly miner they find, and then get groped and humiliated by them. And this one bald-headed grump also makes demands on his future wife. He himself looks like a total bum, but the women have to be flawless and beautiful. I was actually waiting for a moral reversal at the end. That the randy old devil realizes that looks aren't everything and that he sees the real woman behind the beautiful facade. But this would be too much to ask for in a TOS episode. Of course, he only cares about looks. Gee! And in the end, despite the placebo, the woman turns back into an irresistible vamp - giving this lecher exactly what he wants: a beautiful shell that sweetens his lonely nights on this backwater planet. Nothing else.
All the feminists of our day who still think that nothing has changed for women in western societies should really watch a few episodes of TOS. We've come a long way!