Star Trek: TOS thoughts - Mudd's Women

[seriousfic]

For free online.

At about 9:20, Spock totally scoops out one of the space-order brides and gives Kirk a look like "Damn, Jim, that ass be totally logical." I don't think it will ever stop being funny. I demand a gif.

You know, after STXI showed that Spock was persecuted on a daily basis for his race, McCoy's razzing about him being Vulcan isn't really as funny.

It's kinda a testament to how unfortunately dated the show has become that the concept of three women who transfix the male crew with the power of self-confidence doesn't work anymore (okay, admittedly the Venus drugs change the camera for a soft-focus lens, but still...). Nowadays you'd think either the crew is already getting enough lovin' from each other or they'd just have enough women and gay men (and asexual aliens) onboard to cancel it out. Which didn't stop Enterprise from doing the exact same plot with Orion slave women, as I recall, although this time they had pheromones (instead of Venus drugs) that made the men all "sexy times nao?" and gave the women headaches. It wasn't a proud moment for Trekkies.

Likewise, the moral of "you should totally value a wife who can cook and sew over a hot babe" is now not so much feminist as Madonna/whore-y. You can see what they're going for, but nowadays it's like "ummm... yeah."

Comments

You and I must have decided to catch up on Classic Trek at the same time ...

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

... Because I just recently started rewatching the old episodes at the CBS site (in order of production, rather than air dates, which is how their site has them organized), and while I knew beforehand that "Mudd's Women" was not going to age well, that same note of HOLY SHIT MISOGYNY kept ringing through my head as well. I could deal with Harry Mudd supplying wives to settlers, because that actually happened in the Western frontier of America IRL, so it fits the trope of Star-Trek-as-Wagon-Trail-to-the-Stars, but Harry is not nearly as charming a character when you see him pushing pills with all the same psychological tactics as a schoolyard dealer.

And the sheer absurdity of the one woman taking the placebo, and then spontaneously receiving perfectly coiffed hair and made-up features, simply as a result of inner confidence, made me think NOTHING WORKS THAT WAY

Idea: While NuTrek is not nearly as PC as TNG, it's still designed to be more of OUR future, rather than The Future As Seen From The 1960s, so Bones should be shown attending at least one session of mandatory "sensitivity training," y/y?

Re: You and I must have decided to catch up on Classic Trek at the same time ...

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

You and I must have decided to catch up on Classic Trek at the same time ...

I'm writing a fanfic with Mudd in it. Because who better than sociologist!Gaila to shoot Mudd down AND tell Kirk all about his shenanigans?

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

Interesting. :)