In the third episode of the first season of\u00c2\u00a0The Next Generation<\/i>, WHAT THE HELL. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of consent regarding sex, specifically sex while intoxicated.<\/b><\/p>\n
Well, that was fucking weird.<\/p>\n
As I said at the end of the video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Naked Now,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I have complicated feelings towards this episode. However, one of the easiest ways this could been alleviated? Put this episode later in this season. A lot of genre television engages with the trope used here \u00e2\u20ac\u201c where an ensemble casts suddenly switches roles or acts counter to their natures \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and it can be a lot of fun. But we\u00c2\u00a0just<\/i> met these characters, and I barely understand their characterization as it is. So how am I supposed to know if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re behaving weirdly beyond the obvious?<\/p>\n
Let me start with an example. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a scene early within \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Naked Time,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d just after Geordi, Yar, Data, and Riker return from the Tsiolkovsky<\/i>, where Geordie snaps at Dr. Crusher. Riker says something to the effect that Geordi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reaction \u00e2\u20ac\u0153doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sound like him.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sorry, didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you just meet this guy like a day ago? Okay, so I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually know how much time has passed between \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Encounter at Farpoint\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and this episode, but it can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have been very long. How does Riker know what Geordi is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? How can he possibly be able to read someone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s character like this? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an ongoing problem throughout this episode as each person is infected and begins to behave strangely. Some of it makes sense. We know Wesley has a desire to be respected by Picard and that he wants to work on the bridge. We also know that Deanna Troi and Riker were once in a relationship, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d understand her feeling compelled to hit on Riker. (But why is it that all the\u00c2\u00a0women<\/i> are quick to become sexually aggressive and none of the men? Riker nobly resists advances, despite that he should have already become sick.) But what about Geordi? Or Yar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s behavior? How is that related to her character? What do we learn about her in the process? Is this also meant to suggest that Geordi hates his disability, which is his right to, or will we never hear of it again?<\/p>\n
Of course, my big complaint here is the fact that, like many shows, the writers have two people \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who are unable to consent to sex in any real way \u00e2\u20ac\u201c have sex in a way that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clearly meant to be humorous but is NOT EVEN REMOTELY FUNNY, IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S JUST HORRIFYING. How the HELL is Data programmed to understand sex\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i> to have it, but none of his programming involves when it is appropriate to have sex? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even understand the biology of his character. If he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an android, how can this disease\/affliction affect his judgment? Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t there some sort of computer within him that controls this sort of thing? Again, I might have understood this better if I knew more about Data and his construction, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t! All I have to go on is the fact that he says his skin and his blood is similar to humans and\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s it? So he has a normal brain? Or not? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know? Regardless, it still doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t clear up the issue of Yar and Data having sex while intoxicated, which is gross and a terrible thing to have happen in the SECOND EPISODE.<\/p>\n
At the same time, there are two aspects to this episode that I did appreciate. It took The Original Series<\/i> some time to feel comfortable with humor, though it never experimented with it as much as I wanted it to. (All I had to wait for was\u00c2\u00a0The Voyage Home<\/i>, of course, THE GREATEST ENTRY INTO\u00c2\u00a0STAR TREK\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>CANON IMAGINABLE.) The fact that the writers were comfortable enough to introduce humor so quickly is commendable. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bold! The same goes for the fact that they can now portray sex and sexual attraction quite openly. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad that\u00c2\u00a0The Next Generation\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>is willing to do so because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot more realistic. I still think we should engage with the harmful tropes around consent, but I also think that having characters express sexual desire is important, too.\u00c2\u00a0The Original Series<\/i> left most of the desire in the hands of Kirk, with Bones and Scotty offering up sexual objectification through their commentary; here, that desire is not given solely to the men.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s complicated, basically. I can see the good and the bad, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still sticking to the notion that an episode like this should have happened with a little more care and a lot better placement within the series.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Naked Now\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – Mark Does Stuff is now on Facebook<\/a>! Feel free to Like the page, which I’m running myself, for updates and SILLINESS. In the third episode of the first season of\u00c2\u00a0The Next Generation, WHAT THE HELL. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[614,632],"tags":[615],"class_list":["post-4450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-star-trek","category-the-next-generation","tag-mark-watches-star-trek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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