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Star Trek reverses Tg
Last Night I watched what I thought was a brilliant episode of Sart trek Next Generation ..
In it the Startrek crew go to help a race of androgenous people, where our earthly values are reversed .In this culture you must conform by being gender neutral .To have female or male feelings is forbiden , and those who have such,when found out are subjected to a public hearing and then given
a psychologica l( brain washing ) treatment to make them conform as neutrals. People who have male or female leanings are termed deviants and are “corrected” .The script has all the pet phrases that we have heard over the years about Tg Diverse people – ie they are sick and need to be “cured ” lest Society be threatened. I found it an interesting take on what we here on earth hear (even now ) but hear less of … I rerccomend it for veiwing
Fascinating !
HUgs
SUZZ -
5 Replies
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Thanks Suzzanne, I would like to watch this episode, can you remember what the name of it was?
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I must admit to being a Trekker; although I enjoyed the original series I think I was too young to understand the messages in the show. It wasn’t until The Next Generation that I became aware of just how clever, and progressive, the show was. I certainly recall the episode “The Outcast’ that you refer to, and the dilemas felt by the main characters as ‘impure feelings’ began to surface. There was also the discomfort felt by the aliens because of the open gender displays by the Enterprise crew. Sadly, if I recall, the female alien is forced by her people to undergo ‘corrective’ treatment and is thus ‘cured’ by being forced to conform to society standards.
The show’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, intended each episode to have two levels, the first simply a suspenseful adventure story and the second a morality tale. At a time that western society, particularly that of the US, was grappling with many social issues, Roddenberry portrayed his futuristic humans as having altruistic values that they had to apply to situations that were in fact allegories of contemporary cultural realities. Issues depicted in the various series included the value of personal loyalty, racism, religion, human rights, sexism and feminism.
Even the physical appearance of the various ‘alien’ races was designed to highlight the fact that even though ‘we’ all look different there are common basic similarities. Of course all that didn’t stop me dreaming of looking like Seven of Nine! I think it would be easy to say that one simple message from Star Trek would be “Be who you are and not who others might expect you to be.”
Next time you find yourself watching an episode of Star Trek just consider it social studies.
(Thank you to Wikipedia for filling out some of the information on Gene Roddenberry)
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Suzzanne, thank you for the initial post & Jane thank you for the full & thorough explanation of the writers intentions.
Even though I’ve lived a life of fantasy & fantastical display (as a child, I actually lived in a wild west theme park for a few years) I’ve never really been into Sci-fi but you’ve both whetted my appetite to go in & have a better look. Thanks for that.
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Hi Chloe
I have always found Star Trek to en unawarebe good watching but have been unaware till now about there being two levels of them in it .I remeber one episode where some female, desperate to rid hersehe lf of her female body moves Kirks conciousness/soul into her body while she took over his .She was very happy with his body but , predictably kirk wasnt too comfortable in hers ( fool ) When the situation is reversed and every thing works out she breaks down at having to have her body back ,while Kirk is suitablly embarassed when asked about what it was like being a female .Sort of reflects societies attitude at the time ( around 1974) towards females
I hope to see an episode where advanced technology of the star trek era produces a gender change so every one lives happily ever after
Suzz -
Suzzanne, the episode of the original series of Star Trek you were thinking of is the final episode of the series, Turnabout Intruder, originally broadcast in June 1969.
Jenifur Charne
