He Aint Here, But He Sure Went Past

Title from the Clash's Jimmy Jazz song.

I've been watching reruns of the Star Trek show, the original one, and really appreciating it and what it did for generations. I'm not going to go into the whole technological aspect of it, and the fact that it was years ahead of its time with its portrayal of women and its willingness to have people of different races in prominent roles, its all been said and explored and done. I found this site that does a really good job of listing the different women and the different ways that they were considered strong women and I like to read it and see what characters I have yet to see and adore.

The site is Star Trek Women: The Women of TOS Its a fascinating read and I like to skim through it, and read about the different personalities and learn how Roddenberry dealt with them.

I remember, as a kid, watching my generation's Star Trek,TNG, wondering why the moment a woman showed up and was confident and was boss and was, basically, a strong woman, they died, or transferred, or left in some form, or was quickly rewritten to be more gentle, more..weaker..I still don't know why. I liked Troi and I love Beverly, but Troi was dressed so inappropriately for someone in her professional field, so I was conflicted. Beverly was just bombastically kick ass. She was my first exposure to doctors in Star Trek and I loved her, so well rounded and so competent yet not too masculine, in that she could straddle the line between being boss and being a woman so well that I doubt anyone could use the usual go-to terms to degrade a woman in position to refer to her. In case that last sentence didn't make sense, I mean, usually, when people are intimidated by a woman in an authority role, they refer to said woman as a bitch, whore, cunt, other degrading terms tailored specifically for a woman. I doubt any one could call Dr Crusher those words! But I've heard people refer to Troi as a whore..I liked her. Lt. Yar was a strong woman too, a strong force. And I realize the actress quit, but I wonder if maybe she quit because she knew the writers wouldn't treat her character well and wanted to go to a different show where she could be a strong female role character without worrying about being suddenly demoted or sexualized.

Well, that went off into a tangent I didn't mean to go off into.

I was only going to talk about how I like Star Trek and enjoy when they have Bones and Chekov in scenes together. Bones was always my favorite from when I was little and saw the movies, and seeing the new movie made me really adore and love Chekov (probably mostly based on how he was portrayed by Anton Yelchin, that is one awesome guy-I've read interviews with him, he seems like a guy I'd love to buy a drink for.Once he's 21, that is.-)So to see the original show and to see my two favorites, Long Time Fav. Bones and Newly Admired Chekov in scenes together makes me giddy. All they needed was to add Nurse Chapel in the mix and I'd have been ecstatic!

I LOVE NURSE CHAPEL!

I've only seen her in one episode but I already love her. Must be something about women medical officers.

Also, can anyone believe that Nurse Chapel and Luxuwanna Troi are the same woman? They are, and I can't believe it! She looks so vastly different from one show to the next!

I really hope she's in the next Star Trek movie, and I really hope the actress they pick is able to capture her...Chapel-ness..You know, competent but compassionate, a good natured foil to Bones' irascibility, and rocking the blue uniform. Also, I really hope, if she is in the next movie, they don't reduce her to a romantic interest for anyone, like they tend to do for other movies. She's cool enough to be a single gal among good looking men. Yes ma'am