I like how there has been a leap in the gender norms. Picard really was a step up from Kirk's manly man persona, but almost a step too far. He's got some manly sides, like how he'll try to protect people, but he also doesn't fight for his people as much as he should and can be too ignorant for his own good. For example with the Tamarians Picard refuses the knife he was offered. While in the end it turned out to be a good thing that he stayed peaceful I think it's pretty unrealistic that such a passive way of approaching situations would always turn out ok. While Kirk's super assertive way might not have been the best approach either he would have died fighting for his ship instead of running like Picard did with the Borg. (Side note on the gender norms: with the girls they haven't really gotten any better as the majority of the girl's we have seen are either in low cut shirts or shown to be annoying which is really annoying in and of itself).
I think the best and most obvious replacement of Kirk was Riker I mean he's basically Kirk with a much cooler way of sitting.
He's huge with the ladies and is the epitome on manliness, just like Kirk. The only difference is that he's not captain yet. I actually really like this aspect of it because it gives Riker something to strive towards, but also adds depth to his character (how he won't leave his ship even if it meant becoming a captain) that we never really got to see in Kirk.
My bigger problem comes with Chekhov. There doesn't even appear to be an attempt at a replacement with him. The only way I can reason with this is by saying that there is no replacement of Chekhov, that he's simply too good to recreate and it wouldn't even be worth trying. I mean how can you replace how perfect he is.
And while I totally agree with my reasoning something tells me it wasn't the same as the producers, so it leads me to wonder why they didn't even try to make a new Chekhov.
Hah! :) Who would be a Chekov? What traits would you attribute to him? I'll try to find you a Chekov. Maybe Wesley Crusher?
ReplyDeleteOkay, the women: I'm going to have to ask you more about the women being annoying. I can't think of anyone who would objectively be just annoying (as much as a category like that can ever be objective). Guinan? But she knows all sorts of things. TOTALLY AGREED about the low-cut outfits, though it's really just Troi--she's the only one who ever wears low collars, and... I might be writing a really long article about that. And about a lot of other similar issues. In the last couple of seasons she DOES finally get a full shirt, and the actress is thrilled.
I'd love to talk about Riker. Because I think he IS supposed to be the archetype of manliness. And he does jump to conclusions, and he tends to be way more assertive than Picard (too assertive, I think). Last night, my husband said, "He's from Alaska? UGH. Of COURSE he's from Alaska." (Manly man, right?) Buuuuut when you look at how Riker actually acts with the ladies, it mostly consists of him standing back with a really dorky smile on his face and beaming at them while they do whatever they want. So... I've got a secret argument that Riker is actually a huge dork.
Okay. I'll get off your post, now. :)
I know lots of people love chekov and scotty. I think it's interesting that next gen did a better job in that it had less strict gender roles but almost all of the humans were american. After reading Red Mars I think that's a bit of a shame. It's fun seeing the world from another point of view and seeing our country through another person's eyes. Not to mention all the great jokes made from these cultural differences too.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing you like Chekhov.
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness though, I agree with some of the stuff about the women of Star Trek and Riker. Though I personally like the Picard for the reason you don't, not to say that I don't like Kirk, because I still do. I just happen to think it's cool that with a different installment in the Star Trek universe we get to see captains with different approaches to situations and generally different personalities. Picard seems to be a more standard sort of captain in the federation, which, fair enough, might seem a lot lamer compared to the true outlier that was Kirk, who was almost improperly hands on and involved in countless situations of inane and improbable situations by the logic of Star Treks later canon.