I submit you all are remembering TOS through rose colored glasses. TOS’s sexism has only gotten worse through time. I find the subtle and not-subtle sexism to be a big distraction. You can only shrug and say “it was a different time, you understand” so long.
I watched *Metamorphosis * last night for the first time in a long time. That episode has more issues than my National Geographic collection. And it isn’t even considered as one of the classic TOS stinkers.
Kirk & co. jump to the conclusion very fast, with no real evidence, that the Companion is in love with Cochrane. When Cochrane complains about effectively being raped by the Companion, it’s shrugged off. (I can hear Cochrane, in Col. “Bat” Guano’s voice, yelling about ‘alien pre-versions’).
Commissioner Hedford is portrayed in the opening scenes as a frigid bitch. At first she’s shown to be disgusted by being brought there as (possibly) a sex slave for Cochrane, but then later she literally gets hysterical and runs crying from the room when it is revealed she’s going to likely die there, alone. Because, really, all she needed (wanted?) was a good fuck, and Cochrane is rejecting being ‘loved’, where she never had time for a man.
Speaking of a Man, no one even questions whether Cochrane loves the Companion back. I guess unrequited love is a thing of the past in the 23rd century? Or are you just expected to love back anyone that loves you, no matter what? Let alone, what if he is gay? These things aren’t even considered.
The concepts of male and female may be ‘universal’, but apparently human sexual preference is all straight in the future.
No one even bothers to ask Hedford what she thinks about giving up her body and mind to be a host for a psychotic ([1960s man voice]well, the Companion IS female, after all [1960s man] ) alien with puppy-love. What about her choice, her career, her desires? Inconsequential, apparently, to our not-smug TOS crew. Did she have family back home that would miss her, that she would miss? Not important.
At least Picard and co. asked these questions, even if they didn’t always have the answer we liked.
And don’t forget Wolf In the Fold, where Kirk and co. actually believe Scotty might be butchering women in a Jack the Ripper manner solely because he was in an accident “caused by a woman”. Does that happen a lot in the TOS era? If one of the male engineers had caused the accident, would Scotty likely be butchering random men?
What about Mudd’s Women, aka Three Brides for Three Miners? What about Rand pining away for her commander (“I wanted you to notice my legs!”), Chapel being a one-note character that only is there to love Spock? For every well-balanced Areel Shaw, we get several Janice Lesters.
). She was also instrumental in getting the good guys back where they belonged (and, it was implied, deposing Evil Kirk when he got back so Borderline Evil Spock could take command). Sex and treachery, yes (she seemed pretty mercenary to me), but not a lot of love, IMHO.
