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The Post Thread
#13651 Posted 13 May 2014 - 06:45 PM
#13653 Posted 13 May 2014 - 09:05 PM
I know I can be a pain, but things look good.
For those that hate Take Two or Gearbox, keep on hating
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This post has been edited by Hank: 14 May 2014 - 03:58 AM
#13655 Posted 14 May 2014 - 06:22 AM
#13657 Posted 14 May 2014 - 11:55 AM
#13658 Posted 14 May 2014 - 03:48 PM
#13659 Posted 14 May 2014 - 04:03 PM
Fox, on 14 May 2014 - 11:55 AM, said:
I don't think it's misleading. RoboForm uses the same concept and same name.
#13663 Posted 14 May 2014 - 08:03 PM
Edit: Landmark study: DRM truly does make pirates out of us all
This post has been edited by Fox: 14 May 2014 - 09:11 PM
#13664 Posted 15 May 2014 - 04:40 AM
Fox, on 14 May 2014 - 08:03 PM, said:
Edit: Landmark study: DRM truly does make pirates out of us all
Naturally. Pirates are much better looking than DRMs
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#13668 Posted 15 May 2014 - 11:44 AM
#13676 Posted 15 May 2014 - 11:29 PM
Duke Rocks, on 15 May 2014 - 05:34 AM, said:
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What happened to feminist activists that weren't insane and at least had a sense of humor? You can't talk to people like that. I've seen a dozen of these types in the last couple days, including a couple whacked out ones regarding Bombshell's recent announcement. Oi, Gods...
http://dl.dropboxuse...ns%20Around.mp3
-Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek.
#13677 Posted 16 May 2014 - 03:45 AM
Commando Nukem, on 15 May 2014 - 11:29 PM, said:
They aren't 'interesting' enough to warrant image macros of.
Quote
The two Trek series created during his lifetime aren't exactly shining examples of gender equality.
The female main cast members are respectively a telephone operator, a security officer that wasn't given much to do and only lasted part of one season, a demure "captain obvious" empath and a soft-voiced physician who seemed relegated to playing the concerned mother type half her screen time.
When the latter was replaced by the more self-assured dr. Pulaski in the second season, she too wasn't received very well (by both the fans and the production itself) and was eventually 'let go' because "the hoped-for chemistry between her and the rest of the starship cast did not develop" [Roddenberry].
Then there was Guinan, apparently an El-Aurian - a species of "listeners".
Apart from the cliched characterisation of women as mostly "nurture by nature" window dressing, I recently noticed some surprisingly questionable plotlines during a TNG re-run on TV; one episode from the first season (11001001) included a female holodeck character whose sole purpose was stroking the male ego (and perhaps more than that given enough time) and that as such was highly valued by both Picard and Riker.
Then there's season two with "The Outrageous Okona"; Okona being a womanising space pirate who upon his arrival on the Enterprise almost instantly beelined towards Teri Hatcher the sultry transporter operator, who in turn wasted no time offering her feminine wiles to this dashing alpha male that, as alpha males do, proceeded to finish his guided tour of the ship by casually bedding another two female crew members.
The lesson obviously being that self-respect and sense of duty and matters less to the (incidental) Trek women than the chance to drop their panties for the first handsome sweet talker that comes along.
I don't quite get Roddenberry's claim that Star Trek was an equal opportunity framework for sexual objectification either; the only main cast male sex symbol I can think of in TOS and TNG is James T. Kirk and he's the macho man that beds women indiscriminitely - i.e. more the "guy that other guys want to be" archetype than your average heartthrob for the ladies.
On another note, if Kirk had been female, the character would have been perceived as a morally bankrupt tramp and probably wouldn't have survived the first screening.
#13678 Posted 16 May 2014 - 04:07 AM
ReaperMan, on 15 May 2014 - 10:58 PM, said:
even better. it gave us the excuse to use up old war surplus instead of having to ship it on a train through your home town and then find a place to store it
This post has been edited by Forge: 16 May 2014 - 04:08 AM
#13679 Posted 16 May 2014 - 05:29 AM
X-Vector, on 16 May 2014 - 03:45 AM, said:
Come on. She was a command officer on the Enterprise. She deserves a lot more respect then that as far as television history is concerned. It was already snide and short sighted when "In Living Color" made the "telephone operator/chocolate fantasy" jab twenty years ago. She was an inspiration to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. To the civil rights movement of the time it was a big deal to have Uhura, a woman minority, on the bridge of the ship. Shown in equal footing with the rest of the command staff and her race and gender never once being mentioned as a point of issue. Which is as she was throughout the original series and original films. Blame the network execs at the time for cutting her dialogue back. Not Gene. It was one of the reasons she was going to leave the show, until King told her to stay on, because she represented the way things should be, not recognized as anything but an equal on the ship. Nichols later told Gene about this and he hugged her and said "Thank you. Someone understands what i'm trying to do." Again, not seeing sexism on Gene's part here.
If Gene had his way, the first officer of the Enterprise would have been a woman, and he even wrote into the script a bit of commentary on "women on the bridge" in the first pilot, though now it sounds horrible dated from the context of a 23rd Century man saying something that someone in the early 60s would have said with a straight face. He was trying to make a point to the TV audience at the time that there should be no difference between men and women. Not to mention the several instances where Uhura demonstrated her independence and ability in command situations, including several instances in seasons 1, 2, The Animated Series, Star Trek 3, 4 and 6 where if not for her proactive stance the crew would have been in deep shit. That includes pulling a phaser on "Mr. Adventure." translating into Klingon on the fly(very roughly, admittedly) and her and the rest of the female crew saving the men of the ship from mind control. Considering the amount of stuff Chekov and Sulu were allowed to do over the series she did no worse.
Gene was constantly trying to push for more diversity and equality where he could. He made sure more guest stars were females, usually young females looking to start a career. A lot of actresses got a shot in the arm thanks to TNG. He also made sure in TNG to include more female officers at higher ranks, including several captains, and high level officers in Starfleet.
X-Vector, on 16 May 2014 - 03:45 AM, said:
Because Denise Crosby was a terrible actress, and they were trying to hide the fact that she couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. She was told on several occasions that she needed to tone her performance down, as she was coming off incredibly stiff and insincere. Her role was cut back over the course of the first season for exactly that reason. She goes from nearly matching Riker and Data for screen time and dialogue to almost nothing, because she just wasn't up to the task. Fans, execs, and even Gene agreed on that point. An actor that can't act doesn't get to work. Even when she later reappeared her acting was still pretty damn wooden. Though she had improved some. Had absolutely nothing to do with her gender. It's rather sad, actually, as some of the things they wanted to explore with Yar that they basically reduced or cut out would have been a lot of fun. More stuff between her and Data, especially, could have really given both characters more dimension. Her and Worf were also supposed to become something of sparring partners. Something which was hinted at in her final episode, but it sadly wasn't meant to be...
X-Vector, on 16 May 2014 - 03:45 AM, said:
Which was a straight up terrible character from the start. That's what happens when you recycle horribly outdated ideas from a decade prior. The character was conceived in the early 70s for Phase II and reused in TNG, and it shows. No argument, Troi was a bad character.
X-Vector, on 16 May 2014 - 03:45 AM, said:
...What is wrong with Gates McFadden's voice, exactly? A woman isn't allowed to be soft spoken without it being sexist? She was a mother. With her son on the ship. Of course that topic came up a lot. When Worf had Alexander aboard for a time that was the subject on hand too. We'll just ignore the fact she saved the ship on several occasions, both with medical knowledge and while in command of the ship during dangerous situations. She did just as much as McCoy ever did, if not more, give that she had seven seasons of television. Infact, no. McCoy never got to sit in the center seat and take command of the ship at any point.
...Besides, she bitch slapped Wesley Crusher. There's no hating this woman for me. She has a couple moments where she bugs me, but otherwise there was nothing feeble or weak about her. She did what she had to do.
As to Pulaski... Pulaski's problem had nothing to do with her being strong. Some of her best scenes involve deduction, in fact. No. Her problem was that she had all the bigotry of McCoy without any of the charm or sense of friendly jibe backing it up, and was repeatedly mean spirited towards Data. Who was almost always completely unaware of the jibes she was sending his way. Making her look like a bully. She purposely avoided reporting to the Captain on her first day, and continued to act insufferable until the character was kicked off the show. The actress had a better role in TOS. Indeed, the actress deserved better writing, but season 2 was flooded with bad scripts and bad writing. Most of the cast came off pretty dickish, with a few exceptions like "Q Who" and so on. If she had shown up in season 3, I venture things would have gone much better. No writer's strike, for one. No using poorly rewritten Phase 2 scripts, for two.
I don't see any problem with Guinan at all. This is a woman who had the gusto to stand against Q on several occasions, including "testing" him by stabbing him in the hand with a fork.
The Outrageous Okona is a notoriously bad episode. No argument there. Most of season one and the bulk of season two are. With horrific examples like "The Child" "The Neutral Zone" "Code of Honor" "Justice" "Shades of Gray" "Samaritan Snare" "Angel One(which, given this discussion is actually an incredibly embarrassing episode. I take it back, it's embarrassing on it's own merits, too.) TNG doesn't hit a stride until Season 3. Admittedly, Gene had a lot of bad ideas. Despite good intentions. Namely, he didn't want to get away from the original series formula and took a lot of convincing to start branching out from the dated concepts. 20 years of television had passed and it was making TNG look and play as incredibly dated. It's amazing it survived the first two seasons.
http://sfdebris.com/...artrek/t130.php
Also, Kirk almost never beds a woman on a whim. Every time Kirk beds a woman there's ulterior motive. He's either under mind control, he's trying to get information that is critical/crucial to the survival of the ship/federation/member of his crew. If Kirk was a woman, written exactly the same way and performed with as much energy and passion as Shatner (not possible, nobody can duplicate The Shat) I would have no problem with any of Kirk's implied sexual exploits. The one that always gets me is "Kirk getting the green woman." The only "green woman" Kirk ever came close to bedding was an Orion held in a mental institute who says and I quote "He's my lover and I have to kill him." Right before she get's Spock-blocked. Most other times Kirk is dealing with a ticking clock, or a dangerous mystery, and he needs something from the woman in question, requiring him to seduce them. The only true romance he ever really has in the whole of the original series is Edith Keeler, and that was definitely not some cheap fooling around. He cared about her.
The Kirk you're describing is the one seen in the recent JJ Abrams films, which strip out all the pretenses, all the motivations, and just have Kirk randomly sacking women in scenes you can literally excise from the film.
#13680 Posted 16 May 2014 - 09:52 AM
This post has been edited by Fox: 16 May 2014 - 08:55 PM