“She Can Be Woman of the Year … But Not Man of the Hour”

I recently engaged in a discussion with a number of raving femin– er, assertive young women, who promptly decided after a bit of dialogue that I was a patronizing, chauvinist bast– er, somewhat misinformed in my perspective.

I mention it here because it was a Trek talk—my favorite kind.

The point of dispute, you ask? “Were there female starship captains in Kirk’s time—more specifically, during The Original Series’ run?”

In my opinion, it’s obvious there weren’t, and the actual evidence supports that position:

· We never see a female starship or starbase commander during this period on screen; as a matter of fact, other than Christopher Pike’s Number One (a character that I note was promptly eliminated from the series post-pilot), there’s not a single female Starfleet officer holding the rank of admiral, commodore, captain, commander or even lieutenant commander; senior-grade lieutenant was as good as it got … and that’s not so good

· Janice Lester, in the final TOS episode “Turnabout Intruder,” mentions that there’s “no room” for women in Kirk’s “world” of starship command

In the absence of contravening evidence, one must employ that which exists. Sorry, ladies … no female starship captains.

Let’s take a quick look at the above reasons, along with the canonical and logical evidence which underpins (or, supposedly, undermines) them. We’ll start with the latter.

A number of people mentioned that they disregard the Lester lines because she was obviously overwrought and insane—a veritable “loon,” said one contributor.

To me, that's awfully convenient … and smacks of revisionist history, to boot. That "loon" was clever enough both to divine the use of alien equipment and employ it in an ambitious scheme to have a life that was denied her. One can be (to employ a technical term) completely bonkers, yet function quite ably in other aspects of life.

“True,” they respond, “but JL was probably exploiting the fact that she’s a woman to justify her failure in gaining a starship command of her own, instead of acknowledging her own psychological problems.”

That’s a not-entirely-unreasonable speculation … but it is, nevertheless, a speculation supported by nothing but the desire to envision women in the center seat during this period. Employing only the interpretation of facts that support your take isn’t exactly impartial reasoning.

That point also seems to lose much of its strength in the face of “Turnabout Intruder’s” conclusion: After Janice Lester, thwarted in her attempt to steal our golden boy’s mojo, is led away to her rubber room, D’Artagnan and the other Musketeers hold a little impromptu confab in the hallway. The good captain, once again in possession of his faculties (or, rather, facilities), sighs and mentions how her life could have been as "fulfilling as any woman's … if only … if only…" or something of the sort.

“If only” what, Jim?

Is he implying there that his ex could have been happy “if only” she hadn’t been a nut? Didn’t sound like it to me.

The clear sense of his statement, in my opinion, was that ol’ crazy Janice would have been happy if she could just have accepted her gender's limitations—at least insofar as relates to starship command.

“That’s not possible,” another person countered. “That would make Kirk and company misogynists. He respected T’Pau! He gave plenty of women their props. Can’t be. Can’t be!”

Relax. They weren’t misogynists. They did think women were, for the most part, equals.

But they (yes, even our favorite science officer) also thought men were just a tad equal-er. Remember, Spock also happily went along with a Vulcan tradition that states that a man’s wife is his property. How’s that for an enlightened perspective from the serenely logical man Friday?

Is any of this right, or morally justifiable? No way.

Does it sound like the 60's, though? Indeed.

Is it canon? Like it or not, absolutely.

The problem here is that many of today’s viewers don’t seem capable of placing The Original Series in its social context, but instead must evaluate and rewrite it employing their modern sensibilities.

Well, get over it. You’re wrong.

Remember, art imitates life … and that's really the trump here.

Chauvinism, after all, is a deeply-ingrained mindset; and it’s highly unlikely that it would have been completely eradicated by the mid-23rd century. The evidence is right there in the episodes—for those, that is, who aren’t having the series soundtrack drowned out by their own internal Lilith Fair.

If you remember and examine the brief moments in which Kirk and McCoy chuckle knowingly over Commodore Travers’ excesses during the teaser for “Arena,” you’ll realize that while the conversation, admittedly, had nothing to do with gender, it certainly supports my point—at least, in my opinion, by implication.

“How so?” you ask?

It seems obvious from this, and other comments made during the series run, that there was at least the kernel of an old boys network still in place, wrongly denying women that last bastion of masculinity—command of a starship or starbase. People try to retroactively make Kirk some sort of patron saint, when the guy was a product of his times, as was the series in which the actor playing him worked.

Stop for a moment. Think about it. Envision “Arena” again, as our intrepid captain and his crotchety old sawbones snicker over the fact that “rank hath its privileges.”

If that doesn’t convince you, try this: Recall Kirk's expression when he initially sees that a "broad" is commanding the Romulan task force in "The Enterprise Incident." It's not simple appreciation of feminine beauty. It's much more a "you have got to be kidding me" look on his face, I'm sure you'll agree. He treats the lady with an edge of amused disdain after having defeated her, too—a bit of the "baby, you never had a chance, but I'll be gracious, because I’m that kind of a guy" schtick. Believe me, if she hadn’t been a Vulcanoid, he would have banged her, too; instead, he let Spock handle her, since a “mind fuck” was more appropriate to the situation.

I don't think that genuine maliciousness was involved, but there was certainly an element of "a chick commanding a starship? ... get real" present in TOS, because it was present in society at that time. Number One disappeared after “The Cage,” and Majel Barrett was recast as a freakin' nurse precisely because many 60’s viewers thought it absurd that a woman would possess such authority.

Starting to see what I mean?

There's quite a bit of understated discrimination on The Original Series. That doesn't for an instant undermine its role as ground-breaking television … but being 20 years ahead of its time in 1967, logically, means it'd be almost that much behind the times in 2005.

“What about Enterprise,” one might ask? “Columbia’s captain is a woman.”

I could dismiss that with, “Who gives a shit? Enterprise was a suckfest.” Instead, I’ll be gracious, and afford it the respect it doesn’t in the least deserve.

The only way to completely reconcile that captain with "Turnabout Intruder," other than the convenient and completely unsatisfying “aw, Lester was just a fruitcake” dodge is to assume that some of the other founding member races of the Federation were still sufficiently patriarchal [Tellarites, anyone? We’ve never seen a single female of that species in any series, so far as I know] that women in command couldn't at first be tolerated—wrong-headed and discriminatory though we all know that is. Thus, Earth accepted taking a step back as relates to gender issues in order to move forward with an alliance that would allow it to eventually drag races like the Tellarites [and my assumption here is just that] scratching and snorting into the 22nd ... well, 23rd century.

I always assume the woman [ably portrayed by Madge Sinclair] we saw commanding the USS Saratoga in Star Trek IV was one of the first to captain a Federation starship. I also note that we see her only after Kirk has had his stint as Chief of Starfleet Operations.

Hey … perhaps “The Main Man” helped knock down that last barrier!

It certainly fits the facts better than disregarding what was said and seen, from where I sit.

“What about Number One, Joe? She was an X-O. Surely that means there are female captains in Kirk’s time.”

Actually, it doesn’t. Frankly, it's more than possible a woman could be an X-O, yet never rise to captain. The permutations of chauvinism can be quite convoluted and nonsensical, as anyone who lives in today’s world can attest. It could even be more so in Kirk’s time, considering that the Federation is less than a century old, at that point.

In addition, Number One's canonicity as X-O is a bit nebulous. We never actually hear her called first or executive officer; and while the phrase “Number One” often denotes the ship’s second-in-command, it might well be a proper or nick-name in this case, for all we know. Remember, she has a computer-like mind: Number One might well be a reference to this, rather than her rank. She is the most experienced officer, by Pike's declaration ... but not necessarily the highest-ranking one.

Occam's Razor states that the simplest explanation is most often the correct one, though—which means that, since Gene’s intention (as gleaned from various series Bibles) was to make her the second-in-command, Number One was almost certainly Pike’s X-O. But it also means, like it or not, that both Lester and Kirk probably meant what they said, and that it was accurate—a sign of the times. Coupled with the almost-complete absence of female senior officers, the evidence is more than enough.

Trying to rewrite it 40 years later is not only unnecessary, but pretty damned silly, to boot. Enjoy it for what it is, people. Don’t make it into what it doesn’t need to be.