After falling in love with a fake woman last week, Geordi finds himself on a hot and sweaty planet with a Romulan, trying to locate Wesley’s tower, in “The Enemy”. Later, in “The Price”, Troi finds herself the victim of a sexual predator–’80s TV drama writers.
Stoek
-Howdy Richard and Eric.
Wow. How absofuckinglutely forgettable is The Enemy? So forgettable that I honestly thought until you guys started talking about Geordi on the planet with the Romulan that this was the much better (in my opinion at least) episode The Defector. Honestly both this episode and The Pron feel like something left in the drawer after season 2 (which yeah I know, not likely what with the writers strike and all).
Some of the problem I think is that Trek is at its worst when it is too on the nose deriviative of other sci fi. In this case The Enemy seems way too much like a badly doctored rehash of Enemy Mine (right down to the title, and yes these are some of the worst fucking titles in all of television history). But because it’s Star Trek and Geordi is a “new” human, he’s not allowed to start out hating the Romulan. Therefore he really doesn’t learn anything. The character who is allowed to hate (Worf) doesn’t learn anything either. The only upside is that while Worf might not learn anything we learn a lot about him. Including how much of Klingon cultural mores he’s absorbed despite having spent decades surrounded by humans. It is I think a significant step on the road to making Worf a character who can hold his own in comparison to the likes of Spock. Overall though I give it 2 hidden Romulans.
And now… Fuck. Fuckity fuck fuck fuck. Okay. I’m going to not belabor because eventually you’ll get to talking about this and then I will share all the many reasons why I hate this movie and spent years hating Patrick Stewart. For right now I will only talk about what is germane to the conversation.
Nemeshit er Nemesis. The “mind” rape of Troi left me feeling sick and disgusted. And thanks to your highly articulate outburst Eric I now realize that piece of misogynistic shit was just the culmination in a years long barely disguised contempt for their female leads in general and for Troi in particular. I mean I can understand a wrong note here or there, but when you look at the whole thing, when you look at this in context with Man of the People, and the one with the telepaths who help recover memories, it just…. FUCK. I mean this is… This is. Trek is my inspiration. It made me the person I am. I revere it in a way that I revere few things. And for those involved in crafting it to get this so wrong so consistently is kind of stomach churning.
The one thing I will say is that this is why many of us embrace what is commonly referred to as Trek-Lit. While certainly far from perfect, in the tie in novels often some of the imbalances in the tv shows and movies get addressed and if not made right, at least mitigated somewhat. I totally understand that the books are not everyones cup of tea, but I’m not sure I would be as in love with Trek as I am if I only had the shows/movies to draw on.
Ultimately I give this episode one castrated empathic abusive creepy fuck.
Well guys great episode from you two. I will be looking forward to the next one eagerly.
T
I
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Stoek
Eric Brasure
-We don’t want to kill Star Trek for you! Just think: criticizing Star Trek when it pulls stunts like this makes it less likely that it will do it in the future. 🙂
Stoek
-No worries Eric. I’m the sort of Trekkie for whom nothing can change my love for Trek, but boy can I get the urge to ponyslap some of the people involved in making for some of the crap they’ve pulled over the years. *L*
And I agree. I think that it is only when fans are actively enaged and as vocal as possible about these things that some of the people involved really pay any attention. The truth is that Trek always has the potential to turn into just another effects dumbshow without active and engaged fans.
That’s part of the reason why I got so excited when I found this show as I take great delight in anyone who is talking about Trek in a way that goes beyond “heh. Kirk fucked a green chick. *snicker*” or “Starships are AWESOME!”
Lee
-It’s a miracle Marina Sirtis didn’t ask to leave at some point, given how poorly her character was treated throughout the series and into the movies. There had to be times she thought Denise Crosby had the right idea… and Tasha never saw a fraction of the amount of abuse that Troi did.
And you wonder why I won’t buy the blu rays. (Admittedly, cheapness is still the main reason.)
Eric Brasure
-I do wonder about that sometimes. She never gets that much to do, and Sirtis must have been disgruntled about that.