This is Bound to raise my blood pressure.
Enterprise, or by the episode in question, Star Trek: Enterprise, was certainly one of the shows within the Trek canon of all time.
It started out trying to appeal to a different section of the 18-34 male demographic – those who thought Star Trek is for nerds. Also: going by the Russell Watson theme song; their mothers? This attempted change of audience is why the Star Trek part of the name was dropped; then added back later on when they realised only Trekkies were watching it after all. It would be very easily to just dismiss it because of the Rick Berman of it all (not to diminish his influence on that era of Trek, but Brannon Braga has no small culpability for Enterprise, as well as some of Voyager. Robert Duncan McNeil seems to be a lovely person, but by season 7 I loathed Tom Paris with an eye-rolling, groaning passion – coincidentally the character that the writers' room assumed that the audience would connect most with. Also; it's recorded that it was David Livingston who came to the Ten Forward set and removed any same sex couples from the scene where Guinan explains romance to Lal. Berman was the high heid yin where the buck stopped, but it's not like he was a lone misogynist homophobe, constantly thwarting a team of thoughtful, progressive writers and producers) but then this would be a short post with not much else to say, and that's wholly out of character for me. By putting in several points between brackets, I can nearly lose the thread of my own sentence. Did you remember where that one started?
insert Hbomberguy "Buckle up!" meme
As a Star Trek fan, one of the most wonderful things to do is introduce others to the shows. One of my most treasured memories is watching two of my friends watch Sub Rosa for the first time. In the 30-ish years since I first saw it myself, I've gone all the way around from hating it and thinking it was irredeemably terrible; to adoring how unhinged it is. Quite genuinely, it's now one of my favourite episodes of TNG because it's just so much. (The governor’s little speech about the ramparts of Glamis might still kill me, though. WHAT HAPPENS TO SCOTLAND TO MAKE THAT VIEW POSSIBLE) Gates McFadden's performance is a delight; it was directed by Frakes – and I would give my eye teeth to learn what the cast thought when they first read the script, as it contains the most iconic line uttered on television of all time (past, present and future):
"I did fall asleep reading a particularly erotic passage in my grandmother's journal."
The line is immortalised on a wonderful t-shirt design by Matt Baume as Beverly's Dream – it's my favourite Star Trek shirt in my ever-growing collection, as it happens. (Thanks, V!)
Anyway; there's just so much to unpack in these 13 words. When watching with someone who's seeing it for the first time, it's probably a good idea to pause right after that scene and take as much time as they need. Maybe have refreshments, and possibly the contact details for a good therapist?
Braga is credited with writing the episode, but there may have been uncredited rewrites. Jeri Taylor had a hand in it as well, and the story was based on material by a freelance writer named Jeanna F. Gallo. Who wrote that line? I doubt I'll ever know, and that's okay. It does speak to Gene Roddenberry's foundational ideas about sexuality in the 24th century; that current prudishness and prurience will have died off, and people will be more open to discussing their desires with each other. Riker's sexuality – often joked about, but actually quite positive and healthy when you pay attention – is probably the best model of that. I still don't think he'd necessarily want to have a discussion with Dr. Pulaski about the times she boned his dad – but he communicates; is honest and seeks active consent, probably even when he's in holodeck five.
The problem with introducing someone to Star Trek is that eventually, they're going to want to watch Enterprise. V, who helped me buy my Beverly's Dream shirt and not have to pay more than the price of it in shipping to the UK, is working through it just now. They're up to season 3 (at time of writing this section) and this is where the complex feelings come in.
Jolene Blalock's performance as T'Pol is easily one of the finest across all of Star Trek. As a Vulcan and as an actor – and there are a lot of skilled actors across Trek. For all my criticisms of Enterprise, I need to make this abundantly clear; I think the cast did their best with what they had... and unfortunately Shran's "pink skins" just surfaced in my mind and interrupted any other thought I was having.
MAYWEATHER WAS RIGHT THERE THE WHOLE TIME.
"Pink skins" really sums up most of my issues with Enterprise; it's not humanity trying to be better than it is. I don't mean the characters in the 22nd century – I mean the people in the 21st century who were making it. To invoke Susan Faludi, Enterprise is Backlash Trek. Those Old Scientists and the 90s series all (tried to) depict future humanity as being (mostly) free of the bigotries and short-sighted ideas about what life is for that currently hold us back – racism, sexism, disablism, homophobia and transphobia are gone, or actively fought against. It is kind of wonderful that in writing The Outcast – an episode about gay rights and written in support of the potential legalisation of same sex marriage (in California) in the early 90s – the TNG writers ass-backwards'd into a trans rights icon; which serves to underline that self-determination and respecting other people's existences is the right thing to do no matter where or when. Let That Be Your Last Battlefield is not subtle; Bele and Lokai are so entrenched in their superficial, arbitrary hatred that they destroy themselves and everything they think they're fighting for is long gone by the time we meet them. I've written about Angel One and the attempt at women's equality as the subject, so I won't linger too long on that – but it does flip reality on its head and show us that either way a deliberate, gendered power imbalance is ridiculous. Far Beyond The Stars is undoubtedly the best episode for demonstrating how far humanity has come – and how far we still have to go. In every episode, contemporary humans tried to envision what a better future would look like, while also commenting on the audience's world through allegory.
And then along came Enterprise.
The attacks on the US of September 11th, 2001 occurred while season one was being filmed, though Broken Bow didn't air until the end of that month. Never underestimate the impact of that day on American cultural output to this day and beyond. (Note: I don't agree with some of the opinions expressed on the TVTropes page there; but it should effectively convey how Sept. 11th 2001 has indelibly changed the American psyche in media, if not collectively.) However, the show was in production by then, so all the pre-production work took place at that period where a lot of people (very white and mostly male and straight, coincidentally) seemed to think that all The Work had been done. We fought the Nazis in the middle of the century; fascism was defeated. The Civil Rights Act had been passed in the US and many other countries fully enfranchised their populations in the 20th century; on paper and in law, almost everyone could vote. The United States "won" the Cold War; capitalism had saved the day and was going to make life better for everyone forever and ever without end because all the big problems had been excised and solved*. If you want to know more about that kind of thought, I highly recommend the If Books Could Kill episodes about Francis Fukuyama's The End of History and Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature (this book ended up with 2 episodes). Alongside the sense that everything had been fixed there was, of course, the growing backlash to the gains that social minorities had made. With one hand, the straight cis white men were patting themselves on the back for a job well done, while with the other they were were trying to hold back other groups from getting too empowered – as the saying goes: to those accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. (I have read with mine own eyes, on Sarek's own internet, a man who seriously thought that to make everyone equal, everyone would have to be reduced to the level of the worst off in society)
And then one clear Tuesday morning in September of 2001...
*this is where I feel compelled to direct you to Jay Smooth's TedX Talk, in which he describes specifically being anti-racist as requiring a dental hygiene model of maintenance; something that can be applied to any other aspect of being a good person.
Star Trek as a whole exists outside of time. It's set in a future none of us could ever hope to live to see – Enterprise is set in the middle of the 22nd century, and we're conveniently ignoring all the time travel episodes and that season of Picard that all just happen to come to contemporary Earth – so watching any episode works just fine when you don't know what was happening in the world (especially the US) when it was being written. My cohort can watch TOS and enjoy it just fine. As time moves on, it's more and more removed from the contemporary issues – especially those around Civil Rights – it was often commenting on. Hopefully those real world struggles, and the people lost in the fight, will never be forgotten – but 60 years of history has happened since and it's much easier to remember history you watched on the news as it happened, rather than the things from before you were born. The Outcast, as previously mentioned, was written as an allegory for the fight for same sex marriage equality that was happening in California in the early 90s. I have spoken with someone who appeared to believe that it was a trans acceptance story from day one. A vitally important point about queer culture in the late 20th century that must never be forgotten, is that the AIDS pandemic of the 1980s and 1990s destroyed so much of it. If you're reading this, you're probably at least passingly familiar with Hbomberguy's video essay Plagiarism and You(Tube). One of the points he made was that because so much of queer history was lost in the 80s and 90s, it's really easy for people like James Somerton to fill that space with lies and misinterpretations of other peoples' work. Obviously Star Trek is a very different part of cultural history, but hopefully you understand the point I'm trying to get at. Recasting The Outcast as a trans episode rewrites the history, and misses out that gender identity was used as an allegory for sexual and romantic attraction. LGBTQIA+ representation was something the 90s Trek production teams could have done far better on, as Ira Steven Behr pointed out in What We Left Behind, regarding DS9.
Enterprise was a product of that weird bubble of time at the turn of the millennium when (for many people, but definitely not all) things felt fairly stable politically, and maybe economically. Specifically, Berman and Braga were doing professionally well for themselves – sure, Trek was still "for nerds", but TNG got pretty mainstream. Voyager was the flagship show for Paramount's UPN channel. DS9 was the forgotten cousin, twice-removed and left in a ditch – but that also means that it's now the mould-breaking tour de force that everyone loves because it works so well for streaming culture. I'm right there with everyone else – the first 6 months of my relationship with my spouse, DS9 was the soundtrack. (Don't worry; they've seen it all properly since and it's their favourite Trek now.)
Maybe Berman and Braga had a really dim view of humanity, but the presentation of what's normal by the time we achieve Warp 5 flight is regressive. Full disclosure: I dutifully watched Enterprise on Channel 4 as often as I could, but tapped out at the end of season 2, when the Xindi attacked Earth and destroyed Florida. I can't immediately find a date for that, but the US air-date was May of 2003. As an allegory for the attacks on the US of September 11th, 2001, it was too on the nose for me. American foreign policy in those days was problematic at best and I wasn't down for Trek that wanted to cheerlead (or even process) that. This means that several years passed before I saw the season 4 episode Bound for the first time. Just to clue you in: this episode makes me so furious, I could bite through my own teeth.
Orion Slave Girls have been an iconic mainstay of Trek since the beginning and The Cage. Vina appeared to Captain Pike in the guise of an Orion slave, dancing for him. Earlier in the episode, he remarks to Dr. Boyce that he might resign his commission and go to work as an Orion trader (Boyce describes the traded as "green animal women, slaves" – things sure were a bit weird in the mid-60s if our hero going off to trade in sentient beings was a viable option) which sets up the scene for the Talosians to play out for him. Foreshadowing is a literary device...
"Funny how they are on this planet - [they] actually like being taken advantage of."
This one scene from the first pilot which first aired in late 1966, as part of The Menagerie: Part 2, seems to have really made an impression. For the 50th anniversary of Trek, Mattel released a green-skinned doll as a San Diego Comic Con exclusive. As part of the same anniversary celebrations, Mac Cosmetics released a themed collection of colour cosmetics, and Vina (or maybe just an Orion woman?) was one of the 4 women of Trek that was pictured in promotional materials and displays. The collection was pretty lacklustre (in every possible sense of the word) on top of being produced by a company that – at the time, at least – still performed animal testing; something wildly antithetical to Star Trek, if you ask me. There's a documentary (available in the UK on Amazon's Prime Video) called The Green Girl, which is worth watching if you want to learn more about Susan Oliver, the woman under the make-up.
Green skinned woman? Must be Star Trek.
In The Cage, Orion slave women are described as "animal" and apparently DTF at all times, even when they... don't want to? Are incapacitated? I'm not sure how else to interpret the line about them "lik[ing] being taken advantage of". In The Menagerie, they're described as "...like animals – vicious, seductive. They say that no human male can resist them." in a scene that then cuts to Captain Kirk and Commodore Méndez watching The Cage and Vina dancing on as it fades to black (probably for adverts, as it fades back in to them still watching her dancing).
This is in Spock's court marshal, by the way. With the death penalty as a potential outcome.
Most folks know that The Cage was rejected as a pilot, but that NBC made the unusual decision to order a second pilot (which ended up being Where No Man Has Gone Before). One of the aspects of The Cage they disliked, besides it being famously "too cerebral" was the "scantily clad green dancing girls with the humps and grinds." – too erotic for broadcast in the mid-60s, but Gene found a way to use it nonetheless, when they ran out of time to make a full, new episode – unedited! Next time you're watching Those Old Scientists, pay attention. You'll never see anyone's navel. TV censors and standards of the day held that it was too sexual to show a human belly button. William Ware Theiss' costume for Vina certainly covered Susan Oliver's navel, but displayed a lot more than one might expect in a family show. For that reason, I probably shouldn't be remotely surprised that three minutes or so would make such an impression on the young (straight) male minds that would go on to make Star Trek as adults.
But back to Bound, remember? It's been a while since I last watched the episode and the recap on Memory Alpha is a bit scant for my purposes so all I can really remember is that Cyia Batten (one of the actors who played Torah Ziyal, Dukat's daughter) is the lead Orion slave woman, and the episode makes me so furious that I could probably go eight rounds hand-to-hand with a Nauusican and come out the winner. Apparently I'm going to go and watch the episode again, now, for your benefit (certainly not mine). Pray for my teeth....
It's just past Christmas, I guess in 2154 we celebrate by receiving sentient beings as gifts? Happy new year.
On that planet, here there be dragons. That's a Vulcan joke.
Tactical alert turns off a bunch of lights. Why???
Ooh, green man and the ominous strings. It's Harrad-Sar, and he's being all threatening. Fade to black and why is this glass shattering? Oh, right. I'm screaming because I can't skip intro fast enough, and it's the proto-Rascal Flats-ified version of Faith of the Heart. I'd like to think Archer played the song for Harrad-Sar while they glowered at each other over their viewscreens. Maybe this is how humans established such a dominant position in the foundation of the UFP so soon after getting out into interstellar space.
Archer refers back to the episode where a bunch of crew members were kidnapped by other Orions, including one who was a WWE wrestler. Harrad-Sar has an olive branch. Geddit? Olive? Because he's green? Right? Tough crowd.
Harrad-Sar is throwing a party; Archer is invited. Looks like he's bringing Reed and a couple of MACOs? Ooh, they're taking the transporter! Risky! They're also expositing about the last episode that involved the Orions. Archer wants to make friends! Or, at least, not-enemies. With slavers.
Cut to: the Engine Room and Kelby being all weird at Trip for no clear reason, which Trip picks up on immediately. (Who's Kelby? Has he been in previous episodes??... I looked at Memory Alpha; ohhhhh.) His eyeline seems to be Tucker's left cheek? Maybe his mouth.
The Velour Vulcan approacheth. (The Television Without Pity recaps of ENT were honestly brilliant; I can but dream of that level of snark.) She asks Tucker if he's been daydreaming about her. Connor Trineer's pupils are oddly dilated, especially considering the lighting. Must be acting.
Cut to: the Orion party. I've thrown better parties, and none of them involved the blue fluid from tampon adverts. Archer looks sceptical about his cocktail; can't imagine why. Meridor? If that's what you kids call it these days... It really doesn't help that the bottle Harrad-Sar serves it from slightly resembles one of those urine bottles for people who can't get out of bed (outie genitals rather than innies). The blue fluid doesn't blend with the yellow and orange layered drink Archer and Reid sip from, so Sarek only knows what the whole drink tasted like.
Harrad-Sar mentions that Archer is wanted by the Klingon Empire and the Orion Syndicate. Isn't he a member of that? He's not up to something here, surely? Harry (his whole name is getting to be a bit of a pain to keep typing, so now our Orion friend with a toothpick in his cheek is Harry. No shade on Ensign Kim, naturally) mentions Archer's appetite and Archer puts aside his plate, more or less saying he's watching his figure and purple alien potatoes would go straight to his thighs. Harry says that it's bad form to discuss business before entertainment, and I don't know about you, but it seems to me that that's the best time to discuss business – when everyone has a clear head and isn't distracted – but what do I know? I'm not an interstellar SLAVER.
"If the food didn't arouse your hunger..." (lads, I think he's trying to suggest something here) He claps, and points behind Archer, who turns; "... this should." Doors open. What is this music?
That bra? Is a boob hat. No support at all, and is probably going to give her neck pain after a few hours.
By the many arms of Vishnu, where the heck did they come from???
Harry: "What do you think?"
Reid: "I can't think!"
Harry: "Captain?"
Archer: "I'd have to agree with my tactical officer."
How low is the writer's opinion of men that a very tame private dance (it's not private, but it's also not a lap dance) is all that it takes to switch of the CHIEF TACTICAL OFFICER and the CAPTAIN'S abilities to maintain situational awareness (and no, not the apparently very focussed awareness of the situation they are right now in)?
Harry starts rubbing Archer's shoulders and names one of the women; the one wearing the red velvety boob-hat bra rather than the purple bat corset or the gold bikini top, as Navaar – and describes her as "the most experienced" – at what, exactly, is never clarified (nudge nudge, wink wink). They're sisters, because of course they are; porn-fried brains aren't new, just far more common. I get that children of multiple births are often close, but that close? Really? I'd rather gnaw off my fingers one by one, one knuckle at a time, than be in the same bedroom as my brother and any partner he was getting it on with. I suspect he would feel similarly, but I won't ask. I don't think I could ever explain (his special interest is trains; yes, we are probably both quite autistic, why do you ask?) Wait, I just implied my brother is my twin. He's not; he's like, 4 years older than me.
This is the franchise that thinks reading your recently-deceased granny's candle-inhabiting-ghost-based sexcapade journals is perfectly normal, of course...
Harry then goes on to explain that he "purchased them at a trading post that you [Archer] once visited." The one where 9 crew members wear nearly sold as slaves themselves, then. Ooh, he uses the word "creatures" to describe the women. Delightful!
"BUT WOMEN ARE THE SAME THROUGHOUT THE GALAXY, AREN'T THEY?"
There goes a tooth; all those years of orthodontics were for naught in the end.
I'm only 10 minutes into this abomination. Can I make it through the next 33 minutes without chemical assistance? What about my teeth? Why did I think this was a good idea?? Brb, filling the vape...
Back, with some emotional support cheese as well. Don't worry; it's brie so I don't really need teeth to be able to eat it.
Cut to: Archer, trying to not knock himself out on the deck supports in his ready room? Quarters? Ready room. I think. He explains to T'Pol that Harry claims to have found a planet where there's enough magnesite to build a thousand warp reactors, but doesn't have the capabilities to extract the ore himself. He want to broker a deal between the Syndicate (who is after Archer, remember) and Starfleet, for a 10% share. Of the magnesite? The mining facilities? The miners? I'm a little confused, but no time to explain! He's also promised to open a line of communication between Starfleet and the Syndicate. Wouldn't the mining deal do that? Again, no time to explain: Archer already accepted the offer. T'Pol is also confused. Still, no time to explain! Harry insisted Archer accept a gift to celebrate their deal, and Archer didn't feel he could refuse. I'm sure he tried so hard. Apparently Archer knows accepting wasn't a good idea, as he appears to be asking T'Pol's permission and/or forgiveness here.
Cut to:... D deck? Really? Are we 12?! I'm sure I've met straight men (besides relatives; this isn't the 22nd or 24th century) who can actually think of something besides their penis for... ooh, 15 minutes in a row?
Reid is showing the Orion slave sisters to their quarters, awkwardly, presumably because he still can't think. A random female crew member walks past the group in the background and pauses to look at the Orion slave women. Seems to not just be men who can't resist them! As a bisexual woman, this is not the representation I'm looking for.
"Captain Archer has a very large ship." purrs Navaar. I'm going to get a subdural haematoma from the subtlety of the innuendo. Reid responds "It's roomy." and are we still talking about Archer's genitals?
The Orion slave women then start to crowd him, and if only he was able to think. He might have noticed the ominous strings paired with the chimes of intrigue.
The way Dominic Keating says 'ladies' in the line "Well... uh... this way, ladies." gives me the heebies. I can hear the fedora on it. Anyway; fade to back for adverts, aaaaand...
Cut to: Ship, exterior, at warp and Archer's supplemental log that conveniently shuffles the plot along. Imagine if such a thing existed for the experience of reading my writing. Maybe grab some coffee or whatever your stimulant of choice is? You're going to need it; I'm not even 12 minutes into the episode yet. Holy fuck, what on earth is time?? It's been half an hour (maybe more like 45 minutes?) since I came back with my cheese.
Our brave crew, who may mostly also be heavily under the influence of outside influence...
wait, not that word , I just used that word and repeating it in the same sentence would be bad and terrible writing. What's writing verité? Maybe James Joyce might have had a notion of it... Oh, I know!
... who may also be experiencing the effects of outside influence, are on the way to Harry's coordinates, which are definitely where there's a planet utterly loaded with magnesite and absolutely nothing else that could possibly pose a threat to anyone. I don't know why you'd think that. The last group of Orions were completely trustworthy and no threat at all!
T'Pol is in a new shade of velour today; a delightful raspberry pink, to shift round the colour wheel from yesterday's bleached nectarine. Maybe tomorrow will be a red? What does it look like on days where she's wearing velour in shades beyond the visible light spectrum for humans? Black? White? Anyway. She approaches a distracted Archer to have a quiet word with him, regarding the growing disruption caused by the Orion slave women. He responds in a way that indicates he's disrupted by them. Navaar was hinting that she wanted to visit Archer's quarters earlier, so maybe she's found her way there already – make up your own mind and/or jokes – anything to deaden the pain and keep things moving.
It's worse than that (he's dead, Jim!) - the Orion slave women went to the mess hall and 12 crew members were late to their duty shifts. Alas; no holodecks, never mind at least five of them on this Enterprise. They discuss levels of dress and T'Pol raises that the Orion slave women are still expressing the sense they are the property of the captain. Starfleet doesn’t condone slavery.1
Cut to: the ship's gym. Mayweather and Reid discuss the Orion slave women in an oddly indirect manner. If these two aren't the only crew members using intense physical exertion to try to distract themselves, I can only hope everyone's gone nose blind. Pray for the residents of D deck. Travis expounds upon the Deltans that travelled on his parent's ship when he was 15. Deltan females are extremely attractive. The Deltan males might as well be chopped liver for all the attention they get. Hopefully those Deltan women had taken a vow of celibacy, though that really shouldn't have impacted Travis either way (any more than it did) what with him being a minor at the time.
That was a masturbation joke, wasn't it: "...idle hands and all that." – then the scene ending with Mayweather saying that the trip with the Deltans "helped [his] biceps." Blink and you'd miss it; 2 masturbation jokes. Kids watched this with their parents!
Tell a lie; the scene ends with Travis telling Reid he'd "go heavier" with the weights, which I'm sure isn't meant to be as funny as it is; Reid has been waving weights around, but it's pretty clear there's absolutely no weight to them and Keating is kind of flapping in a way that would probably hurt if he did actually have weights in his hands.
It's gone 3am. I want to see my not-godchild tomorrow. Gotta tap out here. Nearly 15 minutes into the episode. Ugh. I hope someone actually reads this. Besides Spouse. If you sign up for this as a newsletter, you'll get it direct to your inbox. Well, the first version that's published – speeling errors and all.
Saw the Spock-child. It would be Sarek-child, but that's harder to say. Anyway. They continue to fill my heart with love and wonder at the miracle that is the development of humans, and I'm now going to sully that by getting back to this. After I've charged the vape.
Please, someone else read this?
Right; where did I get to...
The Orion slave woman who's wearing the purple bat-shaped corset pushes open a door and walks into Engineering like she's high and this is DisneyWorld. Everyone stops to look at her, which is definitely something you want to happen around a warp core. She finds Kelby (he's the Chief Engineer, or would be if someone would piss off back to the Columbia like he keeps saying he will) and thanks him for helping her find the mess hall that morning. It looks like he's going to escort her back out of a restricted area, but she want to know more about the warp core. A little cutaway shot has an annoyed-looking female crew member drag a male colleague back to the work they were doing, because men are such slaves to their hormones.
The Orion slave woman, D'Nesh, caresses the warp core and then asks for a tour because "Harrad-Sar never let us leave our rooms." Kelby offers to show her around, then they leave the engine room. On his duty shift! Hardly Chief Engineer behaviour, especially considering that I strongly suspect the tour will be 'the corridors to Kelby's quarters' and nothing else. Probably just as well he's a senior officer and therefore doesn't have to share a room.
Cut to: Sickbay. Hoshi walks in and asks what Dr. Phlox has for a headache. Phlox is walking oddly, and his hair is a touch dishevelled. Something is wrong with Phlox! Ensign Keely was in with a similar headache just a few minutes ago (that's not what's wrong with Phlox). What happens to paracetamol in the next 140 years?? Anyway, Phlox can't find an obvious cause and Hoshi blames stress and relates it to the Orion slave women. She says that she's not used to trying to work with guys who just stand around drooling whenever one of them is around; Phlox says she's jealous of them – which is quite a leap. Men love to go to sexual jealousy between women, as if we all live and die for men to think we're attractive, and we all have to be the prettiest in the room at all times. (For the record; I'm not even the prettiest ostensibly alone in the room right now; Maggie the cat is just over there and she wins paws down, no question.) It's a thought-ending cliche if ever there was one. According to Phlox, it's all just "healthy sexual energy"? Up to a third of the crew are unable to do their jobs to an acceptable standard because they're sweaty and disrupted – speaking of which, the disarrayed Phlox then collapses. He says he must be nearing a sleep cycle but recently had one, so clearly the something is what's affecting him, too.
Back to Engineering, and maybe Kelby didn't immediately go to his quarters after all? He and D'Nesh are talking about the matter-antimatter reaction and dilithium crystals. I get the sense the actor is trying to make her lines all sexy and suggestive, but it's like talking about nuclear fission in lingerie. I'm not saying it's impossible, but as flirtation goes it's highly improbable. I guess the writers really wanted to imagine a circumstance where a Sexy WomanTM gets aroused by listening to a man talk about his unsexy job? Kelby is cockblocked by Trip who is still not fucking off back to his ship (the Columbia).
Kelby's eyeline is off, so it looks a bit like he's just so turned on that he's about ready to kiss the nearest person and that happens to be Trip. Except they're butting heads and Kelby's being all aggressive. Because Trip won't feck off back to the Columbia like he keeps saying he will; because he just got cockblocked—or is something else afoot? By the strings and French Horn of Tension, it might just be the last option (or secret answer 4: all of the above – I guess it depends on how the actors wanted to play it). Trip orders him off duty, or the brig it’d be more comfortable there. D'Nesh twirls her hair some more.
Look, it's the ship! Wheeeee!
And now to Navaar's room where she's conveniently lying on her bunk, turned so her body is facing the camera. Until she sits up, the shot seems to be carefully composed so her hip is never out of frame. It's also perfectly set up so that Archer's crotch is very much in the middle of the shot, too. R O O M Y. She immediately gets into his personal space – which could be to fit into the shot, but it doesn't feel that way. Immediately, she's all breathy-voiced and flirty; she's "been [Archer's] property for two days".
STARFLEET DOESN'T CONDONE SLAVERY STARFLEET DOESN'T CONDONE SLAVERY STARFLEET DOESN'T CONDONE SLAVERY STARFLEET DOESN'T CONDONE SLAVERY
After telling her that she and her sisters aren't his property, he explains that "On my world, slavery's been illegal for hundreds of years." 2
Navaar is mostly confused: "I've been a slave my entire life. On different worlds, for different owners."
This is making me think of the anti-sexwork types who want to 'rescue' trafficked women and sex workers by... having them arrested and kicked out the country (assuming they're foreign nationals), with little to no support in the aftermath.
"You're free to start a new life." 3
And what does Navaar do with her freedom? Get right back to exploring Archer's large and roomy ship, apparently. She's now choosing to get it on with him – and hey, enthusiastic consent is sexy. T'Pol calls down to Archer to say they're arriving at the planet that's basically an enormous lump of magnesite floating in space for realsies, which would usually prompt an 'on my way' type of response. He mumbles "be right there" and immediately gets waylaid. BTW, Makeup did a really good job with the body paint in this scene – there's only the slightest hint of transfer on Bakula's face if you look fairly closely.
The ship arrives at the planet, and Archer arrives on the bridge. Something might be up (ahem), because the turbolift door opens and he's facing the wrong way. He swaggers out on to the bridge and something is definitely up (though maybe not that), because his collar is far more open than usual, and he's awffy sweaty. Archer sort of looms around the bridge as an unfamiliar vessel appears, and fires weapons at them. Reid laughingly notes that the unknown aliens, who appear to be in a science ship, could shoot at them all day and they'd take no damage; but Archer wants to return fire, which will have the mild side-effect of destroying the alien vessel. The men all seem to have varying degrees of sweaty faces, from Mayweather's popping biceps to Reid's dewy glow to Archer's I-think-that's-a-fever?; the Drums of Conflict are pounding, the Violins of Peril play an extended note, as Archer orders Reid again, but Reid refuses! Archer shoves Reid away from the weapons controls, meaning to murder the unknown scientists himself! But the alien ship has flown away, probably forever blissfully unaware that they nearly died there.
Cut to: a green bum.
Seriously. D'Nesh is walking down a corridor and the camera is set at about the height of her knees or just above. It fully pans up her back and down again to her feet (this might be Quentin Tarantino's preferred iteration of Star Trek) as she makes her way to Kelby's quarters. Lads, I think they're going to do The Sexxx. Whatever Archer and Navaar did earlier was probably more like a quick handjob.
Exterior of the ship (a nice overhead of the ship passing by in orbit of the spherical magnesite with ionic clouds), then Kelby and D'Nesh, looking somewhat post-coital. D'Nesh still has her bat corset on though. Maybe getting in and out of what looks to be somehow a one-piece bikini? is more hassle than she can be bothered with? Or maybe it's only been 5 minutes and she didn't have time to disrobe.
Kelby is having a moan about how Trip is still on the ship and not, you know, fecking off to the Columbia like he said he would. It's unclear how much time elapsed while we watched the ship orbit the biggest lump of magnesite you've ever laid eyes on; but presumably not that long because we have almost 20 minutes left to get things wrapped up here. In the episode, not you and I. Unless you want to read a lot faster all of a sudden. I guess they're either scanning the planet between the clouds where they can (the ionic clouds are interfering with the scans so Sarek knows how much magnesite is really down there) while waiting for Harry to arrive; or because so much of the crew has been so inefficient the past few days, they're getting caught up on their paperwork. That ship passing under us (is that a new euphemism?) stands for anything from two minutes upwards – my point is that either Kelby just started moaning about Trip not long after D'Nesh arrived and this is one of those "no, it happens to all men" moments, or it's after something because like I say, it's hard to judge as she's still fully dressed. As much as an Orion slave woman can be, anyway. The apparent capacity for longevity suggests it's past time for shore leave, ideally at a pleasure planet like Risa. The crew needs some jamaharon.
D'Nesh encourages Kelby to complain about Trip, but then pulls back when Kelby intimates that he wants to get intimate. The delivery of "I'm used to being with men who take what they want!" is odd to me, and I can't quite say why. It sounds very artificial and performed, which SPOILERS does fit with the Orion freed-slave women having hidden intentions and D'Nesh specifically pushing Kelby's buttons to get something.4
Kelby interprets the thing to be taken as his job, or maybe he's actually really still thinking about the luscious lips of Charles 'Trip' Tucker III? D'Nesh asks "what would you do to keep me forever?" and predictably, he says "anything you want" which is probably better than specifics. They were just discussing his inflamed passions about Tucker multi-blocking him, after all. Kissy kissy lie down, fade to black.
So Kelby has finally, almost definitely, shown D'Nesh his large and roomy starship. Who knows if she ever got the purple bat-kini off though; it really seems like the male crew are intensely frustrated in this episode (female crew members? Who experience sexual desire? What in the Erica Jong are you on about?! That said; can you imagine an episode of Enterprise about female sexual desire? That would be Code of Honor level bad.) and remarkably sweaty at all times, she probably didn't have time to disrobe. Disbikini?
Sweaty Kelby is up to something as he sneaks into Engineering though a hatch that might be a small door, and starts pressing buttons on a screen. An alarm sounds as Trip descends the ladder from the warp core, so he rushes back up and quickly discovers that Kelby is messing with something important. To get to the part of Engineering Kelby is at, Trip has to go back down his ladder again, then up another – would it not have been more sensible to put these work stations up ladders all on the same, contiguous floor? Especially in moments like this, when getting from one work station to another in a timely manner is of utmost importance? We’ll soon discover that adrenaline has been elevated in the menfolk, in response to a pheromone released by the Orion slave women (apparently deliberately) – remember when pheromones were a big thing? – and this has made them more aggressive, suggestible and delusional.
Did you know; the main emotional response to increased adrenalin levels is fear?
So. Trip pulls Kelby away from the console; Kelby punches Trip (hard enough to make him fall to the floor); Trip rugby tackles Kelby to get him away from the workstation, and they throw a few punches when they get back up. Kelby gets one more punch in, to Trip's 4 blows and that's Kelby out for the count. Adrenaline, remember. Kelby is so full of adrenaline in this scene that he's sweating hard and apparently significantly more aggressive; while Trip is noticeably unsweaty throughout the episode – the only male to be wholly unaffected by these mystery pheromones, unless Porthos escaped too. Nonetheless, Kelby goes down like a sack of sweaty, terrified potatoes; and Trip attempts to undo whatever he was doing to something very important in Engineering.
Trip yells "Blow the dampners! Move!" and the men in Engineering tie their ponytails.
Exterior: the Enterprise comes to a halt (well, not a halt – powered flight stops suddenly, but an object in motion...) in orbit of the biggest oblate spheroid of magnesite in the Alpha Quadrant, hand on heart Captain, no word of a lie or Sarek strike me down. Seems not all the thrusters lost power at the same time, as the ship immediately loses attitudinal stability and looks like it's away to do Yeager Loops until power can be restored. I hope inertial dampners weren't the ones being blown, or there's going to be the tang of butyric acid mixed in with whatever is the 22nd century's equivalent to Lynx Africa; unwashed sports socks; that cabbage smell that always shows up eventually around institutional kitchens; and – as two thirds of the crew are male, and all no doubt extremely and Bermanly heterosexual – the scent of jizz by the bucket load.
Whatever Kelby did, it blew out every EPS junction in the system? What system? That was far too easy, even if Kelby is technically the chief engineer. Anyway; they might be dead in the water, so to speak.
They arrive in Sickbay to question Kelby, who is strapped to the bed. There's crosstalk (cross-shout, to be more accurate) as Phlox needs to administer treatment for the dangerously high adrenaline levels 5, but Archer is all "not until he's answered some questions!" because extreme fear makes him needlessly cruel, it seems. The sedative is administered, and Phlox gets enough peace to explain the pheromones to Trip (Archer is still there, but seems to remain extremely disrupted). According to this episode, dramatically increasing the typically male metabolism causes aggression? Is he saying that the men are hangry?? Then they ultimately become delusional, while Phlox says while waving towards the now passed-out Sweaty Kelby. It seems his delusion is that he thinks Trip is out to get him? Put a pin in that; I'll come back to it. Eventually.
Female crew haven't escaped the pheromones either; the effects on them are headaches and listlessness. Phlox posits that it's to "reduce competition" between sexual rivals because all women, at all times, are always competing for male attention. All of it! Nothing else matters! The menfolk are on to us!
Phlox is suffering the effect of the pheromones to his sleep cycle so intensely, he has to take stimulants to stay awake. In fact, the only unaffected crew members are Trip and T'Pol. Tri'Pol, if you will. For all that Archer is stalking around the room, reminding me of nothing more than Neanderthal!Riker from Genesis (TNG, season 7; Gates McFadden's directorial episode), he's paying attention and is on the ball. He asks what's special about Tri'Pol (I'd apologise but I'm quite proud of coming up with that just there, so I don't want to) and Phlox says he's not sure. Oh, and by the way, the effect is cumulative. There's no likely outcome stated, but we cut immediately to Archer and T'Pol walking with purpose while the strings of climaxing dramatic tension play. She's still in her raspberry pink velour, which is in contrast to Archer's navy blue uniform. (Her wearing pink to his blue really is fitting for this episode, IMO.)
The Captain confronts the Orion slave women in the decon chamber, where they've been placed to isolate them from the crew; and Navaar tries to be all scathing. Someone went and searched the Orion slave women's room, and they found a communication device that looks remarkably like a large, brass bath plug.
There's some discussion about what they've been up to, and Navaar tries to undermine Archer's sense of his masculinity by suggesting he's a weak commander, then the Sexxxay Pheromone Mind Control kicks in (the decon chamber containment really worked out, huh?) and he starts mirroring her movements, almost letting them out of their makeshift brig. T'Pol breaks the spell; either by simply speaking, or reminding him of his rank and responsibilities on the ship. Captain Archer and T'Pol leave, but oh no! The random MACO is sweating, and Navaar is making eye contact with him! Who could have foreseen this totally predictable development? Also, someone really had better check the decon system.
Archer tells T'Pol to get down to Engineering, and help Trip fix the ship so it can move when Harry shows up. She protests; Archer's judgement is impaired, much like his vision must be by the sweat rolling into his eyes. Archer insists he's fine, and orders her to the engine room.
In the engine room, Tri'Pol discuss their situation re: the Orion threat and Trip's naiveté when they started out on the mission, back in season 1. This is cut off by two crew members having a loud altercation that Trip steps in to curtail. He turns back to T'Pol, sighing that "that's the third one in the last hour." They discuss the pheromone situation some more, then turn to how it's not affecting Trip at all. T'Pol says it's probably to do with her; there's an old married female Vulcan's tale that when a Vulcan mates, there's a shared psychic bond. Trip disagrees that they mated. T'Pol rolls her eyes and says "Uh huh." I have questions. Do I want answers? Oh yeah, that time they showed a surprising amount of Jolene Blalock's bottom. They mated.
Just as well, really, as that psychic bond is what's protecting Trip, even though she didn’t ask if he wanted to bond psychically so that’s morally dubious – much like that time Trip was pregnant. Bodily autonomy and consent, particularly in intimate situations? In early-2000s sci-fi, written mostly by men for an assumed audience of pretty much only men? I think not! That's (barely) for girls!
Back to the Bridge: Archer is pacing around, waiting for Harry to arrive. Finally, his ship appears on sensors: tactical alert is called. Where'd everyone go? Who turned out the lights? Archer stops pacing as Harry hails them – probably for the best; he'd probably trip on something in the dark. As the Strings of Peak Dramatic Tension are playing, Archer doesn't play Faith of the Heart at him again, and Harry is at first solicitous. Archer – who may now be the most affected by the Orion slave women's pheromones, now that Kelby is out cold – isn't willing to play nice, and goes straight to what he thinks Harry is after: the Enterprise. Harry won't get it without a fight! However, it's not the ship that Harry is after. He's here for Archer's head, with or without the relevant body attached.
Dude, he literally told you this right before the dancing! This is why you do business before the entertainment!
Harry starts shooting, and takes out the phase cannons pretty rapidly. Then the torpedo tubes are tied. Harry then stops shooting; grapples the ship, and begins to tow it away. Enterprise can't break free. Harry's on the horn, he wants to talk again. Archer, at one point, says "we're not going anywhere!" and isn’t the point of Harry’s grappler that they can’t go anywhere other than where they’re towed – like that planet with the slave market from the last episode with the Orions? So I guess they are going somewhere. 'tism? No idea what you mean.
Harry then says that it's out of his hands; that he and Archer are slaves in this situation. At the emphasis of the word "slaves", a penny drops.
Archer: "They control you?"
Harry: "You finally realise that. Yes, Captain, you've been operating under a misconception. It is the men who are the slaves, not the women."
Is that relief on Archer's face? Or just realisation?
Maybe Archer plays Faith of the Heart now, because we immediately cut down to the engine room and Tri'Pol reacting to something. They're off to the bridge! T'Pol arrives first and starts doing something at her station. They're going to send a positron burst through the towing cable, which will break the connection.
Then: as the music indicates things hitting their nadir (it seriously made me think of "Mister Worf, despatch a subspace message to Admiral Hansen: we have engaged the Borg.") the turbolift door opens and it's the Orion slave women and their Sexxxay Mind Control Pheromones! T'Pol and Hoshi try to break the spell, but Archer is manipulated into ordering Reid who is manipulated into obeying the order to arrest T'Pol at phaser-gun-point. Again, sexual jealousy between women is suggested. Ugh. I’m getting tired of inspecting the inside of my skull.6
However, Trip arrives to save the day; stunning Reid, then Archer and also Mayweather. It's just Tri'Pol versus the Orion slave women now. Where’d Hoshi go?
The positron burst worked – it seems Orion ships aren't that well designed, because the when the energy system goes down, it takes out propulsion and weapons as it goes. The Enterprise still had weapons when their EPS system broke!
Navaar tries her 'charms' on Trip, calling him "the true master" of this large and roomy penis vessel. She doesn't notice that he isn't all sweaty and disturbed, and he provides an armed escort off the bridge for all three Orion slave women.
Exterior: ship at warp. Captain's Log: Supplemental. The women are all back on Harry's ship. I wonder if 'Sar' translates to Orion for 'Mudd'...
Sickbay: Phlox is treating everyone with some sort of injection. The pheromones will wear off in a few days, and Reid managed a whole 10 minutes without thinking about the Orion slave women! Well, you just bollocksed that up there, didn't you Malcolm?
T'Pol: "At least we learned something about the Orions."
Malcolm, chuckling: "Yeah, that the women are in charge!"
T’Pol: "It proves that even the most disagreeable of species have some... positive attributes." 7
Remember a while ago, when Kelby left the narrative? I said I wanted to return to his apparent delusion; namely that Trip was out to get him and thwart his promotion to chief engineer. About that: Trip gets T'Pol to admit that she wants him back on the Enterprise, and he reveals that he put in the return transfer request three days beforehand, so possibly before all the hormone-driven hijinx ensued (the passage of time is hazy in this episode, though it appears to be three or four days at most – happy new year!) meaning that when Kelby was fretting to D'Nesh about his promotion being thwarted, he was in fact completely correct. Oh, and whatever this you-want-me-here-but-we-didn't-mate-but-we-did-just-kiss thing is between Tri'Pol isn't a big deal. Ugh.
I need a drink.
Digressions/Footnotes:
1: If visiting Talos IV in the 23rd century is high treason, punishable by execution in the 23rd century; how is slavery punished in the 22nd century, where behaving like they did at the end of the 20th century is standard for a lot of the humans selected to be the first humans ever that far from Earth? Have I got that the wrong way around. Have I even made the point I thought I did? Legal standards of the 22nd and 23rd century are going to be a wild ride, anyway. Slavery and the death penalty are terrible – hottest take, I know.
Okay; bear with me. 2154: slavery is illegal in Starfleet. 2250-ish: Captain of the flagship, the finest crew in the fleet, is considering resigning – TO BECOME A SLAVER with the Orion Syndicate. Maybe Pike is being hyperbolic, but Boyce's response doesn't quite match that. Or maybe it does? Owning other sentient beings might be acceptable, but visiting a no-no planet will have you killed by the state. WTactualF.
2: The history of abolition is far more interesting that I, not one for History as a subject (though I am very fascinated with certain historical events), had ever really considered before. But, to save your failing eyes and cramping scrolling thumb, I will leave that for another time – or better yet, someone far more qualified.
So, for the sake of brevity: slavery was declared illegal as Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in 1948. Theoretically, slavery is illegal more or less everywhere on Earth.
This scene presumably takes place on December 29th, 2154 – 206 years, 19 days since the UDHR was signed into international law, as it happens. 200 hundred years is technically a multiple of 100, hence "hundreds". Slavery was abolished in the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution on December 18th, 1865. (Almost a full year after the amendment was passed by Congress, and never forget that the Amendment still allows slavery, as a treat – when it's punishment for a crime. That fun plotline in Orange Is The New Black that involved the inmates making and then wearing and selling underpants? Slavery.) 289 years and 11 days before Archer has this encounter with a woman who everyone describes as a slave and appears to believe that she belongs to him – in the possessive, "you're my property" sense. But Archer clearly said "on my world" so he couldn't possibly have been meaning "in the US" because that would really emphasise the US-centric nature of Enterprise after all the efforts TNG, DS9 and VOY went to to be more global.
Anyone else find the short amount of time (relatively) between 1865 and 1948 – 83 years – disorienting? The amount of technological advancement between those years is almost overwhelming – and no wonder Far Beyond The Stars hits so hard.
3: Okay, and what would that actually look like? If they have indeed been slaves all their lives, what sort of education did they get and skills could they develop? Remember; Navaar is "the most skilled", and I doubt it's in engineering, exobiology or embroidery. To build a new life, including having a good shot at reaching some sort of stability, most people need a job. This is where the allegory starts shedding the green body paint. Archer's Earth has moved on from capitalism, so rent and bills aren't an issue, but humans still need to feel like they're doing something that they value with the majority of their time. In the fully automated luxury gay space communism of Star Trek's future, everyone has a job if they want it and it'll most likely be in a field they enjoy. In 2025, not so much. Sex work can have a much better hourly rate than whatever the National Minimum Wage – Because We'd Pay You Less If We Could! – happens to be at any given time.
(If you're reading this, you're giving me purpose, so thanks for that. Hopefully, you are also relaxing and/or entertained, so this sloppy dissertation has purpose, too. Oooh, semantic satiation. Purpose. Purpose. Purposepurposepurposepur. Purrpohse. Porpoise of purpose!)
4: Putting that line about "men who take what they want" right after she pulls away from Kelby's sexual advance, though. Big, as the kidz say, oof. Especially when you combine it with that line from 1966 that claims Orion Slave women "like being taken advantage of". The audience might not have that detail in mind when they watch this episode (unless they're doing an Orion-themed episode binge which now that I think of it, might not be such a bad idea) but the writers probably did and it's certainly something when Roberto Orci is seemingly less misogynistic regarding the Orion slave women.
5: Hyperadrenalism is also known as Cushing's syndrome. It can be fatal, but it's very easily treated, even now. If you clicked through on that last link, and read the conclusion, you'll already know that there's a strong correlation between a Cushing's diagnosis and symptoms that dramatically reduce a person's mortality – within a period of years, not days. (Moi kochany; please remind me to do that thing that's in capital letters on my to-do list; turns out it could be quite important.) However, it's extremely unlikely that anyone in the crew would drop down dead in the next five years... unless... unless he's been demonstrating the roominess of his vessel! Oh no! No wonder Archer looks extra-frowny!
6: Get this, folks: it's entirely possible for men and women (and everyone else) to work together, to be friends – without any sexual attraction involved. There's also far less sexual jealousy between women than this episode would like you to believe. In fact, in some groups of friends (not pointing elbows or anything cough) comprising femmes and friendly enbies even including some femmbies, there's negative sexual jealousy/competition between us. We're there to gas each other up and forget that cis, straight men are even a thing – for a while at least. V, this is your reminder to join the Discord! (I hope you appreciate the very elaborate and surprisingly wordy set-up.)
And we knew all this in 2005.
7: I don't know what's more disappointing: the extremely tired trope that it's actually women who have all the power over men; because women are the keepers of sex, while all men are just constantly horny and DTF at any given moment regardless of the circumstances and will do literally anything to get some, and women abuse that power over poor, helpless men to get what they want and my ex-wife/ex-girlfriend/woman-who-won't-accept-my-advances is a frigid bitchcuntwhore who only wants my money and was probably cheating anyway – or the other equally tired trope that women who think everyone should be politically, socially and legally equal actually want a matriarchy.
The only way I can think that maybe this contrivance exists is to find a way to retroactively exonerate 1966 Pike. Slavery isn't morally reprehensible when the slaves willingly participate, right? Are the Orion slave girls even really slaves?
There's an action figure of Vina "as an Orion Animal Woman" (emphasis mine) by the way. It's interesting that one of the most iconic women in all of Star Trek is described as a slave or an animal. Her only trait is her sexuality, which is presented for the men observing her. It's to be possessed, quite literally traded. Orion women undermine the much-vaunted ideal of the utopian future, where everyone is equal regardless of gender. Bound's assertion that Orion women have all the power aside, Orion women are not equal in their native culture, or to Starfleet officers. As I mentioned previously, Lower Decks has done the most canonical work on Orion culture, and redressed the balance significantly. It seems makes a huge difference to have several women and people of different ethnicities in the writers' room. Yes, the cast of Lower Decks is animated (except for that crossover episode of Strange New Worlds) but the women especially feel far more fully realised than the women written by men, who went before them in the shows LD refers back to constantly.
When I wrote about Angel One, I quoted something attributed to Gene Roddenberry which shed light on his attitude to women; about how women (all women, everywhere) are manipulative liars etc. That blatant misogyny from men who are otherwise generally progessive is fully on display in Bound. (Misogyny from progressive/leftist men is nothing uncommon, it has to be noted.) The idea that women have power over men because all men are in a constant state of horny and women use access to sex to make men do things isn't new (and wasn't in 2005), though proponents have certainly made use of the internet to spread the idea as far and wide as they posibly can. Perhaps my online spaces are too much of a leftist, feminist "echo chamber" (excuse me while I roll my eyes at the concept) but I don't think it's ever really breeched MRA spaces because most people undertand that women often like sex; queer people exist, and that's just not how anything works. The whole concept displays the lowest opinion of men: wholly in thrall to their base impulses and barely able to do anything besides try to get off. The Venn diagram of people who think that, and those who believe men built civilisation and all technology and all 'good' art, etc, is an oblate spheroid – one that may contain enough magnesite to build a thousand warp cores. The cognitive dissonance to cast men as all-powerful and yet also so exploitable must cause many, many nosebleeds.
I just read an episode review that's old enough to refer to the Wachowskis by the wrong gender, which suggested that the writer of this episode – Manny Coto – meant it all as a playful callback to TOS and (presumably) the rampant misogyny of that series. It was a joke, you see. It's hard to laugh when jokes like that undermine the equality and quality of life of half the world's population by reinforcing (whether by accident or by deliberate choice; the outcome is the same) the very dated patriarchal ideas that too many people hold with utmost seriousness. Is the joke the TOS-style misogyny? Or is it the big reveal; that the men are the slaves: not the women who have always been referred to in the entire franchise as slaves? What makes either of those things funny?
I think I said near the beginning that Enterprise is, to me, regressive Trek. The humanity portrayed is little better than the middle of the road of the early 21st century, made in part by people who possibly thought – at some deep, dark level – that they would lose out on things if women and minorities were on the same level as them. "As some have observed we may not be able to stop evolution, but perhaps we can reduce it to a slow crawl." Who knew that 18 years later, it would be the producers with their thumbs on the scale?
While looking for a relevant We Hunted The Mammoth post that helps to illuminate support my half-cocked thesis, I found this and it's hilarious so I can't not share it here.
