RE: Explaining the "No Female Captains" thing. | Report this post to moderator
By: falcon (Odo's file, contact) @ 20:45:14 on Jul 25, 2004

Okay, I really didn't need to see that picture. I've just eaten. :-)

Now, on to the reply.

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Well, the fact that other countries have women doing so, most notably Israel, means it's not like it's impossible. ;-)

That is true. And in looking at the link you referenced, I believe the US military is pretty much in line with those other countries.

According to that report, if a woman wanted to be the commander of an aircraft character, she could. Aircraft carrier commanders (other than in times of war) typically hold the rank of captain (which, in the other services, would be equivalent to colonel, which many women have attained). Personally, I think that would be pretty cool. But as I stated before, my belief is that, until the command structure of the US military allows more women into its upper echelons (in other words, disbanding the "old white male" club), this will not happen.

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Yet, the "Human Race" seems to have some physiological issue where the infant mortality rate for males is consistently higher than for females per this (PDF file). ;-) Leading to an excess of women by the time of child-bearing age.

So considering that all women need is 1 sperm to fertilize the egg, the male really isn't needed that much, as is the case for the animal, insect, and even plant world.

I had not seen that report. And 7.5 per 1000 live births is pretty high. But finding that one sperm that is compatible with the egg is a crapshoot, at best. It's possible that, in the future, techniques could be developed that allow doctors to determine whether one small sperm is compatible with one egg...and that could, theoretically, allow hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of new babies to be created within the span of days or weeks. This could, obviously, allow the planet to be repopulated within a very short time if we were to destroy ourselves in our idiocy.

But would you want to babysit that many children at once? :-)

Now, when it comes to "Turnabout Intruder"...

I agree with you that this was probably Roddenberry's finger to TPTB at NBC, but I wonder if that was what was originally envisioned. I wish I could find out when this story was first developed. I believe it probably pre-dates the 3rd season cancellation by several months (just as "The Omega Glory" was considered as the second pilot, but wasn't filmed until season 2). I think Roddenberry might have developed this story as an allegory for the struggles that women still endured in the late 1960s. (Ironic, given that Uhura was nothing more than a glorified switchboard operator during much of the show's run.)

But I tend to think that, perhaps, when Arthur Singer wrote the teleplay, he missed much of the "up yours" that Roddenberry was trying to convey. That's where the execution problem comes into play. And that's also where Kirk's final words are so ironic..."If only...if only..." That episode, done well, could have been a harbinger of a potential 4th season, but by the time it aired, NBC had already pulled the plug. And I think the finger in the eye of the Peacock network missed its mark.


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A generation which ignores history has no past and no future. -- Robert Heinlein

PCLinuxOS

falcon

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