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where_no_woman2009-06-24 01:04 pm
saturn-shumba.livejournal.com) wrote in where_no_woman2009-06-24 01:04 pm
Entry tags:
That's Captain Uhura to you
So, I have a massive amount of love for Star Trek: The Animated Series. I first saw the series on Laserdisc (the technology...of the future) when I was about 10 or so. And there was one episode in particular that I really latched onto, The Lorelei Signal, which is basically a showcase for all of the seen (and unseen) women on the Starship Enterprise.
The plot is a bit wacky and weird, much like most 60's-70's Saturday Morning cartoons. But the episode poses an interesting question: What would happen if all the men on the Enterprise were suddenly incapacitated and needed help?
Quick note: you can click on all pics to make 'em bigger. :)
First off, this episode was written by a woman! Yaaay lady writers!
So the episode kicks off with the crew of the Enterprise receiving a weird distress signaly type thing (eloquence, I have it). The men of the bridge think it sounds like a summons, which Uhura is quick to challenge. However, the men don't really notice her objection and instead bask in the sweet sweet hallucinations that come over them:
Meanwhile, Uhura calls her BFF Nurse Chapel up to bridge to talk about the wonky behavior of the male crew members. Both are unsure what the bleep is happening because they personally are not acting all loopy.
The Enterprise finally arrives at the planet sending out the signal and Kirk, Spock and McCoy jump ship immediately to see what's up. Turns out they've stumbled upon a planet occupied solely by white haired females who like to party.
So the men of the crew get some groovy headbands and join the party.
But the party doesn't last. The men start to age rapidly and when they try to escape, they are easily overcome by the women:
Ha, poor McCoy.
Meanwhile back on the Bridge, Uhura and Chapel are doing their best Mulder and Scully, trying to figure out why every man is acting like an idiot.
They suspect the Lorelei women, which really pisses Chapel off to no end.
Uhura realizes that the men are useless this time around. So after Scotty (acting Captain) sings a sweet little song instead of, you know, doing stuff, Uhura immediately relieves him and takes over as Captain of the Enterprise.
Back on the planet, the men try to escape but end up trapped in a gigantic urn in the middle of the courtyard. Spock decides to risk a mission back to the temple to call the ladies of the Enterprise to help. He succeeds, sort of. Message out, but he's captured again.
Uhura receives Spock's message and assembles an all female away team of awesomeness. They head down to the planet to save the dudes of the Enterprise.
The women aren't as welcoming of the Enterprise women as the were of the Enterprise men, and they try to stage an attack, which Uhura clamps down right away by shooting first. Dramatic falling ensues.
Uhura, fed up with their bullshit, demands answers, and starts destroying their temple to get them.
The head woman, Theela, complies, and tells Uhura that they're really not all bad, that they're eternal prisoners on the planet, because of the planet's structure--they can never age, or have kids, and they have to feast off men's energy every 27 years. Hence the signal they send out.
If you're starting to see a plothole type thing appearing, just ignore it! The episode's almost over anyway. So, Uhura saves the day and also helps the women off the eternal prison planet to another planet so that they can all live normal lives.
And so ends Uhura's short tenure as the Captain of the Enterprise, adding another notch to her badass belt.
The plot is a bit wacky and weird, much like most 60's-70's Saturday Morning cartoons. But the episode poses an interesting question: What would happen if all the men on the Enterprise were suddenly incapacitated and needed help?
Quick note: you can click on all pics to make 'em bigger. :)
First off, this episode was written by a woman! Yaaay lady writers!
So the episode kicks off with the crew of the Enterprise receiving a weird distress signaly type thing (eloquence, I have it). The men of the bridge think it sounds like a summons, which Uhura is quick to challenge. However, the men don't really notice her objection and instead bask in the sweet sweet hallucinations that come over them:
Meanwhile, Uhura calls her BFF Nurse Chapel up to bridge to talk about the wonky behavior of the male crew members. Both are unsure what the bleep is happening because they personally are not acting all loopy.
The Enterprise finally arrives at the planet sending out the signal and Kirk, Spock and McCoy jump ship immediately to see what's up. Turns out they've stumbled upon a planet occupied solely by white haired females who like to party.
So the men of the crew get some groovy headbands and join the party.
But the party doesn't last. The men start to age rapidly and when they try to escape, they are easily overcome by the women:
Ha, poor McCoy.
Meanwhile back on the Bridge, Uhura and Chapel are doing their best Mulder and Scully, trying to figure out why every man is acting like an idiot.
They suspect the Lorelei women, which really pisses Chapel off to no end.
Uhura realizes that the men are useless this time around. So after Scotty (acting Captain) sings a sweet little song instead of, you know, doing stuff, Uhura immediately relieves him and takes over as Captain of the Enterprise.
Back on the planet, the men try to escape but end up trapped in a gigantic urn in the middle of the courtyard. Spock decides to risk a mission back to the temple to call the ladies of the Enterprise to help. He succeeds, sort of. Message out, but he's captured again.
Uhura receives Spock's message and assembles an all female away team of awesomeness. They head down to the planet to save the dudes of the Enterprise.
The women aren't as welcoming of the Enterprise women as the were of the Enterprise men, and they try to stage an attack, which Uhura clamps down right away by shooting first. Dramatic falling ensues.
Uhura, fed up with their bullshit, demands answers, and starts destroying their temple to get them.
The head woman, Theela, complies, and tells Uhura that they're really not all bad, that they're eternal prisoners on the planet, because of the planet's structure--they can never age, or have kids, and they have to feast off men's energy every 27 years. Hence the signal they send out.
If you're starting to see a plothole type thing appearing, just ignore it! The episode's almost over anyway. So, Uhura saves the day and also helps the women off the eternal prison planet to another planet so that they can all live normal lives.
And so ends Uhura's short tenure as the Captain of the Enterprise, adding another notch to her badass belt.
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But fuck yeah for Uhura to just start breaking shit when things need to get done. Did the male crew thank her or did everyone pretend this never happened?
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And in regards to the Chapel pic--someone did make an icon of it! You can find it here. (http://community.livejournal.com/rightonicons/18853.html#cutid1) :)
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Bunches. Uhura was on point.
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Modly: could you add a "creative:" prefix to your "picspam" tag? Thanks!
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And thanks! As you can tell I love this episode. Ladies! Rayguns! Groovy dances! It's like all the things I love.
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Does this look like the Sims thing to anyone else? Like, when they're in a bad mood? Have I been playing too much Sims and am now seeing it everywhere? (Probably.)
I'm definitely going to track this episode down. Thanks for posting!
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I don't know what is crackier, the fact that that happened, or that it is just there, as part of the recap, nothin' weird about it.
This was awesome however, I enjoyed this recap muchly.
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The urn actually looked like a gigantic vase, but the ladies called it an urn. So...urn! :D
Another thing I forgot to mention is that it started raining, filling the urn with water, almost drowning the guys stuck in the urn.
Luckily Uhura saves the day and does some fancy raygun shooting in the rain:
breaking the urn, saving the dudes of the Enterprise.
And yes, this episode is filled with many cracktastic wonders. Actually all of TAS is filled with that kinda stuff. :D
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Uhura, fed up with their bullshit, demands answers, and starts destroying their temple to get them.
Love it!!!!!1!
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Back on the planet, the men try to escape but end up trapped in a gigantic urn in the middle of the courtyard
is a truly hilarious sentence. <3!
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Nichelle Nichols, in her interview in David Gerrold's "The World of Star Trek," said that there was supposed to be a third season episode where Uhura was left in command when the all the other senior officers (that would have been Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty)* were off the ship. But it was rewritten (she doesn't say what story it was...), and she believes it due to the resistence to showing a woman in command.
This episode fixed that, for sure!
*Elsewhere in the book, Gerrold cites D.C. Fontana (TOS's story editor) as being on record that Uhura fourth in the chain of command after Scotty.
ETA: And I love your subject header, because I am still the proud owner of a zine from the '70s called Captain Uhura!
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And thanks for the insight on Uhura from that book--stuff I didn't know, but now I'm glad I do :D
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Do you have any more great TAS secreencaps, because I would love me an icon of M'Ress or Arex!
What's the name of your all Vulcan zine?
I've been going through my zine collection, trying to relive the fun and freshness of those days...Winston Howlett was one of the few male zine editors and writers in the mid '70s, and he published about a dozen issues of a zine called "Probe." He wrote two special issues, Goddess Uhura, mostly about her service after the five-year mission on another starship, and Captain Uhura, a sequel, where her career track towards a command of her own fell afoul of a conspiracy anong certain Starfleet officers. Very intriguing stuff!
ETA: And I love throwing out bits of Trek and fannish history, so don't mind me!
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And I actually have a couple of caps of M'Ress, catwoman in space (click for full size):
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Oooh, lovely caps! May I grab them to iconize? (Except I can't do captions...)
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Sure thing! :D
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Are you serious?
I love EVERYTHING about this. I'm sorry to come in a month later and comment, but I'm just SO EXCITED that this is canon! And all the images! And now I have to buy this box set as SOON AS POSSIBLE!