tbf the original series is hella sexist. Maybe it wasn’t so bad for its era, but it is really tough to watch in 2023. Roddenberry was a sex pest and it shows.
One scene that stands out to me, a female officer walks onto the bridge (of course she is conventionally attractive, because Roddenberry). Kirk, Scotty, and some other male officer start talking how she’s good at her job but eventually she’ll meet a nice man, get married, and then want to leave Starfleet. Apparently it’s impossible to keep women officers because they only care about men. In the episode with Khan there’s another female officer who basically loses her mind because Khan is so sexually irresistible. That’s a recurring theme in TOS, the men are always cool and the women just want them. TNG is so much better and nothing like this (except for making Troi wear a non-standard low cut leotard uniform for no discernible reason).
If someone has never seen Star Trek asks me how to get into it, I tell them to start on TNG and go from there.
Having just rewatched it, it's honestly worse in a few places, because it tries to have Lwaxana/Crusher/Troi-centered episodes but all they can think of is "Ghost Rape", "Lol Menopause", and "Space Baby Jesus".
TOS almost only ever introduces a woman for her to fall in love with the sexy male villain/god/robot, and while being basically treated as set dressing is bad in itself, at least they spend less time writing them badly.
I guess the difference is that TNG actually has some good representation of women mixed in.
tbf the original series is hella sexist. Maybe it wasn’t so bad for its era, but it is really tough to watch in 2023. Roddenberry was a sex pest and it shows.
One scene that stands out to me, a female officer walks onto the bridge (of course she is conventionally attractive, because Roddenberry). Kirk, Scotty, and some other male officer start talking how she’s good at her job but eventually she’ll meet a nice man, get married, and then want to leave Starfleet. Apparently it’s impossible to keep women officers because they only care about men. In the episode with Khan there’s another female officer who basically loses her mind because Khan is so sexually irresistible. That’s a recurring theme in TOS, the men are always cool and the women just want them. TNG is so much better and nothing like this (except for making Troi wear a non-standard low cut leotard uniform for no discernible reason).
If someone has never seen Star Trek asks me how to get into it, I tell them to start on TNG and go from there.
Unless the women are green
Female empowerment is impregnating Commander Tucker with pebbles
Having just rewatched it, it's honestly worse in a few places, because it tries to have Lwaxana/Crusher/Troi-centered episodes but all they can think of is "Ghost Rape", "Lol Menopause", and "Space Baby Jesus".
TOS almost only ever introduces a woman for her to fall in love with the sexy male villain/god/robot, and while being basically treated as set dressing is bad in itself, at least they spend less time writing them badly.
I guess the difference is that TNG actually has some good representation of women mixed in.