Our crew takes the Captain’s Yacht our for a spin through the four Next Generation movies: Generations, First Contact, Insurrection and Nemesis. Along the way we meet some familiar Klingon sisters, 700 hippies, a Borg Queen, and even more terrifying: beardless Riker. We also talk about Crusher and Troi’s scenes, particularly Troi’s assault in Star Trek: Nemesis.
Content note: discussion of rape.
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Notes and References:
- 1997 Starlog interview with Alice Krige
- For more on Donatra and Tal’Aura check out our episode #5: “Badass Romulan Women”
- “Counsellor Troi and Telepathic Rape” at Gender Focus.
Hosts: Andi, Grace, Sue and Jarrah
Editor: Jarrah
Talking about Nemesis, I had such hope for it because when I first saw the trailers my thought was “YES! Romulans!” But instead, we get characters who are completely out of character, a convoluted plot and a terrible assault on Troi (once again).
The TNG movies in general were really kind of disappointing as compared to the TOS movies. With Nemesis, they could have made a major connection between TNG and DS9, more so than just saying “oh yeah, this ship was awesome against the Dominion”. I never really liked any of the scenes where the women were showcased. The later scene where Donatra assists the Enterprise was great (sadly, in Star Trek Online, Donatra is assimilated by the Borg, and becomes a major villain in one of the Starfleet Task Forces the players can play, she even has an assimilated Scimitar).
I haven’t listened to all your podcasts yet (I’m slowly going through them) but Marina Sertis has an excellent talk she gives on Trek as a whole.
I only just listened to this Women at Warp, and I have to say that it’s one of the most enjoyable episodes so far. I think all of the criticisms are completely spot-on and well articulated. I also heard some great ideas I’d never considered before, particularly Beverly taking Lily’s place in the famous First Contact scene. I think an entire episode could be dedicated to the Borg Queen, how she was portrayed, and her effect on the portrayal of the Borg. (It could be part of a series on great female villains! Unfortunately, the only other major female villains I can think of are Kai Winn, the female changeling, and Seska.) I also came away with a lower opinion of Nemesis than I already had; I think completely mishandles every main character in TNG, but what it does to Troi is really inexcusable.
Anyway, I laughed, I cried, I sighed in exasperation, and I learned a few new things. This was a great episode!
On Saturday, May 14th I got inebriated and found your webpage.
I am a big Star Trek fan.
I am really enjoying the webpage and your posts.
The WOMEN AT WARP title page artwork is great.
my first experience of Star Trek, was the movie Star Trek Nemesis (I technically had seen half of Voyager’s Dark Frontier beforehand, but since my dad didn’t tell me it was star trek it doesn’t truly count). My mom dragged me and my stepdad to the theater – and I mean dragged, I’d already seen the movie I wanted to see that holiday season. So, there’s twelve-year-old me utterly lost at the Riker-Troi wedding, totally NOT getting it when Mom starts geeking out at ADMIRAL Janeway, and barely being able to follow the plot of the movie. not to mention needing B-4’s song at the end to be explained to me. what it did do, was make me ask my mom for more star trek, and she handed me a VHS that had an episode of Voyager at the very front. It was the fourth season episode Concerning Flight, with the da Vinci hologram, and I was instantly hooked. The rest of the VHS was TNG, and all I wanted was more Voyager episodes.
This continued well after I had watched all the episodes on that tape, and (again!) asked my mom for more. She found a friend who had taped a significant portion of TNG from Farpoint on, and I was running through them, impatiently waiting for the next episode on to be a Voyager episode. needless to say, I was Voyager-less until I went rogue and looked up what time voyager reruns were on in my neck of the woods, AND discovered the magic of season box sets of DVD’s from my local library.
As for TNG, I’ve held a large grudge against it for years. to the point of ranting against Picard, because all he did was “sit on his butt in triplicate: bridge, briefing room, ready room.” I used to think that that grudge was due to the constant frustration of looking for Voyager episodes when TNG were the only Star Trek I truly had access to.
I have yet to go back and rewatch TNG the way I have done for all the other Trek: DS9, TOS, Enterprise and of course Voyager – my nostalgic favorite even as I recognize that the storytelling was strongest on DS9.
But now, listening to you four talk Nemesis, I wonder if that movie prejudiced me against the series. I listen to Mission Log, and hear them break down episode by episode TNG and think “why on earth was I so hostile to that series?” “why did I not give it it’s due when I was watching it?” I KNOW some of the episodes I saw were great, have heard them being held up as classics, and yet the only reason I got through them is because I was looking for the mythical Voyager episode that *had* to be right after this one, or *had* to be on the next tape.
maybe Nemesis is the answer. maybe my twelve-year-old self was so repulsed by what she saw that she brought that bias forward into all of TNG. Because what made me fall head over heels in love with Voyager, was how *smart* Janeway was, how *capable* she was, and the fact that she could keep up with Leonardo da Vinci. Tuvok’s utter fail at small talk was only icing on the cake.
who knows. What I do know, is that despite two strikes against me, I found my way to Star Trek regardless. Even though Nemesis is the absolute *worst* way to start off a budding trekkie.