That line is so strange. Like, Gene Roddenberry and the show writers very intentionally put a woman as 1st officer to make a point about humanity moving past gender divisions. So why undermine what they were doing with a line like that?

Did they feel like they had to call attention to it because audiences at the time wouldn’t accept it?

Was it a character flaw they were trying to show in Pike to bridge the gap between the 1960s and future?

Or was it truly just casual sexism that slipped under their radar somehow, despite their intentions?

Trek writers have historically been on the frontlines regarding normalising certain character roles that weren’t acceptable for the time. But, you have to remember… they needed to deal with execs.

They also needed to make the point blatantly clear sometimes, like with Pike in the 60s… Like just warning the viewer and the execs: “yes, this is how we do things now, get used to it. Interracial kissing, criticising racism, criticising nationalism, the whole shebang.” Questioning gender roles has historically been hard, but Trek shows have been on the front lines and managed to bring stories to the table that couldn’t be cut, which meant having to frame things accordingly. But not every fight lead to victory.

There’s still speculation about whether Garek from DS9 was supposed to be homosexual. Yes, that’s right, they wanted to ship Garek and Bashir. Gashir? Barek? Anyways. It was supposedly pushed back on and the writers again had to choose which hill to die on, which in the case of DS9 was desperately trying to avoid the whole syndication samba.

The first seasons doesn’t really solidify any character traits fully because I think they were still in disputes with how to proceed. Most likely Garek being as vague in his sexuality as possible was a big, fat “maybe” dangling in front of the show runners. It also helped that his role was very secretive by default, so it wouldn’t stand out as anything weird.

Just be thankful that there are writers who really care for the artform of writing, who every day tread that line, trying to shed some light on subjects that might make some people uncomfortable and doing it in a way that’s palpable as well as marketable.

There’s no wonder writers are striking though. It truly is a thankless job. They do so much to get good ideas on paper and in the hands of directors, and even the teams them selves have to punch upwards all the time. It’s apart of the fundamental process of production that usually escapes the ire of the general public. It’s a struggle and a half.

To then talk shit about the writers for how they did things in the 60s shows 0% knowledge of what it meant to be a writer at that time, or indeed at any time. Perhaps watching S06E13 of DS9 (“Far beyond the stars”) would remind him of how writers have been consistently screwed throughout the ages…

…I’ll end this by saying JAVERT- I mean -SISKO DID NOTHING WRONG!!!

His second in command was a woman already in the pilot.