4. The Feminine Computer From Tomorrow Is Yesterday (1967)
This entry is again several moments rather than just one, though this time they're from a single episode - although they do constitute a symptom of an overall problem that makes Classic Trek so difficult to watch (as we'll talk about in #1). A subplot in Tomorrow Is Yesterday involves the Enterprise's computer, which has just been reprogrammed, and the results do not make the men folk happy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHaIjAk0X7Y While this is still funny in its own way, it does raise several unsettling and uncomfortable questions, enough to make our laughter equally uncomfortable. Why would the computer technicians of a planet dominated by women think that this is a good example of a 'personality'? Why would anyone program a computer to giggle - is that an error message or something? And why should Kirk be so annoyed at a female that's fawning over him? Oh, right, because he's not the one making the first move, that's why. Of course, it's not like Next Generation did any better, with their female-dominated society on Angel One. But perhaps the most cringeworthy element here is that the women of Cygnet XIV managed to introduce Lwaxana Troi onto the Enterprise two decades early.
Tony Whitt has previously written TV, DVD, and comic reviews for CINESCAPE, NOW PLAYING, and iF MAGAZINE. His weekly COMICSCAPE columns from the early 2000s can still be found archived on Mania.com. He has also written a book of gay-themed short stories titled CRESCENT CITY CONNECTIONS, available on Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle format. Whitt currently lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.
