An Officer and No Gentlemen (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.18, "The Lights of Zetar")

One has to remember that while Star Trek could be remarkably progressive, it was a product of the 1960s and so could be very much of its time. A time when women could be paid less than men and viewed as the "weaker sex".

People, the prosecution presents Exhibit A.

We jump very much straight into the middle of the story, with the Enterprise having picked up a fresh new Lieutenant called Mira Romaine (eh, not an ensign) on her way to the Federation central library called Memory Alpha. Which of course is the name of the main Trek wiki.

Scotty has fallen in love with her, cheating on his starship. Who does not cut up his clothing and throw it out of the airlock. Now James Doohan was 48 at the time of production... and Jan Shutan was 36. That falls within the "half your age plus seven" rule, but the implication is that Romaine is a good deal younger, so it looks a bit creepy seeing Scotty mooning over her. This really isn't a good Scotty episode.

Anyway, on their way to Memory Alpha, they encounter a weird space storm that causes everyone to briefly lose their voice. Everyone recovers, except Romaine, who makes some weird noises... and is now in danger.

Anyway, comments on this one:

• Romaine looks a bit like Tatiana Maslany. A bit. It is also the pronunciation of Romjin, the surname of the First Officer in Strane New Worlds. 
• Why not try to get out of the way of the weird space thing? You've seen enough of them!
• Fainting in the Starfleet minidress must be rather awkward because of the real risk of your panties being on display. The editing here is rather careful to avoid that.
• Some rather impressive "computer graphics" here that were almost certainly hand-animated.
• We have some extras who spent a fair amount of time in makeup to play corpses. Well, I hope it helped them get their SAG card.
• McCoy comes to rather a comprehensive conclusion for a cursory examination of the Memory Alpha dead.
• Mira Romaine's character reminds me of a Bond Girl - and not in a good way. She's all dramatic faints and "Oh, Scotty!". Getting possessed is actually an improvement. This whole thing is coming across as rather sexist to put it mildly.
• Speaking of sexism, the main characters make frequent references to "the girl". She is a Starfleet officer. Not "the girl"! I actually wrote that twice in my notes.
• All those data tapes would be easy to loose.
• The idea of the survivors turning into these space essences would be interesting if it didn't fail the smell test.
• The Scotty-Mira relationship is rather unconvincingly sappy.
• Go to General Quarters before the thing hits you!
• This could have been a lot better with a more talented actor playing Mira. Like Tatiana Maslany.
• Jacking up air pressure from 1 to 35 atmospheres that quickly would almost certainly make a human being implode. I think. You'd need a lot longer than 20 minutes to return to normal too without massive "bends".
• The resolution is quack science of the lowest order.
• And of course, we never hear from Mira again.

Conclusion

This one has some faint gems of possible goodness, but they're hidden by all the rubbish.

3/10