Wow. So hey, remember The Racist One? Well, welcome to The Sexist One! But since this is The Future, and the Federation is LOL SO ADVANCED, and there are Exciting New Cultures to encounter, it’s actually offensive to men and women both! Score.
The Enterprise has stumbled upon a wrecked freighter that never made its destination seven years earlier. No survivors, of course, but evidence of some jettisoned escape pods, and Angel I is the closest planet. Data helpfully notes that it would have taken 5 months. I guess Star Trek escape pods are a lot more substantial than the things that came off the Tantive IV. Anyway, Angel I is a sparsely populated, matriarchal oligarchy with apparently human inhabitants (c’mon guys, where is your makeup department? Are hideous costumes made of shiny material and felted purple angora taking up all of your budget?), but I’m going to take a wild stab and guess that none of these writers actually looked into any real matriarchal societies. Research? Ha ha ha, who needs that? This is space! We can make it up as we go!
Mistress Beata, the head of this little oligarchy, curtly allows an away team to come down to the planet to look for survivors. Worf also manages to sneak in an interjection that Klingons appreciate strong women. (Where is Geordi to express disgust at Worf’s sexual preferences again?) Yar, Data and Riker prepare to beam down. Troi goes as well, because women, you gotta be a mind reader to understand them, amirite? *rimshot* No, really, it’s because she’s a high ranking woman, and, as we’ll soon discover, these women will respect that because they’re chauvinist assholes that I want to stab in the face almost every time they speak. (That’s women for you, eh? Eh? Okay, okay, I’ll stop.)
Side storyline set up: Wesley is going skiing while wrapped in tinfoil and wearing a hideous eighties headband and there is a weird smell. Picard also gets pegged with a snowball from the holodeck (oh that wacky Wesley Crusher) and I decide that this better pay off somewhere later in the episode. It does. Sort of.
In some voiceover it’s noted that the women here are as dominant and aggressive as men used to be in Earth society. God forbid we miss an opportunity to note how goddamn enlightened the Federation is. It’s also probably worth noting that the last Federation contact with the people of Angel I was more than sixty years earlier. So the fact that Beata is incredibly defensive is either really interesting (ah ha, she has something to hide) or it’s how some jerk-ass writer thinks feminists act. There is a bit of “WHAT YOU THINK YOU KNOW BETTER BECAUSE YOU’RE A MAN, HUH?” attitude directed at Riker. Also, if this was so normal for this planet, why is everyone making such a huge production of the fact that women are dominant in this society? You don’t have to constantly remark on something that’s normal.
We’ll also note here that the costumes continue to be incredibly awful. I guess maybe they weren’t back then, but the predilection for lamé fabrics and purples continues unabated. There’s one fey little man running around in an open shirt (I think the only man from Angel I we see) and tight pants wrapped in ribbons, while Beata is wearing this weird, dark purple mohair dress. If it were me, I’d probably put the women in something more businesslike and less… furry. It’s like they skinned a muppet.
Beata prevaricates a bit on whether or not there are survivors of the Odin and sends the away team to their quarters to talk amongst themselves while she decides what she wants to tell them. Troi senses they’re hiding something, which, really, doesn’t take an empath. Riker declares them paranoid. We also find out that Data, despite being able to explain random bits of history like Yankee privateers, doesn’t know what an aphrodisiac is. I guess he never read any basic human sexuality texts despite his fascination with humanity.
MEANWHILE, ON THE ENTERPRISE: Sickness runs rampant! Oh no! Picard is grumpy and Geordi gets to take command.
Beata finally admits that there are four survivors, but they’re in hiding for “going against the natural order.” I don’t remember who has the idea to scan for elements that don’t occur naturally on Angel I, but Data is only grudgingly allowed access to their libraries, which are too sophisticated for men when it’s pointed out that as an android, he’s not really male. Pretty sassy for a pre-warp society. Somehow, they decide on doing a scan for platinum, and oh, what luck, these four men happen to have some platinum on hand. Everyone is off to go find the men and “rescue” them, except Riker, who needs to engage in some diplomatic relations, if you know what I’m saying. In native dress, no less.
And this is a nice little break from some of the silly, stilted acting, because Yar and Troi collapse into absolute giggles at Riker boy-toy outfit. I have to wonder how I would feel about this scene if it was, say, Janeway expected to make some kind of diplomatic contact in scanty clothing. And maybe that’s on purpose, to MAKE ME THINK about the EVILS OF SEXISM, but… well, there’s a deeper problem here.
See, part of the side story is that the refugees know the away team is coming because Beata’s second-in-command, Ariel, is secretly married to one of the survivors. So there’s an underlying message that no matter how big and tough a woman is, every woman really wants a big slice of Federation beefcake who will stand up to her, rather than some preening ladyman. You know, all those feminists just need a real man to stick them back in the kitchen where they belong.
And Ramsey, the leader of the refugees, wants to stay on planet not just because he and the others have made families, but because it’s “not right” that the men be treated as they are, and men aren’t supposed to act like they do here. And arguably, it’s an equality speech (remember, LOL ADVANCED), but it comes off as “We gotta teach these men to stop being pussy-whipped and take their proper place in society.”
To top it off, Riker and Beata’s diplomatic conversation has resulted in the following dialogue (slightly paraphrased, but not by much): “It’s nice to be with a man that knows what he wants.” “And doesn’t have to be told by a woman?” And then my notes degenerate into angry, capslocked cursing.
Up on the Enterprise, pressure and a race-against-the-clock element are hamhandedly placed on the main story by the continuing illness and Romulans in the Neutral Zone. Oh, yay. Data’s sent up to take command because he can’t get sick. Except for in “The Naked Now” but haha who needs continuity, right?
Beata threatens to kill the refugees, and Riker prepares to violate the Prime Directive by whisking them away with the transporter, which has to wait until the last possible minute while Crusher works on coming up with a cure for the mystery plague. Anyway, there’s a whole speech about not making martyrs and evolution of a culture and everyone lives happily ever after exiled to an unpopulated part of the planet. Wheee, let’s all go home and look threatening in front of the Romulans.