That’s not the voice of god, that’s just a ring modulator

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L.I. Underhill is a media critic and historian specializing in pop culture, with a focus on science fiction (especially Star Trek) and video games. Their projects include a critical history of Star Trek told through the narrative of a war in time, a “heretical” history of The Legend of Zelda series and a literary postmodern reading of Jim Davis' Garfield.

3 Comments

  1. Matt Marshall
    September 24, 2015 @ 11:03 pm

    I think this episode's fascinating. Not half because something so obviously horrible actually got made, but because it's pretty much exactly the same plot as The Host (ambassador decides only he can do a difficult peace negotiation and uses that to steal the bodily autonomy of a member of the crew in a creepy and rapey way), only the difference is in The Host, the entire crew (with Troi as ringleader) team up to help Dr Crusher rape Riker, but in Man of the People, Picard goes and has the ambassador murdered. Double standards indeed! The only wriggle room is to pretend there's a missing scene in The Host where Riker tells the crew that it's his wish that Odan get to use his body to sleep with as many people as possible.

    (Actually in the cold light of day, aka 2015, I've found a lot of TNG to be really, really morally dubious on rewatch. It makes me wonder what 'progressive' shows of today we'll look back on in 25 years time, shaking our head and going "blimey!")

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  2. Ross
    September 25, 2015 @ 11:40 am

    Okay. My new headcanon is that when they approached Riker to be a host, he was like, "Okay, but only on condition that you get my body laid before you give it back."

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  3. Daru
    October 15, 2015 @ 9:59 pm

    I can see now when I watch TNG what I could not see as a kid, and that is that Sirtis was poorly served as an actor. Thanks for the bit of insight into her process.

    Reply

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