Sex in the 23rd. Century City

You may have heard that there was a mild kerfluffle regarding the lovely Ms. Alice Eve appearing briefly in her briefs, er, unmentionables, in the latest Star Trek movie. Certain members of the perpetually offended crowd, were shocked, shocked!! And found this to be "misogynistic".

A short scene in the blockbuster that features a semi nude Alice Eve has caused such furor that the film's producer has publicly apologized for it. Damon Lindelof used his Twitter account to say sorry for the clip which has been deemed 'misogynistic' and unnecessary by some viewers. He posted: 'I copped to the fact that we should have done a better job of not being gratuitous in our representation of a barely clothed actress.'

The troublesome scene sees Eve's character Dr Carol Marcus get undressed out of her work clothes in front of Captain Kirk, played by Chris Pine. The rather racy shot, which was also heavily featured in the trailer for the film, has been questioned for its surplus nature.

Poppycock! One of the long standing themes of modern science fiction, or at least the fervent hope of many science fiction writers, is that, sometime in the future, people will have 'evolved' beyond their Victorian and Puritanical ideas about sex and nudity, and there will be a much more open acceptance of free love, sex and rock and roll. (Well, two out of three, anyway!)

Even in the Star Trek franchise, this has historically been the case. In Star Trek, the Next Generation (TNG), Counselor Troi's mother, Lwaxana Troi, would supposedly wander around her quarters nude and according to the storyline, was married in the nude.

Mercifully, the nudity was only implied with "tasteful" camera angles, since Majel Barrett was not the same woman she was when the TOS pilot was made.

In the series "Enterprise", it was not unusual to have co-ed naked decontamination procedures, or maybe its Vulcan science officer was just a little bit of a slut?


Orion slave girls were green and scantily clad, female Yeomen wore miniskirts and the ship's counselor wore low cut tops(and possibly a push up bra).


In one of the early scenes of Robocop, there is a glimpse of coed nudity in the police locker room. In the execrable movie Starship Troopers, (made from the excellent book of the same name), the same conditions existed for troopers of both sexes. In Firefly, the most reputable person on board was, so to speak, a member of the oldest profession.


So, the idea that having a female in her underwear, in a Hollywood movie aimed at a primarily young male demographic, is somehow particularly misogynistic and therefore necessitates an apology is, you should excuse the expression...illogical!

Now, if you'll excuse me? I'll be in my bunk!