Oooh! Let's see what B&B have planned

[Master of Ossus]

And by planned, I mean "ad hoc'ed."

This is from TrekToday.

http://www.trektoday.com/news/040104_03.shtml

Fascinating. They managed to come up with a Trip-T'Pol romance. I can see the chemistry, already. They're going to show some "quite attractive" female MACO's, and one of the killer B's revealed the NAME of an upcoming episode. I'm almost salivating with anticipation at what this creative duo will come up with next week .

[neoolong]

Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't jealousy an emotion?

[Gandalf]

Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't jealousy an emotion?

Shhhh. You'll ruin it for that last fan who is out there.

[Patrick Degan]

And by planned, I mean "ad hoc'ed."

This is from TrekToday.

http://www.trektoday.com/news/040104_03.shtml

Fascinating. They managed to come up with a Trip-T'Pol romance. I can see the chemistry, already.

Oh, you knew that was coming from the first lotion-rub scene in the series (kamikaze) pilot. 'Twas merely a question of time.

They're going to show some "quite attractive" female MACO's.

Of course —what better source for cheap, badly done softcore than the ship's resident military commando unit? With one of the MACO babes as an object of jealousy for T'pol. Jealousy isn't logical, of course, but why let little things like continuity stand in the way of the Killer Bs deranged "reimagining" of Star Trek at this point?

Boobyprize just keeps living down to expectations. Absolutely nothing these two fucks do surprises me anymore.

[Peregrin Toker]

They're going to show some "quite attractive" female MACO's, and one of the killer B's revealed the NAME of an upcoming episode.

and given B&B's lack of originality, I have the feeling that at least of these attractive female MACO troops would be based upon Ripley or Vasquez from "Aliens".

[Oberleutnant]

They're going to show some "quite attractive" female MACO's, and one of the killer B's revealed the NAME of an upcoming episode.

and given B&B's lack of originality, I have the feeling that at least of these attractive female MACO troops would be based upon Ripley or Vasquez from "Aliens".

Did you know that back when TNG was still in early development, Roddenberry got an idea for a tough female security officer after seeing "Aliens"? According to "Star Trek - The Continuing Mission", he really loved Vasquez character and wanted to have something similar aboard the new Enterprise. Since E-D's security officer was going to be more South-European type, they even had Marina Sirtis auditioning for her part. Things really had changed a bit when the first episode of TNG finally aired...

[Ghost Rider]

Just waiting for them to have some steamy lesbian scenes.

I mean they are running out of useless plot points they've done a thousand times...and this one will appeal to the 12 year old fan.

[Master of Ossus]

Frankly, the idea of a "hot-but-tough" babe makes for an interesting but not particularly believable character. Can you see Marina Sirtis running around beating the crap out of people? That girl rivals Calista Flockhart for lowest muscle mass possible in a human being. It's fine for one movie, where you don't really have time to think about things like that in terms like that, but for an ongoing series it would potentially be a disaster, since once people started thinking about it it wouldn't make any sense. The best I've seen it done on a real TV show was Ivonova in B5. She didn't necessarily run around beating the crap out of people, but she had a... highly confrontational personality and she obviously intimidated people. That's much more believable, but it's still not great, and only the consistently good writing and acting managed to prevent Ivonova from becoming incredible.

The idea of having SEVERAL "fairly attractive" MACO's is one of the stupidest ideas I've heard in a long time. How many (female) "fairly attractive" Navy SEALS are there? Are there ANY hot babes in SAS? Delta Force? What would you have said if Natalie Portman and Catherine Zeta-Jones had been running around shooting people in Blackhawk Down? Having ONE of them MIGHT make some amount of sense (particularly since the MACO's almost certainly need specialists in various fields--that particular aspect of Hoshi's character is reasonable), but SEVERAL? Moreover, let's look at this. What percentage of the general population would be considered "fairly attractive" by TV standards? I would say maybe 1/10 (within this age group). If we take "several" to mean four or five, then we would need a population of 40 or 50 female MACO's to reasonably generate that figure by random chance! Even if their attractiveness had NO negative repercussions as to how they were selected to the MACO team, then we would need 40-50 female MACO's to generate that number of hot babes. If we assume that the MACO's follow a 1:1 ratio between genders, that means we have damn near 100 MACO's on a ship that doesn't have that many crewmen, and this ratio is impossible to believe not only because of the real life breakdowns of special forces units, but also because we hadn't seen any female MACO's during their previous actions.

The more you think about this idea, the more you realize how stupid it is and also how bad B&B are at creating ideas. If they really needed someone attractive that Trip could flirt with, why not add a member to the engineering staff? Not only is it far more reasonable that an attractive person could be an engineer on the Enterprise, but it's also far more plausible that Trip would have a close relationship with an engineer. Since in the entire first two seasons we saw Trip make all of two friendships, it's impossible to believe that he would suddenly turn around and become good friends with the MACO's, but it remains possible that he had a close friendship with some of his staff who hadn't been seen previously. In fact, part of his job is to form at least professional relationships with his staff.

Moreover, this idea of a Trip/T'Pol romance is craptastic in the first place. Rather than having T'Pol be jealous, why don't they show her as being ignorant as to human courtship gestures, misinterpret the signals that the people on the ship were giving her, and so continue to be baffled by peoples' actions on the ship? It practically writes itself, creates more drama, creates a very interesting situation, establishes far more interesting characters, and follows the continuity that has so far been neglected on the show. That must be why B&B didn't think of it.

[Stravo]

MoO, you're talkiong about a pair of dolts who find Continuity "restricting" and they have routinely come out and said that they did not like the precedents set by TOS and felt that Enterprise should not be limited to what TOS established.

[Stofsk]

MoO, you're talkiong about a pair of dolts who find Continuity "restricting" and they have routinely come out and said that they did not like the precedents set by TOS and felt that Enterprise should not be limited to what TOS established.

They actually said that? Like, in public - with a bunch of witnesses?

[Lord Poe]

Shit, 7 of 9 was a better Vulcan than T'Pol.

[Coalition]

One thing about Trip dating an engineer, is that she would be in his chain of command. Is there a rule in Star Trek about not dating those in your chain of command?

So the MACO woman might be one of the few women Trip could date. She could be a lieutenant (put) in charge of the MACO unit, and talking to the ship's engineer to redesign decent weapons to fight the Xindi, instead of the pieces of junk that Starfleet gave them. Trip helps her out, they spend more time talking, and Trip is getting laid.

Essentially, she is a brains type officer, and relies on the enlisted personnel to handle the heavier items. For quick strikes (Hit & Run style), she is suited, because she is smaller, and can fit into tight spaces. But on longer missions, her smaller size becomes a liability, which becomes obvious over time. She is eventually reassigned to shipboard security only, and another officer is assigned long-term duty.

Trip might not want to date T'Pol though. She is Vulcan, and Vulcans are what, 2-3 times stronger than humans? Trip might be worried about actual damage (dislocated/broken bones), if he has sex with T'Pol.

So if B&B work it out properly, this might be even remotely plausible. But am I expecting too much?

Finally, another version of the trooper they might use: Dodger, from B5. She simply wanted to have sex with Garibaldi, because she knew that she could be dead the next day, and wanted to have fun immediately. Garibaldi didn't want to hurt her, and turned her down. Her reply was, practical.

[neoolong]

Only a moron could have decided to make the sex symbol of the show, a Vulcan. It makes the situations where you want her to be sexual horribly contrived.

Not suprising given who came up with the series, but still.

[Uraniun235]

She is Vulcan, and Vulcans are what, 2-3 times stronger than humans? Trip might be worried about actual damage (dislocated/broken bones), if he has sex with T'Pol.

Sarek married at least two human women.

[Luke Starkiller]

She is Vulcan, and Vulcans are what, 2-3 times stronger than humans? Trip might be worried about actual damage (dislocated/broken bones), if he has sex with T'Pol.

Sarek married at least two human women.

2?

I know Spock's mother was, but wasn't Sybock fully Vulcan?

[Sharp-kun]

I'm trembling in anticipation......

[Crazedwraith]

She is Vulcan, and Vulcans are what, 2-3 times stronger than humans? Trip might be worried about actual damage (dislocated/broken bones), if he has sex with T'Pol.

Sarek married at least two human women.

2?

I know Spock's mother was, but wasn't Sybock fully Vulcan?

Yes, he was but that was before either of the humans. Sarek married amanda in TOS times and had spock, in the TNG years he was married to a different human woman.

[Mlenk]

Shit, 7 of 9 was a better Vulcan than T'Pol.

Sad but true

[Demiurge]

SNIPXOR

I thought it was just an accepted fact that sci-fi women are stronger and more beautiful than regular women. It's that way for most entertainment, really.

Though I did hate that one B5 episode where Ivanova stopped a bar brawl by kicking everyone's asses. I think it was 'GROPOS.'

[Stofsk]

SNIPXOR

I thought it was just an accepted fact that sci-fi women are stronger and more beautiful than regular women. It's that way for most entertainment, really.

Though I did hate that one B5 episode where Ivanova stopped a bar brawl by kicking everyone's asses. I think it was 'GROPOS.'

Nope. Season 1, "EYES" - she beats up a bunch of drunken louts who were hitting on her; she was already having a bad day. An important distinction, I think.

[Beowulf]

How many (female) "fairly attractive" Navy SEALS are there?

Running slightly off topic, but there are no female SEALs. It's one of the few military occupations women are still banned from. The others include front-line ground troops, and submariners.

[Stofsk]

How many (female) "fairly attractive" Navy SEALS are there?

Running slightly off topic, but there are no female SEALs. It's one of the few military occupations women are still banned from. The others include front-line ground troops, and submariners.

Women are barred from Submarine service for some physiological reason that has to do with the nuclear reactors and contaminants in the air (at least, this is so in the Royal Navy), if I recall correctly. What justification is there to ban them from front-line combat roles? And Navy SEALS (though I can pretty much guess the reason for that one)?

[Stormbringer]

Oooh! Let's see what B&B have planned

Unless it's a mutal suicide pact I'm not interested.

[Jason von Evil]

Women are banned from frontline duty. Why would they? Looking at Iraq, it obviously didn't matter, since female soldiers in support roles were captured anyways.

[Master of Ossus]

How many (female) "fairly attractive" Navy SEALS are there?

Running slightly off topic, but there are no female SEALs. It's one of the few military occupations women are still banned from. The others include front-line ground troops, and submariners.

I'm fully aware of that. Even if we ignore that, though, how many "fairly attractive" women do you think could pass the requirements into the SEALs, or SAS, or the Rangers, or any of the other special forces groups maintained by western nations?