I have seen less cringy porn parodies than this episode
Posted by VickWildman@reddit | TNG | View on Reddit | 72 comments
I'm rewatching TNG after like a decade and while it wasn't a surprise that the first season is rough around the edges this episode still managed to surprise me. I don't often feel physically ill when watching bad television, but this scene really takes the cake. Whomever felt necessary to come up with Tasha's I was continuously raped between 5 and 15 and therefore let's have fun line should have been put on a rocket on a one-way trip to deep space well before dying from natural causes.
I don't even mind that the kid saved the day at the end, I'm just annoyed by the shoddiness of the whole the ship can't move, because it's missing a bunch of computer chips from a panel and oh no, a clump of star matter is heading for us thing, because that's definitely the danger when a star explodes right next to you.
Kudos to the actors trying so hard to sell the awful writing. Poor Denise Crosby really drew the shortest straw on this one and the whole show really. What were they thinking coming up with the same character twice for her and Michael Dorn?
bela_okmyx@reddit
What's especially cringy is the fact that they're only a few episodes into the first season, and they're already recycling stories from TOS.
ShireNomad@reddit
And since this is only the second episode, we barely know these characters at their normal levels of competence, so there's no contrast; we're just seeing a bunch of drunks trip over themselves.
thedudeadapts@reddit
You make decent points but...was Khitomer a rape fest? I missed where Worf and Tasha are the same character. Sure, "tragic backstory" but that can be applied to practically everyone on the show:
Data- no known origin, raised as an outsider Crusher(s) - dead dad/husband Riker- daddy issues Troi- dead dad/Lwaxana for a mom Picard- different daddy issues (then mommy issues?) Worf - orphan (Worphan?) PLUS outsider Geordi-..... Blind? Is that even a problem compared to the rest?
And that's just TNG.
regeya@reddit
It seems like Geordi could have been a dumb joke over drinks. He's cool because he's blind and he's the navigator! Get it? Hah!...let's go with it. Cast some guy known for his eyes and then cover them up.
Upbeat_Leader_7185@reddit
Black driver. Only human character everyone is on a first name basis with. I think blind driver was intentional, but I'm sure there were a couple of details about Laforge that they would have reconsidered if they had thought a little longer on it.
regeya@reddit
I'm curious; do you think it's wrong to have a black guy as the navigator because of the history of black men being chaffeurs? A navigator isn't exactly a servant, but I'm just some white dude who grew up knowing what it feels like for cow poop to squish between your toes.
Upbeat_Leader_7185@reddit
Well, I think that excluding a person from eligibility for a role because of historic connotations misses the point. At the same time, they could have put him anywhere.
It's easy for me to type it here now though sitting on a can in '26 and I have no idea what sort of conversations and considerations were had 40 years ago by people who's careers depended upon producing a successful show.
regeya@reddit
Y'know they probably didn't think as deeply on that as any of us think. They wanted someone like LeVar because he was well known and respected, and they made his character disabled but upgraded with technology.
BeefyBoi6_9@reddit
Geordi, blind and hopelessly bad with women…. He really gets the short stick dosent he?
VickWildman@reddit (OP)
At this point of the show the klingon guy is just a security and tactical asset, same as Tasha, and both of them are from a less civilized world, which makes it presumably hard for them to fit in. Of course it's more interesting to have a klingon for this role, so there wasn't room for both of them.
Jetstream-Sam@reddit
Was Tasha actually repeatedly assaulted in canon? Like I know her planet was full of rapists but I never really assumed she got assaulted in that sense, I thought the idea was she was capable of fighting them off and that's why she ended up so tough.
I mean, it's not great either way, but I don't know why I sort of assumed she wasn't, come to think of it. I guess because when we see her planet later on, it's not as rapey as it was described and was more focused on just shooting each other to spite the other team
Beartech31@reddit
Had to jump in and share my appreciation for "Worphan" lol
UnderABig_W@reddit
Is it a bad episode? Yes. Is it cringy (at best) and wrong (at worst)? Yes.
Is it an episode that younger me always enjoyed watching because of Tasha’s outfit? Also yes.
Virtual-Rough2450@reddit
Kryptonian drag
rdt_48695@reddit
Name three
ilDuceVita@reddit
fartingbeagle@reddit
Is that Rhys Ifans?
Grand_Negus@reddit
No, thats Karl Hungus (played by Peter Stormare)
Virtual-Rough2450@reddit
Wow're you gonna keep 'em down on the farm?
kyzylwork@reddit
Common mistake - that's actually Uli Kunkel playing Hungus.
itz_soki@reddit
Hey, I know that guy. He’s a nihilist.
ilDuceVita@reddit
Sounds exhausting
Zeraphicus@reddit
He fixes the cable?
Suckamanhwewhuuut@reddit
That’s why they sent him, he is expert
solidus0079@reddit
Don't be fatuous, Zerphicus.
VickWildman@reddit (OP)
Nice one. In particular I remember Dana Dearmond's Star Trek parody being positively palpable compared to this episode :)
Burnsey111@reddit
At least you’re watching the right kind of porn parodies!
SpiritOne@reddit
She does an episode of red shoes diaries that was less cringey than this episode. And she plays a cop who does a strip tease.
dnkroz3d@reddit
I don't care for Tasha's forced backstory drama, either, but without this episode we never would have gotten "fully functional". For that alone I forgive it.
tommytraddles@reddit
Nobody:
Tasha Yar: RAPE GANGS
OopsAIIBots@reddit
Feels like a weird thing to center a gang around. Sure, some rape. But just rape? That's a silly gang.
I'm sure they also sold drugs and killed people, but do they ever get credit for it?
"You can build a thousand bridges" type shit
3Mug@reddit
Gangs hate to be pigeon-holed. It's like "we can do more than 1 type of crime!"
Unless it's like a calling card? Like Home Alones 'Wt Bandits." Maybe they do everything, but it always includes rape?
"We can do robbery, with a side of rape. Um...we can do drug dealing with some rape. We have a package deal for tax evasion + rape. We are really good at extortion and rape...see? We have range! Have you ever seen jaywalking with a side of rape? Because we can do that too! We just did that 3 times last week down in the valley! It's very popular right now..."
(Disclaimer - I intend no disrespect to the seriousness of rape, I just go where the joke takes me)
Joeythesaint@reddit
We owe Gene a lot for this franchise, but dude was a colossal perv.
UnderABig_W@reddit
To be fair, for some reason (it’s probably a bad one) in the late 80s, sexual assault became really popular to portray on TV to express “this is a very serious episode” or as cheap trauma filler to provide characterization for a female lead. Probably in a lot of cases, also as a subversive sexual thrill for people into that kind of thing.
So it wasn’t just Gene.
In fact, I remember a cop show called Hunter where they wanted the leading actress to get raped not once, but twice over the course of the series. The actress did the first rape scene in an early season, but was so traumatized by it that when they asked her to do it again, she absolutely refused and told them to fire her if they didn’t like it.
So yeah. Weird times.
getmybehindsatan@reddit
I can imagine Soong's wife asking him why he even made robotic genitalia for what was supposed to be an experiment in artificial intelligence and then deciding she didn't want to know.
yahakum@reddit
You jewel.
Walter_Donovan@reddit
And the names, for a friend.
Acrobatic-Shirt8540@reddit
I still don't know what that bloody curl was all about
Few-Durian-190@reddit
Yeah....not the best episode to follow up the premiere with.
Rooster_Fish-II@reddit
All you need to know about that episode is “space madness flu” and under-boob.
BMisterGenX@reddit
I think they were going for ratings. I don't blame them the show had yet to reach an audience.
Educational-Tackle54@reddit
Why is there a tar monster on her head??
saltytrey@reddit
What are you doing, step-android?
Sanctus_Poopabumsus@reddit
She was in an episode of red shoe diaries once!
Vision11X33@reddit
You don't know if Tasha drew the shortest straw because we don't know what Data was packing
yeahalrightgoon@reddit
It's a bad episode, but I do think that they later made the most of Data and Tasha fucking, in Measure of a Man where you see that it impacted Data. I also like to feel that Data has a cat because Tasha had a cat.
Still not worth the episode, but they at least did something decent with it later on.
VickWildman@reddit (OP)
Looking forward to that then. I kind of forgot most of the show by now after a decade, except the Picard flute thing, the Borg shenanigans, that interrogation episode and Whoopi Goldberg.
yeahalrightgoon@reddit
Yeah, people say to skip season 1 etc, but for it's bad episodes, which certainly exist. I still feel season 1 is essential because of how it sets up the characters for the later seasons.
Captain_Zomaru@reddit
This episode is critical in setting up "Measure of a Man" so that alone gives it a pass. A little cringe worthy, but I absolutely Love Tasha as a character and will always miss her on the serious.
LawnJerk@reddit
Did they ever explain how Data got drunk?
VickWildman@reddit (OP)
Oh yeah, that was weird as well, because they later they figured he should have a positron brain with an emotion chip or something like that. I was buying the whole carbon-something water-something equals alcohol-something explanation, but they have jumped the shark with Data being affected.
z500@reddit
That greasy cowlick still baffles me. Is that what they liked in the 80s?
SpaceNigiri@reddit
I'm rewatching right now too and the Wakanda episode was way worst to me. Like wtf.
VickWildman@reddit (OP)
Code of Honor is the next episode I'm watching. I don't remember it in detail, but I'm expecting some very inappropriate ooga booga level of awfulness based on what the actors have been saying about it. Apparently the writer responsible have written that another famously problematic first-season episode for Stargate as well.
bbbourb@reddit
She did. And it's a shame because she also wrote some absolute bangers.
Past Prologue for DS9, the episode that gave us Garak
Brief Candle, Thor's Hammer, Thor's Chariot, Pretense, Family, Crossroads, Smoke & Mirrors...lots of really GOOD stuff.
But she's remembered for Code of Honor, an episode originally meant to have a reptilian alien species with a samurai-like society and a bushido-esque culture (hence the title). Which isn't THAT much better, but what they ended up with after budget cuts wasn't her vision.
Emancipation is (if I may go on a non-Trek tangent) actually WORSE, in my opinion, because she used the pop-culture version of Mongol society instead of how it actually was. Hint: they didn't treat their women like they show in the episode at all...they may as well have cast John Wayne as Genghis Khan.
wanderingmonster@reddit
Are you saying “The Naked Now” makes “First Contact” look like “Sub Rosa”?
KweenKobold@reddit
Gene Roddenberry was a horny pervert who was only successful because others told him no all the time in TOS.
uroborous01@reddit
My face when the batman porn parody is just a perfectly normal episode of adam west batman when you edit out the porn scenes.
Real_Iggy@reddit
That did creep me out as well. It's the only episode that I have to skip part of.
cap_xy@reddit
Guys, I think we should get tng cancelled.
SloppyMeathole@reddit
This is why many people skip season 1 on subsequent rewatches, I always start with season 2.
throwawayMAS_inSaita@reddit
I only watched season 1 once. I just started watching tv and I instinctively just skip the first season. After a few rewatches I just never watch the first season, it’s just not worth recommitting to memory.
Betelgeuse_PT@reddit
That episode and Masks were written by someone high as a kite because it’s not possible 🤣🤣
MikeyB_0101@reddit
Androids need lovin too
Miraedus@reddit
He is "fully functional ".
idol-threat@reddit
Just so you guys are in the know, as I recently learned this. Denise Crosby was in fact in playboy. No cringe there I can assure you.
Ro_no_know@reddit
I don’t know if it’s true or not but I always heard that her playboy shoot was a big deciding factor in writing her off the show
FooBarU2@reddit
She was not fired... she wanted to quit and "worked things out" with Roddenberry to get out of her contract.
She felt the character was too two dimensional and it would hurt her career.
Cohens4thClient@reddit
Im still upset they didnt bring her back as Sela for the Nemesis movie.
She wouldn't even need much screen time to be a great villain In the shadows, maybe she could have arranged the jailbreak for the Picard clone amd we wouldn't need that weird ugly telepath advisor who did nothing.
VickWildman@reddit (OP)
Denise Crosby was definitely not the problem, but you can feel Gene Rodenberry's creepiness all over.
mechinizedtinman@reddit
All the cringe none of the payoff…
Unit_79@reddit
Yeah, but Gene Roddenberry thought of a robot fucking a woman in the 70s and you can’t just NOT use that idea, so…
Also, this was the episode that got me into Star Trek. The first scene I ever saw was Data plugging in the isolinear chips back in at super speed and my seven year old brain was like “oh I like that green guy. Plus they have a teenager on board!”