I swear, it's like the TNG writers were TRYING to get this show cancelled. Everything here, from the seeming racism to the very forced feminism message to the horribly-fake-looking fight scenes is just terrible. Seriously, had anyone on the crew ever seen anyone fight before? It was the 80s! The peak of ultra-violent action films! Surely they could have done better than this?
Everyone on the planet-of-the-week—which is established as being highly corrupt and sexist—is played by an African. While it might not be literally racist, it's definitely disturbing.
This episode is just one of many examples of the writers trying to push Tasha as a strong feminist character, but it flops. Everything about Tasha—her unusually short haircut; her no-nonsense attitude; her ability to physically beat down any opponent at every opportunity—makes her seem like the creative minds behind TNG are trying too hard. It's not that Tasha herself is a problem; it's the kind of things she's given to do in stories thus far. Denise Crosby actually does a great job, for the most part, with what she's given in the show. But when all you've got to do is get into horribly-choreographed fight scenes or get drunk and bang an android, that's not much. Tasha, at this point, only exists at two extremes: hyper-feminist-brawler Tasha and creepy let's-bang-Data Tasha.
This episode was likely intended to be a "let's combat sexism" episode. What it turned out to be was a racist story that shoved awkward feminism down the audience's throat.
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