So we begin with Picard explaining that they have to get a 'rare Vaccine' from a world called Lutan, which requires some diplomacy.
Rare?
I don't know much about some things, but my understanding of vaccines is that they are not exactly mined. Why is it rare? Why can't it be replicated? I mean, we haven't seen a replicator yet in the series, but still. I have questions.
Anyway: Yar is standing by in a Cargo Bay to receive the Lutan delegation. Cargo bay? Really? The Enterprise doesn't have a better place to recieve dignitaries? Anyway, Picard takes Riker and Troi with him.
What is the point of having a second in command if you take him with you when you leave the bridge? Bah.
Anyway, the Lutan use their own transporters, and Picard shows he has a good briefing on Lutan diplomatic protocols. The Lutan are a bunch of black guys dressed like Arabian Nights. Are they human? Human looking aliens? What's up with these guys? Their leader is shocked that Yar is chief of security because, woman.
Well. Yeah. I mean, if this wasn't TV he might have a point. But since it's TV, Picard paternalistically explains that, yup, Yar is a woman, so what?
They move on, but you know this is going to be a major plot point. Sigh. I really hoped to avoid heavy handed moralizing this early on, stupid me. The Lutan leader sends his second in command forward with a sample of the vaccine and Plot Happens.
Oops. I mean, Yar leaps forward insisting her job as chief of security means stopping this diplomat from delivering his gift or something. The guy says "out of my way, wo-man.", and Yar does TV Judo on him, throwing him all over the cargo bay.
Its gonna be a long episode.
Lutan leader guy is more amused than upset, but at least Denise Crosby has the mind to look dumbfounded at how stupid her character just acted.
Never mind gender politics: If that had been a male chief of security on a diplomatic mission he'd have been up on charges from Picard, or should have been. In two episodes where she gets to be security chief instead of 'drunk temptress', Yar has shown herself to be singularly unfit for command level responsibilities, mostly because she jumps up and judo throws motherfuckers at the drop of a hat. This is security as envisioned by gangsta bodyguards, not military and diplomatic forces.
So Yar looks at the box and determines its not a bomb or something. Troi, out loud, tells Picard not to apologize, since it would weaken them. Dude, the Lutan are literally ten feet away and watching you. Now is not the time to be giving that advice. Picard offers to entertain the Lutan, who of course accept.
So the crew leaves the cargo bay, letting the Lutan drop plot anvils all over the place, in case you needed evidence that the Lutan were going to be the focus of the plot and not some goofy story about delivering life saving medicine across half the galaxy.
Opening Credits
Data delivers a ceramic horse which Picard explains is 14th century Tsung Chinese (saying something about how Lutan culture resembles a historical Earth culture they all admire. I'm not sure if the two ideas are linked, but if they are what exactly does this say about the Federation?). The Lutan protest that they don't like outsiders and are somehow technologically inferior to the Federation (what with their own transporter technology? Can't be too far behind!), but how they have this rare vaccine to "Anghelese Fever"... so we're setting up the clash of primitive vs future-modern civilizations here.
I'll note that this episode would have made a far greater test of Humanity than Farpoint Station was for Q, just based on the premise setup, more nuanced. Q's test was essentially a 'blind idiot' test, passable by almost any blind idiot.
So the leader of the Lutan dismisses his guards and I see that they still have random extras in Skirts in the background, so Yay!. Then the Lutan guy asks to see a holodeck. Lots of reaction shots throughout the scene, mostly to Yar, a couple to Troi. Probably because it is boring and nearly pointless, delaying the start of the plot for another scene or two.
Ah. Moralizing.
Okay, so Picard makes the unintentional entendre regarding the use of Holodecks for things other than Training and offers Riker to show the Lutan guy the deck, he requests instead that Yar shows him, perhaps with some combat sparring. Riker chimes in about how the Lutan are way to fascinated with Yar's boobs'n'badge combo, and Lutan's assistant comments about how Lutan women merely own the land, and men protect it, then Troi snarks in about some (unspecific) human cultures do/did the same.
ugh.
We so get it: The Lutan are chauvinistic pigs, right? The Federation is much more advanced, not just technically, but morally for having a chick run security.
Oh, wait? What was that: the women of Lutan own all the property you say? I seem to recall how this will end, but, in due time.
Anyway: Yar totally cuts the morality play off to offer to kick this guy's ass... out of respect. Okay, sure. Anything to get the ball rolling.
So, Yar leads the two Lutan into the holodeck, puts on a long Gi jacket over her uniform. Why? Because Hollywood. Then a training mat and white ninja shows up for her to use as a test dummy.
So this guy, whose name apparently is Lutan, asks if she can create people... without a soul!
So she explains to this hopeless savage primitive (with Transporter technology!!!!) that its just a computer simulation. To demonstrate she walks up and asks the ninja questions. Silly woman: Ninja don't talk! Then she fights it in a pretty lame demonstration of, I suppose, Akido (based on her previous dialog), tossing the ninja around the mat a couple of times. Lutan's second doubts his lying eyes, so Lutan tells him to fight it. Naturally he gets tossed on his ass, because fuck him.
Yar dismissed the Ninja, but she takes off the jacket. You know, because its a holo image to begin with and would disappear if she willed it... but that would cost special effects money. She explains how the ninja learns and becomes unbeatable...
Which means its pretty useless as a training aid, really.
Anyway: Back at the cargo bay, Lutan totally transporter kidnaps Yar. Who didn't see that coming? Let me say that Troi, giving her best Bitch-Face the entire episode so far, was fucking useless. Lutan and company are apparently very good at playing poker with empaths.
So, on the bridge Picard makes radio demands and launches photon torpedoes at the surface with 'demonstration blasts' a thousand meters above the surface, while technobabble tells us they can't trace the transporter because, science. Data has a fun moment where he realizes no one cares about his technobabble and shuts up now. Troi has to admit Yar is hot (she definitely hit that during Naked Now...), and then that Lutan apparently had the emotional state of Ambition.
Then everyone except Picard knows that the Natives respect Patience, which is cheap exposition at its finest, and also a way for the writers to transition to the next scene, since they don't want the Ligonians(??) responding to Picard's hails.
Picard narrates a captain's log, establishing a day has passed, that they've scanned the surface and so forth. Crusher comes into the captain's ready room repeating The vaccine and reveals it become unstable when she tries to replicate it (or perhaps Replicate it... making this the first real reference to Replicators in the show?). She goes on about how Picard has never seen a patient die of 'this disease', and Picard replies that its true... but he has seen his share of death. Maybe its an artifact of my pausing when I did, but Crusher totally seems to give him an eye roll at that. Heh.
That means they are one upping each other on how much torture porn they've watched? Love it.
Picard flatters her, and she dismisses herself only to turn back and ask, in a sort of pseudo british/new England Upper Crust accent 'May I speak to you about my son, wesley?", which throws Picard for a loop, seeing as he seemed to think they were flirting, and single mom curveball and all that.
Apparently, despite the fact that Farpoint did in fact air, they are going to treat it as if it didn't, so there is a bit of a reprise of the whole 'Wesley's on the turbo lift, which totally isn't the bridge', so Picard can start warming up to the lad.
Without a single mention of the fact that he totally committed mutiny the previous episode and almost killed them all by letting Shimoda dismantle the computer to play Jenga with the parts.
So, Picard really wants into Crusher's Onsie, badly. He totally just puts Wesley into the ops station, so baldly violating his own orders that just about everyone asks him 'what the fuck, cap?'. He is all commanding and shit while he does it, but damn...
And everyone wears a shiteating grin while Wesley takes his temporary place, as if Yar wasn't kidnapped. Troi, who apparently has mixed feeling about Yar from Naked Now (what with the 'you can't be the cool sexy blonde and steal my wardrobe too, but we'll totally have drunk sex later combo) still, is still smiling when she reports that they have found something in the diplomatic brief.
So, Data starts to give the briefing after everyone gathers like he is a view screen. He references Counting Coup as a way to describe Lutan's actions. I don't recall Lutan hitting anyone with a stick? The fuck? To hide that Lutan's actions in No Way resembled 'counting Coup', Data sticks a reference to French as an obscure language, so we can have more character building from 'Jean-Luc'.
Note: While everyone praises Patrick Stewart's Acting, I just want to point out that if he was serious about his acting in this show he would have worked up a french accent rather than his british one.
Anyway, they go on for a bit about counting coup and Lutan's personality profile, which lets us transition to Lutan calling. Apparently the Enterprise put him on screen with out transmitting image, since Lutan demands to see them.
Everyone tells Picard that in Ligonian Culture the right thing to do now is Ask Politely for Yar back.
Inside a day the staff have managed to sort this out from their diplomatic briefings, but in the days or weeks it took to get to Ligon(?) they apparently missed all these minefields. Worst Naval Crew Ever?
So Picard bites his tongue, praises Lutan, and politely asks for Yar back. Lutan invites him to visit to get Yar back... and commercial.
Ugh.
This is all just a really ugly way to keep things moving forward. We're a third the way through the show and the only thing that's really happened is Yar getting kidnapped. This entire farce of a scene was JUST to get Picard to the surface, really.
So we cut to... the command trio in their chairs, with Data behind them on the mezzanine, or whatever they called it. Troi says, heavily "Commander". that's all she says. Riker, whose actually rank is, in fact, Commander, misses a beat before noting that is... very formal of her.
Its... ugly and unnatural. Troi is asking Riker to let Picard lead the away team, with Data concurring.
Um. This is a Diplomatic Mission. This shouldn't even be a question, even with the whole kidnapping bit. So we've gone from the Kirkian Insanity of the entire command staff going on every single away mission, to Picard being swaddled like a baby?
Picard does the whole scene without dialog, just body language and breathing. Its kinda interesting. Then Riker threatens to put him on report and everyone smiles. You know, because its all light hearted fun, right?
Fucking tonal shifts.
So, planet surface, Picard and Troi, and repeating what we already have been told exhaustively: That asking for Yar back politely is the route to take. Lutan wants the public validation of his boldness with a public ceremony, blah blah. The key takeaway in the scene, I believe is, in fact, the introduction of Lutan's 'first one'... which is supposed to be his first wife?
So, Yar is brought out, still in uniform and unbound. Apparently she's been kicking ass all day.
The twenty four dollar question: Why doesn't Picard grab Yar at this moment and... kidnap her back? Oh, I mean there are still the vaccine negotiations and all that... but rather than babble on and on about honor and banquets, a bit of a comment about the validity of kidnapping her back would have been smart. Oh well...
Banquet: Ax juggler. 'nuff said.
Anyway: Yar walks out and sits on the dias by Lutan, Picard gets up and does the whole diplomatic spiel, Lutan is pleased and makes his speech... and... twist!
Lutan won't give Yar back. He LURVES her and wants to make her his 'First One'. The other woman, the First One we met in the previous scene stands up and challenges Yar to a fight to the death, which apparently hasn't been done in 200 years, according to exposition drops made during her challenge.
The writers get a bit confused I think. Picard leaps in to deny the challenge on Yar's behalf, which I suppose is fine, then Lutan stands up to shout how there will be no treaty, no vaccine and no Yar... and Scene!
See: the wife leveled the challenge, so I'm thinking Lutan can't just interject here. Maybe he can, maybe not but how would that work? In any given code of honor, how would he be able to deny all three on behalf of his wife's challenge?
Riker's log: They're maintaining combat readiness... because the Ligonians have such an awesome navy or something? Seriously, this is like me noticing that my dog is looking a bit shady and worrying about a knife in the dark.
No, he's a dog, and not even a big dog. The most I got to worry about is him chewing my ankle a little bit. Maintaining combat readiness against his future attacks is sort of... overkill.
Moving on.
Picard interrupts Yar's pre-fight stretching to interrogate her on Lutan's plans. Really? I guess I can't blame him, given how when he asks the experts on his team they generally tell him nothing, I guess I'd be a bit starved and desperate for answers too after a few weeks of that.
Troi pulls the bitch card and calls Yar out on being flattered that Lutan desires her, which is just cold. Even poor, naive Yar figures out what she just did. "Troi you're my friend and you just bitchslapped me!"
To which Troi doth protest too much, claiming it was for Yar's own good.
Lolwut?!
Picard is mostly oblivious to the girl-fight going on around him, so he interjects to offer fatherly wisdom to Yar and protest about all the manipulation going on, which Troi uses to camouflage her own unnecessary bitch move by making a non-sequitor about the Prime Directive.
The Prime Directive? The one that says Star Fleet will not interfere in any way with the development of pre-spaceflight races?
The Ligonian's have space defenses of some sort and Transporter technology, the Federation is dealing with them openly (interfering). If the Prime Directive applied at all, the Federation was long violating it before the Enterprise arrived.
And showing he is no real master of Federation Laws, Picard bluffs by admitting that the thought had crossed his mind.
Cut to the bridge. Crusher walks on from the Turbolift. I say that because her posture is... weird, unnatural. Anyway, as she gets over to Riker, he just 'Whats this message say?" to her out of left field and she looks and starts talking infection rates and plague. So this is a really ugly way of getting the crew to express how super cereal this whole Lutan business is, right. Laforge chimes in from offscreen, cut too as he talks about millions of deaths. Because Super Cereal.
Cut to Yar doing her pre-fight boasting to Troi, Picard walks in so we can continue hammering how deadly the plague is, then Troi basically tells Picard to let Yar fight so they can get the vaccine, and how betazoids are, like, really practical and some stuff.
Entirely missing from this is that Yar would be fighting to marry Lutan, right? Right?!
So, Picard goes to talk to Lutan and find out more. He stumbles across Lutan talking with his Second, and instead of letting them go on and plot exposit (the sensible but un-cinematic thing to do) he interrupts to admit that Yar is a 'desirable female', and then to admit he knows nothing of wants and needs or something... what? I mean, I guess he's playing Lutan here, drawing him out, but the fuck???
So... Picard is supposed to be the Robot?
For the slow kids, we learn for the second time that males on Ligonia don't actually own anything, and Lutan 'panic gestures' to cut off this super-important point, so we all know how important it is, this time. Because letting Picard know something that every Ligonian already knows is bad? Lutan more or less admits that he's totally using his Code of Honor to get ahead, and Picard totally smiles and offers to stab him in the back. This says something about where we are going as a people that I don't like, but I'm at a loss to put it to words... aside from the naked rejection of codes of honor as bad things that seems to be going on here.
Cut to LaForge shaving while blind. Why the visor is off for this I'm not sure, but then why he'd need it on for this is similarly unclear. I suppose its like asking why you've got your car keys in your pocket while walking the dog. Data walks in and mentions something about a perfectly adjusted razor, apparently a different model that the Space Razor LaForge is using, but this is all a setup for a conversation about humor and bad Data-jokes. The scene end with Riker calling them to Away Party Duty, then cut to Picard on the surface, still listening to Riker. This is really part of the same scene, I guess, since Data and Laforge transport in. Picard tells them to look over the weapons, evaluate them.
Right here I have a minor problem. I'm pretty sure some clever techno-trickery will subvert the weapons, but to avoid tipping their hands, the writers keep Picard from actually asking his crew to do anything... helpful. The correct answer to his orders would be to look at the wall of weapons and go "ayup. Those are dangerous all right. That one over there is pretty sharp, and that one too.".
Seriously. All he did was ask them to evaluate the local weapons and tell him which ones were sharp. I mean he did it in fancy speak, but barring an in depth fencing instruction manual, that's pretty much as much as his crew can tell him based on what he actually asked.
Data thinks its a joke, and Picard uses this to segue into a diatribe against codes of honor.
Sigh.
Yeah, I saw that coming. Never mind that the whole nonsense about the Prime Directive is just another type of Code of Honor, as is any legal code. Then too he talks about having evolved past such primitivism. This thing with Evolved and morality really gets under my skin, like a stone in my shoe. Enough.
Back to the bridge:
Riker still logging his exposition, fine. So, Data and LaForge have apparently reported that the Ligonian weapons are, in fact dangerous. No, seriously: Thats just about exactly what he says, and the plan is apparently to transport Yar to safety if she gets stabbed or something... if Ligonian custom allows it??? So, what part of the Prime Directive forces Star Fleet Personnel to have primitive rules forced on them against their wishes again? The hell, is Prime Directive now a catchall term for 'plot handcuffs'?
Cut to Yar, with Irina, the First One walking in because Yar wants to chat. Apparently, despite the fact that Irina is the one who leveled the challenge, Yar seems to think she can convince Irina to back down by humble-bragging about how awesome Star Fleet physical training is.
Irina, the woman from a culture that includes duels to the death is not impressed, and good for her. OF course, the fact that Yar towers over her should be a problem for her, but then again: Deadly weapons are deadly. Yar continues to demonstrate that she has no idea what women are like, as Irina can't believe Yar doesn't love Lutan, because he's a sexy beast(?), which only seems to motivate Irina to double down. So, clearly not part of Picard's plan.
So, Picard and Troi are pacing when LaForge and Data walk in. Their report is, verbatim:
Laforge: The weapons in that room are flexible, durable and deadly
Data: And light, made for women to use.
So, what a waste of a man who can see everything and a robot. Picard is a dum-dum. Troi could have told him all that, for god's sake, and she's the least technical member of the crew!
The only pertinent point is that an alkaloid based poison is on some of the weapons. We know its pertinent, because Picard perks up and asks for more details.
Yar walks in and reveals her inability to talk Irina out of the fight because, lurve. Data has to ask if Yar loves Lutan, which... what??? Yar goes on to admit finding him hot, but not being in love with him.
Seriously: What the fuckitty fuck is going on with the love/sexy beast shit with Lutan? Who decided this stray subplot was remotely relevant or interesting? Did they think some viewers would start worrying that Yar would defect in episode 3 to some random backwater world, so 'tension'?
So, they talk for a bit and Riker calls, unnecessarily to reveal that three dudes are coming. Three dudes arrive with boxes containing 'weapons', apparently so Yar can pick her size. Why they brought them to Picard's room is a mystery, but TV.
The 'weapons'.. we'll just assume all the boxes are the same since we only see one, hold some sort of super spiky cestus thing, which LaForge cautions us is poisoned. Yar humble-brags about how she understands 'this', and they hear Irina grunting, so they look out the window to see a ridiculously complex arrangement of boxes and poles where Irina is training while a DJ sets up glowing lights, for true techno-barbarism. Its a long cut of the poor actress having to swing and grunt her way around the jungle gym to show us its super cereal bidness time.
So, Wesley sits at ops, Data transports onto the Enterprise, and Riker and Crusher meet him. Apparently Data's coming back and forth is secret squirrel stuff, and they start talking around Picard's plan. I like how Riker understands that Picard is sort of dim. He interrogates Data, making sure that Picard grasped that these weapons were, you know, sharp and stuff. No, seriously: he asks Data if Picard understood his report that the weapons were "Sharp, split second lethal". The joke is on the audience then, do they understand that Picard wasn't just playing senile when he was space-drunk in Naked Now, that's what he's really like when you strip away his ability to bluff...
I keed. Do I?
Data is there to explain the plan, which we, the audience, will not be privy to. Because, fuck you, that's why.
So, cut to the planet, Lutan waiting, Picard and company lead Yar out. Yar's got that damn heavy, spiky cestus thing on, holding her hand up in the air because, you know, poison. Seems like a good way to wear yourself out before the fight, wearing it around like that. Then Irina comes out in some pink foil disco jumpsuit... and puts her cestus on. Smart woman, my money is on her.
So the Second stands up to announce the fight. He speaks for Lutan (who is sitting right there, but whatever... there are stupider cultural traditions in the real world).
What I like is that he then says "The Rules are Known. The Fight will continue until there is a victor, it will not be interrupted'.
The first sentence is somewhat amusing. A boxing referee doesn't say shit like that, and everyone in boxing knows the rules. Would he say that if this was a match being put on for the sake of an alien from another planet? Probably not. But I'm guessing that 'until there is a victor' and 'No interruptions' are the rules here, so I guess its simple enough.
Anyway: the girls start...ah...'fighting', which involves poor Irina flailing around wildly from the middle of the monkey bars while Yar mostly stays at the edge and leans back a bunch, with cheap cut editing to make it look more vigorous than it is. Then the girls do an arm to arm press (crossed swords analog I guess), until Yar pushes Irina back. Her cestus hits one of the glowing bars, sparks shoot and the spiked glove shoots into the audience, where the worlds dimmest bulb sits.
Lutan interrupts the fight. Against the rules, dude!
He interrupts to demand the weapon be returned, so the dimmest bulb hands it over, all chill, until the blood on his chest is visible. Hollywood wound style, he then keels over dead from the poison.
The girls go back to 'fighting', and we get a moment of plot dropping when the Second shouts out 'careful Irina!', drawing a look from Lutan. Aha!!!!
No, wait... at this point of the episode its pretty pointless, though it will make cleaning up the mess afterwards much easier, I guess. Back to the 'fight'. So the girls grab each other's weapon arms around a glowing pole, so 'Drama!' as they pull towards the light. Anyway, they break free, swing some more until, finally, Yar manages to land a hit on Irina's back.
Writerly Note: If you want to create real tension and drama in a fight, poisoned weapons may seem to up the tension but they actually do the opposite. Since the fight can be one or lost with a single cut it makes it exceedingly difficult to actually create any 'struggle', any changes in fortune. Normal weapons are lethal enough that poison is sort of unnecessary anyway. For an example of what I mean you can either watch Liam Neeson's duel in Rob Roy (not recommended, though Tim Roth is outstanding as the villain), or you can watch Malcolm Reynolds get cut up in Firefly. Both fights hinge on the contestants still standing after getting cut up by a superior technical opponent. Both fights have actual tension during the fight.
So, Irina goes down, Yar sort of dives on top of her and they transport out while "Second" looks on in horror, and Lutan looks on in outraged shock.
So, to no ones shock, and no real clever trickery, Crusher begins treating Irina in the transporter room, while Yar looks all sweaty and heartbroken over her murderous murder-fighting.
Picard meanwhile talks to Lutan, explaining that by the rules of the fight, its over. Yar won, Irina was poisoned to death by poison, and Yar can marry or not marry Lutan if she wishes. Second reminds Lutan that he now has all of Irina's wealth, so Lutan is cool with it all of a sudden. Riker calls and gets permission to beam aboard the vaccine, then Picard more or less transporter kidnaps Lutan!!
Huzzah! The look on Lutan's face when Picard says "five to beam up" is priceless, though its a blink and you'll miss it moment. They swing through the bridge just so Riker can tell them to head to the lounge, where Crusher is with Irina. Lutan is all outrageously outraged that Irina is still alive, and we are pretty much told all about Ligonian Divorce customs in a very, mercifully, brief allusion. Since Irina was technically dead, she is now free to take Lutan's cool necklace and give it to Second, meaning all that bullshit she said to Yar about loving Lutan was, well, bullshit. Yar turns Lutan down, of course. Lutan winds up becoming Second to, um, Second (Hegira or something...), and Second tells Picard that its obvious that Ligonia is more civilized than the Federation.
Which of course has everyone smiling their best catbird smile. Its a pretty clever line, but its almost entirely unearned so its wildly out of place.
Picard walks on the bridge, totally missing Wesley on Ops for a good long moment, and remembering that he wants some of that sweet, sweet doctor pussy manages to not throw Wesley off his bridge. Then they warp out to the Plague planet at a leisurely warp three.
You know? Millions of people dying, your normal cruising speed is warp seven, your hustle speed is warp nine? Why not simply go Warp Three... no rush, now that Yar doesn't have to murderize anyone, right?
Sigh.
Final thoughts: They try to earn some easy goodwill early in the episode for their heavy handed moralizing with all that anti-feminist talk, but its clearly unearned by the culture they actually wind up presenting. The bullshit speechifying about primitive codes of honor is, well, bullshit. Thats not to say that there aren't codes of honor that aren't bullshit (Pashtunwalli comes to mind, for example), but you can't take any single element in isolation and declare the whole idea suspect. If they really had the courage of their convictions regarding their more evolved stance towards codes of honor, they'd have violated the 'Prime Directive' in a heartbeat... since, you know, Codes of Honor are primative, savage, bullshit.
So, while Lutan is something of an asshole the Ligonians actually are right at the end when they talk about superior civilizations. For all his scheming asshole ways, Lutan silently takes his place as subordinate to the man he'd been bossing around for years, because that's what his Code demands of him. He doesn't protest or complain about how its unfair he can't just violate it, the way Picard did constantly.
You could say he just mans up and takes his lumps.
Then there is a massive editorial error: In order to make the entire 'Prime Directive' relevant, the Ligonians have to be primitive, and they are constantly presented as primitive... except for that nagging issue of having their own Transporter technology...
... you know, that old stone age technology you use everyday to go shopping or get to work or what have you?
You mean you DON'T use it? Well, why the hell not?
Oh... thats right. Its so primitive we haven't actually invented it yet... meaning the Ligonians are at least a century or two beyond us, technologically, and therefore... not primitive.
Of course, I'm sure someone realized that, but they couldn't figure out how to kidnap Tasha Yar without the Ligonians having transporters... And why couldn't the Enterprise lock onto Yar's badge?
This leads me to a curious thought...
If you have a character who is explicitly your asskicker you can only really kidnap them if they are dudes.
No, think about it: If someone wrote an episode of TNG where Worf had to be kidnapped, they would just, you know, do it. Its acceptable for a guy to be beaten by a superior opponent, caught off guard, surprised... ambushed, whatever.
If your Asskicker is a chick you have to go through all sorts of odd contortions to explain how they were not-beaten on the way to being somehow kidnapped or what have you. If Yar is overpowered by human scale enemies at any given point it points out the lie that, as a chick, she is not really an asskicker.
If Yar really was an asskicker, it would be acceptable for Lutan to simply overpower her and drag her to a shuttlecraft or something, to draw a phaser on her... something.
I mean: this isn't written into stone or anything. A legitimate chick asskicker, a Rhonda Rousey or Gina Carano, written without a political agenda behind her presence (mind you: Denise Crosby was all of a hundred and ten pounds or so, willowy if you will... waif-fu territory, though she is taller than many of the other women on the show), might be disadvantaged by a writer fairly and honestly...
But when you are selling the notion that women are only inferior fighters to men because primitive attitudes, you can't have your willowy, sexy hot chick be defeated by anything remotely human. I suppose I should be grateful the writers chose to demonstrate her asskickery with Akido moves rather than face punching. At least with that we can buy some level of equality is possible.
And for all I love Summer Glau, every time she knocked a dude out in Serenity with her face punching I had to cry a little inside. I'd say just about the only legitimate knockout, Ironically, was Jane, because he wasn't trying to hurt her and she beat him by crushing his balls instead of face punching. Okay, the knife stabbing is fine too. Knives don't give a fuck.
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