Star Trek

Men in mini skirts only in S1 though

No idea if she was controversial, but well there are in-universe reasons and on the other hand there are choices made by showrunners. I used to think of Beverly as a forgettable side character, but I've heard from female Trekkies who watched the show in the 80s as young girls that this single mum who at the same time had a well-respected professional career was inspiring to them.

It's all fair criticism. I mean, they literally brought in a lady in a corset and high heels to voyager when ratings were flagging. It worked out in the end I suppose; the actress and character were both great, but still!

Didn't in the introduction of Seven also have the butterfly effect of seeing Obama eventually elected?

Strongest female casting is probably DS9 for consistency and strength of character.

Voyager had Janeway and Torres but as said above as strong as Seven was, she was brought in to sex things up. Her quality as a character seemingly a fortunate aside.

Troi and Beverly got their (often questionable) episodes, but I just feel like most of the time they're reduced to their female caretaker roles--when Deanna isn't violated again, that is. Tasha was conceived as a female character to avert these tropes, but the writers and showrunners did such a horrible job at it that the actor rightfully decided to quit. Deanna and Beverly are most of the time just so passive.

Contrast with DS9. Kira is such an amazing strong character, wonderfully written and wonderfully acted. She's a top contender for my favourite Trek character of all time.

Lwaxana... I like Lwaxana. Her main problem isn't that she's a bad character, it's that most of her episodes are bad. She's a woman past middle age who likes sexual adventure, she's... vibrant, she's actually got some serious emotional baggage, and I like her for all of that.

DS9 had Dax and Kira, who were great, but still only 2 main characters. On the periphery there's the female changling and Winn. For the men you have Sisko, Bashir, O'Brian, Odo, Quark, Jake, Nog, the main Klingons, the main Cardassians, Weyoun...
Even Voyager, with a female captain, the men outnumber the women.

90's Trek is very much a boy's club.

Rewatching ENT I noticed how straight misogynistic the show can be too. We've come a long way in the past 20 years, makes me appreciate DIS even more.

I believe they wanted to make ENT humans more simple-minded folk, and they certainly succeeded in that. Perhaps too much.

I never warmed to Jadzia, never found her that interesting. But Kira, fuck me, what a great character.

edit: at episode 14, you haven't seen Duet yet. I'd love to hear your opinion on that one.

I wonder if Jadzia’s perfection was deliberate to draw a clearer distinction between the ‘mature’ Federation and the young, angry Bejoran nation /Kira.

Also later in the run hiding it so I don’t spoil the rewatch

I was surprised to see how forgoten Jadzia was in most episodes of DS9. She would get her 1 or 2 episodes a season, but would mostly just be in the background the rest of the time. She always ended up just popping up for Sisko to discuss an issue with or even Quark, often not having much to do herself.

Her later relationship helped, but it still felt forced and I didn't really buy them as an item.

Don't underestimate Lwaxana episodes. I love how Picard comes out of the turbolift, anxiously looking left and right before he decides to give it a try, but he's immediately ambushed by Lwaxana. Somewhat controversial, I think "Half a Life" is a pretty good episode.

I agree with that, I liked Ezri more than I liked Jadzia. But of course she was introduced in S7, in a season where they struggled to wrap everything up. No place for a new character really.

Enterprise rewatch:

Carbon Creek is a really nice ‘trapped in the past’ style episode. Strong hints of TNG after the slightly sterile first season.

Speaking of the first season I think the season finale would have been a lot more interesting if