Star Trek Creator’s Vicious Rant About Women
One of the sad facts that every Star Trek fan eventually discovers is that franchise creator Gene Roddenberry had some major issues with women. On the surface level, this resulted in weird things like needlessly sexualizing early TNG scripts and trying to give the Deanna Troi character four breasts.
However, former Trek producer Herbert J. Wright later revealed the extent of Roddenberry’s misogyny via an explosive allegation that the Star Trek creator went into an unhinged rant about women during a meeting about the episode “Angel One.”
Gene Roddenberry’s Divorce Impacted Next Generation
For Gene Roddenberry’s crazy rant about women to make even a lick of sense, we need to provide some context for the episode in question. In short, “Angel One” is an episode in which Captain Picard and the crew encounter a matriarchal society and must deal with them to rescue survivors from a shipwrecked freighter. In a truly strange twist, Roddenberry’s alleged outburst came in the middle of a discussion over how sensitive the ep should be in its portrayal of women.
Angel One Didn’t Age Well
For Gene Roddenberry’s crazy rant about women to make even a lick of sense, we need to provide some context for the episode in question. In short, “Angel One” is an episode in which Captain Picard and the crew encounter a matriarchal society and must deal with them to rescue survivors from a shipwrecked freighter. In a truly strange twist, Roddenberry’s alleged outburst came in the middle of a discussion over how sensitive the ep should be in its portrayal of women.
Roddenberry’s Rant
Wright claims that they were in the middle of discussing the public perception of the episode and that Gene Roddenberry was emphasizing how “we’ve got to make sure that women are represented fairly,” going on to even describe women as “probably the superior sex anyway.” So far, so good, right? At this point, nobody in the room could anticipate the torrent of hate that would soon emerge from the father of Star Trek.
As Gene Roddenberry continued discussing women, he continued saying what Wright later described as “all the right words.” The franchise guru pointed out that they didn’t want to get angry letters from feminist viewers. Furthermore, Roddenberry said, “we don’t want to infer that women have to rule by force…because men don’t have to rule by force.”
Did Not Hold Back His Feelings
According to Wright, it was at this point that “something kicks in” and Gene Roddenberry’s discussion of women turned incredibly toxic. “However, we also don’t want to infer that it would be a better society if women ruled,” he allegedly said. His voice getting louder, Roddenberry went on to say, “Because as we all know, women are god****ed c****!”
Believe it or not, this alleged tale gets even worse. Gene Roddenberry, certainly channeling his own bitter divorce, went on to say that “you can’t trust” women and that “They’re vicious creatures who will cut your throat when you’re not looking!” Considering that his anger and volume just kept rising, the other two men in the room (Wright and “Angel One” screenwriter Patrick Barry) had every reason to believe that Roddenberry’s rant was just getting started.
TNG Suffered From Roddenberry’s Misogny
However, Wright claims that the misogynistic rant disappeared as quickly as it appeared and that Roddenberry looked out the window, looked back to the story outline, and returned to discuss the episode as if his outburst never happened. It’s debatable how fruitful the group discussion really was, though…while most audiences never knew about Roddenberry’s misogyny, the majority of the fandom agrees that “Angel One” is a hot mess of an episode.
The Franchise Grew And Evolved For The Better
Eventually, Star Trek grew beyond Gene Roddenberry, going in different directions that included women playing a more prominent role in other series. Star Trek lived up to its more progressive ideals by having both Voyager and Discovery led by strong female characters. Given this utterly deranged alleged rant from Roddenberry, it’s sad to think those shows and their strong women might never have been created under the franchise creator’s leadership.
