TNG- 11001001

[clearspira]

The Bynar's plan was really stupid. Steal the Federation's flagship rather then asking to borrow it or a couple of old World of Warcraft servers you know the Federation has and trick the first officer into leaving them alone by trying to make him a dating simulator to keep him occupied. Though to be fair the dating simulator part did work if not for Picard. At best they've just committed an act that some might consider to be an act of war and could endanger not only themselves but their entire species, you know the 4 stooges weren't acting alone. Nearly failed with the Enterprise nearly getting Picard pie'd.

I understand why people like the Bynar's but I never particularly liked them myself. Their whole culture, and yes I'm being humancentric here, seems kinda horrifying to echo some of what clearspira said. The forced "lobotomy" and forced pairing (I'm assuming its forced, doesn't exactly seem like there is alot of choice or individuality on their parts), one in their species cannot be an individual mentally or even physically and have zero choice. They are not benign Borg, they are the Borg if confined to one species though with less gimp suits.

Also probably pretty boorish of me to notice but I again can't help noticing these supposedly genderless aliens are a bunch of obvious women like the genderless aliens that Riker tried to bang one of. I would think if they were trying to go with genderless aliens they'd put them in something other then skin tight outfits that emphasis their obvious feminine curves.

That is a very good point. It funny because despite the mocking I may give STD, they have yet to have a ''aren't we progressive?'' character who is really just there for the male audience. I went to memory alpha for some background on the Bynars and found these two gems which in my opinion are actually kind of creepy and do somewhat give the game away:

Like the Talosians from Star Trek: The Original Series episodes "The Cage" as well as "The Menagerie, Part I" and "The Menagerie, Part II", women were cast to play the supposedly unisex aliens. They were petite and very young. (Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts, p. 108) One condition for casting the women who played Bynars was that they seem to have an appealing, childlike aura.

(Starlog #191) Patrick Stewart opined, "I was very fond of the Bynars – maybe it was their pretty dancers' bodies."

[Rocketboy1313]

Also probably pretty boorish of me to notice but I again can't help noticing these supposedly genderless aliens are a bunch of obvious women like the genderless aliens that Riker tried to bang one of. I would think if they were trying to go with genderless aliens they'd put them in something other then skin tight outfits that emphasis their obvious feminine curves.

Gender is a social construct, not a physical one.
You can have a genderless society that still has multiple sexes.

[clearspira]

Also probably pretty boorish of me to notice but I again can't help noticing these supposedly genderless aliens are a bunch of obvious women like the genderless aliens that Riker tried to bang one of. I would think if they were trying to go with genderless aliens they'd put them in something other then skin tight outfits that emphasis their obvious feminine curves.

Gender is a social construct, not a physical one.
You can have a genderless society that still has multiple sexes.

I said this regarding the J'Naii and I am going to say it again: I do not think the TNG writers knew the difference which is why they got women to play the role both times. And in fairness, I debate whether back in the 1980s there even was a distinction. I certainly remember back in the 90s the words sex and gender being interchangeable.

[Madner Kami]

So there's a unisex species. Obviously, this single sex needs to be able to bear a or multiple children, so their body must be uniformly adapted to do so. If they are remotely humanoid and birthing their child through their pelvis-equivalent, the pelvis needs to be wide. If they feed their offspring from a specialized gland, like mammalians, than that gland needs to be on every individual of the species. And so on and on. Casting women for unisex characters, makes a lot of sense.

[Beastro]

I have to admit given the Federation and their prime directive I can't blame the Bynar's for thinking they'd be left to die out. Ironically this is pretty much the entire situation with the Romulans later only they didn't come up with a solution and died out.

Didn't only the planet get destroyed in a supernova. I mean I haven't watched Picard so I obviously don't know the state of the Romulans in the future but if they were an Alpha Quadrant powerhouse that rivaled the Federation and Klingons and turned the tide in the Dominion War you would think they had more planets and the Species wouldn't be even close to extinction.

I think that it would be like if Washington DC for nuke it wouldn't destroy all America but the government as we knew it would change. Plus with Klingons and the cardassian dislike of Romulans took advantage plus anyone in Romulans space might break away from them.

It would be more like Russia right after after the Cold War accepting US help (entrusted in the hands of an infamous American-Chechen who conviently vanishes enroute) that never arrives resulting in the Central Federal District being destroyed.

They wouldn't simply be insulted and confused, but livid and out for American blood wanting to rebuild and renew the Cold War simply to get the vengeance they feel they so deserve.

[Riedquat]

So there's a unisex species. Obviously, this single sex needs to be able to bear a or multiple children, so their body must be uniformly adapted to do so. If they are remotely humanoid and birthing their child through their pelvis-equivalent, the pelvis needs to be wide. If they feed their offspring from a specialized gland, like mammalians, than that gland needs to be on every individual of the species. And so on and on. Casting women for unisex characters, makes a lot of sense.

That's a unisex species that's all female in my book. One sex, not sexless (although look at Mass Effect fans getting into heated arguments over this and the asari, who are very much intended to look and sound female).

[pilight]

While Datalore and Big Goodbye were solid enough

Wil Wheaton disagrees about Datalore (to put it mildly).

Datalore only seems good because it's surrounded by the dreck that makes the rest of S1

[ChrisTheLovableJerk]

A season one TNG episode that Chuck doesn't give a negative/subpar rating to? It really is the end of days.

[Sir Will]

They really did their homework. Knew exactly how to distract Riker, the horndog.

While Datalore and Big Goodbye were solid enough

Wil Wheaton disagrees about Datalore (to put it mildly).

Datalore only seems good because it's surrounded by the dreck that makes the rest of S1

Yeah. A great idea that would have been better if done later. At least we got the Brothers follow-up eventually. I still think Lore had more potential than he was ever used for.

[clearspira]

They really did their homework. Knew exactly how to distract Riker, the horndog.

While Datalore and Big Goodbye were solid enough

Wil Wheaton disagrees about Datalore (to put it mildly).

Datalore only seems good because it's surrounded by the dreck that makes the rest of S1

Yeah. A great idea that would have been better if done later. At least we got the Brothers follow-up eventually. I still think Lore had more potential than he was ever used for.

Lore is a great character. One of the problems might have been the fact that evil twins were old hat even back then. It is quite hard to write fresh ideas for them. ''Brothers'' was one of them as it introduced the emotion chip which would become important later on.