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Star Trek Sex

Star Trek Sex boldly explores the crew's notorious libido perpetually set at warp.

By Will StapePublished 8 years ago 8 min read
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Space is the sexual frontier. In Will Stape's Star Trek Sex: Analyzing the Most Sexually Charged Episodes of the Original Series, he explores the fun, sexy, flashy, and lusty world of the original Trek. Covering important and sexually charged moments in the series, Stape analyzes each scene within the Star Trek universe, while focusing on the sexual human (and inhuman) play that has made Star Trek into the beloved and iconic franchise that it is today. Read Stape's five favorite excerpts below…

The Man Trap

Sexual Situation: Trans­species Sex, Rekindled Romance—Denial

Stardate: 1513.1

When Enterprise travels to planet M­113, Dr. McCoy gives medical exams to a married couple—one a respected archaeologist, Dr. Robert Crater, and his wife, Nancy. She’s a woman Bones has carried a torch for, and he hasn’t laid eyes on her in many years. After Starfleet officers start dying off at the hands of a brutal killer, it’s theorized that Nancy isn’t at all who she appears to be—but is in reality a vampire-­like shape shifting creature who feeds off the salt found in humans.

What if you were reunited with your long lost love and she or he hadn’t aged a day since your break­up? Even more surprising—and certainly more than titillating—what if she or he could assume the physical appearance of anyone? They could be a different lover to you each and every night. You could experience a never ending range of partners with differing physical gifts and never be stung by the debilitating guilt of cheating on them with another. Dr. McCoy faces this prospect when he’s forced to reexamine his feelings for a woman he cared for and hasn’t seen in a decade.

The Salt Creature or Salt Vampire remains one of Star Trek’s most fascinating and recognizable creatures. Despite the old school FX achieved through a suit and make­up—or perhaps because of it—the hairy, leech like beast strikes a chord like few other alien beasts from Roddenberry’s creature galaxy. With a mouth reminiscent of a suckerfish or catfish, and spindly fingers complete with octopus like suction cups, the predatory thing shocks us as weird, cool and scary. Like so many other incredible visuals, it was created by the great artist Wah Chang (The Outer Limits)—who also created the communicator, modified the iconic phaser and crafted the nifty tricorder props.

Charlie X

Sexual Situation: Puberty

Stardate: 1533.6

When the Enterprise crew is entrusted with the safekeeping and priority transport of a young human male, little do they realize he’s been given awesome powers of matter replication, manipulation and teleportation, enabling him to will nearly anything he desires into existence, or remove things (including people) from our dimension and spirit them away. To utterly confound and compound things: this near god is basically still just a boy.

Charlie Evans always wants his own way, and he seems to always get it. He’s a spoiled, bratty teen fresh from adolescence emergence, and he expects everything to be given to him now—the curse of instant gratification inherent in the impatience of youth. But he’s never met someone like the commander of the Starship Enterprise. He’s now met his match in the uber­like symbol of 23rd century masculinity – Captain James T. Kirk.

Charles Evans is a young man without much of a plan. The only thing he has going for him—and it’s certainly a big thing—is the ability to do almost anything by just thinking about it. So, what’s exactly the matter with Mr. Evans? If you can do anything, why aren’t things going swimmingly for the teenager?

One Word: Puberty

Remember your first kiss? Or how about, the more accurate experience for many of us, your first attempt at a kiss. How about recalling the first time you went out on a real date—without friends or anybody else hanging around or watching your attempt to score. Remember all these things, and also recall how awkward, hyperactive and all thumbs you were because you were still going through puberty—the tumultuous change from childhood to semi­adulthood. This is the reason Mr. Evans is so at odds with the world around him—but most of all, he’s in conflict with himself.

The Naked Time

Sexual Situation: Hedonism, Romantic Love Confessionals

Stardate: 1704.2

After discovering a group of deceased research scientists on a remote planet in its death throes, the Enterprise crew picks up a kind of inebriation inducing water molecule bug. As it’s passed from person to person, its debilitating side effect is much like being completely smashed drunk. What follows are comedic, dramatic and dangerous situations with a crew gone completely out of rational control."

Ever go out on a wild bender with friends and find yourself in places and with people you would never have interacted with while sober? Think of the kooky craziness ofThe Hangover meeting Star Trek, and it’s a sense of the crazy ride the crew of Enterprise NCC­1701 take while essentially falling over themselves smashed drunk on a buggy water molecule. The clever plot device gives the Star Trek actors a chance to fully spread their thespian wings and show off just how emotionally versatile and broadly they can project with their characters.

Highlights include: Sulu prancing around with his sword like Bruce Lee meets The Three Musketeers D’artagnan, Lt. Kevin Riley showing off his sad lack of singing talent by butchering the classic Irish folk song, “I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen”, while others jump around and laugh constantly or cry incessantly. Remind you of the many dive bars and pubs you’ve frequented? Sure, we all can relate, either in our reckless youth, or perhaps in a more embarrassing reliving of hard party days. The Hangover vibe is what makes this one so much fun. The human power of sexuality, and in this case the Half Vulcan libido, also comes strongly into play.

The Enemy Within

Sexual Situation: Psychosexual, Hedonism, Sexual Predator & Pathological Behavior

Stardate: 1672.1

While exploring planet Alpha 177, a transporter accident splits Captain Kirk into two distinct men. One remains still civilized and uses his higher reasoning to continue to function as Enterprise Commander, the other shocks as primitive minded, raging and living example of Freud’s concept of the Id. Time is running out—both for the away team marooned on a frozen planet, and the divided Captains, who are now devolving into more extreme versions of their base selves.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Larry Talbot and Wolfman. The Hulk and Bruce Banner.

The complex duality of the average human personality may not be as pronounced as these literary, Hollywood and comic book anti­heroes, but we all struggle with a sense of a divided self—at least at some point in our lives. Sprouting a dense forest of body hair and a nightmare overbite, bursting out of your clothes in a jade green roid rage, or downing a beaker of a potion and morphing into a hedonistic ogre is fun stage and screen sci fi. Hulk Smash!

James T. Kirk is not unlike any other hyper motivated, physically attractive, statistic shattering and brilliant Starship Captain. In fact, considering others made from the same mold like Captains Picard, Pike, Sisko and Janeway, it takes one highly disciplined individual—constantly in control of one’s emotions and impulses—to save planetary civilizations, negotiate with vastly more intelligent entities, and romance so many dynamic people. Despite that tightly maintained exterior, it doesn’t mean there isn’t a chaotic, even self serving man or woman floating right below the surface just waiting to pop out. Apparently, the trick to exploiting such a Type A personality for forging a successful career is to exert a tremendous force of balance over one’s baser instincts.

Mudd’s Women

Sexual Situation: Fantasy Escort Service, Prostitution, Pimping

Stardate: 1329.8

Meet the irrepressible Harry Mudd. He’s an entrepreneur who deals in the most profitable of all exploitative trades—the human sexual appetite. When the Enterprise rescues the scheming Mudd and his alluring female passengers from their doomed cargo ship, Captain Kirk and crew must deal with a trio of young women who are irresistibly sexually attractive to all males who encounter them.

Escort services—basically fancier, high priced prostitution—deal in the convenient and discreet companionship for well heeled customers. The working girls—or guys—can effectively court clients with high minded, low brow, or plain weird fantasy in mind. Like some modern, western version of an exotic Geisha from Japan, the escort, call girl, gigolo or prostitute enables a wealthy client to feel a bond that’s not really there. Certainly, the physical aspects of skilled sexuality is something most anyone can practice and eventually become adept at, but the more intangible—that indefinable extra—which the truly superstar sex worker deals in isn’t common nor easy to achieve or maintain. Some would say a skilled prostitute is more Oscar worthy than some of the Hollywood A­List thespians who win the golden guy.

Harcourt Fenton Mudd—to his beloved wife, Stella, Harry to his friends and those he does business (or bilks) with—fancies himself as a one man escort service. Today, he’d just be known simply as a pimp. Since he’s a man who doesn’t like to leave much to chance, he won’t simply rely on the natural charms of his bevy of beauties. So, to satisfy the sci­fi angle of Roddenberry’s Wagon Train To The Stars, Mudd was a pimp and also a drug pusher. Instead of making his girls shoot up heroin, snort cocaine or take meth, he gives them the Venus Drug—a kind of powerful, narcotic love potion.

Not only does the Venus Drug imbue a sexual quality about Mudd’s women, it apparently creates the illusion of the taker being more youthful and more sexually desirable. The Venus Drug may not be Love Potion Number 9; evidently it’s better, but becomes mentally if not physically addictive.

No one can deny that Star Trek is filled with beautiful women, sexuality and a lot of action. But like all things Star Trek, there is an actual science to the sexuality of the iconic sci-fi TV series. Get your copy of this sexual cadet training handbook now.

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About the Creator

Will Stape

Screenwriter, book author, and producer. Wrote for 'Star Trek: The Next Generation & Deep Space Nine,' and has created docudramas for cable TV and the web.

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