Vixens in Space: Firefly, Battlestar and the Deanna Troi Effect

You ever see that Muppet show segment called Pigs in Space? 

Well, every time I see a scifi show with some sort of vamp/vixen character, I imagine I can hear that game show announcer voice booming "vamps in spaace...."

First there were all the green skinned scantily clad ladies that got romanced by James T. Kirk on the original Star Trek. (and of course the fact that the few, if any, women crew like the otherwise cool Lt. Uhuru had to wear those practically underwear-bearing micro-mini uniforms)

Then, on Star Trek: The Next Generation, there was Lt. Riker romancing a whole new galaxies of green skinned, scantily clad vixens in spaaaace. But besides that, there was that classic, archetypal character - the telepath/empath psychologist Counselor Deanna Troi, and her penchant for low cut V-necked unitards. Ok, I get it, as the ooey-gooey touchy-feely counselor (coded feeemale), she was, at least symbolically, supposed to be the antidote to science and technology (coded male). And I also get the usual demographic of scifi shows (gamer boys? D&D players?) undoubtedly adored Troi's skin-tight uniform, but for this feminist scifi geek, the 'Deanna Troi effect' was more than painful the first time around. Which is why I get decidedly cranky when I see it replicated in current day scifi programs.

First there was Seven of Nine, the character played by Jeri Ryan, on Star Trek: Voyager, who somehow teleported all of Troi's spray-painted on unitard wardrobe. (clearly, even the Borg are succeptible to the Troi effect!)  Then on my beloved Battlestar Gallactica, there was yet another numerically named character, named, Six, who was similarly model-esque and scantily clad. But despite her form-fitting cadre of red dresses, I was somewhat OK with Six's portrayal - perhaps because, as the show progressed, she kicked plenty of Federation, and Cylon, butt.

And more importantly, perhaps, BSG was rife with awesome female characters - first among them Lt Kara Thrace - the hard-drinking, hard-romancing, tough ace pilot, Starbuck. After being ignored for so long by so many space shows, it was fabulous for female fans to see such an amazing character - no longer a vixen, but a riot grrrrl in spaaace... And then, of course, Boomer, President Roslyn, and all the other fantabulous, flawed, and varied female heroines on BSG... (although, yes, everyone did tend to wear tighter fitting clothes than I imagine purely necessary on a space ship...)

But then the other week, I started watching a breathtakingly awesome (and ridiculously short lived) show by Joss Whedon, Firefly. And although I adore the idea of a space-cowboy opera, and ADORE most of the characters - particularly the warrior woman first mate character Zoe (played by Gina Torres), and the little sister to everyone/ mechanical savant Kaylee (played by Jewel Staite) - I'm starting to break out in hives at the latest vixen in space, Inara (played by Morena Baccarin). I mean, I GET IT, the cowboy genre usually has a "whore with a heart of gold" character -- but the show is otherwise a wholly modern enterprise - re-imagining both space and cowboy genres in creative and witty ways. Why be so literal with the lipsticked, incense-using, silk clad 'companion' (er, space sex worker)? On the wonderfully dingy, ramshackle spaceship, she lies in a velvet-swathed shuttle that's some kind of bizarre Orientalist bordello. No unitards in site, but lots of curly black hair and sultry, flowy robes.

I can't imagine that the D&D demographic can't be well satisfied by Zoe and Kaylee -- MUST sci-fi shows always stoop to including the space vixen? Like this hilarious (if still gendered and problematic) video called "Geek and Gamer Girls" declares, the demographic of scifi watchers has changed. Maybe it's time to put the Deanna Troi effect to bed for good.