Star Trek

Everyone knows how it begins: Space, the Final Frontier. Many people follow the weekly adventures of the different crews of the different space ships in the Star Trek television shows. Part of the reason these shows have rocketed (no pun intended) to the popularity they have, is that they promote a message of tolerance and equality among all creatures and peoples. The original Trek was hailed as revolutionary because it showed people of all backgrounds working together. The spin-offs that followed have done more to improve the mix by adding in more and more aliens.

Since its resurrection in the late eighties in the form of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Trek has had a resurgence of popularity and has had two more spin-offs: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. What makes Voyager unique is that for the first time on a Star Trek show, a woman is in the position of ultimate power, the captain. What I wanted to look at was how women are treated in the Trek television universe. The reason I wanted to do this is because all the previous shows have had a male captain and are, in general, top-heavy with men in command positions. The first episode of the original Trek in the late 1 960's had a woman in second-in-command, but she was dropped from the cast because the studio did not feel that a woman in a command position would be accepted by the general audience. Ironically, this decision was handed down by Desilu Productions, which was headed in part by Lucille Ball.

The cast of seven that would do the three seasons of the show had only one woman, Lieutenant Uhura, and she was little more than the galactic receptionist of Captain Kirk. The shows principle characters were all men (Captain Kirk, Mister Spock, and Doctor McCoy). The Next Generation also had a principle cast of seven characters, two of which were women. These women had what can be construed as traditional women's roles: doctor and therapist. I am labeling these as traditional because one deals with healing and the other with emotions. Deep Space Nine also has a male captain in a cast of seven with two women. These two women have less traditional roles: one is a tough-as-nails, career military woman and the other is a physicist. The latest show to hit the airwaves and explore our galaxy is Star Trek: Voyager. This show has a cast of eight, three of which are women, including one woman as captain and another as chief engineer.

What I want to look at with this paper is how these two women in command positions change the way orders are issued among members of the crew. I think this topic is especially interesting because this is the first real power put into the hands of a woman on a Star Trek show. The original show fired one woman commander and later did an episode where it was revealed that women were not allowed to be captains of starships because they were viewed as too emotional! Now with a woman captain, the power structure has changed.

Usually on any of the shows, the captain gives the orders and everyone follows them. However, in a given situation, a crew member with the knowledge to handle a crisis assumes an unspoken command position and may begin to issue orders. For example, in a desperate situation, the doctor may bark at someone to hand him something or to take some action and that person is expected to obey. This is the case with most crew members when their particular expertise are called for in a given situation. This expertise gives the crew member an assumed authority in a situation. Thus, the established power structure of rank is sometimes disrupted depending on what is happening; ensigns may tell lieutenants what to do if they have assumed the authority in a crisis.

In this paper I decided to look at how balanced the chain of command is on this show with female leads. In order to do this, I decided to look at who issues orders to whom on two separate episodes of the show. I decided on the following categories: men giving orders to men, men giving orders to women, women giving orders to men, and women giving orders to women. For the purposes of this study, characters played by male or female actors will be categorized as males or females. That is to say, a character like the Doctor, who is only called "the doctor" because he is not a living organism on the show, will be considered to be male because he is played by a male actor. Conversely, the ships computer is represented by a woman's voice, but is excluded in the study as a character because it is not represented as a woman on screen and has no personality that would humanize her. Its lack of interaction and humanoid presence therefore exclude it from being considered. Also, the computer never spoke during the two episodes used.

An order will be defined as a command given, whether stated as a request or an imperative, where one character directs another to take an action and where the person on the receiving end has no choice but to comply. Accordingly, an order can be anything from "Hand me that tricorder," to "Go away, Neelix!" to "Mr. Tuvok, please escort Lieutenant Paris to the brig." Authority was defined as a quality, knowledge, or rank that gives one character dominance over another. However, this was not called into question at all during the study, authority was always clearly defined between the characters.

Hence, the four categories selected are exhaustive and exclusive. Since the sex of the characters was determined by the actors who portrayed them and there are no known hermaphrodites on the show, the levels meet both the requirements of exhaustiveness and exclusivity. A man can not give an order to anyone but a male or a female, and vice versa. All possibilities are accounted for and everyone must fit into one category when issuing an order. The coding scheme is considered manifest by the researcher, but a definite argument can be made for it being seen as latent. Since I am researching who orders around whom in terms of the gender of the authority, I consider this to be a manifest coding system. However, since I am also interpreting the meaning of what was said between two people, the coding scheme could be arguably latent at times. The advantage of a manifest coding system is that it is very reliable, but the disadvantage is that may not be the most accurate or valid. The reliability of the manifest coding comes from the fact that it is less subjective than the latent system. It goes on a basis of strict guidelines. The latent coding system is very subjective and therefore less accurate, but may be more valid. The latent coding system, as already stated, does not apply to this study.

The content coding was fairly simple. I taped two episodes of the show and then watched them. Observation were made by making a "tick" mark (a short, straight line) on a piece of paper that was divided into four sections. Each section was labeled with one of the four categories of the variable: man orders man, man orders woman, woman orders man, woman orders woman. Then as the shows progressed a tick mark was made in the appropriate category when an order given. A table of observations made is provided on the math portion of this report.

The first episode used was entitled, "Death Wish" and first aired February 18, 1996. The plot was essentially Captain Janeway arbitrating a hearing between two omnipotent extraterrestrials, both named Q. The first Q wanted to commit suicide, and the other, representing the views of his race, argued against it. The second episode was entitled, "Life Signs" and first aired February 25, 1996. The plot consisted of the doctor falling in love with an alien patient that he brought back from the near death. Both the episodes were considered to be typical by the researcher, who is something of an expert on the show. Neither one strayed greatly from the norm of the stories on the show. The first was a question of society as seen through the Star Trek universe, and the second was a character study. Both these things are very normal for a Star Trek show, especially the more modern shows.

The major problem encountered with coding the mass media message was determining if the given dialogue fit the definition I was looking for. Watching the show twice (first when it aired and again, slower in order to do the content analysis), I sometimes became perplexed over whether or not something fit my particular definition. I would sometimes consult my roommates, one of whom was watching the episodes with me (but not the one that's in your day class). I would read her my definition of an order, we would re-watch the scene, and then discuss if it met the definition. This process also kept me from being too subjective or just from being wrong. It also sparked the great "Have A Seat" debate. In one scene in the second episode, one character says to another, "Have a seat." And the second person sits down. The question came up if that would be considered an order. The final decision (mine) was that it was not an order because (a) the person who had said, "Have a seat." was not acting on authority, he did not own or control the chairs and (b) the person who was invited to sit did not have to sit down. Whereas he retained his freedom of choice in the matter and made the choice to sit after being invited to do so eliminated this as a possible order.

This was the only major problem encountered during the coding scheme. Other distractions included a window repairman who kept locking himself out and a phone that incessantly rings. These obstacles were quickly overcome by unlocking the door and turning the ringer off on the phone. Any distractions were handled by rewinding to the point we would mutually agree to being a safe distance and rematching scenes.

What follows is the chi-square analysis.

Null Hypothesis: There is no pattern.

Research Hypothesis: There is a pattern

Calculate the theoretical values (T values) for each cell using the formula:

Row Sum x Column Sum ¸ Grand Sum

Men giving orders to men:
(36 x 32)/56 = 1152/56 = 20.57

Men giving orders to women:
(32 x 20)/56 = 640/56= 11.43

Women giving orders to men:
(36 x 24)/56 = 864/56 = 15.43

Women giving orders to women:
(24 x 20)/56 = 480/56 = 8.57

Compare the theoretical values with the actual values using the formula: X2= å (O T)2/T

Where O = observed frequencies and T = theoretical frequencies

Men giving orders to men:

(17 - 20.57)2 / 20.57 =
(-3.57)2 / 20.57 =
12.75 / 20.57=
0.62

Men giving orders to women:

(15 - 11.43)2 / 11.43 =
(3.57)2 / 11.43 =
12.75 / 11.43 =
1.16

Women giving orders to men:

(19 - 15.43)2 / 15.43 =
(3.57)2 / 15.43=
12.75 / 15.43=
0.83

Women giving orders to women:

(5 - 8.57) 2/ 8.57 =
( 3.57)2 / 8.57=
12.75/ 8.57=
1.49

X= å (0.62 + 1.16 + 0.83 + 1.49)

X2 = 4.10

Determine degrees of freedom to get critical value (P)

df = (Rows - 1) x (Columns - 1)=
df = (2- 1)x(2- 1)=
df = 1

Using Table 1 on page 415 of our notebook, a degree of freedom of 1 under the column .05 gives me a critical value of 3.84.

Since the Chi-square value is 4.10 and that is greater than 3.84, I can conclude that there is a pattern to the way commands are issued between the different sexes on Star Trek: Voyager.

Scores were generally lower than I anticipated (if the numbers seem high, remember that they are over two separate episodes). And I was very pleased when I discovered that their was a pattern to the numbers after having done a multiple sample chi-square. Although, I did have a fairly good idea that this was the case when the differences between the observed frequencies and the theoretical frequencies kept coming out to be ± 3.57.

I interpret the results as a definite and positive move on the part of the creators of the show to portray a woman in a strong lead role in what is, generally, a genre that appeals to men. I believe that since Star Trek has long been striving for equal rights among everyone, it is logical to assume that the production company wants to give a woman a chance in the driver's seat while retaining its predominantly male audience. I would like to point out that the total number of orders given by men outnumber by eight orders the number of orders given by women. However, if I had done two episodes of the 60's show, the numbers for women would have been much lower, if not zero. This study would not have been possible back then. Since Voyager is well into its second season, it is safe to assume that the production company is pleased with how it is being portrayed. Therefore, it can be assumed that the general audience did not react negatively to a female lead role, but did in fact accept it. It stands to reason that we may, in future research (although this is all, in a sense, future research), tend to find women's and men's roles leveling out or equaling each other. Perhaps we are on a path to equality, obstructed by tradition though it may be. Others may interpret my results negatively, because we have not reached that point of equality yet. But I think a trend towards it is clear. Another interpretation may be the need for further research on women ordering women, or women over women in power structures. Note the low score of women giving orders to women. It is ten orders lower than the next lowest score. Perhaps this bears further study, perhaps it means nothing and it is just these two episodes.