The Host

It’s a great point, Heather. I think we got sidetracked with many of the other issues happening in the episode, but you are absolutely right. Maybe that’s a bit of conversation the characters should have had before it went there. Basically it goes like this – If you drink and drive, you are responsible for the actions and decisions you take while drunk as though you had set out to do those things and you are held to the highest punishment possible, whether or not a car accident is in fact your fault. That is to say… You get drunk and drive. Someone else hits you and dies. They are fully culpable in the accident. In that case, you are held as the responsible party and you are held as though you in fact took your car and purposefully rammed into that person to cause their death… ———– To cover responses… When you get drunk and have sex the above is how it should be handled. It’s logical and consistent with all other laws regarding the subject, though it isn’t how law currently handles it. “I mean, I know I’m the host, but that’s stretching the expectations of hospitality. If you want some bread and salt, OK, but I’m pretty sure you’re taking advantage. Well, sure, but it’s not like you’re really getting the benefit. It’s not that kind of show, but … “Commander Riker, I’m pregnant, and you’re the father.” “How is that possible?!? We’ve never had sex.” “…That you know of.” “So, did you ever hear about that time some aliens stole some of my genetic material, to make a clone, without my permission?” The problem isn’t that Beverly might have preferences. It is fine if she prefers men. The problem is that she says maybe WE won’t be so limited. She is claiming humanity can’t deal with this. When in reality it is just her. That is why this episode comes across as slightly homophobic. If Beverly had just said, “No, I can’t handle all the body switching, and I prefer men” then it would have been fine. You know, I disagree slightly. With the WE won’t be so limited, I think she was saying that hopefully one day we would be able to live up to the often stated romantic ideal that it’s the person, not the appearance that matters. I mean, if you look at romantic tales such as Beauty and the Beast, we often hold that idea up, seeing the “beauty” within and being able to fall in love regardless. But here’s Next Gen going, well, really now, are we REALLY there? And, what would that mean? Ya, I really disliked this. As you said, just say she could not handle the changes and call it good. About Ken’s point: Don’t worry about perceived homophobia. I’m gay as fuck, and I can perfectly understand Beverly here. Yes, people always like to say “I only love humans, not their appearances”. But we do fall in love with appearances. And we love certain gender sets – some people are really into dingdongs or vajayjays. If your significant other disappears only to come back in another body and with opposite sex toys, I think it’s perfectly reasonable to not be into that automatically. And as you mentioned on the show, him not telling her about Trill biology is just plain bizarre. “Hey, I’m actually two people, but it didn’t seem important at the time”. Screw that guy. “Language…”- Captain Steve Roger “Captain America” lol. Yeah, Odan really should have revealed this, but in fairness, they rushed a bit and then he got blasted. Franc Luz “Odan”- I guess he retired from acting in 1999? nothing more recent…. Unfortunately, homosexuality and other non-one-man-one-woman-relationships are not universally free from stigmatization, alienation, and in some cases guilt and shame. Hopefully by the real 24th century we’ll just think of the concepts of homosexuality and heterosexuality as constructs we used until we could truly figure out our sexuality in general. It would have been interesting, and it would have changed the entire plot of the episode, and hence your discussion, if Beverly had been the only one on the ship that could have temporarily carried Oda