So my dad bought Star Trek: The Original Series the other day and I was watching it with him, and there's a lot about Star Trek that can make you laugh without that being its intention, and here's the bit that made me laugh.
It was an episode where the Enterprise accidentally goes back in time and accidentally abducts an air force pilot who is trying to pursue them, thinking they're a UFO. One moment he's in the cockpit of his little plane, the next he's dematerialised and rematerialised into the transporter room of the enterprise, facing strange people in strange clothing. He thinks he's on an alien ship. He is told that they are from the future. Soon afterwards, he encounters Spock, a green man with pointed ears, imagine yourself in the place of this pilot: He must be very confused and everything he believes about the world is challenged. Still, he handles himself remarkably well, accepting what is in front of him, taking everything in with coolness and an open mind.
That is, of course, until the nurse walks past and greets the Captain and the pilot retorts with disbelief,
"A WOMAN?!?"
I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing. I know that in the time the pilot came from, it would have been highly unusual to have women serving in a military fashion, but I felt it amusing that he was more astonished at seeing a woman than he was at seeing an alien, or at rematerialising in a space ship from the future!
Maybe he had never seen a woman before? No, I know! He had never seen a woman in a mini-skirt before!
woman
