Although the Star Trek franchise has tried to placate female viewers with a taste for stronger female roles, they have largely been unsuccessful. Perhaps it is due to the supposedly non-violent universe that Trek inhabits (although that didn't seem to stop Kirk, Riker, and Worf from kicking ass on a regular basis), but for every moment that Security Chief Tasha Yar and Colonel Kira Nerys showed some spine, you had more than double that in gratuitous shots of Counselor Deanna Troi and Seven of Nine in costumes so tight you can see when they've eaten a donut. Then somewhere in the middle you have your Captain Katherine Janeways and Beverly Crushers. You know -- the cerebral, but dull, all-talk-no-action types. Even when they give a female character Klingon forehead ridges they water the poor thing's ass kicking potential down into oblivion!

It's enough to make a geek chick hurl her remote at the TV. Luckily Trek wasn't the only universe on the block anymore.

In 1994 J. Michael Strazynski was kind enough to present actress Claudia Christian to the world as Commander Susan Ivanova, the self proclaimed right hand of vengeance. Her childhood being of the less than storybook variety, Commander Ivanova expects the worst. However she fights for the right, no matter how dark her vision of the future, or perhaps because of it. Serving as the focus and banner to the rebellion against the dictatorship of Earth, she kicked ass across the far reaches of space, winning her commander and friend, Captain John Sheridan, the presidency. That's not so say her dedication to the cause comes without a price. The demands of her life choices left her with little time or opportunity for romance, and even when it did arise, it ended badly. Like I said, might as well be a virgin.

The next year series creators Glen Morgan and James Wong took a chance by deftly avoiding the politically correct trap and still making the squadron leader in their Space: Above and Beyond female. Damn, I love those guys. Kristen Cloke's Captain Shane Vansen of the United States Marine Corps circa 2063 burst upon the scene in jeans, a t-shirt and tomboy like-ponytail. Weary of responsibility (having served as an authority figure to her younger sisters ever since they witnessed the brutal murder of their parents), she shuns any chance at becoming a leader. However, during a boot camp training mission her level headedness and natural abilities made her the logical choice. And so it goes. The memory of her parents' violent deaths and a persistent nightmare that plagues her with the prophecies that she will die alone are never far from Shane's mind, giving an edge to her personality that is reminiscent of Joan's less than stable mental state. And while she is aware that it could spell her certain death, Vansen continues to lead her squadron into danger mission after mission, in the air, on land and at sea, fighting seven foot bugs and artificial intelligence machines on distant planets. She is, after all, a heroine.