In the ninth episode of the second season of Voyager, oh, lord. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.
Trigger Warning: For extensive talk of race, racism, Native representation.
Oh, Voyager. I can tell that the writers tried real hard with this one. Indeed, the plot with the Doctor is brilliant and hilarious. And even I can recognize the emotional power of the story within “Tattoo†for Chakotay! I’m glad he gets a story devoted to him, I’m thrilled by the flashbacks, and I’m not here to claim that trying is a bad thing all by itself. I do admire parts of this episode a great deal, and I’ll talk about that. Unfortunately, in giving Chakotay a story without nuance when it comes to his background, the writers fall into a number of stereotype and tropes that aren’t exactly helpful.
First of all: all shows ever need to stop with the ethnic music thing. It’s grating and annoying. I don’t mean to pick on Star Trek as if they’re the only show to do this. Plenty of others do. But it’s distinctly othering when a show gives all the white characters “normal†orchestral themes, but then busts out some awkward “ethnic†instrument for the non-white characters. It shows us that they don’t think of them the same way. Plus, the flutes are such a ridiculous stand-in for mystical indigenous people at this point that it just feels lazy.
But that’s part of the problem with the writing of indigenous peoples or Native Americans on Star Trek, particularly with Voyager. While we get a bit closer to some sort of truth about Chakotay’s ancestry (Central American jungle!), the show irresponsibly dodges any specificity. When the writers can build an entire alien species’ culture out over multiple seasons but can’t do five minutes of research to determine whether Chakotay is Mayan or Aztec or Pipil or Xincan, then you have a problem. Why isn’t this valued? Why is he just a generic “Native†and that’s all he gets? That feels even more infuriating when you see the lengths they go to explain how Chakotay came to have his facial tattoo and why he’s always felt like an outsider. That specific theme is the absolute best thing in this episode, and I don’t even have any criticism of it. Look, I’m a transracial adoptee who barely speaks Spanish, despite that I’m of Central American descent AND POSSIBLY RELATED TO THE SAME TRIBE OR PEOPLE AS CHAKOTAY WOULD BE. (Blood tests are terribly vague about indigenous tribes, so all I know is that I’m 12% “Native,†which means pretty much nothing to me.)
So I relate to this episode. I found it illuminating and refreshing. At the same time, when the show revealed that WHITE ALIENS imbued the actual indigenous folks with the ability to protect Earth across generations, I wanted to throw this whole episode off of a cliff. I can’t imagine something more offensive than saying an alien species made up entirely of white dudes is responsible for the healthy respect that indigenous people had for the planet. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU. It’s such a bizarre and infuriating choice for the writers to make, especially when it’s in a script about how important Chakotay’s identity and culture is to him. So that culture owes everything to some white people??? ARE YOU SERIOUS.
And yes, I get that these aliens aren’t “white†because there’s no such racial concept in space, but come on. This show doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The image of Chakotay reaching out to grasp the LILY WHITE HAND of an alien and thanking him for being his ancestor is just wild. Who thought they could get away with this?
Again, this is not a worthless episode by any means. Usually, if Star Trek does something foolish, I’m ready to discard the whole thing. But Chakotay’s story is so important! Those flashbacks with Douglas Spain as young Chakotay are INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT. (Now I know why I recognized him. THAT’S ANDRE FROM BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER AND PVT. GARCIA FROM BAND OF BROTHERS. OMG!) Plus, watching Kes teach the Doctor about empathy by daring him to make himself sick is perfect entertainment. I LOVE IT. It shouldn’t be surprising that I was entertained, then, by a story that also angered me. I’ve had a complicated relationship with Star Trek as a whole because it’s never consistent. But I’ve accepted that watching these shows in the present time is going to challenge me, and I hope that it’s enlightening or amusing to others to see me do so.
The video for “Tattoo†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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