In the ninth episode of the second season of\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>, oh, lord. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For extensive talk of race, racism, Native representation.<\/b><\/p>\n
Oh,\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>. 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 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tattoo\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for Chakotay! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad he gets a story devoted to him, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thrilled by the flashbacks, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exactly helpful.<\/p>\n
First of all: all shows ever need to stop with the ethnic music thing. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grating and annoying. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean to pick on\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0as if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re the only show to do this. Plenty of others do. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s distinctly othering when a show gives all the white characters \u00e2\u20ac\u0153normal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d orchestral themes, but then busts out some awkward \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ethnic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d instrument for the non-white characters. It shows us that they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t 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\u00c2\u00a0lazy<\/i>.<\/p>\n
But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of the problem with the writing of indigenous peoples or Native Americans on\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>, particularly with\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>. While we get a bit closer to some sort of truth about Chakotay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ancestry (Central American jungle!), the show irresponsibly dodges any specificity. When the writers can build an entire alien species\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 culture out over multiple seasons but can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do five minutes of research to determine whether Chakotay is Mayan or Aztec or Pipil or Xincan, then you have a problem. Why isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t this valued? Why is he just a generic \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Native\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always felt like an outsider. That specific theme is the absolute best thing in this episode, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even have any criticism of it. Look, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a transracial adoptee who barely speaks Spanish, despite that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m 12% \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Native,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which means pretty much nothing to me.)<\/p>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a bizarre and infuriating choice for the writers to make, especially when it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in a script about how important Chakotay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s identity and culture is to him. So that culture owes everything to some white people??? ARE YOU SERIOUS.<\/p>\n
And yes, I get that these aliens aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t \u00e2\u20ac\u0153white\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no such racial concept in space, but come on. This show doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t 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\u00c2\u00a0wild<\/i>. Who thought they could get away with this?<\/p>\n
Again, this is not a worthless episode by any means. Usually, if\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0does something foolish, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m ready to discard the whole thing. But Chakotay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story is so important! Those flashbacks with Douglas Spain as young Chakotay are INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT. (Now I know why I recognized him. THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S ANDRE FROM\u00c2\u00a0BUT I<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M A CHEERLEADER<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0AND PVT. GARCIA FROM\u00c2\u00a0BAND OF BROTHERS<\/i>. OMG!) Plus, watching Kes teach the Doctor about empathy by daring him to make himself sick is\u00c2\u00a0perfect entertainment<\/i>. I LOVE IT. It shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be surprising that I was entertained, then, by a story that also angered me. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had a complicated relationship with\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0as a whole because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never consistent. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve accepted that watching these shows in the present time is going to challenge me, and I hope that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s enlightening or amusing to others to see me do so.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tattoo\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded\u00c2\u00a0here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You’ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards.<\/b> In the ninth episode of the second season of\u00c2\u00a0Voyager, oh, lord. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[614,656],"tags":[615],"class_list":["post-5662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-star-trek","category-voyager","tag-mark-watches-star-trek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– I\u00c2\u00a0will be at numerous conventions in 2016! Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches have been announced here.<\/a>
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"