In the twenty-sixth and final episode of the second season of\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>, I WASN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T READY. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For numerous mentions\/discussions of rape, sexual assault, colonialism, suicide\/suicide bombing and consent<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Well, season two certainly didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t end on the same note as season one, right??? HA HA HA\u00c2\u00a0I AM STILL IN SHOCK<\/i>. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a power in the inevitability of the story of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Basics\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because of how much dread is built into this script. This episode openly broadcasts that Seska\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s call for help is most likely a trap, so\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0concerns itself more with what the crew is going to do to\u00c2\u00a0anticipate<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0that trap.<\/p>\n
They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re gonna try really hard, and then they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to fail spectacularly.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get to that in a bit, but let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about some of the set-up to the disaster that results in one of the most distressing cliffhangers in\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0canon.<\/p>\n
Suder<\/b><\/p>\n
There are a lot of parts in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Basics\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that the Michael Piller has to work with, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pleased that I never felt like one of them felt rushed or inconsistent. The cold open re-introduced us to Ensign Suder, serving his time while confined to his quarters. The show doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t magically heal him or redeem him in this episode, though his progress with Tuvok is obvious. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s changed quite a bit since we last saw him this season, and the meld with Tuvok most definitely played a part in that.<\/p>\n
Yet Suder\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily\u00c2\u00a0about<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0that progress so much as it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about his need to thank Tuvok and the ship in general for his presence. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an interesting idea, too! Suder just wants to be\u00c2\u00a0necessary<\/i>. He wants to have a role \u00e2\u20ac\u201c even if it is small and understated \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll allow him to contribute to operations on\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>. But what kind of role\u00c2\u00a0could<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0he play within the confines of his quarters? Has he improved enough to be trusted with chemicals and supplies? Piller doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t answer that here, and indeed, Suder is written as straddling the line in terms of his progress. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s better, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if that was enough for Janeway.<\/p>\n
Chakotay<\/b>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Choice<\/b><\/p>\n
I can appreciate what Piller tries to do with this episode, even if the execution of it is clumsy at times. Chakotay is faced with one hell of a decision here: does he go after his son with Seska even though he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t consent to her creation? Is that relationship worth the risk? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not an easy predicament, and Piller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s script certainly respects that fact. Chakotay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vision helps him to realize that he should punish a child for what someone else did, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done in an uncomfortable way. Part of that is because the dialogue draws a comparison between Chakotay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s situation and the systemic rape of indigenous Americans by the white colonialists. And my use of a key word makes all the difference: it was a systemic thing, and Chakotay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s violation is not. So I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think they were precisely the same; there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a generalized familiarity, but I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dangerous to draw parallels between these things.<\/p>\n
At least I understood\u00c2\u00a0why<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0Piller invoked this. But there was one option left out of this conversation: it is okay to not want a child if it came out of a violation. This idea that Chakotay would be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153punishing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a child for his assault isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always as black-and-white as the show makes it out to be. Granted, his son was\u00c2\u00a0already<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0born, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not necessarily criticizing what we see on the screen. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m mostly just bringing this up for consideration. But if a person who was raped does not want their child upon getting pregnant from the act, then they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not\u00c2\u00a0punishing<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0the child. They should have the right to do as they see fit for themselves in this context, you know? Do I think the script should have addressed this? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really see a way for that to be relevant because this was never on the table. Again, the child was already born, you know? But I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an appropriate thing for us to consider outside the scope of a conversation of canon. And I do appreciate that out of such a horrendous act, Chakotay found purpose and wanted to help his son.<\/p>\n
The Kazon<\/b><\/p>\n
Piller does a fine job with tension here, and once Tierna showed up, this episode became relentlessly uncomfortable. How so? Well, Piller took the whole Ticking Time Bomb trope (where a character or location or plot builds suspense because the audience\u00c2\u00a0knows<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something being left unsaid about them) AND MADE IT\u00c2\u00a0LITERAL<\/i>. TIERNA WAITED UNTIL THE PERFECT MOMENT TO\u00c2\u00a0BLOW HIMSELF UP<\/i>. The violent desperation we see here is indicative of the lengths the Kazon were willing to go to obtain\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>, WHICH I SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED. That was always Seska\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intent! She wanted that ship. So she found a way to\u00c2\u00a0unite<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0the Kazon sects \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at least temporarily, that is \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in order to systematically disable\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>. And the keystone it all rested on was Tierna blowing themselves up.<\/p>\n
Good fucking god.<\/p>\n
Stranded<\/b><\/p>\n
Look, I knew this was at least a two-parter. I KNEW IT FROM THE BEGINNING. That didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make this any less disturbing. After experiencing hundreds of episodes in the\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0universe, the show exploits our history by giving us a sequence that relies on us knowing it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just\u00c2\u00a0wrong<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bad enough that the crew got tricked; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s infinitely worse to watch them rounded up, marched off the ship, and abandoned on a desolate planet full of DINOSAURS and a caveman-like species. And then the show has to go and rub salt in the wound by having the entire cast\u00c2\u00a0watch the ship fly away from them<\/i>. IT FEELS SO WRONG.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna save my theories about the season three premiere for the prediction post, but\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. This show WENT THE DISTANCE and I am MESSED UP.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Basics, Part I\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 twenty-sixth and final episode of the second season of\u00c2\u00a0Voyager, I WASN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T READY. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Voyager.\u00c2\u00a0<\/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-5755","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\/5755","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=5755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5755"}],"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":"