{"id":5793,"date":"2016-09-12T13:00:06","date_gmt":"2016-09-12T20:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=5793"},"modified":"2016-08-10T11:10:27","modified_gmt":"2016-08-10T18:10:27","slug":"mark-watches-voyager-s03e11-the-q-and-the-grey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2016\/09\/mark-watches-voyager-s03e11-the-q-and-the-grey\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Voyager’: S03E11 – The Q and the Grey"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the eleventh episode of the third season of\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>, a familiar face arrives with an absurd proposal. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of racism (mostly unintended implications) regarding slavery and the Civil War<\/b>.<\/p>\n

I know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve described about half of\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0output as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153weird,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but lord, this show can be\u00c2\u00a0weird<\/i>. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always the case with Q episodes, too, since he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a character from a race that are all-powerful and omniscient, so I\u00c2\u00a0did<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0expect this to be a strange affair. Yet some of the writing choices perplex, even if I understand what the writers were\u00c2\u00a0trying<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to do here. I SHALL EXPLAIN.<\/p>\n

The Proposal<\/b><\/p>\n

Like I do every time he shows up, I question what Q says. I have to! He is rarely straight-forward, he plays games with every person he meets, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always got a secret agenda. So when he asked Janeway to be the mother of his child, it took me a long time to accept that for once, that\u00c2\u00a0was<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0what he wanted. I literally couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand the concept, so I rejected it. It had to be a ruse! Yet as each absurd scene led to another one, it became clear that on a very basic level, he\u00c2\u00a0did<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0want a child with Janeway. His approach, however, seemed particularly stubborn and ill-conceived. On that level, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great parody of romance tropes here, since every attempt made by Q to entice Janeway is met with scorn, humor, and rejection. IT IS A BEAUTIFUL THING TO WATCH.<\/p>\n

On top of that, Kate Mulgrew is utterly fantastic alongside John de Lancie. I COULD WATCH THEM ACT TOGETHER FOR HOURS.<\/p>\n

The Twist<\/b><\/p>\n

For a moment, I actually believed that Q was lonely.\u00c2\u00a0That<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0was not an inconceivable idea to me. After his last appearance on this show, perhaps he took the idea of individualism seriously! What if that\u00c2\u00a0led<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to him feeling lonely? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a reasonable thing! Yet then another Q shows up, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s our Q\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s longtime partner, and somehow, a race that considers itself evolved beyond human understanding still has rigid sexual and gender binaries. (Grumble grumble, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care. This made no sense.) And then, the\u00c2\u00a0real<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0reason for this entire struggle is revealed:<\/p>\n

Civil war.<\/p>\n

While I have some issues with how the war is portrayed, I was immensely pleased that the story in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Death Wish\u00e2\u20ac\u009d had a\u00c2\u00a0huge<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0impact on this episode. That story\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exploration of individuality and freedom led to the Q civil war, a violent and largely incomprehensible battle over whether members of the continuum can have the freedom to do as they like. God, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a good idea, and I\u00c2\u00a0do<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0think the show captures something special here.<\/p>\n

Civil War<\/b><\/p>\n

Now, I understand the need to portray the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inside\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of the continuum in a way that both Janeway and the audience can comprehend. That was always going to be a challenge, and the show was clearly following the logic used in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Death Wish.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d This place\u00c2\u00a0had<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to have a visual relevance to the story so that Janeway could conceptualize it, even if that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not how it actually looked like. So, Q uses something that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inherently recognizable to\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, not very many people. Only American members of the crew (or those who studied American history) would be able to recognize the continuum. And here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where I have an issue: I think the Civil War dressings are kind of uncomfortable. Some days, it is unreal to see how deeply people (all over the world!) misunderstand or twist American history to make sense of the Civil War.<\/p>\n

Even here, Q makes a pronouncement about it to Janeway that more or less sidesteps the fact that the Civil War happened almost\u00c2\u00a0entirely<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0over the issue of chattel slavery. It was not a war concerning the freedom of legal American citizens, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the immediate thing that made the metaphor fall apart. In order for this to work, the Q would have had these two sides \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the Confederacy and the Union \u00e2\u20ac\u201c fighting over a\u00c2\u00a0third party<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0who weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t in the Continuum. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this flippant reference to the Civil War that bothers me. Visually, it might work for a time, but by the time the battle arrives, even the internal logic of it falls apart.<\/p>\n

For example: how did Q and Miss Q (I hate typing that, HOW DO MEMBERS OF THE Q HAVE A GENDER) lose their powers? Why is that never explained? If the Q are so omniscient, how did\u00c2\u00a0none<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0of them ever realize that\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0had found a way inside the Continuum? Surely one of them on the more conservative side would have noticed\u00c2\u00a0something<\/i>, right? So even though the period piece costuming and setting is cool, it stops making narrative sense. How can non-Q beings succeed so easily against all-knowing beings?<\/p>\n

On top of that, I just simply don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get how having a baby solves anything. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t! It makes no sense to me how a half Q, half human child changes the Continuum as a whole, and it makes even\u00c2\u00a0less<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0sense how a child from two Q would help anything. Have none of the Q ever had children? How did they ever procreate? Did they just all pop into existence and never change? We know there are individual members of the Q, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no history to them existing as their own entities. Was there no pregnancy? Did that baby just pop into existence, too? That baby was cute, but I was so confused by it.<\/p>\n

This felt like one of those stories that is entertaining on the surface, but\u00c2\u00a0any sort of critical analysis crumbles it to pieces. Again: what a weird episode.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Q and the Grey\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>
\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\u00a0 Mark 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":"