In the sixteenth episode of the third season of\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>, I have no idea how to talk about this. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For extensive talk of consent and rape. While there isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t rape in this episode, since this is all about consent surrounding sex, I figured it would be best to warn for rape just in case.<\/b><\/p>\n
Good lord, what the fuck was this episode? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m exhausted, which is both good \u00e2\u20ac\u201c because the suspense was believable and real \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and upsetting, though I admit that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entirely because of the way that this episode courts the line of consent so dangerously.<\/p>\n
And yet, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perhaps\u00c2\u00a0the<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0definitive example thus far of\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s writers, over all the series, addressing consent directly and responsibly. That didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily make this easy to watch, but y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I appreciate it. A lot. I got the sense that the writers realized they had this concept at their disposal \u00e2\u20ac\u201c pon farr \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0they had two Vulcans who would inevitably\u00c2\u00a0have<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to deal with it at some point on the show. For the most part, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done well. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disturbing but not to the point that I felt like the show was disrespecting B\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Elanna or Vorik. We were able to sympathize with what they were going through, and the show also doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore that both of them do some pretty fucked up shit while under the influence of the\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>pon farr.<\/p>\n
I expected that most of this episode would cover Vorik, and that was interesting enough, but the decision to fold B\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Elanna into this is\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, sometimes, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brilliant, and sometimes, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perplexing. Both characters deal with pon farr while separated from the means that could help them pass through it. In Vorik\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s case, he can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t heed the pull he feels towards his home because\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0is stranded. B\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Elanna is trapped underground because of the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s run-in with the Sakari. (MORE ON THAT, BECAUSE WHAT A GREAT FUCKING TWIST.)<\/p>\n
So how does the team come up with ways to help them? The Doctor is INCREDIBLE here, and I really want to praise both Picardo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s performance and Lisa Klink\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s script. The pon farr is a notoriously secretive phenomenon, and yet, the Doctor feels it is imperative that he help his patient. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stuck between respecting what Vorik wants while protecting others, so it becomes increasingly hard to deal with Vorik\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s embarrassment. And look,\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0generally exists in a place where cultural norms aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t judged harshly, but I loved that the Doctor was given a chance to point out how illogical it was that the Vulcans were so secretive about sex. YES, DOCTOR, PLEASE INSULT THE PURITANICAL NORMS AROUND SEX IN THE UNITED STATES. DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN. That was totally what that moment was, right???<\/p>\n
Yet the beauty of the Doctor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s therapy is that in the end, he discards his own ideas about sex and mental heath and develops a program that inherently respects what Vorik is going through. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad that my holodeck suggestion was in line with what happened because it seemed like a possibility. Granted, it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to work (given the ending), but I still respect the Doctor for what he did.<\/p>\n
And then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s B\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Elanna. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll start with why this made me uncomfortable: this seemed like a deeply frightening and traumatic experience, and at the very end of the episode, the show hints that this is the start of B\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Elanna\/Tom being an actual thing. I have no problem with the pairing, but the\u00c2\u00a0means<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to introduce that pairing is really fucking weird. I almost wish that scene had been in another episode so that B\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Elanna could\u00c2\u00a0at least<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0have a moment to heal, you know? Let her reflect on what happened and deal with her feelings!<\/p>\n
Still, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an important lesson about consent here: it can be revoked at any time. Despite that Tom had long expressed interest in B\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Elanna, he was allowed to revoke his consent at a later time. THIS IS SO GREAT. Plus, her consent was dubious. Does it count when she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s affected by a chemical balance? In Tom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eyes, despite that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attracted, despite that he wants to have sex with her badly, he saw her as being unable to truly give him consent. He didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say those words, but he said a different phrase: he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be taking advantage of her. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a dynamic that is often not explored in conversations about consent, and this episode put it front-and-center. B\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Elanna was not herself, and Tom would have been doing a terrible thing to indulge her seduction.<\/p>\n
In that sense, I was thankful that Vorik showed up at the end to fight B\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Elanna because holy shit, I absolutely did not like the idea of Tom and her having sex. You know what that scene felt like? Those ridiculous hypothetical situations that\u00c2\u00a0dudes come up with\u00c2\u00a0to try to trick people in arguments. Like, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well, what if the whole world is gonna die if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let me say this particular slur?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Because that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what this gets close to. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Is dubious consent okay if it saves people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lives?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Uhhhhh\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 no? I feel tricked. TRICKED.<\/p>\n
Still, this episode deserves a lot of praise for bringing us so close to something terrible and having someone say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No, this is not okay.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I also want to praise it for THE SAKARI. Oh my god, an entire culture that were victims of the Borg, so they moved everyone underground and devised as many methods as possible in order to camouflage themselves so that no one could ever find them. THE SHEER WORLDBUILDING POTENTIAL ALONE IS INCREDIBLE, and what little we see is so satisfying. The costuming, the make-up, the paranoia, the constant disappearing\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 yes. YES.<\/p>\n
And it figures that this episode, which I watched on August 12th, would be the last thing I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d see before I left home for a month. GREAT. GREAT. Just so you know, this seems like a cliffhanger that lasted a few days for me. NOPE. ALMOST FIVE FUCKING WEEKS.<\/p>\n
Thanks. THANKS.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blood Fever\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 sixteenth episode of the third season of\u00c2\u00a0Voyager, I have no idea how to talk about this. 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-5806","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\/5806","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=5806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5806"}],"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>
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