{"id":5933,"date":"2016-11-02T13:00:44","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T20:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=5933"},"modified":"2016-10-16T14:25:22","modified_gmt":"2016-10-16T21:25:22","slug":"mark-watches-voyager-s04e03-day-of-honor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2016\/11\/mark-watches-voyager-s04e03-day-of-honor\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Voyager’: S04E03 – Day of Honor"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the third episode of the fourth season of\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>, Seven of Nine adjusts while B’Elanna has the worst day imaginable. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

SEASON FOUR IS GREAT, LET’S TALK ABOUT IT.<\/p>\n

Seven of Nine<\/b><\/p>\n

YES YES YES YES TO EVERYTHING ABOUT HER CHARACTER AND HER STORY AND\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I don’t know how I feel about her outfit, though. It’s a little strange. Why wouldn’t she get a normal Starfleet uniform? That’s weird. ANYWAY.\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0has had a number of characters throughout it’s run who act as a commentary on humanity simply by positioning those characters\u00c2\u00a0outside<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0of humanity. There’s Spock, Data, Odo, Worf, and then\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, it’s complicated for\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>. Neelix, Kes, Vorik, Tuvok, and B’Elanna is half Klingon. But this show never felt like it was\u00c2\u00a0specifically<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0re-creating this dynamic over again, not in any overarching way.<\/p>\n

With Seven of Nine,\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0has found a new twist: a human changed into another “species” and learning what it means to be human once more. Jeri Taylor’s script is full of consistency, too. We watch Seven struggle with human concepts that she doesn’t understand, such as sharing. Individualism. Banter. Bickering. Mistrust. Suspicion. Each of these are met with a sort of detached confusion. Why do humans do all of these silly things??? But there’s another layer to it all: the people of\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u201c Janeway included \u00e2\u20ac\u201c don’t have a good reason to trust Seven, especially not after she tried to contact the Borg in the last episode. Well, she also\u00c2\u00a0was<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0a Borg drone, and the arrival of the Caatati makes everything a billion times more uncomfortable. Maybe Seven herself was not there when the Caatati were brutalized and murdered, but she was still part of the collective, and as a part of said group, she certainly did not stop the genocide of the Caatati people.<\/p>\n

So what can she do? There’s no personal guilt or regret that she can express, in part because she hasn’t expressed those emotions in\u00c2\u00a018 years<\/i>. Can she provide closure to the Caatati? Perhaps, and after Tom offers to help her integrate into the crew, she realizes there is a value in acts of kindness. I’d argue that Seven’s transformation is subtle and quiet in this episode instead of something bombastic and larger than life, and I appreciate that. She has a lot to learn about what’s happening to her body, first of all, and even\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0is dealt with in passing. Like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 she has not eaten food or drank liquid in EIGHTEEN YEARS. But if she’s going to find a way to be a part of\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>, it has to be slow, one lesson at a time, one\u00c2\u00a0change<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0at a time. It can’t happen overnight. So I found “Day of Honor” satisfying because of the commitment to taking Seven of Nine on this journey at a slower pace.<\/p>\n

Well, I also liked it because of<\/p>\n

B’Elanna<\/b><\/p>\n

GOD, THIS IS SO GREAT. First of all, let’s just acknowledge that I cannot think of a more horrendous example of a Worst Day Ever. Like, there’s a moment towards the end of “Day of Honor” where I thought, “Floating in space with just minutes of oxygen left\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 yeah, this is the worst day on record in all of fiction.” Yet this framework is not the main element of B’Elanna’s story; it might serve as a way to comment on her emotional state or her frustration, sure! I’d be perfectly fine with a reading of this all as a metaphor for B’Elanna’s desire to push Tom away because of how he makes her feel. And yet, even if that’s the case, Tom is still there, by her side. She can have the worst day, and Tom\u00c2\u00a0still<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0doesn’t give up.<\/p>\n

Obviously, there’s more to it than that. Tom’s not my favorite character on this show, but there\u00c2\u00a0is<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0a chemistry between him and B’Elanna, one that’s been hinted at and confirmed at various points along the way. Still, I expected this episode to mainly focus on B’Elanna completing her Day of Honor ritual. Instead, as B’Elanna’s day gets increasingly worse, she lashes out at Tom. She finds a friend in Neelix, who offers catharsis to her when she needs it. And then, when she’s far from her home on\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>, when her Terrible, horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day turns into The Actual Worst, she is faced with her own mortality. Now, this is a super old romance trope, and\u00c2\u00a0I don’t care<\/i>. When it appears in fanfic, I EAT IT RIGHT UP. It’s that whole thing of bringing characters close to their death and having them confess their love for one another, and yet? While this technically qualifies for it, it still doesn’t feel the same. Why?<\/p>\n

Because it’s all tied into B’Elanna’s perception of herself. For her whole life, she’s struggled with her humanity. (Ah, the parallels between her and Seven of Nine. SO GREAT.) She believes that she has been a coward. For running from her heritage. From trying to avoid being hurt, both in her career and her personal life. And for knowing the truth about her feelings for Tom but being too scared to admit them out loud.<\/p>\n

EXCEPT SHE DOES AND THEY HOLD ONE ANOTHER IN THE VAST BLACK EXPANSE OF SPACE AND FALL ASLEEP IN ONE ANOTHER’S ARM. There’s nothing quite as romantic as DEATH, y’all. And goddamn, season 4 of this show is off to such a great start!<\/p>\n

The video for “Day of Honor” 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. I POST A LOT OF CUTE PHOTOS, OKAY. Think of it like a private Tumblr blog that only SPECIAL PEOPLE get to read.<\/b>
\n– I have updated my list of conventions and events for the remainder of the year and much of next year.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 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":"