Star Trek: Voyager
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
11 PM Eastern - 8 PM Pacific
“The logical course isn’t always the right course.”
I am less than enthused for this episode…
I do like that the Doctor tries to gain empathy for the plights of his patients
It is kind of nice to have “confirmation” of Chakotay’s Rubber Tree People Sky Spirits as “truth,” but I think it’s a bit… problematic? In terms of an understanding of why humans have creation narratives
The writing of this episode was influenced by the fact that Michael Piller, having recently analyzed the pacing of other contemporary television programs, had come to firmly believe that Star Trek: Voyager’s pacing should be considerably faster and tighter than it had been
Well… it meanders some time
I really struggle with the Magic Indian trope that creeps in with Chakotay story lines sometimes, but then…
Beltran felt that this episode’s themes were vast but relatable. The actor explained, “That was like a huge epic story condensed into one hour. For me, it was a very personal episode because I related to it on a couple of different levels. For example, in the episode, Chakotay says, ‘I don’t understand the ancient language of my people,’ and my Spanish is passable but I’m always revealing that I’m not yet able to participate fully in conversation with my own people. So a lot of elements of that story resonated very strongly with me.” (Star Trek Monthly issue 20) Beltran thought more highly of this episode upon watching or re-watching it than he had when working on it. At about the end of the second season, he said, “I just saw ‘Tattoo’ again recently. I found it to be much better than I remembered. It’s very rich and complex, and I just liked the many layers of the story […] It was a good strong episode.” (Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 99) Near the end of production of the series in 2001, Beltran commented that he felt this episode was “pretty inspiring, I think because it dealt with issues of ecology and acceptance of one’s heritage.”
That also makes a lot of sense. And it isn’t my culture… but in this fiction it’s not a specific Native culture either which is perhaps where the pitfalls are.
It’s interesting how the encounter with the Rubber Tree People on Earth treads near dangerous ground vis-a-vis primitivism
I want to know more about the mechanics of this weather control technology…
Gift of the memory? Interesting concept
“We tried to change our ways since the last time you stopped by”
12 generations, that would be, what, 300-350 years or so? That would still be in “our” future.
It took the super aliens who were traveling in space 45000 years ago 2 generations to get to Earth!? Faster ships, people!
Also to think about: why did the Sky people “find no trace” of Chakotay’s people? From what I understand the Federation subsumes many human cultural distinctions… could we read this episode as a commentary on those kinds of transculturations?