Trek-Gasim

Hello my name is Juanita Valdez and I am a 7th grade teacher at Denver Center for International Studies at Montbello.  My students and I are planning an educational trip for my students to go to Chicago.  If my students receive donations many of them will have their first travelling experience. ...

Going into Voyager Rick Berman wanted to shake things up a bit with this series. The writers of Voyager wanted a crew out in space exploring again, but they also didn’t want it to be too much like TNG. There were several episodes of Trek where the crew is flung into the depths of uncharted space. It’s this perspective that they decided to situate the crew of Voyager for the run of the show. They also wanted a woman to be the captain of the ship. What also sets this series apart right of the bat in the pilot, is the conflict with between the Marquis and the Federations as they must work together in order to get home without the help of anything they have ever known.

The Marquis, I think are a great addition to the Trek universe. (I will come back to them in more detail and the series progresses) What DS9 and Voyager played with a lot, is the idea that the Federation isn’t the utopic entity. As the Federations grows and get larger so does the level of corruption within the organization. Marquis were the results of displaced colonies as new treaties among empires a political players in the Milky Way. (Diasporas) As the Federation tried to create a treaty with the Cardassions many people were asked to move and as the Cardassion Empire moved into these already peopled home worlds. Not everyone likes what the Federation does.

As a result, Voyager has a lot of episode based on inter-alien conflict, inter-planetary conflict. Biological warfare, and environmental cataclysms. Perhaps a reflection of the mid 90’s turn of the 21st century?

Furthermore, it’s through Voyager that we get to see the shady underside of the Federation. We get to see the people who fail, become mercenaries, and become dissidents. Both Paris and B’Elanna Torres or the failures of Starfleet. Though both in very different ways. While Chakotay left for moralistic reasons.  I think this adds a level of needed complexity to the trek universe.

What also sets this series apart, is Captain Janeway herself. Not only is she the first female Captain in a series, but she’s first and foremost a scientist. She did not move up the ranks through command, but as a science officer. Voyager unlike, DS9 and the Enterprise is a science ship, deck to the brim with all the latest and coolest technology. The holographic emergency doctor being one of them. The ship was always meant for science exploration.

The premise of The Caretaker

Captain Janeway has lost her security office Tuvok, who was undercover onboard a Marquis ship. Janeway comes to the New Zealand, a Federation Penal Colony for Tom Paris. If that’s what prisons look like in the future sign me up. She enlists the help of Tom Paris, since he worked a mercenary for the Marquis and with Chakotay in particular. In return is prison sentence is complete. We get to meet most of the crew, take a breather in DS9 where the ship is waiting and head out for the Badlands. Once there Voyager is pulled in by the same tetryon beam as the Marquis ship. They have been pulled in by an ancient alien entity who is trying to find a replacement to take care of Ocampas who live beneath the surface of a planet. It was the Caretaker aliens known as the Necene who destroyed the world’s ecosystem. It now feels a responsibility to take care of the Ocampa. Suffice to say, the caretaker dies leaving the crew stranded in the Delta Quadrant 70 year journey away from home.

New aliens we meet: (I will go more in-depth as the season goes on.)     

         Nelix: Talaxian. A cat like humanoid. They are whimsical and known for their humor.                                                                      

         Kes: Female Ocampa. They have very short lives, but advanced mental capabilities.

         Kazone: A warrior species who are divided into 18 sects and are constantly fighting with one another.

          Nacene: The Caretaker entity. Very ancient and very old explorer that decimated the Ocampa home world  

Things that annoy me about this episode:

Paris: He evolves through the series, but he starts out annoying. He over acts, is over dramatic and you catch yourself eye rolling at him a lot. There is also an annoying useless scene between him and a Betazoid woman that is sexist and stupid. (I also hate that she is killed off. There was something about her I wanted to get to know more.)  Interestingly enough this scene was never in the original airing. It should have stayed one.  

  For all the creative ways the alien could create an allusion way a banjo man/country like fair? There are so many different scenes across the universe and this is what they choose… It here the suspension of disbelief has to get you through some of the science and logistics of space travel.

  Also: Why are the Ocompa all white? Don’t get me wrong the Ocompa are pretty cool aliens. They’ve got awesome ESP mental power like talents, but it’s still annoying that out it the far researches of the Delta Quadrant there doesn’t seem to be much visual diversity. To me the Nacene, while a blob was portrayed and a white man, and though Nelix seems to me more like a cat like humanoid, I would argue that the Talazins also come off as white. The Kazone however, don’t register the same way and have a more nuanced cultural history. Piller, Taylor, and Berman had intended for the Kozone to be an allegory of the street gangs in L.A. They had a lot of ideas and hope for development, but as the second season develops, the Kazone did not have the intended result the writers had originally envisioned.  For sake of time (this post is getting too long) I’ll go more in-depth in Kozone specific episodes.

Analysis: There isn’t much to talk about, as I feel this pilot is more an action/adventure, introduce the crew, type of pilot compared to the psychological in-depth episode of DS9’s Emissary or TNG judgment day. (Or maybe I’m too lazy I feel there are better episodes to analyze) However, it does begin to introduce snippets of what Voyager will later explore. Such as; environmental destruction/cataclysm, scientific conundrums, choice, autonomy, the prime directive. So on, and so forth.

Next up:

I changed my mind. :) Since there are a lot of character centric episodes, when those happen I'll write detailed character/actor profiles.  I should be done with Caretaker in a few days. Thanks for bearing with me as I find a rhythm to these posts. Till then, here's a Janeway meme.

  I have spent the last several weeks trying to find a starting point. After many failed attempts, I think I found a good starting point. Since I’m using Trek to articulate and discuss; race, gender, sexuality, ability, ect… I felt important to give some broad information about the breakdown of diversity in Trek before getting knee deep in the episodes.

In many ways Trek is the result when writers; casting directors, producers come together and actually talk about having a diverse cast. Granted, it does fit a formula: at least two women, and two people of color, and aliens. Trek has actively been aware of diversity and getting it on the screen. What is so impressive about Trek, is that it extends beyond main and secondary characters. If you put on any episode of TNG, DS9, Voayger, spend some time looking at the landscape of the ship and at the level of diversity among humans and alien counterparts. Then compare it to other science fiction shows. I have spent some runs of watching Star Trek doing little more than watching the background. The set isn’t just thrown together, but meticulously thought out. It’s the future of course there would be more than just white men traveling the space-time continuum.

The negative draw back? This conversation doesn’t extend to queer identities, varies genders, and disability. If they are part of trek these narratives are episodic. Sadly, Roddenberry did have plans to shows the lives of queer people in TNG, however he soon died after announcing his plans and these stories never came to pass. :/ Kate Mulgrew herself kept asking for the show to get a gay character on Voyager. This representation was something that the creatives of Trek were keenly aware of, but utterly failed at. (Through the series I’ll will explore this more in-depth as there are a lot of queer coding and sub-text at play.)

How does diversity breakdown in Voyager? The show actually exceeds the formula and in my opinion best diversity on screen. (Though it’s really a toss-up with DS9).

People of Color: Chakotay, Tuvok, Harry Kim, B’Elanna Torres

Women: Captain Janeway, Kes, B’Elanna Torres, Seven of Nine

Alien(ish): Tuvok, Nelix, Kes,  B’Elanna Torres (half Klingon), Seven of Nine (Part Borg)

Artificial life form: The Doctor

I include “Alien” because with most science fiction alien beings become an extension to understanding the facets of our human cultures. (If you do happen to be an alien not from Earth I apologize for my potential near-sightedness) Depending on the viewer aliens represent different narratives relative to the watcher. What I see may be vastly different from another views.

  Keep an eye out for Part 2: Profiles for the actors of Voyager

I’ve been hitting my head against a wall the last couple of days trying to figure out the best introductory article I could write. I always hope for something that would awe and amaze. However, all...

So, after watching DS9 I feel inspired. I forget how much Trek in general made me think as a young one, and how, it made it easier to empathize with other people that weren't me. Because of Dax it was easier to wrap my head about gender. Because of Worf I could begin to understand what it might be like to be an adopted kid taken from their culture (actually Worf fills a lot of roles). I learned compassion from Trek, but also learned that I have blind spots/privilege and I’m going to mess up. However, Trek gave me the capacity and the language to continually re-examine my world as people and the world around me changed.

With everything going on in the world I need a little more hope then I'm finding. Therefore, I'm re-tailoring my blog. Starting in a couple of days I’m going to re-watch Star Trek Voyager. I thought I would start writing and sharing my insight about the show and how it relates to the world around me. Then when I’m done, I’m going to go back to TNG and DS9.

I'm starting with Voyager because it was the first Trek series I watched when I was younger, and Janeway had a huge impact on my Feminism as an 11 year old. When I suffered severe insomnia I would watch re-runs from 4-6am. It got me through the hell that was my middle school existence. The summer before I entered high school my dad left. A mentor of mine gave me the whole TNG/TOS series on video tapes. I lost myself in Trek and watched all of it in order to escape my pain that summer.

It wasn't until I was 16 that I truly got into DS9 after watching it with my mother when I was 6/7 years old. It seemed to complete the universe for me. Since then, Trek has been on repeat in the background of my life.

 I just want to share this universe and this language with others. Maybe someone else can find comfort in it.

The Goal: 1or2 episodes a week and my response/critique/insight/Trek-Gasim.