Watching Voyager

[conuly]

And Chakotay is in a coma. Which raises two questions: was his tribe ever actually specified, and do his vaguely defined beliefs align in any way with any actual Native American beliefs? And, bonus question, why is he the only human allowed to have religion in the Federation? Yeah, I know, because Roddenberry was a lot less influential once he was dead, but other humans tend to have a knee-jerk repugnance towards the idea of continuing human religious beliefs, so... yeah. Is there any in-universe explanation? (Maybe there are lots more religious people, but they don't show up much? You know, this presents a far more interesting picture of the Federation than the officially approved one. Yes, some of you have pointed this out already. I remember.)

Bonus question: after Voyager goes home, do they ever put the doctor's armband into mass production? And if so, do they pass some out at that one planet in the Gamma Quadrant with the entirely holographic village? I'm sure those people would appreciate it.

Comments

[andrewducker]

There seems to be this belief that "culture" is almost genetic. That someone descended from current Native Americans would automatically want to believe the same things as current ones do, because that's what people do.

It frequently seems to edge into racism, with the idea that belief X is part of group Y, and therefore it's reasonable to expect all Y people to believe the same thing.

[conuly]

Well, he's from a Native American colony which presumably was settled by traditionalists.

"It frequently seems to edge into racism, with the idea that belief X is part of group Y, and therefore it's reasonable to expect all Y people to believe the same thing."

Especially in sci-fi, and most definitely Trek, where species = culture. All Klingons eat and believe and wear the same things, etc. etc. etc. Even the breakaway Bajoran sect has a heretical view of their gods, not an entirely different idea of deities altogether!

[waterfall8484]

To be fair, it's been implied that the homogenous Klingon behaviour is based partly on massive peer/cultural pressure, and in the case of the Bajorans their gods do actually exist so their reasons for believing may be more concrete than, say, ours. (Actual orbs falling from space, etc.)

Not saying it's not problematic or annoying though, give me Babylon 5 any day. :~D

[conuly]

Which would be great if they were the only non-humans on the show. All the others have the same issue, because they're fucked up.

B5 isn't on netflix. I checked.

[waterfall8484]

Well yes, I was only responding to your examples.

It's kind of interesting how on one hand all species have homogenous cultures but at the same time you can usually see one or more individuals who are not subscribing to that culture and trying to break away from it or change it (such as with the Romulans, the Trills, or even the Vulcans in some ways). It becomes a very mixed message.

Does that mean you can't watch it? That's a shame. :~(

[conuly]

I can't rewatch it, no. :(

[waterfall8484]

I hate it when that happens. :~(

(I'm sure you can find it somewhere, but that might involve effort and slightly suspect things so I can understand it if you don't want to.)