Lineage

[hux]

So we're constantly reminded that humanity has "bettered itself" and moved on yet here is an episode devoted to the fact that humanity still has issues with difference and race.

Aside from all the casual bigotry experienced by Vulcan's (God damn it.....why can't they be more emotional) there's evidence in this episode that "otherness" is still something that humans aren't entirely comfortable with.

TORRES: I was treated like a monster.
PARIS: That isn't going to happen to our daughter. Everyone on Voyager will accept her for who she really is.
TORRES: That's easy for you to say. You're human.
PARIS: Meaning what, exactly?
TORRES: Meaning you don't understand what it's like.
PARIS: Okay then, tell me.
TORRES: When the people around you are all one way and you're not, you can't help feeling like there's something wrong with you.
PARIS: Voyager isn't just one way. We've got Bajorans, Vulcans, a Talaxian.
TORRES: And hundred and forty humans.

An interesting episode but also one filled with ridiculous amounts of melodrama worthy of a bad soap opera. Yet more evidence that B'Elanna is an emotional wreck with possible mental health problems? She even violates the EMH and reprograms him (how dastardly).

My favourite line......when B'Elanna shouts at Tom....."Stop telling me what to do, you're not my father"! Oh good grief.

Oh and then there's the line about gene re-sequencing....

TORRES: I'm not destroying anything. Gene resequencing isn't a weapon, it's a tool, like a hyperspanner.

Wait, isn't it also illegal? Or is gene re-sequencing a convenient loop hole in the whole genetic modification debate?

But the Doc gets to be godfather so it has a warm fuzzy ending.

 

[Kilana2]

Don't forget that B'Elanna is pregnant at that time and suffers from hormone-induced imbalance. That combined with her human-klingon ancestry .... oh my.

Thankfully Kirsten Beyer refrains from blessing little Miral with rapid ageing syndrome later on.

It was about time that B'Elanna came to terms with her past.

Other than the Maquis member Voyager is obviously full with people who have strained relationships with family members.

 

[Catarina]

I believe I touched on that same feeling in another thread but I guess the producers thought simply showing example of good behavior wouldn't sink in and we needed comparisons. who knows. This episode was deep and didn't seem melodramatic in my memory. Then again it's not worth rewatching. I'm not fond of the "I'm tough but really insecure" line Torres took in the later years.

 

[Catarina]

Pregnancy excuse. she was like this since season four.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

B'Elanna has always had a crazy temper. Being pregnant had nothing to do with it. I always thought she was quick to pass judgement on Tom simply because he was human.

B'Elanna: My father left because he couldn't handle living with Klingons so my husband will most likely do the same.

She didn't give Tom any credit. He may have been human but he wasn't like her father.

 

[Destructor]

B'Elanna has always had a crazy temper. Being pregnant had nothing to do with it. I always thought she was quick to pass judgement on Tom simply because he was human.

B'Elanna: My father left because he couldn't handle living with Klingons so my husband will most likely do the same.

She didn't give Tom any credit. He may have been human but he wasn't like her father.

I don't know about anyone else, but when you're married all sorts of crazy things get said that later make no sense. And in fact Be'lanna's fear DOES make sense because she IS kind of quick to anger which would make her difficult to live with. I agree she doesn't give Tom enough credit but that's entirely realistic.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Her Father left B'Elanna at a tender age.

Her Mother has been estranged from her.

Her Academy booted her out of the ranks.

Her current job came weeks after an abduction and medical experimentation by an alien species.

After that initial abduction, her best friend among the Maquis was found to be a Cardassian spy and a traitor to Voyager.

Later that same year, B'Elanna was once again abducted by aliens and not merely experimented upon, but had her very being changed into 2 different people. A feat that simultaneously gave her something she'd always wished for as a child and showed her why such a wish was truly childish.

In the Alpha Quadrant, her Maquis family was decimated as she later learned in season 5. Whether you agree with B'Elanna's philosophy or not, season 5 was also the year when her beloved Foster Mother over-ruled her wishes and allowed a holographic Dr Mengele http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30933718 operate upon her. And the only counseling she received in her 1st 5 years on Voyager was from an emotionally challenged Vulcan.

In season 6 she learns her Mother has died and been condemned to Grethor / Klingon Hell for B'Elanna's dishonor.

And in Season 7 she gets pregnant with all the baggage that may / may not involve.

SNAP OUT OF IT ALREADY, B'ELANNA!

Geez.

What a wimp.

(Not)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGfFFNC1SVU

"DEFEND YOURSELF!"

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGfFFNC1SVU[/yt]

"I'm alive."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEe7zMBsbqU

"Welcome home."

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEe7zMBsbqU[/yt]

 

[hux]

So what?

Welcome to Starfleet. You could play this game with any character (even the dull ones). For example;

Young Harry Kim separated from his parents.

Separated from his beloved Libby.

Also abducted and experimented on by alien species.

Sent to asteroid to die.

Abducted and imprisoned by energy life-form.

Tortured by clown.

Incarcerated and brain-fucked in the chute.

Forced to experience traumatising memories of another species.

Has a dead counterpart who he replaced.

Told his real family is a lie and turned into lady-food in favourite son.

Best friend Lyndsey Ballard killed.

Ripped away from the woman he loved in disease.

Captured by mutants and forced to watch Carey die.

And so on.

If B'Elanna's mental state was all to do with her experiences then how come everyone else on board wasn't a mental case?

 

[wulfio]

Star Trek is social commentary 1st. Pre-existentialism 2nd. The social commentary is depicted to show us the journey to the ubermensch. It's been like that since it started.