Star Trek Social Club

I think two things can be bad at the same time. I do think Retrospect is more problematic than Blood Fever because the implication in Retrospect is, "don't take women at their word". Vorik's assault on B'Elanna in Blood Fever is obviously wrong, even if it is not adequately addressed in the episode. OTOH the story in Retrospect makes it seem like almost a reasonable position to assume that a sexual assault allegation is false until proven otherwise. That's a problem.

It is very difficult for a woman to come forward with an assault accusation; and when they do those accusations are dismissed far too often. That leaves women with all of the consequences of coming forward, but without any justice, making it even less likely that future assaults will be reported. To put an end to sexual assaults, it's necessary to believe women.

Retrospect felt ickier to me when I watched it, but then I learned that at the time there was a hack psychologist who used to put false memories into women's minds and convince them they were abused, and the episode was about that. It doesn't make it good, but it helps a bit. Although time certainly hasn't been kind to it and for good reason.

As for Blood Fever, it's pretty bad, but I was glad that Vorik, in choosing someone strong, (inadvertently?) chose someone who could fight him off. Pon Farr really does imply horrible things about the Vulcans. There have been attempts to fix it in beta canon, and I think Blood Fever tries to fix it a little in the alpha canon (for example, nobody had to die this time, contrary to what was said in Amok Time).

I mean Retrospect is kind of an episode about date rape. Implying something about false memories in assault victims. And it ends on: Maybe the main thing behind the story never happened. The End. Which are the endings that often feel very disappointing to me. And we don't even learn if it was an illusion. I get why that episode isn't cherished by people.

I think the pon farr episodes are weird as well. And I don't think I particularly enjoyed that episode. But at least some of the good guys are trying to do the right thing? And even if the Vulkan gets away unpunished, I don't think he's portrayed in a positive way. As far as I remember the crew unanimously thinks sex is unacceptable. Minus the people who are out of their mind. And Tuvok. But he has kind of a weird role with arguing logic in that situation. And the episode ends on a happy end. They've averted danger and death for the moment, and nobody had to have sex. And as a viewer I'm glad it turned out they didn't need to follow through with Tuvok's "logical" plan, either. That feels a bit more right to me.

But the entire set up of pon farr and biology or tradition just causing violence, is a bit rapey. I guess from a storywriting perspective it's a bit difficult to bring up that topic in a creative way. But movie or TV is a lot about violence and sex. So I can see how storywriters make it part of stories.

Some Voyager episodes were just a bit weird in my opinion. I think it's okay if it provokes thought. And less so, if it makes the audience start to confuse right and wrong.