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entanglingbriarsAside from Voyager all of the Star Trek shows are about an increasingly powerful nation/empire and its relations with the nations, empires, and primitive peoples in its environs. Not that all individual episodes fit this, but the overarching meta-structure of the shows is designed to give Americans a semi-allegory about their country's place on the world stage.
And then we have Voyager, the red-headed stepchild. Unlike other Treks, Voyager is not a narrative of powerful nations, it's a narrative of diaspora. USS Voyager has been stranded far from home, thrown into cultures it does not know and that do not know it. The crew is faced with the constant tension between assimilating enough into the cultures it encounters to be able to have relations with them and the need to preserve its own unique culture. The alliance between the Federation and Maquis in the Delta Quadrant parallels how groups that opposed each other in their home territory have to learn to accept each other to ensure mutual survival.
This is why the Borg are the main enemy in the second half of the series: the Borg represent the ultimate threat of assimilation. They seem "nerfed" in comparison to their role in The Next Generation because they represent a very different type of threat in TNG; the Borg don't have to be overwhelmingly strong to pose an existential threat to the crew of Voyager--a Borg has strong as the Borg of TNG would have overwhelmed them instantly, but the Borg are also the most logical choice of an enemy in the Trekverse if you want to have a meta-narrative of diaspora in the face of assimilation.
Seven of Nine--and to a lesser extent Neelix and Kes--represent a sort of conversion narrative. This is where the parallels with Judaism specifically become strong. Seven of Nine is either a convert or a baal tashuva; someone who wants to integrate with the new community she's discovered and has to learn as an adult what all the other community members learned as children. If we continue the metaphor with Judaism specifically, Neelix and Kes are less of coverts and more of righteous Gentiles; they exist within the diaspora community but have no desire to fully assimilate into it (although Neelix strongly considers doing so and Kes is arguably shown to in some of the alternative timelines we're presented).
Janeway's insistence on the unrealistic goal of returning home is similar to a lot of diaspora cultures' narratives that they will eventually go back home. If we want to continue the parallel to Judaism then in the final episode, Admiral Janeway plays the role of the Messiah, miraculously delivering the crew of the Voyager to its homeland.
All of which is to say that Voyager is the most Jewish Star Trek and I am entirely justified in its being my favorite Trek.
And then we have Voyager, the red-headed stepchild. Unlike other Treks, Voyager is not a narrative of powerful nations, it's a narrative of diaspora. USS Voyager has been stranded far from home, thrown into cultures it does not know and that do not know it. The crew is faced with the constant tension between assimilating enough into the cultures it encounters to be able to have relations with them and the need to preserve its own unique culture. The alliance between the Federation and Maquis in the Delta Quadrant parallels how groups that opposed each other in their home territory have to learn to accept each other to ensure mutual survival.
This is why the Borg are the main enemy in the second half of the series: the Borg represent the ultimate threat of assimilation. They seem "nerfed" in comparison to their role in The Next Generation because they represent a very different type of threat in TNG; the Borg don't have to be overwhelmingly strong to pose an existential threat to the crew of Voyager--a Borg has strong as the Borg of TNG would have overwhelmed them instantly, but the Borg are also the most logical choice of an enemy in the Trekverse if you want to have a meta-narrative of diaspora in the face of assimilation.
Seven of Nine--and to a lesser extent Neelix and Kes--represent a sort of conversion narrative. This is where the parallels with Judaism specifically become strong. Seven of Nine is either a convert or a baal tashuva; someone who wants to integrate with the new community she's discovered and has to learn as an adult what all the other community members learned as children. If we continue the metaphor with Judaism specifically, Neelix and Kes are less of coverts and more of righteous Gentiles; they exist within the diaspora community but have no desire to fully assimilate into it (although Neelix strongly considers doing so and Kes is arguably shown to in some of the alternative timelines we're presented).
Janeway's insistence on the unrealistic goal of returning home is similar to a lot of diaspora cultures' narratives that they will eventually go back home. If we want to continue the parallel to Judaism then in the final episode, Admiral Janeway plays the role of the Messiah, miraculously delivering the crew of the Voyager to its homeland.
All of which is to say that Voyager is the most Jewish Star Trek and I am entirely justified in its being my favorite Trek.
