“Tattoo”

No mention of Beltran nearly breaking character and being on the verge of laughter for half the episode? That was the best part. :P

The writers have no concept of the size of the galaxy. Voyager just happens to find a floating Ford pickup truck. Voyager just happens to find the planet of Chakotay's Sky Gods. Later, Voyager just happens to find a couple of displaced Ferengis.

This just completely ignores probability!

I don't know, I never really liked this episode. I guess I'm just not a Chakotay fan.

Well, at least not with his Spiritual Crap. I usually love spiritual and religious plot threads and such. Sisko (and Kira too) on DS9 and Roslin (and all the others) on BSG are fascinating with their spiritual and religious journeys.

I've always found myself unimpressed and annoyed when watching Chakotay struggle with similar issues.

I always thought these episodes about Chakotay were extremely stupid and racist, turning Native American cultures into a big mash of sci fi magic, most of it completely made up and having absolutely nothing to do with the real original culture. Having the "sky gods" turn out to be aliens that they just happen to find is pretty much George Lucas territory. The only thing missing from episodes like this is a Jar Jar character. As I remember, Beltran himself was very disappointed with his character's treatment as far as episodes like this go.

For perspective on how horrible these episodes are, just imagine if Voyager ran across a dragon, and Harry Kim has to explain that Chinese people believed in dragons, and through the course of the episode they reveal that dragons were real all along and they live in the delta quadrant, but visited China (specifically China) a very long time ago, and it leads Harry to come to some kind of spiritual awakening (which has no real bearing on his character in the future anyway). Or I have one, let's say that Captain Kirk flies the Enterprise into the center of the galaxy to find god, and it turns out it's just a big alien head that zaps people with lightning, and Heaven is really Needles, California (there sure are a lot of bark scorpions in Heaven).

I agree with previous post. Terrible episode that had no impact on the character. Saved only by the fantastic Doctor story.

It's amazing: what passed for enlightened television back in 1995, is obviously ridiculously bigoted today. Just goes to show you how much progress we have really made in 14 years (fuck, fourteen years! we're old...).

I agree that the show is awfully narrow-minded. But remember, when Jammer wrote this review, America was even more narrow-minded.

A little empirical evidence of progress:
- In 1995 there were NO (zero) black governors, today there are two (2). (When the episode aired, there was only 1 female governor, today there are 4).
- In 1995 there had never been a black Attorney General; the current AG is the first.
- In 1995 there had never been a black Secretary of State; Colin Powell was the first (2001).
- In 1995 there was one (1) black Senator; today there is... one (1). Well, some things don't change :)

That said, I wonder if TV is actually worse off? Back in 1995, Avery Brooks (the Sisko) was the lead of a non-black show. Today, how many non-black shows have a black lead? Any?

And what do blacks have to do with Native Americans (the subject of this episode)? Nothing, but frankly, Native Americans are still pretty much fucked, and I just don't see that changing...

That said, compared to the crap that Voyager had been spewing out for weeks (months!) prior to Tattoo, this was certainly a three-star effort.

Yeah, like others, I'm bothered by the coincidences--Voyager coming across the 37s, Voyager bumping into a race of aliens that made contact with his tribe long ago. I'm all for putting logic aside, and I'm no hardcore sci-fi type (the type that demands, for instance, that physics must support (right down to the level of equations) a particular story detail), but when Star Trek--in all its guises--enters La La Land I have to admit that I inwardly groan. It's the biggest fault of Roddenberry and his successors: too many episodes simply don't pass as quality "SCI" fi (emphasis on the "sci"). There must be a way to have Chakotay's past come out more naturally and believably.

I agree with Jhoh. The comparison to Harry Kim finding dragons pretty much sums everything up. But, I'll still give this episode three stars based almost exclusively on two things:

1) Neelix getting pwned by that bird. HA!

2) The doctor gets sick, and becomes even more hilarious than usual.

"Can you hear what the hawk is saying?" Yes it's saying "CAAAWK BRING ME THE TALAXIAN SO I MAY FEAST UPON HIS EYEBALLS!"

Too much Indian Magic and Universal Village for my tastes, thank you very much.

Bleh. At least it wasn't a TOS-style parallel Earth.

One thing I like about this episode is the use of the flashback. It's a great character development tool which would eventually be used to perfection in LOST. I recall at least 2 later Tuvok episodes which used flashbacks as well as at least one Seven of Nine episode. Too bad they didn't do more of this. It would have been a great, consistent way to set Voyager apart from the other series.

Also, @Jhoh - I don't find anything particularly "racist" in this episode. At worst it's well meaning and maybe a little naive. Then again, if the writing were good enough, I wouldn't mind seeing an episode where a group of interstellar Christians try to convert other worlds, or a Bhuddist civilization on a Federation colony, or space-dwelling Hare-Krishna's. I don't mind Trek's primarily agnostic sensibility, but exploring Earth religions in an interstellar context might have been interesting to see.

The emphasis on respect for nature of indigenous people and the disrespect of using firearms was good, I thought. It shows that respect for nature is universal, not indigenous to only Earth, and that space travellers can share these values. I did not buy the idea that the Federation respects nature, as Chakoty claimed. In fact the Federation and Starfleet have imposed a technological empire, just as our industrial society has done.

Other than the most writers in this block, I always enjoyed this episod. Maybe, because I grew up with the writings of Mr. Erich v. Däniken. I am fifty by now and in the seventies the man´s opinion has been a hype.

One thing about the idea of interstellar Christians and so on, if they were ever done in a Trek episode, they would have to be the villains, yet Chakotay's dad is practically identical but "he's right" because indians in this story are magical (in the interest of the story wanting to have a good heart or whatever it is). It's a well intended racism but it's still racism.

Personally the best review of this episode is the one done by SF Debris on blip.tv, it's a good second opinion.

I will agree that compared to a bunch of the other Voyager episodes around this time, this really is more like a 3 star episode. For Voyager anyway.

Eh.

Native Americans were not only enlightened, but enlightened by ALIENS! And, of course, the European invaders were nothing but diseased jerks. Yeah, yeah. I know this story. I never really fell for all the romanticizing of native american culture that became sort of popular in the late 2000s. Not that I don't respect their culture as I respect any, but I think that some people think their culture was more peaceful and enlightened than it really was. Native American stories bore me, to be honest. Avatar was like this. Boring. The only one that I can think of that didn't bore me was Dances with Wolves, but that was more because of the humor and high production values. Primitive drawings, medicine bags, and dancing around the fire generally put me to sleep.

And, don't even get me started with the magic storms appearing out of nowhere then disappearing again. I suppose they came up with that technology while worshiping hawks. Ugh.

I really get tired of the "native good, white man evil," drivel. Those who constantly accuse others of racism usually make such accusations to make themselves feel superior, like they claim 'racists," do.
For the record NO ONE is all good or all bad.
Europeans may have defeated the native-americans but they usually got help from other native-americans.
Cortes and 500 Spainards defeated the Aztecs civilization of a million because the other natives in Central America were tired as serving for humna sacrfices by having their hearts ripped out by the thousands every year.
Scalping was a tried and true method of killing by others and their is eveidence that an earlier culture and people that was closer to caucasians actually existed in the early Americas before the native-americans, who we call native-americans actually killed them off...

I think one thing is criticizing this episode and another is using it as a proxy to attack indigenous Americans.

Yes, it is perhaps implausible to come across a symbol of Chakotay's ancestors on a random planet in the Delta Quadrant, especially just where Chakotay and co. beam in, but hey, it's a TV series about humans in space, and the stories revolve around that.

Voyager has a character of indigenous American descent, and this is a way of exploring his character.

It's a story, a fairly harmless one I would say, and as a US program, I think it's legitimate to have native American themed programs, when there is a dearth of them, and transfer these stories to a sci fi context. Nobody is saying that this is the truth, it's simply a story.

As for the last comment, the Spanish didn't win because of an uprising of the oppressed in Central America, but through introducing diseases that the local residents didn't have and through political machinations, motivated by greed to obtain natural resources... this is just a fact.

Having said that, some indigenous societies (in fact almost all) did significant damage to the environment well before the Europeans arrived, and it is true that a certain romanticism almost universally ascribes them a love and concern for the environment that may not have been true.

Where the difference lies is the huge scope of the change to the environment that often accompanied colonization, which is perhaps at the heart of indigenous resistance to change wrought by settlement. It's not that everything was perfect, but a certain balance was knocked off, which leads to indigenous people yearning for things to be the way they were before colonization, yes, perhaps idealizing certain things, but aren't we always motivated by ideals? (Surely a question that needn't be asked of Star Trek fans). If idealizing our ancestors, accurately or not, helps preserve the environment I'm all for it. I think if we don't start to take care shortly, then we may start looking on that past that some others above have criticized so lightly with much kinder eyes

"Yes, it is perhaps implausible to come across a symbol of Chakotay's ancestors on a random planet in the Delta Quadrant, especially just where Chakotay and co. beam in, but hey, it's a TV series about humans in space, and the stories revolve around that."

No. They revolve around situations that are supposed to make sense within the context of that TV series.

"Voyager has a character of indigenous American descent, and this is a way of exploring his character."

Except they don't. Chakotay's "American descent" is nothing but bunch of ignorant stereotypes, that only hurt actual native Americans. And even if it wasn't, there are much better ways to explore that, than more racist magical Indian nonsense. And frankly why do they need to explore that? Can't they just make him interesting person on his own?

"If idealizing our ancestors, accurately or not, helps preserve the environment I'm all for it. I think if we don't start to take care shortly, then we may start looking on that past that some others above have criticized so lightly with much kinder eyes."

Because nothing helps your cause more than using lies and reducing entire culture of people to bunch of stereotypical bullshit.

To distract from the politics above, what numbnuts designed the transporters on Voyager? These things never work!


Anyways, One scene that hit home was when Chakotay couldn't speak the ancient language. How many of us North Americans are carrying names from ancestors whom we wouldn't be able to communicate with if they appeared today? Be it German, Chinese, Ukrainian, Hebrew, etc, etc... I know I'm one.

So ... one of your ancestors was called Inline?

;)

Once again, the transport beam is not working. What is a direct proof that writers' creativity wasn't either.

Another example is the main plot. As Jammer has said, it is just another episode of Trek telling us about alien background of ancient cultures in Earth. The first, second or third times it may sound smart, fresh, amazing. At this point it is just predictable and sort of boring.

And what about minor flaws like Kes suddenly knowing how to reprogram a holo-experiment? Blah. And what about the universal translator missing precisely when Chakotay encounters new aliens? Pfff

Sure, the character development here is nice and welcome. Sure the B plot with The Doctor is amazing. Funny and touching at the same time, as usual. I also enjoyed the nice thouch of the "that's the way human conquerors often introduce themselves".

Still, the show seems a bit tired at this point and I hope it got better later.

Admittedly, there's some decent effort given to this episode. However I have a feeling that the writers, at times, delve into story ideas without really thinking them through. The Chakotay story here was admirable enough but some of it didn't feel quite right. It didn't help that too many contrivances were involved. The parts involving the Doctor, though, were fantastic.

2.5 stars.

The smug sanctimoniousness of first season TNG meets the smug sanctimoniousness of Pocahantas. There's a combination I didn't need. Yeah, I'm with the "this is ridiculously racist" crowd. Combine that with lame flashbacks to a backstory that provided absolutely zero surprises and provided zero drama, and this is probably the worst episode of Voyager so far.

And besides how insulting the plot is, just how stupid is the Voyager crew? So everytime they try to beam down or take a shuttle down, a storm appears, and they never suspect hostile intentions? Any particular reason why Tuvok missed that little logical step? After all, it never happened before, so to claim the transporter is causing the storm is completely absurd. An alien presence watching them is just as logical. Why did it not enter their mind? I guess for the same reason a hawk randomly attacked Neelix. Durn the details, full speed ahead! Who cares if the plot makes sense?

I don't even want to talk about the main plot. I was surprised to see a few people cheer the Doctor subplot. I mean, yes, he's a joy to watch as usual. But didn't everyone see exactly what was going to happen with that plot as soon as it started? It was about as derivative as possible. Of course he would start arrogant about his ability to cope at the beginning. Of course it would get worse over time. Of course by the end he would learn his lesson and be a massive complainer at the end. And of course his friend would be the one to provide a little twist. I mean, as a subplot, it's ok, but I'm not sure why it's so praiseworthy.

On the plus side, I'm starting to get the feeling that Heroes and Demons last year was an aberration. I complained then that the Doctor seemed way too sentient and human in that episode, far more than he should have been. Since then, though, his character has been toned down and feels a lot more like just a program. This is as it should be. I like him feeling like he is fine the way he is, that he isn't human and doesn't feel the need to grow, and has to be pulled into it by Kes. I'm glad to see I was a bit wrong about my rant in H & D.

So we can all agree no one likes Space Indians? They seem so forced, boring and out of place.

Also as far as the doctor goes, there are bits of his coding that I'd like to think would be encrypted and read-only. This is the EMERGENCY MEDICAL hologram. The crew's last line of defense for protecting and restoring the lives of personnel. It annoys me that the writers would have this character of making itself sick on a whim, or by a crew mate. Things go wrong on starships all the time. A thousand anomalies can happen that prevent the EMERGENCY medical hologram from returning to a fully functioning status.

Another example is his interaction with the blond warrior woman from the Heroes and Demons episode, or that French lady in Paris' pool hall. EMH programmers would have had to go out of their way to write code that he gets nervous around pretty ladies flirting with him. Can you imagine AI breaking procedure during triage because he falls in love, or failing to remember treatments because he was so distracted by pretty alien guest of the day? He should have absolutely no emotion at all. But I guess that's boring to watch when you consider that's like Data but without the charming intrigue constantly wondering about humanoid culture, and expertise limited to medical knowledge as a role.

I know this episode is old already, but I was watching it again tonight and you what bothered me the most? The alien native chief's makeup. His eyes were all blackened and he had on so much white makeup on his face. It looked gross and certainly didn't look like he was "living right"! In addition to the way it made him look "sick" it was kinda weird that he was a "white guy". They couldn't find an actor of "color"?
Despite all of that, I like Chakotay as well as the whole Star Trek Voyager series! It is too easy to pick about movies and shows on TV, just too easy.😊

3 stars Jammer?

Uggggg... stereotype of the American Indian meet the environmentalist whacko... We need frakin voo-doo, stupid spirits and some rain dances here!! I was fine with the Animal Guide thing, but this is nuts.

Didn't we lose another shuttle craft here? I think they have now officially lost more than they started with :-)

I remember wanting to jack slap the kid...

At least we got Naomi in this episode... Kes, the Doc and Harry at least make that enjoyable. doc giving himself the flu was a riot.

It wasn't even Beltran's butt :-) He used a "butt-double" :-)

1.5 stars

Another chuckles-centric ep. Yawn. Didn't find it interesting in the least. Still thought the tattoo looked better in S4's Living Witness.

Best part of this ep was the always-reliable Robert Picardo's performance as the Doctor. Here Kes gives him a lesson in empathy. One that I'm sure his adaptive programming algorithms quickly took to heart.

1 star is all I could muster for it. And only because of that silly but entertaining subplot.

As sfdebris put it, this episode basically says "Native American Indians were a primitive
backward people until white people from outer space helped them". Oops.

Best part of the episode was Neelix getting attacked by the crow. I laugh everytime!

And is Chakotays tattoo an actual tattoo then or is like marker pen or something? Cos when he goes undercover he doesn't always have it so does he wash it off or does the Doctor have to dermal regenerate or plastic surgery over it everytime?

File this under worthy but dull. The insight into Chakotay's back story is interesting, and the flashback sequences well integrated, but the plot seems insanely implausible. And again, we have another contrivance to block the transporters. It's just all so slow.

Even the Doctor can't save this one in a less than successful b-story. Best bit by a mile - Neelix's assault by hawk. 2 stars.

In this episode, Kess tells the doctor that he has never experienced pain, but he experienced it just a few episodes prior in Projections.

I couldnt stop giggling every time Chakotay said "rubber people".

I guess Chakotay finally found Gumby.

I do wish there wouldve been some closure to the doctors story line though.

"I don't even want to talk about the main plot. I was surprised to see a few people cheer the Doctor subplot. I mean, yes, he's a joy to watch as usual. But didn't everyone see exactly what was going to happen with that plot as soon as it started? It was about as derivative as possible. Of course he would start arrogant about his ability to cope at the beginning. Of course it would get worse over time. Of course by the end he would learn his lesson and be a massive complainer at the end. And of course his friend would be the one to provide a little twist. I mean, as a subplot, it's ok, but I'm not sure why it's so praiseworthy."

That's what made it good. As noted by Aristotle in the Poetics: "[i]n the characters too, exactly as in the structure of the incidents, [the author] ought always to seek what is either necessary or probable, so that it is either necessary or probable that a person of such-and-such a sort say or do things of the same sort, and it is either necessary or probable that this [incident] happen after that one. It is obvious that the solutions of plots too should come about as a result of the plot itself, and not from a contrivance." So the Doctor's story playing out as we expected it to play out based on the nature of the characters and the events which occurred prior to it made it a good story.

@ George Monet,

Since you're quoting Aristotle I've got to jump all over this. Aristotle doesn't mean what you are trying to mean in your reply to Skeptical. Aristotle means simply that the plot should be logical and flow naturally from the given circumstances, typically also obeying the unities. He does not mean that the plot should be simplistic and predictable. Indeed, a great example of a plot of the type Aristotle describes can be found in Sophocles' "Oedipus the King", where the end is a foregone conclusion right from the start, and yet there's zero chance a first-time reader/viewer would be able to guess it. It is supposed to come as a shocker to end all shockers, even though there is literally no other way it could end. That's what Aristotle means about good craftsmanship.

Skeptical, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be saying that the story is *illogical* (which Aristotle wouldn't like) but rather facile and without any surprise or revelation. Revelation doesn't have to come as a result of a surprise, like "Oedipus" has, but it does at least have to come as a result of not knowing what you're going to learn while watching the material. In Aeschylus' "Agamemon", for instance, the plot is a given but the part the audience wouldn't be ready for is the poetry linking that story with suffering and death in life in general, showing how the audience partakes in the same strife as the great heros do. Being able to practically guess what's coming next in the script and what will be said is basically dramatic death.

blah blah blah..... bleeccchhhh

Always love when I write my review then read others and find that they share my sentiments lol

I don't see 3 stars for this one. It's way too cheesy. All this "spirits of our ancestors" generic Native American stuff.
And I don't buy the Aliens infused their DNA storyline. Infused how? Voodoo? And how is it nobody on Earth ever notices that some of their population has anomalous DNA?
The only part I liked is how Chakotay decided to set down arms and change clothes to get through to these people. It shows how he's an effective leader, because he can go off protocol and use creative approaches depending on what he's learned.

Ah yes more Chakotay is every native american stuff. poor Robert Beltran the only episodes they ever write for him are about how he's a native american who's tribe lived in central america but holds north american values and cultural traits.

No wonder he bitches about the voyager staff all the time they made his character from a Guerrilla fighter trying to protect his home to, my people believe you can't own land now I must go on a spirit journey and play the song of my people Pan flutes. Doesn't help that for all but a half dozen episodes he was janeway's bitch who rarely voiced his opinion and just did what ever the captain said.

I do find it amusing that the voyager writers actually wrote that native Americans were so uncivilized with little more than fire and stone tools that they needed aliens to genetically alter them in order to thrive and build civilizations.

RANDOM OBSERVATION:

The guy that plays the alien Chieftain is Richard Chaves - he played Poncho in the classic film Predator!

Never noticed that before until my 3rd time watching all the episodes again!

So why is this episode racist? I get the idea that they were primitives until white aliens fixed them, but why do people get so upset whenever "cultures" are represented on Star Trek? With this episode, many commenters here have used the word "stereotype", yet all of the practices shown in this episode WERE used by American Indians? So why is it racist? That reminds me of the episode "code of Honor". The episode sucks, BUT, all of the "steretypes" shown in the episode DO EXIST in even modern African cultures? Why is it racist to show things as they really are?

JLP. you're missing the point about the racist part. Do you know why Guinan exists? It's because Whoopi Goldberg was so inspired by the character of Uhura, being on the bridge and treated as just another person, another equal by the white guys, that she begged to be added to the show in order to honor that idea. Well, turns out she was wrong. It is official Star Trek canon that Africans are an inferior race. As are Europeans and Asians for that matter... According to this episode, MLK's dream of being judged not by the color of his skin is dead. The belief that all races are equal is dead. This episode states that Amerindians are the master race (yes, I chose those words deliberately). Amerindians are, according to Star Trek, functionally superior to Africans, to Asians, to Europeans. They are better.

How is that not racist?

Imagine if someone pitched a story idea that ancient aliens, upon visiting Earth, discovered the primitive blond haired, blue eyed people to be far better at reasoning and innovation compared to the other groups of ancient humans, and decided to reveal themselves only to the proto-Europeans. That pitch would be yanked faster than you could say Nazi. So why is the parallel premise, which is this episode, allowed? Why is it awful to say Aryans are a superior race but just peachy to say Amerindians are a superior race?

I ain't buying that. It's insulting to everyone and should never have been filmed. All of Star Trek's goodwill towards showing a color-blind future, and they throw it away in an ill-conceived display of white guilt and fetishizing a people they don't even understand.

Does it actually say that Native Americans were inherently superior (yet still locked in the Stone Age), *before* the alien intervention, and chosen for this reason?

Or does it say that a benefit was conferred on the people that the aliens intervened with, who happened to be Native Americans?

It sounds like a weak ep either way, but the latter concept doesn't carry the racism that some are marking.

From Memory Alpha:

"45,000 years previously, the alien's people visited Earth and ran across a small group of primitive nomadic hunters, who had no spoken language and no culture other than fire and stone tools. Deeply impressed by their respect for the land and other living creatures, the beings gifted the people with an inheritance, a genetic bonding, in the exact same way that the alien is touching Chakotay now, so the hunters might thrive and protect their world."

That "deeply impressed by their respect for the land and other living creatures" part - especially given the tree-hugging stereotype of Amerindians - does strike me as the episode insinuating that they believe this tribe is superior. Also, the aliens give the gift so that this tribe will thrive and protect the world, indicating a role of leadership (superiority), and as the aliens visited over time they cared only about this particular tribe (indicating how special it is). There's no doubt the message is one of superiority.

I see a couple of missed opportunities by the writers.
The natives back on 24th century earth have standard aliwn ridges on their foreheads, but are somehow Chakotay's ancestors. They could have written so that the tatoos marked on the forehead be a way for this culture to mimic and remember the sky spirits. This could have been used to enhance the storyline, and give sense to that distict Iron Mike marking by the ship's commander.

Utter crap

I have no idea how Jammer can score this higher than the previous episode Persistance of Vision boggles the mind. Whereas that episode what about genuinely interesting and exciting science fiction this was hokey quasi-religious nonsense. Good job one of only possibly 3 humans left alive who could possibly recognise the symbols and culture manages to bump into the planet of the cloaked and incredibly well-hidden Sky Spirits 70,000 light years away at the opposite end of a enormously large, so large in fact your brain can't possibly comprehend how impossibly big it actually is, galaxy.

A turd of an episode - 1 star (and that's for the Doctor being ill B-story saving it from being a zero)

Terrible, bland, and probably insulting. I hate when Star Trek attempts to explain spirituality with science. Especially when the characters continue treating it in a spiritual manner. If they understood the science behind it, they'd leave behind the mumbo jumbo.

I only finished this one out of a sense of completionism, and it wasn't easy. 1 star.

In its own way, I found this episode worse than Threshold. Threshold, at least, was pure weapons-grade crap science and stupid storytelling.

This one's up there with TNG: Code of Honor in terms of incredibly bad subtext. Here we have an episode where Chakotay's people get their culture from magical white hippies from the sky. It's so patronizing that it almost makes me want to blow chunks just watching it.

2 stars. This episode just wasn't that interesting. Simple as that

Oh boy.

Well.

So okay, background: while the "aliens interceded in human evolution as gods" trope isn't really my favourite, it does have precedent in Trek. Obviously TOS has frikking Apollo show up, TNG has its own origin myth in The Chase (which I like), and DS9 (season 7 spoiler) has its own particular instance of an alien "god" altering an individual's birth/history with the Sarah Sisko material, in addition to the various weird alien backstories for individuals (like Jack the Ripper, or the various people Flint apparently was in Requiem for Methuselah, or the influences that are suggested in Death Wish by the Q, or the way Amelia Earhart was actually abducted by aliens). Whereas in TOS, "Apollo" and the other Greek gods are clearly meant to be no longer worshipped, and are, to some extent, identified with the past of the *whole* of the crew, most of whom featured in the episode are European-descended, and further Who Mourns for Adonais? episode specifically "argues" that Apollo is not a real god and should no longer be worshiped by 24th century humans, who can see through him. This episode presents the Sky Spirits as being plausibly, if not divine, at least meaningful and supports the religious beliefs of Chakotay's ancestors in a particular way which is pretty un-Trek, at least with *human* (as opposed to Bajoran or whatever) religions. And as indicated by the above commenters, the problem ends up being something like Piller et al. *both* contorting the usual Trek "rules" out of exaggerated deference to a particular group, AND ends up being incredibly patronizing to said group. I was trying to think after rewwatching the episode what it was that the whole "aliens met friendly prehistoric hominid, modified them genetically" backstory reminded me of, and I realized it matches up fairly well with the Vorta origin story as laid out by Weyoun in Treachery, Faith and the Great River, but of course we (and Odo) rightly regard that tale with suspicion, since it ends with the Vorta deferential to totalitarian overlords they regard as gods and for whom they'll commit atrocities. As people pointed out above, the implication is that Chakotay's ancestors' ability to bond with the land and so on is because aliens made them smarter, and so undermines the attempt to raise up something as being *within* his ancestors that made them special in the first place. It also does this weird, consistent thing which the show does when it comes to Chakotay, wherein it sort of imagines a kind of pan-Native American culture and suggests that somehow Chakotay can stand in for whole peoples which are different from each other, and in this particular case that this "sky spirit" origin story somehow says something special about all indigenous peoples, maybe? The end result seems confused, dated, and counterproductive.

And that's a shame for various reasons, but one of the big ones is that I do think that the core isn't totally ill-intentioned. Chakotay rebelled against his father and wanted to join Starfleet and the modern world. Then his father died, and Chakotay then tried to learn what it was that his father knew and believed, but still could only really guess at it in some ways. The basic idea here is that his father and his father's culture end up having some "truth" to it. And that's a general story that is not out of place. In some senses it's not that different in theme than something like TNG's Family, where Robert represents Picard's father and Picard reluctantly has to come to find some sort of peace within the "backwards," facing-toward-the-past family traditions after his own exploratory, future-facing life has suddenly led to his being shockingly traumatized in the encounter with the hyper-modern Borg. I don't think celebrating an indigenous Central American people and its descendants is any less appropriate than celebrating a family tradition, if handled with a little subtlety and grace, which is mostly lacking in this episode as is. Still, I don't hate the episode the way many other commenters do and sort of appreciate what it was trying to do for Chakotay, whose emotional arc in this episode more or less makes sense to me. I might come back and elaborate. If nothing else, this is an episode I actually kind of want to revisit -- not because I think it's good (I don't) but because it's clearly attempting to do something, which is something that the last several episodes largely haven't frankly. I'm going to go with 2 stars provisionally for now.

Just to expand a bit, I think the particular virtues Chakotay associates with his people -- patience, oneness with nature, respect for life in general -- are sometimes dismissed as retrograde or whatever but I think have value. Most cultures, including non-dominant ones, have good and bad aspects to them, and to have Chakotay as a teen reject his culture and then find he understands its good points better as an adult, and, indeed, only being able to understand his "home" when he's on the other side of the galaxy and his father is dead, is a story that I find moving in the abstract, and there are some moments that work okay in practice. It just pushes too hard, and pushes too hard on a made up, non-specific Hollywood mishmash of different Native American cultures which is somehow meant to represent all such cultures and as a result kind of fails to represent any.

This episode is too farfetched for me. Chakotay just happens to be next to his alien ancestor's planet, which also happens to have exactly the mineral they were searching for at the time. Whatever. Not that the rest of it makes any sense either.

If these are his ancestors why doesn't he have the forehead ridges? The tribe in Central America had them in the present day, why not Chakotay? And they say there were hundreds of thousands of the 'rubber people' (lol) before 'new people' came and killed most of them. Noone noticed hundreds of thousands of alien/human hybrids? Really?

Then Chakotay and his father find the ones hiding out, and can see that they are clearly aliens, but don't mention it at all. Or tell anyone else about it? Or study them or get a genetic sample or investigates? That would be one of the greatest anthropological finds in human history.

And when Chakotay enters the village on the alien planet, he strips down naked. wtf? He didn't find the clothes until after he did that. He was going to run around nude to show these unknown aliens he wasn't a threat? wut? Why not do that everytime they meet a new species? Quick! Everyone strip!

And why do the aliens there live in a jungle in huts or whatever they are? Like Chakotay says 'With warp technology, they wouldn't be living like this. Captain.' Exactly.

Also these aliens have visited Earth multiple times. How? It's going to take Voyager 75 years one way. So a round trip would be 150 years. They seriously took a 150 year long trip multiple times? To check on some random planet they found 45,000 years ago? And why were they there in the first place? Were they looking for primitive humanoids to 'genetically bond' with?


And one thing I don't think anyone mentioned yet is this:

CHAKOTAY: It's an ancient myth. Sky Spirits from above created the first Rubber People in their own image and led the way to a sacred land where the Rubber People would live for eternity.
JANEWAY: You obviously don't put a great deal of faith in this explanation.
CHAKOTAY: How much faith do you put in Adam and Eve? Hasn't science proved that all humans developed from a single evolutionary process?

So Christianity is proven wrong, but all the beliefs of Sky Spirits and Rubber People are proven right. Adam and Eve, just make believe. Vision quests and animal guides and a medicine wheel, all real.

^ I made a rhyme :P

This episode is somewhat racist, but it's much more anti-Christian than anything else. Those ignorant Christians (whose religion is totally wrong) came and killed all the enlightened Rubber People (whose religion is totally right).

The Doc stuff was hokey and predictable. And what was the point of it? He never acted any differently after this. He wasn't suddenly all understanding and compassionate.

bad episode. 1 star.

0 stars. Honestly, ridiculous

There was a warp capable alien tribe living in jungles on earth since the dawn of man and nobody noticed?

That's not my main issue with the episode though. Why does Chakotay's irrational spiritualism get treated with such undue respect? We saw it in previous episodes with his "spirit guide". It's the 24th century and nobody says "What the hell are you talking about? You talk to an imaginary eagle? Please report to sickbay." In context, if he was spouting off about Jesus instead of "spirits" it (rightfully) wouldn't have been in the show or would have been handled as "*roll eyes*, he's talking abut jesus again". Why do equally irrational native american beliefs get a free pass? The white guilt in this and most other Chakotay episodes is cringeworthy.

Would people shut up about white guilt? The episode is saying Native Americans were dumb savages who were blessed by white men from space. It fetishizes them as some kind of mystical magic people. It's at least just as racist towards them as it is to anybody else.

Not bad but with flaws like what exactly Chakotay gets out of this whole thing and Janeway's decision with Voyager. So these spirit people, that Chakotay nixed as a kid are real and extremely powerful and they have the capability of visiting Earth from the DQ. And it's a big mystery for Voyager. Not a bad premise.

The best part was the flashbacks and how it coincided with what Chakotay and the away team were going through. I take it the spirit people were giving these visions to Chakotay to lead him to find them in a truly peaceful way so that he could appreciate what his father was trying to tell him. Totally understandable that a young Chakotay (poorly acted) would reject all these tribal things and join Star Fleet.

A hawk attacks Neelix -- not sure why, as Neelix is harmless and in the end it screeches and Chakotay understands something? Maybe respect for the land? Not a good enough payoff after the episode spends a lot of time with the away team going around trying to find the aliens. For me, the episode wasn't as compelling as it should have been given that one of the main characters is being fleshed out basically from his most fundamental make-up.

Janeway's decision to land Voyager on the planet was dumb and we get within 10 seconds of it being destroyed. Of course Chakotay would get the spirit people to turn off the storm in time, so this scene was just for some cheap thrills in a pretty quiet episode.

Gotta say Doc's B-plot was hilarious -- doctors make the worst patients. Picardo acted the part of a somebody with a flu so well -- looked really legit with his sneezing, blowing the nose. Doc's scenes are regularly turning into one of the strong points from VOY.

2.5 stars for "Tattoo" -- a good episode to really understand Chakotay's childhood and pretty cool to suggest these these spirit people aliens were basically gods for aboriginal people some 45000 years ago and that they visited Earth many times. Reminds me of "Who Mourns for Adonais?" with the Greek gods being aliens who visited Earth (Greece) 5000 years ago. Ultimately, not totally clear what Chakotay takes away from this other than presumably an appreciation of his father and nature -- which is fine, but hardly mind-blowing. A mixed bag this episode.

So boring I tuned out and don't have much comment. Definitely one of my least favorites of the season so far. I don't like it when we move from sci f and more into fantasy or spiritualism/mysticism. To me, it's fine in other settings, but not what I want from Star Trek, and disappoints me.

I get that his origins are important to Chokotay, and we need to see a bit of that to understand him, but it feels like that's all there is to him. We rarely see any development apart from his ancestral/racial connections.

Wanted to add, loved the Doctor's illness and Kes's devious little change in the program. Rescued the ep from total awfulness.

Teaser : **.5, 5%

While searching a moon for a mineral the Voyager desperately needs, Chakotay comes across a symbol drawn into the soil. This triggers a flashback in which an adolescent Chakotay and his father explore the rainforest. This same symbol had been carved into a piece of wood left by the Rubber Tree People. …

Okay...as I referenced in my pre-amble (pre-RAMBLE) to “Caretaker,” the background to Chakotay's people is all kinds of messed up. Without rehashing all of that, I think the biggest problem stems from good intentions. Jeri Taylor wanted Chakotay to be “Voyager”'s Uhura. Now, in TOS, the ethnicities of the various crew-members was shorthand for the Trekkian ideal of human multiculturalism. In the famous Uruha/Kirk kiss from “Plato's Stepchildren,” the actors' lips had to be hidden from the camera lest the 1960s audience should have to start casting out demons from their TV sets, so depicting the 23rd century as somewhat post-racial (as the logic of the Trek universe suggests things would actually be) wasn't going to happen on that series. But now, it's the 90s, baby. Michael Dorn gets to have off-screen monster-frog sex with Marina Sirtis, Avery Brooks gets to bed Terry Ferrel, and Tim Russ gets to touch minds with Tank Girl, so a modicum of progress has been made. My point is that Berman-era Trek can more closely guise itself as post-racial. Sure, Picard makes references to his French heritage and Sisko to his Creole roots, but this is more sentimental than it is identitarian. This was not the case for Uhura, whose East African identity was pretty specific for the time. But the PTB wanted to follow the Hollywood “Dances with Wolves” trend make Trek an inclusive place for Native Americans. And that in itself is wonderful. Making Chakotay of Native heritage, like making Torres of latin heritage and Kim of Korean/Chinese heritage, is a positive way to carry on this legacy of representation. However, thanks to “Journey's End,” there seems to be this odd notion that in the wake of the rise of the Federation, Native Americans (alone) reverse-colonialised themselves into a group more culturally isolated from the rest of humanity in the 24th century than Native tribes are TODAY. And somehow, this process of isolation also homogenised the diverse tribes into one Ur-tribe calling itself “Indian.” This is all very dubious and offensive, but I think the reason this came about is rather simple.

See, Star Trek (especially of the TMP/TNG era) is highly critical of present-day humanity. The conceit of human evolution is that we, as a species, will outgrow or at least consciously-suppress certain unfortunate facets of our being, including religiosity, greed, prejudice, and imperialism. So, Picard can enjoy his French wine in the same way I (of Spanish descent) enjoy recreating my grandmother's paella. This does not mean I believe in the Inquisition or handing out Smallpox blankets! But First Nation people? No, they are the one subset of humanity that has remained rigidly conservative, flat-out rejecting human evolution altogether...somehow. And the implication from “Journey's End” is that they did this to “undo” the genocide of their people from the colonial era. I can't quite capture in words how much I hate this idea. You cannot *undo* great evils. They happen and they have consequences. The establishment of Israel, for example, does not *undo* the Holocaust. They are connected, sure, but one does not balance the scales of mass murder. Ever. That we should learn NEVER to repeat the mistakes of colonialism? Yes. That we should always be mindful that colonialism permeates every facet of our human culture today? Yes. That any amount of cultural conservatism can “wipe clean the very old stain of blood” that colonialism is? No. Fuck no.

But, thanks to Michael Piller and his weird back-to-nature bent, we're stuck with The Rubber Tree People, who still live in Central America, practise the religion of the North American plains, and (eventually) are shown to use dream-catchers, which neither of these groups did. A full breakdown of Chakotay's contradictory heritage can be found here: http://www.spiletta.com/rubbertree.html. If only they had stuck to their plan make Chakotay Mayan, we could have had the episode where he eats Neelix' heart.

I choose to get most of this out of the way upfront because I've already made my feelings on the content of the episode clear on the page to “The Search I.” So, I'll focus more upon the actual structure of the story in the following sections. The brief flashback indicates that young Chakotay and his father didn't exactly see eye-to-eye on issues regarding their heritage. Baggage aside, the idea that the Voyager would encounter a symbol from Chakotay's childhood in the DQ is handled alright and sets up an amiable mystery.

Act 1 : **, 17%

We pick up with the EMH and Kes examining the now mid-term Samantha Wildman (c.f. “Elogium”). The Doctor has a rather...Republican view of pregnancy discomfort. After she leaves, Kes mildly berates him for his lack of empathy.

EMH: Every member of this crew is an adult. I will not coddle them. Compassion can be your department. Fortunately, you have enough for both of us.

Hysterical. Kes points out that his inability to suffer physical discomfort may be partially to blame for his lack of bedside manner. Right. Because being eternally-confined to a single room wouldn't cause him pain in the slightest.

In his quarters, Chakotay explains the context of his flashback to Janeway. His father had dragged him to Earth on a quest to meet the descendants of the made up tribe. When Janeway wonders aloud how the symbol on Chakotay's sacred stone and on the flashback log could end up in the DQ, his sarcastic response is to explain the myth of the “Sky Spirits,” the creator-gods of the fake Indians.

CHAKOTAY: How much faith do you put in Adam and Eve? Hasn't science proved that all humans developed from a single evolutionary process?

Mhm. Is Janeway a Jew or a Christian or a Muslim? Because, I think it's been firmly established that Chakotay actually believes in the religion of his people, whoever they are. This fact has provided half his characterisation so far. Here, I think is where the writers run into the same type of problem with Chakotay as in “Initiations.” Their instinct is to write Chakotay like a normal Federation human with some particular ethnic quirks playing up the peaceful one-with-nature tropes. But, they also want to make him a Maquis AND a believer. These ideas are not really compatible. In fact, the contradictory ideas compound upon one another. Chakotay is a peaceful man (like all Federation humans), but this is something he inherited from his tribe. Okay. Also, they don't believe in owning land, which is why he renounced his citizenship and joined a violent terrorist organisation in order to defend land that never belonged to him, either in the legal sense or the spiritual sense. Huh? Just like with the Bajorans on DS9, the writers' attempts to mollify the elements of fandom which is uncomfortable with Trek's atheistic humanism runs right up against the architecture of the Trek universe and create a mess.

Of course, Chakotay's Adam and Eve comment could be interpreted to demonstrate that Chakotay is religious, but not fundamentalist, like a Unitarian or something. It's still quite problematic that he would take his beliefs so seriously that he would risk his life just to honour the anniversary of his father's death, but not so seriously that he doesn't really believe in his religion's foundational myths. Janeway has a practical take on the whole thing: maybe the Sky Spirits abducted Amelia Earhart! Something like that.

The Voyager tracks a warp trail from the moon in the teaser to a possibly-inhabited planet, rich with the mineral they need. Chakotay brings Tuvok and...Neelix? (what are they going to EAT the minerals now?)...with him to the transporter room to explore. But Torres reports that the transporter beam seems to trigger the formation of a very rough thunderstorm, thus making transportation impossible. So, they take a shuttle instead. But the shuttle too seems to trigger a storm as well. Tuvok finds this curious, of course, but no one else seems the least bit suspicious that Odin is angry with their attempts to land on this world.

The storm sends us back into the flashback, to the rainy jungle of Arizona-Wyoming-Alberta-Venezuela. Papa Chakotay realises that his son is miserable, “a contrary.” Here, Michael Piller confuses “contrarian” with an actual (non-Mayan) philosophy, but we have enough to cover already. Papa worries that Chakotay is will be lost without embracing the beliefs of his people, which his disdain for rain and mosquitos clearly indicate he has not done. Before the shuttle can land in the present, Chakotay sees a Rubber Tree Person, Mufasa-style, amongst the clouds. Ooooooo.

Act 2 : *.5, 17%

We pick up in sickbay, where the EMH explains to Kes two important things: 1. he's keeping his catchphrase, “please, state the nature...” and 2. he's programmed himself with some sort of alien bug (the symptoms obviously) in order to learn empathy. This very Data-esque attempt to quantify experience points is pretty amusing.

KES: I think this is very brave of you.
EMH: Nothing of the sort. I intend it to be an educational experience.
KES: I'm sure you'll learn a lot.
EMH: I meant for the crew. I'm tired of the whiny, cranky attitudes we see around here. I intend to serve as an example of how one's life and duties do not have to be disrupted by simple illness.
KIM (enters): Doc, I don't feel so good.
EMH: Neither do I, and you don't hear me complaining.

Lol

Alright, enough fun. The away team marvels at how the weather seems to have cleared up and Chakotay in particular is astonished to find a flower that he recognises from his visit to the Rubber Forest. So, the Sky Spirits were botanists, I guess. And so too, it turns out, is Tuvok, who reveals his knowledge of horticulture, in particular the breeding of orchids. Oh, and wouldn't you know it, Neelix ALSO breeds rare orchids. You know, for salads. Glad we brought him along. Torres reports that there's plenty of their needed mineral, so all they need now is to find the planet's inhabitants and ask for permission to mine it. But then, Chakotay spots a hawk, triggering the flashback.

Young Chakotay tells his father that he met Captain Sulu (wouldn't he have to be like 100 years old at that point?) and received his sponsorship to join Starfleet Academy. Wait a minute. Nog needed Sisko's sponsorship because Ferengi are not part of the Federation. So why would Chakotay need sponsorship? Are the Indians really so xenophobic that their citizenship is provisional? Anyway, he's leaving the tribe, disappointing his zealous and close-minded father.

KOLOPAK: You will never belong to that other life. And if you leave, you will never belong to this one. You'll be caught between worlds.

Oh for fuck's sake. He's not the little mermaid. Young Chakotay is actually being pretty reasonable, and I'm offended by the implication that we are meant to side with Papa in his argument. Well, the group finally finds evidence of the RTP, a thatched hut.

In the present, Neelix is attacked by the alien hawk, which seems to have taken out his eye. Jesus. Tuvok calmly reveals that he too has discovered a hut (of course), but this one is a made of fancy alien metal...and just as useless in keeping out the elements.

Act 3 : *.5, 17%

The A and B plots intersect briefly as a holographically-congested EMH repairs Neelix' eye. The Doctor explains how he requires no compassion for his self-induced condition, despite being obviously miserable.

Meanwhile, Chakotay reports their findings, including the Mufasa-faces and the anachronistic dwellings. Finally, he determines to re-create what he saw his Papa do on Earth, and orders Torres and Tuvok to lay down their weapons, expecting that his Gesture of Peace™ might bring the aliens out of hiding. Tuvok continues the theme of logical dissent to Chakotay's Indian-hunch-driven decision-making (c.f. “Twisted”), but follows orders in the end.

The flashback team's gesture brings the RTP out of hiding (who are so peaceful they nearly impale one of the expedition-members with a spear). The RTP are apparently so named because they have the rubber foreheads of a Trek alien, along with Chakotay-like tattoos. Everything else aside, it's actually kind of interesting that the design of Chakotay's tattoo (not remotely Mayan btw) follows the contours of these ridges. Papa Chakotay does more peace-gesturing and demonstrates he knows their written and spoken language. Then there was much rejoicing as the women emerge, smiling and giggling, dressed in perfectly clean white linens and begin undressing the expedition team. Umm...ok.

In the present, the away team is less fortunate, as all they get for their trouble is another storm. Chakotay spots a white-faced alien before being knocked out by a falling branch. Tuvok calls for an emergency beam-out, but Chakotay's com-badge has fallen off. As the camera zooms in on his unconscious form, the lightning flashes assault the audience with the Mufasa image over and over again. DO YOU GET IT? DO YOU GET IT??????

Act 4 : **.5, 17%

Before Janeway can lead a rescue team to find Chakotay and the shuttle (they've already lost three this season), the EMH calls her to report that his pre-programmed virus has lasted an hour longer than it was supposed to. He begs, nay demands that someone help him, so she sends Harry down to the sickbay. Kes attends to his symptoms before informing Harry that she just adjusted his experiment by extending the simulation by a couple of hours, making the point that part of bedside manner is demonstrating compassion for the uncertainty that accompanies sickness. It's a cute scene and, while I find the “lesson” for the Doctor overly cartoonish, it's nice to see Kes take initiative like this and demonstrate her rapid maturation.

Chakotay awakens on Planet Lion King and notes that the shuttle and his crewmen are missing. So, having been likely concussed, he returns to the hut and starts talking to thin air and taking off his clothes (something teenage Chakotay was too body-conscious to allow in the flashback). He dons a white robe that has appeared and enters a Jedi cave or whatever.

On the Voyager, Tuvok finally concludes that the storms and the hawk are all being caused artificially. Duh. So, Janeway decides to land the ship again. This time, for reasons, the storms are so strong that they threaten the ship. In fact, the Voyager is caught in a cyclone, an amusing visual image.

Act 5 : .5 stars, 17%

While Torres tries to techno-save the ship from Janeway's stupid decision, Chakotay finally encounters on the aliens inside the cave, speaking the same words Chakotay recalls from his trip to Central America. The aliens have Chakotay tattoos and the same ridges as the RTP, but more pronounced. The lead alien hands Chakotay a universal translator and then we get the backstory.

“Forty-five-thousand years ago, on our fist visit to your world, we met a small group of nomadic hunters. They had no spoken language, no culture, except the use of fire and stone weapons. But they did have a respect for the land and for other living creatures that impressed us deeply. We decided to give them an inheritance, a genetic bonding so they might thrive and protect your world. On subsequent visits, we found that our genetic gift brought about a spirit of curiosity and adventure. It impelled them to migrate away from the cold climate to a new, unpeopled land. It took them almost a thousand generations to cross your planet. Hundreds of thousands of them flourished in their new land. Their civilisation had a profound influence on others of your species. But then, new people came with weapons and disease. The Inheritors who survived scattered. Many sought refuge in other societies. Twelve generations ago, when we returned, we found no sign of their existence.”

So, as others have pointed out, even divorcing this absurdity from the confines of Star Trek, the message here is that the Native Americans only discovered advanced civilisation through the intercession of pale-faced aliens. In other words, precisely the kind of racist, arrogant, West is Best attitude held by the conquistadors whom Michael Piller is trying to apologise for. But instead of Smallpox, the aliens bestowed rubber face ridges, tattoos, and the ability never to have to do laundry. Maybe they should have shared their magic tornado technology instead. I bet those rumours about dragons on the edge of the world would have kept my people at bay for a while longer with some Weather Wizard tech.

The aliens mistook the Voyager for “human conquerers.” Uh-huh. Well, instead of apologising for maiming Neelix, injuring Chakotay and nearly destroying the Voyager, the aliens turn off the cyclone, turn off their cloak and offer Chakotay and co. some of the minerals they need. Chakotay reveals that Papa was actually killed by the Cardassians. So, we can add vengeance to the grab-bag of contradictory traits in Chakotay's so-called character. More Dancing with Hawks or whatever, pan-flutes and thank the Sky Spirits, it's over.

Episode as Functionary : zero stars, 10%

Roberts Beltran and Picardo give good performances, and the structure of the flashbacks is nicely-handled, but none of that can overcome the incredibly ill-advised and horribly racist message of the episode. Good intentions cannot make up for the piss-poor premise any more than than the implication that Indians thriving in the 24th century can make up for their near-genocide in the colonial era. Chakotay's backstory will be gradually smoothed over to some extent in the future, beginning with “Basics,” but his character will never fully-recover from this travesty, I'm afraid. If you're feeling white guilt, or just want to make a meaningful gesture towards the continued plight of some native peoples, this is a good place to begin: https://standwithstandingrock.net/. “Tattoo,” on the other hand, is a failure.

Final Score : *

I'll quick get this out of the way now, I am not the Elliott who commented above and has apparently been a regular commentator and reviews these episodes in the comments, but I'd like to add onto something that Elliott said:

"But, thanks to Michael Piller and his weird back-to-nature bent..."

You have no idea how much that hits home for me, later TNG and most of DS9 (both of which I do generally enjoy before going too far into my rant) seem to romanticize this idea of "natural" living, of cooking one's own food as opposed to replicating food. Voyager, for whatever flaws it had, at least provided a good reason for why they needed to cook (replicator rations) even though the consistency of Voyager's energy problems were not always handled that well.

Now, it doesn't bother me that restaurants still exist, I have absolutely no problem with the premise that there are people who legitimately enjoy the art of cooking for it's own pleasure (and that there are people who would go to them to enjoy it as an art form, like seeing a painting, or something along those lines) that actually makes perfect sense to me. What bothers me is that the show constantly treats it as just being superior to replicated foods, and never ever challenges that presumption.

With this in mind, I see the Maquis more as this insane logic taken to the natural conclusion. If "natural" is superior to "replicated", then any place that the colonists have farmed the land or built stuff must be superior to some other place that isn't "theirs". Funny enough, I can very easily see a counter-culture develop within some Federation planets that just rejects typical Federation living as "unnatural", in the same way that this element exists today (the fact that people wax poetic about the past is hardly a new thing, and I can very easily see that continue into the future). What bothers me so much about how the series treats it is that it's not looked at critically at all, and if anything is treated as somehow sacred. The Maquis, as portrayed in DS9, are supposed to be looked at as sympathetic as portrayed in story, but it fails just because their whole raison d'etre is kind of lunacy in the context of the type of civilization the Federation is supposed to be. This is a post-scarcity society, they are basically saying that technology that not only eradicates hunger, but also eliminates a lot of destructive and cruel practices that are involved with "natural" food (animal farming, the need to devote huge swathes of land for the sole purpose of a single crop, and the environmental destruction required for it to be tenable widespread), and instead of celebrating this, it's actively lamented by the series at time, that literally eliminating widespread starvation among humanity is seen as making us somehow less than we were in the past.

What makes this whole thing even more absurd is how inconsistent it's treated in-universe. "Unnatural" food is treated as being inferior to "natural" food but 24th Century medicine is always treated as good unless there is some specific circumstance that it shouldn't be used (like Voyager explored in one episode). The same people who spout their nonsense about "replicated slop" like Sisko's father are also the same people who have so many different "artificial" organs and the like as to be hilarious. No one ever treats this like it could possibly be an issue (and for the record, I'm perfectly okay with artificially created organs) but the logic applies to "unnatural" medicine every bit as much as it applies to "unnatural" food and "my land", it's hypocritical, and it's never even addressed at all. Hell, DS9's episode with that crazy lady who marooned her ship on a planet to prevent technology is only treated as a problem because she marooned people, her harsh punishment methods, and the absolute rejection of technology, but even then, it's the punishment that's meant to turn us against her and the use of trickery, not necessarily the rejection of technology, if anything the episode tends to be sympathetic to the general idea of rejecting technology, just not the methods or the more puritanical punishment.

Jammer you say this episode was original..May I ask,in what way you thought it was..because to me it seemed a but familiar like the Chariot of the Gods idea..or can someone tell me if it was a fresh spin on that?? To me Elogium had a more original and imaginative alien race than this..although the genetic memory idea is a unique alien trait..and the fact they are so advanced yet live in cloaked jungle villages was pretty unique..so what exactly made you say this was so original over other episode s with origbalanced sci-fi premises like Elogium and Twisted and Persistence of Vision?..I'm not saying I necessarily disagree. I,hope you can answer thanks for your time..

Consider, if you will, that at the time this episode aired, the idea of ancient aliens wasn't as prevalent in pop culture as it is today.

Those who have actually looked into the myths of indigenous (american) cultures know that the they feature the basic story of this episode i.e. people coming down from the skies and interacting with them.

The fact that they mention the mainstream understanding of life as evolving from one single organism as a "pretty much proven fact", gives the story way more weight than just a simple analogy for imperialism as many here seem to view it.

Ingredients like symbology and destiny, not to mention the extremely entertaining b-story, makes this one a stellar episode and the first VOY that gets 4 stars from me.

@Elliot (not Elliott)

Just wanted to remind you that you could have used any other name to avoid confusion. You didn't have to call yourself Elliot. lol.

Also, again, this episode is not good.

Star Trek Injun episodes have pissed me off since Miramanee and continue to this very day. They are always bad. At least this one wasn't as bad as the Wesley Crusher Injun ep TNG forced upon us. Robert Beltran is a pleasant dude even in stupid episodes.

I can’t say I’m a big fan of this episode. It just didn’t do much for me. I do have a guess about why the hawk attacked Neelix. Neelix was the most “alien” to that land. The least native. His career was also scavenging and taking from lands he visited. So the hawk (symbol of the land/natives) viewed him as the most threatening and most likely to rape the land.

Three stars? Not a fan of this episode, and I'm frequently in the role of defending a "Voyager" episode as being better than given credit. Here, credit is too generous.

(And I like Chakotay -- so no issues with a Chakotay/Native American storyline).

Another observation:

Earth was a VERY busy place for alien visitations according to canonical "Trek," going all the way back to "Who Mourns for Adonis?"

Apart from the unlikelihood (to say the least) of Voyager encountering another species from the other side of a vast galaxy who has not only visited Earth, but who has a personal connection to a crew member, I enjoy "Tattoo" quite a bit. We learn so much about Chakotay in this episode, and all that is said and not said about his relationship with his father is some pretty strong material. That his father died fighting Cardassians, which prompted Chakotay to take up the same fight in his name and to wear the tattoo to honor his memory, despite the fact that the two of them weren't on good terms, tells us a lot. It's some well written, well-performed drama. For all the talk about Robert Beltran supposedly being "wooden", given some good material like this he really does bring the goods.

The scenes where the younger Chakotay does not appreciate his history but the present day Chakotay does resonate with me personally. Sometimes it just takes time and perspective and maybe the loss of a family member to understand why heritage has value, and why appreciating it is not just "living in the past."

Like so many other early Voyager episodes that I did not like at the time, I find that I'm enjoying these much more now than I did when I first saw them, and I'm finding things to appreciate that I missed. I agree with the three star rating. It's a strong episode.

The first half of VOY S2 is just so weak and this actually stands out as strong episode for me as well. Yes I can see why people (including Beltran) have problems with it. I think most of that comes from the constraints of the format, being that we have to introduce, explore, and resolve this week's problem within a set amount of time. It doesn't allow for much nuance. But I found myself surprised to be actually engaged.

I liked the Chakotay backstory. A bit cliched and predictable, sure, but well done overall. It gave his character some depth and motivation, especially his spiritual side. The "sky people" angle might be a bit overdone (what was it? a "genetic imprint"?) but I can forgive that a little I suppose. I also liked the fact that this race didn't actually have some magical technology they would have to deny the Voyager crew but rather travelled to the Alpha quadrant on generational ships. Nice touch.

I'm rewatching Voyager for the first time in years and I must have blocked this out of my memory. I can't honestly recall ANY good Chakotay episodes, so I'll treat this one as a bonus. 3 stars for me.

Also Kes screaming....lmao

what in the DELTA QUADRANT is that noise?
Shocking how she can even create that racket.

3 stars?!

This is almost universally panned as one of the worst episodes in Star Trek History...

And to top it all off, almost every Native American narrative is based off consultations with a white guy that was conning America at the time. Look up “Jamake Highwater” if you don’t know.

So not only is it bad, it’s fraudulent and worse...

Re. Jamake Highwater: He's mentioned in Memory Alpha as serving as a consultant on Native American culture to ST:V. A separate entry there on his name reveals his true identity and the fraud perpetrated as passing himself off as NA. This was in the 1980s. Voyager's producers apparently didn't pick up on this.

I am a new Star Trek fan. Doing covid I have been powering through TNG and DS9, I started Voyager and made it a few minutes into Season two episode 9 “Tattoo”. I am Native American myself and have sort of had mixed feelings about the Chakotay character. He could have bit more depth but hey it’s early in the series. I made it a few minutes into this episode and shut it off and I am debating if I want to even watch the series any more. In the extremely hokey origin story sequence it suggests that natives traveled to the Americas using an icy “land bridge” to travel from Russia over. Not only is this theory it’s extremely racist and kept alive by white supremacy and the need to justify the genocide of our people. The beauty of Star Trek is the integration of facts and history with theory and sci-fi elements. These “land bridge” theories have been disproved and dismissed. I’m very disappointed at the mishandling and damaging nature of this propaganda. I don’t know if I will be able to enjoy the rest of the series from here out. PS if you are not of the cultures primary descent you do not get to decided if something is racist or not.

ImageByPatrick I can't guarantee that this is the worst portrayal of Native Americans in the series, but I think anything else is more eye-rolling or absurd rather than outright offensive and patronizing as this. Try not to let this sour you too much on the franchise. The Jamake Highwater scandal is unfortunate, since he was exposed as a fraud 10 years before Voyager production began. I guess in the pre-internet days it was harder to do proper background checks, or they just didn't think it was necessary. The impression I get is that they only consulted with him for the initial development of the character, but they did seem to tone down the questionable stuff as the series went on.

I can understand your sensitivity, but I'm not sure why one line about the origin of Native Americans would be the thing that annoyed you the most.

During the last Ice Age and the period that followed, ocean levels were lower and the Americas were connected to Eurasia by the Bering land bridge.

Perhaps some of our ancestors traveled to the America by boat while others walked here, no one knows for sure. However, we do know through testing of genetic drift that the Native Americans emigrated from Asia during the Holocene Epoch.

That line was actually one of the only accurate things about Native history in this episode.

As far as the rest of your complaints go, the producers of Voyager DID make an effort to be accurate: it's just that the "expert" they hired was actually a person who misrepresented heir heritage and education ....hence the mixing up of various Native cultures and the noxious pan flutes in the score.

I chalk this episode up as well-meaning but fatally flawed due to the fraud of their employee (and the writets trying to overcompensate for the racial guilt they indirectly feel).

I wouldn't skip the rest of Voyager, but yeah, the Chaoktay episodes are usually not that good anyways. I'd say to keep watching .... but be prepared to fast forward any time the pan flutes kick in.

Wonderful post Dave in MN.

"During the last Ice Age and the period that followed, ocean levels were lower and the Americas were connected to Eurasia by the Bering land bridge."



/insert Admiral Ackbar "It's a TRAP!" gif here.

This tedious episode does offer viewers the chance to play a fun new drinking game: every time somebody says, "The Rubber People", you have to take a drink.

I was surprised to learn Michael Piller wrote this dull and hokey episode. Memory Alpha says he considered his script to be brooding and powerful, and was disappointed in the final on-screen product, but I can't see how this story works even on paper.

Imagine watching an episode about Native Americans uplifted by aliens (from the Delta quadrant!) 45,000 years ago...

WTF were they thinking?

As sfdebris put it, this episode basically says "Native American Indians were a primitive
backward people until white people from outer space helped them". Oops.

===============


Err... how can an alien species be given a racial earth designation? Perhaps sfdebris needs to stop it with the identity / race politics for the sake of finding offence at everything?

@DLPB

Subtext? In Star Trek? Well I never!

"how can an alien species be given a racial earth designation?"

Because they're played by humans, and in this case they're lily white, the makeup looks like talcum powder. They even wear what look like white robes. The Native American being "gifted" his special powers is portrayed like a neanderthal: short, dark-skinned, big nose, sloping furrowed brow. Is TNG's "Code of Honor" not racist just because all the African American actors are playing aliens?

I think episodes like this which rely upon some miraculous coincidence that ties some remote speck way way out in deep space to the personal experience of one of the crew strains credulity to the breaking point. I hate this stuff.

Our place in the world....Family and descendants, a blessing to all peoples: a contrary view with reason:

KOLOPAK: Come. I want you to understand this. It's a blessing to the land, an ancient healing symbol. A chamozi. They probably cut this down for firewood.
YOUNG CHAKOTAY: The Rubber Tree People?
KOLOPAK: Well, the closest thing to the ancient Rubber Tree People that we'll ever see. The people in this tribe are their descendants, just like we are. But they never left this jungle, and they rarely intermarry with other tribes.
In the Star Trek: Voyager episode called Tattoo, Chakotay explains to Captain Janeway how when he was younger, his father, Kolopak wanted to track down their descendants in the Central American jungle:
CHAKOTAY: … here we were in the middle of a brutal Central American jungle looking for the descendants of the ancient Rubber People.
JANEWAY: It must have been very important to him.
CHAKOTAY: Believe me, it was. And he was very disappointed that I didn't share his enthusiasm. He'd been tracking down the origins of our tribe for years.

Concerning the origins of the Jewish people, using imagery and a metaphor from mining, the prophet Isaiah wrote:

“Consider the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were mined.
Yes, think about Abraham your ancestor and Sarah who gave birth to your nation.”

Isaiah used names of specific, historic people, not just a generalised term like the Chakotey’s father used when he said the “ancient Rubber People”.

As humans we do seek to know and understand our immediate family, and the connections to the origins of “our tribe”, but also our wider family, which does have a link to our meaning of our existence. Isaiah was reminding the people of Israel to consider, or think about carefully, of their beginnings as a nation, with significance for the understanding of their existence. There was a connection to real people, family ties by blood and ancestry, not a myth story. Who and where we are from – people and place, is connected to our understanding of ourselves now.

In the Star Trek:Deep Space Nine episode from season 3, The Search, Part 2, the character Odo finds his family on a planet. Up until that time, he had never met someone like himself:

ODO: You really are just like me, aren't you?
FEMALE: Yes.
ODO: And you're saying this is where I'm from?
FEMALE: This is your home...
ODO: Tell me, do I have any family at all?
FEMALE: Of course.
ODO: I'd like to meet them, if that's possible.
FEMALE: You already have. We are all part of the Great Link.
Later the female Chageling tells Odo the significance of being in the family connected to the so called Great Link:
ODO: Yes. Please, what exactly is this Great Link?
FEMALE: The Link is the very foundation of our society. It provides a meaning to our existence.

Our understanding of our existence, which does give meaning to who we are, is connected to our family and forbears, and our very origins.

In the original Star Trek episode, The Menagerie (Part 2) a human female, Vina, the lone survivor on a planet, Talos Four, is saved by an alien species, the ,Talosians, which wanted to “perpetuate the species” of humans by finding a suitable male mate. When the alien species captures a human male- Captain Christopher Pike from the United Federation of Planets USS Enterprise, they seek to match him with Vina, the female.

VINA: We are like Adam and Eve.

Pike the male then responds back to the Talosian character, the Keeper:

KEEPER: We wish our specimens to be happy in their new life.
PIKE: Assuming that's a lie, why would you want me attracted to her? So I'll feel love in a husband-wife relationship? That would be necessary only if you intend to build a family group or perhaps a whole human community.

Jesus affirmed the Scripture that says humankind, the whole human community or family, has always been humankind, “from the beginning” that is, “the life form we’re familiar with” biologically, male and female humans, and was not produced by a long process. (Human after all...) Humankind has indeed “stuck around” a long time since Adam, since time memorial into antiquity...

The moving from, or to “migrate from”, as Brian Greene , American theoretical physicist calls it, one form to another species of humanoid to another, is implicit in the foundational reasoning of the basis of different life forms in Doctor Who and Star Trek shows.

DALEK 1: This is the dawn of a new age.
MARTHA: What does that mean?
DALEK 1: We are the only four Daleks in existence, so the species must evolve a life outside the shell. The Children of Skaro must walk again.
Elsewhere:
DALEK SEC: No, the experiment must continue. Administer the solution. We must evolve. Evolve. Evolve!

In the Voyager episode, Tattoo, the original humans as named Adam and Eve are portrayed as mythical, with humans specifically stated as descending in a “single evolutionary process” presumably from a single cell organism:

CHAKOTAY: How much faith do you put in Adam and Eve? Hasn't science proved that all humans developed from a single evolutionary process?
JANEWAY: That's what I was always taught. On the other hand, none of my teachers ever spent much time in the Delta Quadrant.

Jesus Himself , who was born into the real tribe of Judah, a tribe from the original family descended from Abraham, had existence before His Earthly life, as Peter the apostle who knew Jesus in person wrote:

“He was chosen before the creation of the world.”

Jesus existed before the creation of the Earth. He knows how people came to be, as in fact all things were created by Him and for Him.

“For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him.”

All things created by Christ includes human beings, which are described as being created separately to other creatures. Christ Himself came to Earth as a man. He:

“made Himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man”

Jesus was not evolved from a lower species of life form. Christ who came in the image of man, originally created male and female in the beginning in the image of Himself- God. As Doctor Who would also say:

“Totally not ape!”

Indeed, the genealogy, or family ancestry, of Jesus is recorded specifically in the record of Luke’s gospel (see Luke 3:23-38), as going right back to Adam, who was the first man, and also the first human.

Jesus who was born into the Jewish nation, Israel, the nation stemming from Abraham and Sarah, is a direct descendant of Adam. (Even though He existed before Adam, being the eternal God). This record is not just a Christian record- it also confirms the Jewish record concerning the line from Abraham. Luke recorded the words of Zechariah the father of John the Baptist. John the Baptist grew up to point to Christ:

“Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and redeemed His people,
He has sent a mighty Saviour from the royal line of His servant David....
He has been merciful to our ancestors, by remembering His sacred covenant,
The covenant He swore with an oath to our ancestor Abraham.”

Christ was not born in a “vacuum” that was unlinked to God’s promises and intent for His people. There is a great link. The ancestors the Jewish prophet Zechariah spoke of were meaningful in the context of a genealogical line of the Jewish people to the birth of their Messiah – the Christ, from the royal line of King David.

PRIESTESS: McCoy, son of David, since thou art human... (Star Trek III, The Search for Spock)

Ethan the Ezrahite, the writer of Psalm 89, spoke of the covenant God made to King David. A promise was made by God that David would always have a king descended directly from him on the throne.

“The LORD said, “I have made a covenant with David My chosen servant. I have sworn an oath to him:
“I will establish your descendants as kings forever; they will sit on your throne from now until eternity.”

Jesus was a descendant of David.

The apostle Matthew recorded the number Abraham’s generations in his list of Abraham’s descendants:

“Therefore all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the time of Christ fourteen generations.”

Abraham’s “authenticity” is linked by a blood line of people to events recorded in history- the exile of the Jews to Babylon, and Christ’s birth.
Abraham’s line went back to Shem, the eldest son of Noah (Genesis 11:10-26); and the genetic “earthly” line of Noah went all the way back to Adam (Genesis 5:1-32) Jesus was sent from the “heaven world” to this world, where we all share an “earthy likeness ” so we may share in His heavenly likeness.

“And just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”

We had to be born into Adam’s family before we can be born into Christ’s family. The “earthy” we share as humans describes the genetic, physical link we have with Adam.

However the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.

“What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual comes later.”

MACE: How does this android, as you call him, come from another world? There are no other worlds. Any fool knows that.
DOCTOR: Why are Earth people so parochial?

(The Visitation, Doctor Who episode, 1982)

Knowing the genealogy of Christ going back to Adam, and the record that God created “Earth people” as central to His purpose in Christ who was before creation, is not parochial. Modern way of thinking does not accept this genealogy of Jesus going back through Abraham to Adam, nor the centrality of God’s purpose in Christ for humans to share in His heavenly nature.

In Peter Grehan’s commentary on Dr Who androids, ( Connecting Who Artificial Beings, Candy Jar Books, AD 2016) he states that such genealogy is a myth:

“According to the creation myth of Abrahamic religions, God created the first man, Adam, from the dust of the earth.”

He does not implicitly say Abraham was a myth, or that Jesus was a myth, but implies Adam was a myth, which reflects Doctor Who reasoning or ontology, (the schematics of that which is perceived as real, or “that which is”) which reflects modern, atheistic teaching, which is passed on to us like Janeway said- "that's what I was always taught." .

Jesus spoke of Adam as real, as well as Adam’s son, Abel as real. Abraham did have a genealogy, and it is recorded. Jesus does have an earthly genealogy, and it is recorded. Both go back to the person Adam.

Adam did not have any ancestors, so there were no “evolutionary struggles” or “survival of the fittest” type competitions or severe struggles, of any life forms before him to produce humans. Adam was the first man, as Paul wrote- “the first man from the earth.”

The genealogy of Jesus that goes back to Adam, confirms that there was no human, or any other creature, prior to Adam, that Jesus or any of us were physically descended from. We all share in the likeness of the first earthly man Adam, who was a real person. Jesus was born into the human kind family, even though He existed before His birth as the Son of God. He became like us. He came for us. This is central.

“Because God’s children are human beings- made of flesh and blood- the Son also became flesh and blood....We also know that the Son did not come to help angels, He came to help the descendants of Abraham. Therefore it was necessary for Him to be made in every respect like us, His brothers and sisters.”

Christ was sent at the right time. The writer of epistle to the Hebrews says Jesus Christ became “in every respect like us”. Fully human. He was not sent to come to save another “humanoid like” species. His coming was to save humans. His coming was not unplanned:

“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman...”

God did not send forth another law of code written in a book or a tablet, but His Son. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament described the Son in this way:

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.”

In the book of Galatians, Paul talks about the promise of God being given to those who are of faith in Christ the Son, who are the recipients of God’s gift:

“And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

And:

“So then, those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.”

This blessing is based on faith, not works of the law, or genealogy.

“Abrahamic religion” that recognises Abraham as a real person, but not the blessing based on faith, does not recognise that:

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us- for it is written-
“Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. ” ”

“In order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit by faith.”

As believers we have received the promise of Holy Spirit by faith, who confirms with our spirit that we are indeed sons and daughters of God, (family) in a right relationship with God:

“And because we are His children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out,
“Abba! Father!” ”

The Holy Spirit given to believers is a “down payment” of the promise to come of a new “heavenly” body for each of us that will not decay. This is central to God’s purpose.

As Paul wrote:

“For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God Himself has prepared us for this; and as a guarantee He has given us His Holy Spirit.”

The blessing is not based on genealogy, however, the blood-line genealogy of the man Abraham must have been real before the spiritual blessing of those who have faith who followed Abraham. As Paul wrote- the “earthy” comes before the “heavenly.” The blessing is to the human family of those with faith. This is in a family tree context of “connectedness” to the first man Adam. Just as there were physical descendants of the man of faith, Abraham, there were ascendants of Abraham. The promise of God came to Abraham before the law was delivered to Moses, so that:

“righteousness might be reckoned to them ... who follow in the steps of faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised.. For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir to the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith.”

The apostle Paul wrote that this righteousness was:

“witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe; for there is no distinction.”

So the blessing is by faith, but this does not nullify the fact Abraham had a genetic line going back to Adam, the first man.

The Australian Aboriginal Christian pastor- George Rosendale, spoke of Australian Aborigines connection to Adam, and the promise of connection with God once more, for all descendants of Adam:

“I believe the Gospel has been with the Aborigines since creation. When I read Genesis 3:15 it reminds me that God did not send Adam out of the garden, or away from his presence, without hope. He gave Adam an insight into his great Plan of one day opening the gate or door into his Presence. We believe that we all come from the line of Adam. Then all should know about that hope. Aborigines never read that passage but in their ceremonies they dramatised that freedom was going to come.
In Genesis 12:1-3, God called Abram to be a blessing to all people and we Aborigines are included in it. In the Gospel or Good News there was hope for all people, not some. Paul writes in Romans 8:18-25, ‘All of creation waits with eager longing for God to reveal his sons.’ There was the hope that creation itself would one day be set free. The Aborigines knew that and in their ceremonies they dramatised it. It was Good News of freedom and hope, and encouragement.
Today we are trying to help the young to understand the Gospel through their culture and teaching, using Aboriginal stories to make the Gospel relevant for them. We’ve heard so much this saying, ‘It’s white man’s Gospel.’ If we say, ‘God created us and we are from the line of Adam and Noah and Abram,’ then God was with us always. He is the Creator of our country and we are part of it. Even though our forefathers did not know Him as we know Him today, they understood His teaching and laws their own way and they had faith in Him.”

The ”great plan” George mentioned, is the good news found in Christ Jesus, which was previously hidden to all peoples, but has now been revealed:

“the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.”

White man’s mistreatment of Aboriginals as though they were lower people, is the opposite of what Jesus commanded:

“Do to others whatever you would like them do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.”

The Christian and Jewish concept of “others” is to treat “others” like we would want be treated, thus putting everyone on equal standing or footing, in the dignity of a human being.

Such words by the Jewish prophet Isaiah:

“Share your food with the hungry,
And give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
And do not hide from relatives who need your help.”

Treating others how you would like to be treated, and as better than yourself, is at the core of the essence of true Christian behaviour. Foul deeds of exploitation, by their nature and essence, are thus exposed as contrary to what the Jewish prophets, Christ and the apostles taught.

Speaking of the deeds done by colonisers towards native people, which were not in fact from the true heart or spirit of Christianity, William Howitt wrote in AD 1839, of the wolves in sheep's clothing:

“If foul deeds are to be done, let them be done in their own foul name; and let robbery of lands, seizure of cattle, violence committed on the liberties or lives of men, be branded as the deeds of devils and not of Christians. The spirit of Christianity, in the shape of missions, and in the teaching and the beneficent acts of the missionaries, is now sensibly, and in many countries undoing the evil in which wolves in sheep’s clothing of the Christian name had before done... To fan the genuine flame of love, is the object of this work...we shall be less than Englishman and Christians if we do not stamp the whole system of colonial usage towards the natives, with that general and indignant odium which must demolish it once and for ever.”

Stephen Atkinson, an Australian Aborigine who lives in Port Augusta and who is a Barngaria man, wrote in AD 2016 of white European men and women who took this “thinking others better than yourselves ” to heart and in practice, in contrast to those who don’t believe in Christ’s maxims:

“I get upset at the increasing belief that the missionaries are to blame for our lot in this world as Aboriginal people.
This is exactly what the government would have you believe. This is what I know and what I have discovered through historical studies.
The untold stories of the missions are that people like Rev. Green at Corranderk, Daniel Matthews at Maloga and Rev. John Gribble of Warangesda actually helped us survive to today rather than what is popular belief about Christian missionaries. If it weren’t for people like the three I’ve just named- and there are others who were humanitarian as much as they were Christians- who put themselves in the line of fire and went against the popular view of the day and out of their way and comfort zone to protect and to help educate our people back then we may not have survived.
It was a time when our people were being hunted and shot in the bush, our women used as broodmares to create a half caste work force for the stations and also used as sex slaves on the stations and unpaid prostitutes in the towns, not to mention the ever increasing drunkenness encouraged on our mobs by the white man to belittle and to get what they wanted out of our women, girls and boys.
Daniel Matthews is a great example and I attribute to him the survival, education and longevity of the Bangerang and Yorta Yorta peoples.
He and his wife Janet set aside 20 acres of land of their own selection that they paid for to create a safe haven for our mob.
The first residents of what became Maloga mission were two 14 year old girls who he saved from Moira station, both girls had young babies of 12 and 15 months old when they were taken to Maloga.
Daniel Matthews recorded going to stations and breaking the chains that had our young women tied to beds as sex slaves and he was beaten and had shots fired over his head while doing so. He did this to save the girls, nothing else.”

Compare this to the twisted teaching of Ernest Haeckel. In his Natural History of Creation he argued that:

“the church with its morality of love and charity is an effete fraud, a perversion of the natural order”.

The examples given above of Green, Mathews and Gribble were not effete frauds. They risked their lives to serve others, following the example of Christ. Their love and charity were real and powerful. Christ was not a fraud. His true followers now imitate His love and behaviour, and do not commit foul deeds.

A major reason why Haeckel concluded Christianity is a fraud, was because Christianity to him:

“makes no distinction of race or of colour; it seeks to break down all racial barriers. In this respect the hand of Christianity is against that of Nature, for are not the races of mankind the evolutionary harvest which Nature has toiled through long ages to produce? May we not say, then, that Christianity is anti-evolutionary in its aim?”

In the episode Dear Doctor of Star Trek: Enterprise, the idea of not interfering (a concept later known as the Prime Directive) with an “evolutionary harvest” between two peoples is looked at. It is contrasted to showing compassion to a humanoid race to allow them to continue to live, rather than “die off”:

PHLOX: If the Menk are to flourish, they need an opportunity to survive on their own.
ARCHER: Well, what are you suggesting? We choose one species over the other?
PHLOX: All I'm saying is that we let nature make the choice.
ARCHER: The hell with nature. You're a doctor. You have a moral obligation to help people who are suffering.
PHLOX: I'm also a scientist, and I'm obligated to consider the larger issues. Thirty five thousand years ago, your species co-existed with other humanoids. Isn't that correct?
ARCHER: Go ahead.
PHLOX: What if an alien race had interfered and given the Neanderthals an evolutionary advantage? Fortunately for you, they didn't.
ARCHER: I appreciate your perspective on all of this, but we're talking about something that might happen. Might happen thousands of years from now. They've asked for our help. I am not prepared to walk away based on a theory.
PHLOX: Evolution is more than a theory. It is a fundamental scientific principle. Forgive me for saying so, but I believe your compassion for these people is affecting your judgment.
ARCHER: My compassion guides my judgment.

(The shared DNA of so called Neandethals and “modern humans” is evidence of one species. Fossils found in Jebel Irhoud, Morocco show features of both so called “modern humans” and Neanderthals. A biological theory for the term “species” which is Latin for “kind”, is that “species are groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations, which are reproductively isolated from other such groups” )

Ernest Haeckel’s evil beliefs were reflected in America in the struggle to break down racial barriers. Such struggles were against the belief of some being lesser humans or mongrels. The Doctor Who historic episode, Rose, looked at the views based on race hate and profiling Africa Americans and people of colour:

MASON: Y'all happen to know a couple of... mongrels, hmm? Negro boy, Mexican girl?
DOCTOR: I don't recognise anyone by that description.

Moses wrote “You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart.”

There is evidence Christians did show counter cultural ideas on the Aboriginal identity, not based on evolutionary ideas, but with a belief Aboriginals were equal as humans, not just Australians. John Harris wrote also in his book, One Blood:

“There were times when the whole Christian community… rose to their powerful best when confronted with community agitation for the massacre of Aborigines”.

The Reverend John Saunders (born AD 1806- died AD 1859) was a Baptist minister who spoke against those who reduced Australian Aboriginals to creatures less than fully humans in the early years after European colonisation. In response to a trial in AD 1838 of white settlers who had shot and killed Aboriginals at Myall Creek, John made a discourse, attacking the heart of belief about Aborigines by many in the colony. On the 10th June, AD 1838, fifty years after the first landing of convicts, a massacre occurred at Myall Creek. Aborigines had been shot and hacked to death, with their bodies being dismembered and burnt. John said:

“Does it seem strange to speak of the majesty of the New Hollanders? Will you despise the Saviour of the world? Then despise not him who sprang out of the same stock. Then despise not him for whom Christ died. The Saviour died as much for him as for you. Now by every sentiment of humanity and love you are bound to love him, to admit him to your fraternity and to treat him as a fellow man.”

He saw Aboriginals as fellow men and women, entitled to justice, and not an inferior “animal” whom were the “harvest of Nature” toiling through long ages. Saunders spoke against the dispossession of the land and livelihood suffered by Aborigines, and the bloodshed (murder) brought upon them by Europeans. Saunders described the loss to Aborigines through an invasion of their homeland. The belief, or not, in a common ancestor of all, being the person Adam, did effect the way people viewed and treated others.
Saunders went on to say concerning the Australian Aborigine:

“The whole charge however, rests upon their being men, which some are disposed to question and which some even dare to deny. It becomes my duty, therefore, to assert the title of the Aboriginal native to a place in the family of man. First, he is neither monkey, ape, nor baboon, the generic distinction between man and these brutes is most marked….
“Then he is our fellow creature – the descendant of a common ancestor – our brother upon Earth, and possessed of a joint title to the mercy of God in Christ Jesus and to an inheritance in Heaven. He then becomes invested with all the natural rights which belong to humanity, and is entitled to all the charities which man is bound to show to man…... Is the New Hollander a child of Adam? Then all the promises made to the children of men belong to him, and the covenant mercies of God are his.”

John Saunders saw the understanding of a common, final, ancestor of Europeans and Australian Aborigines being the person Adam, as vital. This undermined the view of a so called “fundamental scientific principle” that became widespread after Darwin’s corpus of writing that held otherwise.

William Howitt’s son, Alfred William Howitt, was an anthropologist who lived from AD 1830 to AD 1908. He wrote a book entitled, "The Native Tribes of South East Australia. " In it, he wrote of the rights of Aboriginals to use their own land in which they are born.
“The son of one of the headman of the Thedorra was born in the Ngarigo country, to which his mother belonged. It was therefore his country, and, as he put it, it would be just the same “for anyone who was born there.”

One of the old men of the Wolgal said that:

“the place where a man is born is his country, and he always has the right to hunt over it, and all others born there had also the right to do so.”

Such rights to the use of the land were wrongly usurped by colonizers.
Roger Williams, who was born in London , England AD 1603 and died in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, AD 1683, was Reformed Baptist Christian minister who spoke up for the American Indians against mistreatment from colonists from England. He questioned and condemned the validity and legality of the colonist’s practice (on a charter from the king of England) of taking land without paying for it from the Narragansett Indians. In a book Williams wrote, in AD 1643, called "A Key to the Language of America," he also made it clear American Indians should be considered equal, as they too were fellow descendants from “one blood.”

“Boast not proud English, of thy birth & blood;
Thy brother Indian is by birth as Good.
Of one blood God made Him, and Thee and All,
As wise, as fair, as strong, as personal.”

This common shared heritage through the ancestor, Adam (one blood), was given as a reason for proper consideration and treatment of the Indians. Implicit in the argument is they are not less as human beings, but “brothers and sisters”, with equal standing before all humans and God. Williams attempted to stop slavery taking root in the British American colony by passing a law in AD 1652 in Rhode Island. However after his death, from AD 1700, Newport became the leading port to receive indigenous Africans in the slave trade. This trade was built on the belief that some people are lesser, and can be bought and sold like a commodity, against their will.

The blessings mentioned that come, even today, through faith, are not based on a belief some are lesser, or more primitive, than others. Even those who do not share such a faith in Christ are entitled to be seen as equal, to be treated with dignity , justice and fairness, as being fellow men and women, born in the image of God, with a connection that goes back to the beginning.

Seriously, Andrew.... write a book. Call it "Star Trek and Scripture." Granted, most of the Trekkies would feel a bit shortchanged by the tendency to use Star Trek dialogue as a mere launchpad to dive deep into 20-page sermons, but the few Christians diehards who nonetheless reserve a special place in their hearts for Star Trek would certainly get a kick out of it!

Another snooze fest. Does this show ever get better?

Chakotay’s father calls him “CHAH-koe-tay” in the flashback.

So has everybody been mispronouncing his name when they call him “chah-KOE-tay”?

So WAS THIS STORY ORIGINAL AND INVENTIVE ORWASN'T IT--AND WHYOR HOW WAS IT CLICHED OR WAS IT REALISTIC AND HAVE DEPTH?Hope someone can respond.