#will it be real janeway? who knows

[scvlly]

woke up normal and then remembered ro larens inevitable death and the changelilng infiltration of the federation and the possible resurgence of the dominion war and “she calls me Commander Seven out of respect,” fucking hell 

[trek-tracks]

It occurred to me, given your posts of Bones and Crusher: Is the CMO always the most attractive member of the cast? Bashir certainly keeps up the trend, Holo-Doc is more questionable, but we've got some strong contenders in the recent series. (M'Benga, oh man)

If the question is whether the Star Trek doctor is always the most attractive to me personally, the answer is yes, surprisingly (or unsurprisingly), most of the time (though a lot of it is that I just really like the characters, as Bones, Crusher, and Bashir are my favourites in their respective series).

I love the character of the EMH, but don't find him particularly attractive, per se (sorry Robert Picardo, but I think you're awesome). I don't know who it'd be on Voyager for me--there are several candidates, because, of course, I find many Trek characters attractive.

I think there's a case to be made for Culber, as well.

SNW is a hard call, because that entire cast is ridiculously good looking, but I think I'm somewhat more bi for Ortegas than for M'Benga. I have to stop accidentally sitting behind Melissa Navia at plays before it gets awkward.

But, to judge the attractiveness of the Star Trek doctors for yourself, I present my post of every doctor in a slutty v-neck. Unfortunately, the last time I updated it was in 2019, so before SNW, but if anyone wants to find me a picture of M'Benga in a v-neck I will not be complaining.

EDITED: Never say I didn't give you anything; here's the updated v-neck post now feat. SNW M'Benga

[bumblingbabooshka]

Tom & Harry trying to guess Tuvok’s age (while he ignores them) and Chakotay joins in only to smile and throw out ages that are far too old just to see Tuvok’s eye twitch.

[tunemyart]

Resolutions but it's J7 in the Picard era assuming the headcanon I don't think I'll let go of no matter what happens when I watch S3 that Seven and Janeway haven't had meaningful/real contact since Seven full on fled after Janeway's threat to resign Starfleet for her, and they have to rebuild/repave/navigate their relationship while 1) quarantined on an uninhabited planet, 2) trying to find their own cure and 3) waiting to die together.

[thresholdbb]

Thank you for bearing with me while I was temporarily put back on my hinges. Currently sourcing a screwdriver and a hammer to become properly unhinged again

[lostyesterday]

Star Trek captains ranked by how likely they would be to have sex with their ship from least to most likely:

Pike/Enterprise: Pike does not strike me as the type of person who would be interested in that sort of thing. With a ship, I mean.

Archer/Enterprise: The only way I can picture this happening is if the Enterprise was magically turned into an actual humanoid woman like the TARDIS in the Doctor Who episode The Doctor’s Wife. Otherwise, no. (I’m still on season 2 of Enterprise though so maybe there’s information in later seasons that would change my mind.)

Burnham/Discovery: Look, Burnham and Zora like each other, but not that way. Probably.

Picard/Enterprise: I don’t really like this concept because their relationship just feels so inherently platonic, but I must admit it’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility.

Sisko/Defiant: I think this is more of a chaste longing type of situation but who knows.

Freeman/Cerritos: The Cerritos is a handsome lady.

Janeway/Voyager: Janeway is undeniably in love with Voyager, I think, but the real question is whether she’d put aside her personal hang-ups about sexual relationships here. And you know what, for Voyager, I think she could.

Kirk/Enterprise: I mean, this is the obvious top choice. If there is a way to have sex with the Enterprise, Kirk will have found it.

[fate-motif]

list of voyager characters ranked by least to most done dirty by the writers

10. tom paris: this boy got everything he could have ever wanted from a trip to the delta quadrant. he got a bestie who’s way too good for him, a wife he refuses to cherish and yet she married him and had his child!!! and authorities who refuse to punish him most of the time because he’s a pretty talented flyboy. even modern day trek writers cannot start lavishing praise on this douche and like, okay, he’s not all bad, but compared to what other voyager characters had for story potential and performances it’s crazy how good he got it. the only true indignity this bitch got was threshold.

9. neelix: i feel like neelix lovers are gonna brawl with me about this but i’m still steadfast that neelix was one of the characters least done dirty in voyager, but only comparatively. like, if neelix were on ds9 or on tng he would absolutely be considered an insane waste of story potential with his sad clown complex and his weird little relationship with tuvok but lbr. if they had gone even harder on neelix’s tragedies it would have felt less like he’s a sad clown and his sad all the time and that takes away the appeal of the character. also the mere fact he got to date kes when he never would have deserved her in a million years is already too huge a win for him. i mean it. 

8. the emh: he gets to be a step above neelix because the writers are so fucking bad at writing about hologram rights that it’s a serious disservice to him when the whole of the show star trek voyager bends over backwards over this guy and i cannot stand him. he gets all the screentime, all the tragic episodes, everyone is forced to be sympathetic about him, but at the same time the show makes everything so much worse for him by letting him engineer hologram characters on the holodeck to be his toys (when there’s a whole episode where we realize yes the holodeck characters are real and do not like being murdered, so maybe having two hawaiian babes or your white blond 50s housewife fawning over you is horrifying???) the writers of voyager suck so hard they can’t even write their golden boy well enough to actually make the core of his very character ideologically consistent. depressing.

7. seven of nine: i know people want me to put her over janeway, and i refuse. i’ve made no secret of this, i resent seven, i resent her so hard for taking over everybody’s screentime, i find how serious and untouchable and perfect she’s supposed to be among the voyager cast, the show writers absolutely screwed over every other character save for the emh for her sake and i resent that!!! i will never forgive her, even if it’s not her fault!!! but i’m gonna be realistic. it’s the catsuit. it’s the catsuit, it’s the obsession of putting her in the most stereotypically feminine storylines as an extension of finding her humanity, it’s the mere extension of being a woman written by mostly men. she was screwed over, hard, but i’m serious when i say: not compared to everyone else above her.

6. janeway: oh boy. i know, i know, how dare i put janeway over seven when janeway wasn’t forced to wear shrink wrap, but she’s up this high because the writers could not agree over anything she ever did and it shows. god bless kate mulgrew for making a consistent character out of that mess, but if it weren’t for her sheer talent and professionalism, janeway would be up there with archer in the list of captains with the moral backbone of a chocolate eclair. the rest of the shows lavish love on their captains. they talk about their backstory in-depth. they let them have romantic adventures every once in a while. janeway gets to be almost solely defined by her mission to bring her crew home and considering how multidimensional characters like picard and sisko are, that’s…depressing. to say nothing of how kate mulgrew was being forced out of spending time with her family for a show that in the later seasons started to edge her out in favor of the bouncier, sexier girl they brought in. like. as a captain, janeway was done SO dirty by the writers. it’s crazy. we should talk about this more. 

5. tuvok: why is he above janeway? … aside from the fact that after they introduced seven his screentime went to the chopping block. to put it simply, waste of potential. so many of tuvok’s episodes rehash his insistence on staying steadfast to traditional vulcan values, which is great, except for the fact that we don’t need that story told over and over and over again when they could follow more interesting avenues that several tuvok-centric episodes pointed towards. we could have seen more of his relationship with janeway in the past. we could have seen him truly come to terms with trusting the maquis with his life in the earlier seasons. we even had a planned episode where we met his family! imagine if we had actually seen t’pel and have her be an actual character instead of a representation of why we’re not seeing tuvok fuck! it’s tragic. it’s absolutely tragic. 

4. b’elanna: ending up with tom paris the way he treats her should make this one a no-brainer, but i’m going to keep going, because there’s a lot more to be done here. the white male writers have no idea what they’re doing writing this character, and yet, much like janeway, roxann just barely claws out a cohesive character from the mess she was given, but that doesn’t mean that the process was graceful. so she hates herself because she thinks her klingon traits make her unlovable, then why make the other voyager characters berate her on her temper incessantly and with no room for argument and make them in the right? are we also supposed to see her as hindered by her klingon ancestry? yes. the answer is yes. the writers are racist. the writers are so goddamn racist it’s nit even a joke b’elanna i’m so sorry they did this to you you deserved so much better. 

3. kes: yes she’s in third place. nobody wants to talk about kes, because her writing was weird, and jennifer lien wasn’t as successful in sculpting an engaging character out of the garbage writing she was given, i say that if b’elanna had been taken out of voyager in s4, the same could be said for her. everything that the writers do to disrespect janeway and seven is triplicated in her, even more so magnified because she’s not a tough boss ass bitch who uses guns, but a lowly nurse, which means the writers are completely disinterested in exploring her inner life. i cannot stress this enough. kes left her homeworld when they are going to lose all support making it in a desert planet frequently raided by slavers, and we never talk about it again. it is galling how little the writers ever give a fuck about her and nobody mentions it, because again. she’s the most feminine of the female characters, which means not even the fans who understand how misogynistic the voyager writers are care about interrogating her inner life and that is the most depressing thing of them all. that’s why she’s the female character done dirtiest by the writers.

2 and 1. harry and chakotay: they’re tied. they’re tied because the racism is just inescapable in both their characters and it’s so ever-present, so impossible to ignore, so repellent that most people give up on even looking at them as characters because they so often end up channelling the writers’ naked, unabashed racism you want to avert your eyes. i mean it. i mute most early voyager episodes when chakotay is onscreen because i hate that fucking pan flute. if you fuck up writing a character of color this hard, you automatically owe reparations. and that’s why i’m fine with that insufferable republican freak robert beltran having been on prodigy because look at me in the eye and tell me paramount did not owe him from everything they put him through while working on voyager. and that’s also why i’m demanding harry be rescued the same way in the future. it’s just reparations. garrett wang is owed so hard i’m not even joking. i don’t care about debates about the other spots on this list so long as you admit that in first place rightfully goes to harry and chakotay. 

[isagrimorie]

Sometimes there really are interesting things on Reddit, found this one particular passage on r/DaystromInstitute talking about Starfleet and the Cardassian war, in particular, Miles O'Brien and Kathryn Janeway's experiences in a ground war:

Ground combat was much different. O'Brian's reactions to the Cardassians in 'The Wounded' are clear that ground combat wasn't as clean for the Federation as it was in space. Same with Captain Maxwell. Even Captain Janeway was in ground combat in the Federation/Cardassian war (I think it was the episode 'Prey' where Janeway told Seven of a time during the war when she was only Lt. Janeway). O'Brian carrying anger against the Cardassians for making him into a killer. Maxwell so used to destroying Cardassian ships that a year after the treaty is signed he's still in the habit of blowing up Cardassian ships. Janeway, it's entirely possible that until the war ended she spent her entire Starfleet career in combat, earning battlefield promotions, flying up the chain of command to Commander and with the impossible situation that Voyager was in after her promotion to Captain and first command being Voyager, she found herself trying to balance Starfleet ideologies with her own history of being willing to use violence, or in her case, too willing in a few episodes.

This is an interesting thought, I remember being surprised knowing Janeway actually was in actual ground combat. As we learned from DS9, and Strange New Worlds, ground combat is a lot different from ship-to-ship battle.

Ships can also be dangerous but Starfleet shines with ship battles. Ground combats are harder, and bloodier, and leave long-lasting marks on the soldiers who find themselves in them.

I wonder if Janeway distinguishing herself in the Cardassian war is the reason why Voyager got the assignment to go after the Maquis. But also, Janeway might have wanted to distance herself from the war more and focus on science.

But the Delta Quadrant kept pushing her into that place again.

Like, now I wish Janeway interacted with O'Brien at least, two Cardassian war vets.

ETA:

Another good r/DaystromInstitute post on Janeway:

Janeway is intentionally written as a character who intellectually believes in the ideals of the Federation, but whose actions are not always in line with her stated beliefs. I think this is very human and understandable. Very few real humans are as moral as Picard. This is why Quark's quote:

"Let me tell you something about Hew-mons, Nephew. They're a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people... will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don't believe me? Look at those faces. Look in their eyes."

rings so true. Janeway is trying hard to not be the type of human Quark describes, but she is failing. She still tries, though, which I think is important.

All this just makes me love Janeway more, also Starfleet is terrible with mental health.

[xchronicles]

Okay… real talk now, just between us girlies.

Aaron, if you’re reading this, you’re one of us and you’re always welcome in.

We joke, argue, and moan a lot about the J/C stuff - especially now with Prodigy being the latest new canon story. We all know, at the end of the day, they’re not real. However, what they represent and the impact they have on the audience is very real.

I watched Voyager back in the day when I was in primary school. My emotionally undeveloped self quickly picked up on the J/C stuff, and soon I found myself watching the show more and more, hoping that today’s episode would be about them or at least feature a lot of scenes with them together. I vividly remember the heartbreak after watching "Endgame" and being so confused on what I had just witnessed. I remember expecting the next episode, which never came, and feeling so confused. I felt betrayed by the show and didn’t want anything to do with it anymore. I was just a kid - exactly the target audience that Prodigy aims to reach.

Now, as an adult, that kid in me still feels that betrayal. I’ve always leaned on imaginary characters as a coping mechanism. As a girl who never quite fit into traditional gender roles and was often criticized for not being "girly" enough or not aligning with societal expectations, I found solace in the reversed gender norms between Janeway and Chakotay. At the time, I didn’t realize that this was what appealed to me so much.

What I’m trying to say is that making Janeway and Chakotay canon, no questions hanging, healthy relationship and all, is an incredible narrative tool to show that women can be in the position of power, having a career while also being in a loving, supportive relationship. It would teach younger audiences, especially girls, that they don’t have to choose between career and relationship and, more importantly, that they don’t have to strip down parts of who they really are to fit into a gender role box to be accepted as a proper woman.

I get frustrated watching interviews with Kate because whenever she asks why fans want the J/C relationship to become romantic, she never gets a good answer. I understand her pushback to some extent because I don’t think a man could ever give her an answer that truly resonated with her. Men don’t think about the constant criticism that women face about not being "womanly" enough. Kate gets told that fans want the relationship because she deserves it and that is the problem. It’s not about what she deserves - it's about the women who have been constantly told from a young age what is “appropriate” for them and that if they don't change they'll end up alone cause no man will want them. They’re the ones who truly deserve to see that they can have both, represented in a strong character like Janeway, whom they’ve admired be it for a year or over 20 years

Men do face their own set of pressures though, like being told they aren’t “man enough,” which can contribute to toxic masculinity. However, Prodigy has addressed this issue beautifully through Chakotay. He’s a wonderful example of strong, non-toxic masculinity, embodying the true essence of what it means to be a man. Season 2 did a fantastic job showcasing this with both Dal and Chakotay. I just wish we could see that same level of depth and growth for Janeway, particularly for young girls who look up to her. Right now, the message feels as if you have to choose between pursuing a career or pursuing a relationship.

Truth be told, I think a big part of the issue is that Kate views Janeway as Prodigy’s lead character, which might make her feel that maintaining the “will they or won’t they” tension is necessary to keep the audience engaged. That perspective might be true if the show were solely focused on Janeway like Voyager was, but Prodigy is so much more than that. The core of Prodigy is really about the young crew and their journey. In fact, younger viewers are likely more interested in the relationship between Gwyn and Dal. I truly believe that making J/C canon wouldn’t hurt the show - instead, it could provide a positive example for the young crew and their audience to look up to. Find solace in them just as I have when I was their age, minus the horrible heartbreak thanks to Endgame lol

[splicejunction]

I’m trying really to make a post about what’s delicious about b7 without sounding like I just like it because it’s ricstar but on star trek but unfortunately the thing that compels me is the way that b’elanna continuously yells at seven but this ends up being one of the two interpersonal relationships seven has with the voyager crew early on in her time that has more substance than simple professional respect is really delicious to me. the idea of your introduction to humanity being someone who’s a little mean to you. the destiel formula if you will. and like I know seven’s real introduction to humanity is her relationship with janeway but I wish it was b’elanna because I want b’elanna to get to have a weird gay thing with someone that allows her to let softness into her life rather than hanging out with tom paris who is also obviously a homosexual although in a way that interests me much less

[grissomesque]

The thing about "Worst Case Scenario" is that Seska rewriting a program to torture and ultimately murder Tuvok for his "betrayal" of the Maquis suggests that she was loyal to the Maquis, and not only because of her feelings for Chakotay. She would've had to booby trap the program before "State of Flux," because she's under intense scrutiny then and there's not really enough time anyway. Which suggests to me that she was fueled by real rage: if Tuvok had reopened the program, and been killed by it, how could she have possibly gotten away with it? She wasn't planning to leave at that point, and (!) she specifically depicts herself as Bajoran, not, in some big gotcha moment, as Cardassian:

When Seska returns in this episode [...] the holographic Seska also slightly differs, in appearance, from how the actual Seska ever looked. "We […] see Seska in an incarnation we had never really seen her in before," Martha Hackett commented. "They changed everything – her hair and costume – because it's her creation in the hologram." (Star Trek Monthly issue 34, p. 40)

(Emphasis mine)

This, coupled with her big speech in "State of Flux," makes me wonder whether she would've ever revealed herself as Cardassian, if she hadn't been caught. She seems still to believe in the superiority of Cardassia ("If this had been a Cardassian ship, we would be home now!"), yet follows up with,

"I did it for you. I did it for this crew. We are alone here, at the mercy of any number of hostile aliens, because of the incomprehensible decision of a Federation captain. A Federation captain who destroyed our only chance to get home. Federation rules. Federation nobility. Federation compassion? Do you understand? [...] We must begin to forge alliances. To survive, we must have powerful friends."

We are alone. We must have powerful friends. I don't know how this has never occurred to me, but textually speaking, with the notable exception of Incomprehensible Federation Captain Janeway, Seska seems deeply invested in the community she is ultimately forced to leave. It's, actually, a kind of reverse Ro Laren situation. What a twist.

[ailendolin]

So Chakotay spent ten years on his own (which is longer than Voyager was lost in the Delta Quadrant and, quite frankly, hurts to even think about).

Except he wasn't completely alone. He had Hologram Janeway with him.

There's no way these two didn't talk about Chakotay's feelings for the real Janeway at some point, right?

"I love her, you know? Have for years." He sounds resigned. "I know, Captain." A ghost of a smile. Sad. "Of course you do. You are so much like her - too much, perhaps. Sometimes, it hurts to look at you." She grabs her wrist and looks away. "I know. I'm sorry." His face softens. "It's not your fault." "And yet ..." Her voice falls to a whisper. "... I wish I could be who you need."

[bumblingbabooshka]

write to me

[tunemyart]

#going back here to say that it is Really crazy#and mulgrew seeing the script and going: bet#watching the episode and discovering what the premise was A Trip in itself#janeway alreadyd did this so like resigning from starfleet if they didnt accept seven was completely Nothing @moonhuit

Sometimes I still can’t believe that “Endgame” was so overtly J7 and have to bang out a few hundred words why; or, in which I feel strongly that the series finale of Voyager might as well have been called “Seven of Nine Is Going to Die” and this is why.

The script gives such emphasis to Admiral Janeway’s preoccupation with and trauma surrounding her Seven’s death, especially in comparison to her grief over Chakotay’s death and Tuvok’s degenerative illness. She desires to save them also, yes! Of course! She loves and misses them too! I would never argue otherwise!

However.

Seven is repeatedly bucketed into a very different category than Tuvok and Chakotay, who are likewise repeatedly bucketed together into the same category, in line and in frame. See for reference:

Admiral Janeway talking with sorrow, but fairly easily, about Chakotay and Tuvok before the time jump, vs. her almost inability to even mention Seven’s name (I’d… prefer not to discuss Seven of Nine.)

Admiral Janeway beaming aboard Voyager and fondly taking in the sight of Tuvok and Chakotay standing together in one frame vs. Admiral Janeway leaping off her biobed when Seven of Nine walks in, staring intensely and hungrily at her for the length of an entire scene

Admiral Janeway working with Tuvok and Chakotay on either side of her on the bridge in a fucking voiceover montage vs. Admiral Janeway tracking down Seven and exhorting her in the rawest voice you personally have ever heard to think about “people who love you” re: avoiding Seven’s future death

Admiral Janeway cutting off lines and lines and lines and lines and lines of Captain Janeway’s anger and determined idealistic optimism with a single phrase: “Seven of Nine is going to die.” Captain Janeway’s attention thusly grabbed, Admiral Janeway then reveals Tuvok’s illness. She says nothing about Chakotay aside from “He’s never the same after Seven’s death - and neither are you.”

This is JUST BARELY still in the subtext at this point, and only by the bludgeoning force of the emotionally nonsensical Chakotay/Seven scenes that are dropped around them to heteronorm up the episodes. None of them matter, because even their slap-in-the-face absurdity can’t detract from the power of the real emotional thread of the finale:

Seven of Nine Is Going to Die.

This is the turning point of the entire finale, the moment when Captain Janeway and Admiral Janeway find common ground. Admiral Janeway has gambled everything on being able to travel to the past and say these exact words to her younger self, knowing the effect they would have. And guess what? She was fucking right. 

The entirety of the rest of the plot turns on this moment, and I’m absolutely not exaggerating when I say this. It’s around this point that Captain Janeway starts taking Admiral Janeway seriously and begins to not only trust her and ground her assistance in that trust, but also try to understand her - which, after an entire episode where Captain Janeway has been running on stubborn disbelief and rejection of this vision of who she is quite capable of becoming, is almost the more miraculous turning point.

And why? Because Seven of Nine Is Going to Die. That’s the consequence of not doing so. And if there’s one thing - one thing - that all versions of Janeway can agree on, it’s that Seven of Nine’s death is unacceptable. And for a finale that is very nearly a referendum on the constancy of Janeway’s character, that’s saying a hell of a lot.

[ignisgalaxia]

I find it concerning and a little insulting that aside from Janeway, the only other member of the Voyager crew willing to help rescue Chakotay was the Doctor.

The Doctor, of all people.

Like, surely B'Elanna would be the first one to volunteer since he's literally one of her best friends. And of course Tom would follow since Chakotay is so important to her.

Harry greatly valued Chakotay's advise, so I assume he's important to him as well. I don't see any reason why he couldn't tag along (I highly doubt he got his long awaited promotion anyway).

Then there's Tuvok, who is Janeway's oldest friend and trusted advisor. He definitely should've been involved. A lot of people say that Tysses is very similar to Tuvok, so having them both would've just been redundant. But that's not what this is about. It's about the Voyager crew's relationship with one another.

Even Seven, who (as much as I would love to forget) literally dated him, didn't bother coming to help. It's possible she was already doing her Fenris Rangers gig and had thus cut herself off from everyone, but her input would've been really helpful.

I KNOW the real reason none of the others appeared is because Prodigy is about the kids and not a Voyager reunion (even though the TNG crew got their onscreen reunion at the cost of their original cast). But I'm thinking about in-universe explanations.

It just makes it seem like they don't care about him, like he isn't that valued to the crew, not in the same way Janeway is. Cause like, if it was Janeway that went missing, the entire crew would band together to find her.

Hell, the whole Maquis crew should've come together to look for him! He was their captain first!

My boy deserved better.

[multiverserift]

I came across the question: If the USA is so bad, and Cardassia is meant as a metaphor for USA, there surely are a lot of illegal refugees wanting to come to Cardassia and become Cardassians, RIGHT?" Let's dissect that. I think the whole question is asked under a false pretense. Because Star Trek cultures are not meant to display "real" feeling cultures. We rarely see cultural diversity in a Star Trek culture. Because they mostly represent an archetype. Klingons all have something to do with honor. Vulcans have something to do with logic. Sometimes those broad strokes of cultural aspects are used to tell the story of a stray (Ferengi scientist Dr. Reyga in TNG: Suspicions) or someone caught between worlds (Spock, T'Pol, Worf, Quark), yes. But the cultures in Star Trek are mostly a canvas for a big problem or aspect, an idea.

The Federation is about hope and humanity. The good in humans won. We did it. The utopia is achieved, it is challenged, from within and without.

The Romulans were about the Cold War. About secrecy, militarism. More about them in a bit.

The Klingons are a bit more complex, because their role in the Star Trek universe changed over the years. Focussing on TNG era Klingons, they were the Proud Warrior Race© of Star Trek, the problems with that culture as a concept. Also, most Klingon stories in TNG were used to grow the character of Worf.

Now to the cultural aspect of Refugees. Ironically, we are first introduced to this concept by the Bajorans, violated by Cardassia. We see them through the eyes of Ro Laren (the one who assimilated into the Federation) and Captain Picard. Refugees, and Picard gives them blankets. How nice of him. Double ironically, we later in DS9 see the Bajorans deal with their own refugee dilemma enbodied by the Skrreeans in DS9: Sanctuary. And it's problematic, to say the least.

Where else do we see refugees in Star Trek? In PIC, and they are Romulans (here they are again). Sadly, PIC isn't very good at tackling those human condition problems, so it's all a bit superficial. Or maybe I should watch S01 PIC again. But I don't want to.

We also have the Caatati, the refugees disenfranchised by the Borg in VOY: Day of Honor, and they are desperate and aggressive, but we get a very Star Trek solution to the problem. Technology and Empathy, and it's kind of okay. Also, there is VOY: Counterpoint. But the refugee stuff is more of a background canvas for Janeway's boyfriend story.

Now to the Cardassians. Short answer to the question "Are there refugees that try to refuge into the Cardassian Empire?" is: We don't know. Long answer: We don't know because it's not the point of the Cardassians. What's the point? Easy: Fascism and Authoritarianism. And the stories about refugees in fascist states are more interesting when refugees try to get OUT from there. Which is what we get in DS9: Profit and Loss and DS9: Ties of Blood and Water.

We see Cardassia lose its authoritarian state to (kind of) moderately democratic rebels, only to get usurped by Dukat, sold out to the Dominion and get eaten by a merciless war machine. Which is ironic, because this is the heart and core of many authoritarian states. Which is, also, kind of the point.

The point is not "refugees". Because that topic isn't a Cardassian topic. Then there would be the topic of the refugees that Cardassia CREATES. Which is also interesting when I'm writing from a western country (Germany here), because, let's face it, we are not exactly the good guys here. Maybe there should be a few Star Trek episodes about this.

So to understand Star Trek, you have to understand that the races mostly embody a central aspect. Ferengi? Predatory Hypercapitalism. Betazoid? British MILFs. Vulcans? Horny math teachers trapped in the bodies of apathetic decathlon athletes. And don't get me started on Andorians, because to understand Andorians, I'd have to get into the context matters of ENT and oboy, it's a deep hot pocket of interesting facts. Lower Decks also did some nice things with Orions and Tendi. ENT failed the Orions. Man, I would have loved to see live action Tendi in SNW. I could ramble on but I stop now. Also, slightly altered repost because I still have no clue how the reblog distribution system of tumblr works.