Star Trek has always been great at creating parallels to the real world. Whether they were technological, sociological or political. However choosing the correct medium to represent these structures/parallels can be hard and in my opinion, they made a big mistake in Star Trek: Voyager.
The Voyager episode “Distant Origin” introduces us to a very interesting species called The Voth. This species believes that they originated from the Delta Quadrant, they are highly technological having tech like Transwarp and in general, being superior to the Federation. They could mask themselves from the Voyager crew and beam in entire ships. BUT there is a big problem with this species.
Like I mentioned before the Voth believe that their origin is the Delta Quadrant. The discovery of a dead Voyager crewman has greatly shattered this belief. Well, at least you might think that this is what happens after such a discovery and you also might think that a species like the Voth would take every mean necessary to investigate the believe further. Investigating the human remnants found, a certain professor started to see his claims validated.
That they actually originate from a planet somewhere in the Alpha Quadrant that later becomes known as Earth. There are some more events that happen in this episode but I want to get to the point where Minister Odala who is the Voths leader and the oldest wants the professor to revoke his claim or else he will be sent in a prison colony alongside the Voyager crew. The professor obviously revokes and here I have my issue with Star Trek and its parallels to the real world.
It is pretty obvious where the idea of a certain group of people wanting to revoke claims by others because they hurt their social structure comes from. You know like the church trying to silence everybody who claimed that the earth is round. However, I would never expect a highly technological society of explorers to actually do that. If this had happened on a planet inhabited by a pre-warp society that Voyager encountered it would have been alright. BUT WHY THE VOTH.
There is a huge issue in the Voths social structure that is something Earth or humans at this point have overcome a long time ago. The Voth actually might be too stupid to be a highly advanced society. Here is why:
1 – They rely on elders/ the so-called most experienced Voth to be their leaders. There is a good reason why this is not that smart. Granted these people have the most experience but they are probably the most conservative.
2 – They fear their past and what it would make out of them. Minister Odala states in the episode that acknowledging the professors valid claims would turn the Voth in a species of refugees that have no perspective at all. This claim is stupid and Chakotay actually counters it very good. He tells her that “The Voth have to be proud of the fact that they managed to escape from destruction, that they did not fear Space and that they got to the Delta Quadrant without turning back.
3 – Negating your past makes no sense since it prevents you from fully understanding your mistakes, your heritage and stops you from evolving.
Don’t get me wrong I do like the episode and the Voth however I felt like it was wrong to choose them as a species that would actually behave like this. I don’t think it’s very appropriate.
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