Remembering Horrors (part 1)
The Fictional Fascism of Star Trek: Voyager
Counting the Animated Series, Voyager is the fifth series in the Star Trek franchise. The crew of the starship Voyager have been thrown a distance that should take them at least 70 years to return home from. Like the other Star Trek series before and since, Voyager explores the human condition and its own unique perspectives on life through the metaphor and allegory of extraterrestrial worlds and science that is sometimes more like magic than real life.
While almost every series in the franchise has addressed fascism in some way, Voyager has done so more times than even dedicated fans may realize.
This essay and the next will focus on the importance of remembering the horrors of fascism in order to fight fascism. I may revisit other Voyager episodes for other themes in the future.
Last Time on Fictional Fascism
When I covered Moral Orel for the first part of this series, I introduced readers to the show in a pretty detailed way. Star Trek: Voyager, doesn't need the same level of introduction. It's a cultural phenomenon.
Recapping my introduction to the essay series:
(This is) a series of essays about fascism in fiction. The goal of my series isn't to examine every instance of fascism, Christian Nationalism, allegories for the same, etc. in every fictional work. Instead, I'm using a few works to illustrate things about Christian Nationalism and fascism that I think we need to be aware of in 2025.
I received an objection that Moral Orel wasn't about Christian Nationalism / Fascism. I won't fully address that here ... but I disagree. The methods of control used by the characters in the show particular are particular to a brand of Christianity with close ties to the Christian Nationalist movement. The show also shows a distant future where the entirety of what had been the continental United States has been renamed Moralton (2E14 “Geniusis”). The point of my essay was to explore the contradictions and systems of misery that both control Christian Nationalists and enable Christian Nationalism.
Remembering Horrors part 1 (this essay) and part 2 cover fascism generally, not Christian Nationalism specifically. The lessons are still relevant to our present situation.
An Affair Remembered
In this episode (S03E06 – Remember), Voyager plays host to a group of Enarans as their travels will take them near the Enaran homeworld. While the Enarans are on board, the crew participate in the culture and the traditions of their guests with the help of the ever-enthusiastic Neelix. The Enarans the crew meet seem friendly, liberal, curious, artistic, and open-minded.
B'Elanna Torres, the half Klingon chief of engineering, starts to have erotic dreams about an affair between a young Enaran woman namved Korenna and a man her father, Jareth, disapproves of. These dreams seem like a way to explore her sexuality without the constraints she would normally bring to the bedroom as herself. Then, they take turn as B'Elanna sees a vision of Dathan, Karenna's lover, completely red from a deadly attack.
The Regressives
Jareth gives a speech to an assembled group. He talks about expansion and colonization. He speaks out against those who would “resist progress.” He says “not to let the voices of fear and ignorance discourage you.”
The assembled crowd applauds his speech. They know who he's condemning but we don't yet. Voices of fear and ignorance? Those who resist progress? Regressives, of course. These people he's speaking against seem like the kind of people that Star Trek would oppose.
After the speech, Korenna meets Dathan in the shadows. They try to arrange their next meeting. An alarm sounds and all the regressives, including Dathan, must line up and show their ID as they're forced to leave the area.
Comforting the Comfortable
Korenna has a conversation with Jareth. She wants reassurances that the people they're resettling want to be resettled. Jareth provides her that reassurance before launching into a kind sounding rant about how misguided the regressives are. Their backward ways could bring plagues and illnesses to the community.
The security group, including Karenna, oversee a gathering up of regressives. One of them pleads with Karenna before she's pulled away by another security guard.
Then her father, Jareth, calls Dathan's name. Karenna tries to confront him but Jareth demands to know if Karenna warned Dathan.
The Truth
Dathan visits Karenna in the night. He and some others have been running to escape what Jareth's group are doing to them. He's had family who were supposedly sent away but no one has heard from any of those who were expelled from the Enaran society. Karenna hides him as her father comes in.
Jareth persuades Karenna that Dathan has been sleeping with her to manipulate her. Upset, Karenna betrays Dathan's hiding spot and watches as her father arrests Dathan.
We watch helplessly as Jareth riles up a crowd. Karenna looks on as Jareth orders the execution of two regressives, one of them Dathan.
History As We Make It
Some time passes. Karenna is older. She tells some school children the same sanitized story about the regressives that her father had told her but now the stories are about the past. The regressives in this new story killed themselves through their own foolishness.
On Voyager, the older Karenna has died and no one wants to hear B'Elanna's story. She finally finds someone willing to visit the memories Karenna provided her. The episode ends as Jessen begins to experience Karenna's memories for herself. We don't know what happens to the Enarans after. We can only hope the memories Karenna fought to preserve will force the Enarans to take a hard look at themselves.
The Bloody Past and Present
In our own history, people have been lying about the Holocaust since the Holocaust began. The lies began before the Holocaust and the lies continue today. “The other group spreads disease. They're backwards. They sabotage us. They're a danger to us.” Fascism must always have an outgroup to demonize. Attacking the outgroup motivates the ingroup and it also allows more control over the ingroup.
Fascism calls back to an imaginary past of glories that never existed. We lie to ourselves about the Civil War. We lie about the actions of our own governments. The blood of the dead cry out for a reckoning. Fascism wants us to remember things that never happened and ignore the things that did. Those who bring the truth over the lies are condemned as revisionists. “They want us to be ashamed of ourselves instead of proud of our wonderful accomplishments and culture.”
We have more than rumors. If we care to look, we can see the ICE kidnapping our neighbors. We can see news of tourists put into “detention centers.” Scientists ejected from the U.S. for disagreeing with the president. U.S. citizens harassed at the border for harboring positions the current administration opposes.
We must not wait for our children to find the truth hidden in our lies. We must remember now while there is still time to stop the atrocities already in progress.
We must answer the lies with truth.
Sexuality is one of the many parts of the full human self that fascists would like to repress. They didn't wait to take control of our governments. They've been fighting to suppress sexual content at the local and state levels. Card processors are complicit. You can make adult content but it's harder and harder to get paid for it.
If you enjoy erotic or adult fiction, please support my work by picking up some of my stories at Chanting Lure Tales.
