VOY: “Memorial”

Date: February 15, 2021

Season 6, Episode 14

Music Video of the Day: Happy 15th Day of Black History Month!

Interstellar News: Today I found out a dear friend and his wife are both getting their first vaccine shot on Friday, and I am overjoyed for them.

TL;DR: Kim, Chakotay, Paris, and Neelix return from a two week away mission and begin to experience these intense memories about being in a battle. They believe they were part of an extermination of 82 civilians, but then Janeway and others on the crew start to experience the same thoughts. They head to the planet in question and realize there’s a memorial set up to transmit an atrocity that happened over 300 years ago. Janeway and crew repair the transmitter and set up a warning beacon so folks have informed consent before entering the area.

Favorite Quote:

Seven of Nine: Your favorites. Talaxian stew and terra nut soufflé. The soufflé has collapsed slightly, but its nutritional content is intact.

Neelix: Thank you. It looks delicious.

Seven of Nine: When Naomi Wildman is sad, she consumes desserts. She claims it improves her emotional state. Perhaps you should try it.

Seven had me in stitches about the dessert.

“Guilt can be a difficult, but useful, emotion.”: This is a very powerful episode, but there are some flaws I’m not sure I can overlook. Torres and Paris haven’t seen each other in two weeks and he zonks out at the CRT TV she made him, but then TORRES FALLS ASLEEP. No way she doesn’t blow up at Paris or storm out, I mean… have you even watched “Alice“? The obelisk memorial, which reminds me of the object in “The Paradise Syndrome“, was a wonderful tribute to those who were lost on the planet. I totally understand why Neelix argued to preserve it, given what happened to his family, but I don’t understand why Chakotay was so against it – both as a pacifist and an anthropologist. One could make the argument that Chakotay is still not over what happened in “Nemesis” and this experience was similar enough that he was just adamant about not having anyone else have to go through what he did. I also don’t buy how Janeway acted toward the boys when they were piecing together what happened, because there were so many pieces that just didn’t make sense.

What is good about this episode, however, is so wonderfully good. The Nakan suffered a terrible tragedy at the hands of the military and at least one person spoke up so that their memory could not be forgotten, so that future generations would learn from this mistake, and so that 82 civilians could be a lesson to us all and never forgotten for the sacrifice they never intended to make. Janeway also ends the episode with the best solution possible, because there really needs to be a warning where that memorial is concerned. I’ll give this episode 6 gummy bears, maybe 7.

TA Out!