Voyager Flashback: Favorite Son

Both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager would often serve up the kind of episode the original Star Trek was known for: veiling some modern moral parable in the trappings of science fiction. Other times, they'd serve up another kind of episode the original Star Trek was known for: dressing women in skimpy outfits to depict a straight male utopia. "Favorite Son" is one of the latter.

Harry Kim begins experiencing deja vu and innate memories that soon escalate to DNA re-sequencing and overt physical changes: it seems he's actually an alien! He's drawn to his home planet of Taresia, where he's welcomed sensually into a society that's over 90% female. But there's a secret truth in Taresian society, and to their story of Kim's origins.

I was shocked to read about the original premise behind this episode: Harry Kim really was an alien, and that once that was discovered in this episode, he would remain one for the rest of the series! That story apparently got as far as a script (which actor Garrett Wang was thrilled to read), before the Powers That Be predictably chickened out on making any lasting, meaningful change to the character. That raison d'être, that life force, was sucked out of the heart of the episode... and replaced with a tale of alien women looking to suck the life force out of Harry Kim. From there, network executives reportedly called for even more action and more sex, resulting in this weirdly 1960s feeling Star Trek episode.

"Favorite Son" isn't quite offensive, but it sure does get silly. Multiple women are pawing on Harry Kim in every dialogue-freighted scene on the alien planet (a sort of network-friendly precursor to the "sexposition" of Game of Thrones?). Paris, Neelix, and Kim himself all have frat house style moments delighting in the whole scenario. Working actor Patrick Fabian is on hand, coaching Harry to relax and just be horny. There's safe-for-90s-TV bondage play. Kim has a Freudian dream in which his "boss" at work becomes his mother.

I suppose you can argue that there's something empowering in the real scheme of the alien women here, to ensnare men, lower their guard, then drain them until they're dead husks. But that scheme doesn't really hold up to any scrutiny. If their society is advanced enough to genetically engineer a virus that converts others into members of their own species, all while eluding detection and implanting genetic memories, then surely they're capable of some easier way to science their way out of their global population problem?

Silly as the whole is, there are a few nice moments sprinkled throughout. When Harry commandeers Voyager to attack an alien ship, Janeway puts just the right stank on every line spoken to him thereafter. That Harry's actions almost get B'Elanna killed leads to yet another nice scene between the two (which, for the umpteenth time, convinces me those two would have made a better romantic pairing than B'Elanna and Tom Paris).

Other observations:

• Taresian makeup is far too similar to Trills.

• Taresian silverware seems like some sort of strange medical forceps.

• I maintain that this episode felt dated even at the time it first aired. But one moment that feels especially dated now: Harry explaining that human marriage is "between one woman and one man." (At least he says "usually.")
  

• A few recognizable sci-fi faces: Patricia Tallman (from Babylon 5) often did stunt work on Star Trek and does so again here, while Kristanna S. Loken would later play the T-X in Terminator 3.
  

This is a ridiculous episode, but it is occasionally a fun kind of ridiculous. At the risk of seeming an apologist for it, I think I'll give it a C+. For "bad Star Trek," it's actually kind of watchable, never committing the ultimate sin of being "boring."