page_title: Favorite Son (Star Trek: Voyager)
section_title: Analysis
hierarchical_section_title: Favorite Son (Star Trek: Voyager) / Analysis
context_page_description: "Favorite Son" is an episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager. First broadcast on UPN on March 19, 1997, it was the 20th episode of the third season. The episode was written by Lisa Klink and directed by Marvin V. Rush. Set in the 24th century, the show follows the adventures of the Starfleet and Maquis crew of the starship USS Voyager after they are stranded in the Delta Quadrant, far from the rest of the Federation.
  In the episode, Ensign Harry Kim experiences déjà vu and develops a rash when the USS Voyager enters a new sector of the Delta Quadrant. A mostly female aliens known as the Taresians tell Kim that he is not human, but instead a part of their species. Upon discovering this is a ruse by the female aliens to attract and kill their men during reproduction, the crew rescue Kim and restore him to his original state. Two of the female Taresians are played by Deborah May and Kristanna Loken, Patrick Fabian portrays a man tricked by them, and Irene Tsu acts as Kim's mother.
  In Klink's original script, Kim really was an alien, but the concept was abandoned as too unbelievable.
context_section_description: Film studies scholar Djoymi Baker described "Favorite Son" as a reinterpretation of the Sirens from Homer's Odyssey, with Harry Kim put in a role similar to Odysseus. Prior to the episode's production, Kathryn Janeway's actor Kate Mulgrew said Star Trek: Voyager and the Odyssey both use "mythic storytelling". While emphasizing Kim has a lower military rank than Odysseus, Baker attributed his weakness to temptation to his more naïve personality and desire to be seen as important. She noted unlike the Sirens' portrayal as the "holders of great knowledge", the Taresians used "the dangerous nature of female productive power" to lure their victims. Because of the episode's focus on procreation, Baker said the Taresians had similarities to the Lemnian women from Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica.
  Baker argued "Favorite Son" regressed to a "type of gender typing often present in the original series" by adapting Odysseus as a male ensign (Kim) rather than featuring the female captain (Janeway). Disagreeing with this assessment, academic Kwasu David Tembo said all the series' characters often display "Odyssean characteristics regardless of species, age, or gender". Tembo interpreted Janeway's relationship with Seven of Nine as an example of a siren song distracting her from returning home.
  The Taresians' method of reproduction was the subject of academic analysis. Pediatrician Victor Grech, in a paper on infertility in Star Trek, wrote that "Favorite Son" and the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "The Lorelei Signal" both involve women using men to "retain their own immortality at the expense of infertility" and convey moments where "men are truly needed, albeit briefly" for fertility. Biology professor Mohamed Noor used "Favorite Son" as a way to discuss DNA transmission and how dominant and recessive traits are manifested in offspring. Noor wrote that the episode deals with a retrovirus that inserts DNA into the genome, noting a similar idea was used in "Prophecy". While paralleling Star Trek aliens to real-life animals, he said the Taresians used an aggressive mimicry similar to a Photuris' ability to mimic a firefly to attract prey.
caption: Critics compared the Taresians to Odysseus' encounter with the Sirens in Homer's Odyssey.
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