Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 1, February 2001 | Page 77

Myth and the Star Trek Franchise

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gains knowledge of a different kind - a feeling of deja vu and the gradual awareness
of Tauresian knowledge. Yet this precognition is in fact part of the Tauresian’s method
of ensnarement. Unlike Odysseus, whose characteristic use of intellect and craftiness
allows him to pass by the Sirens unharmed (Neils 175), Harry is the youngster of the
Voyager team, often depicted as talented but a little naive due to lack of experience.
He is not the captain of his ship, nor the leader of his crew as Odysseus is. Indeed, if
for Odysseus the lure of the Sirens lies in their ability to sing for him an epic song in
which his former heroic deeds will be praised (Odyssey 12.184-191; Pucci 196),
Harry’s temptation is to believe that he is more important than he has, as yet, become.
As a young and upcoming officer, he longs to be special - an elevated status that the
Tauresians can offer. Thus at the end of Harry’s adventure he says that “[i]t wasn’t
just the women [...]. There was also something exciting about having a new identity.
Being more than just young Ensign Kim.” Although Harry becomes suspicious of
the Tauresians, it is the combined efforts of the Voyager crew by which he is rescued,
not his own cunning. Just as the Odyssey explicitly compares Odysseus’ forthcoming
adventures with those of Jason in the Argonautika (Odyssey 12.69-70), so too in
“Favorite Son” Harry’s encounter is modeled on and compared with that of Odysseus,
but changed in order to accommodate a different heroic figure.
In their promise to tell Odysseus epic poetry, which will flatter his ego as a hero,
the Sirens embody the “temptation of ‘forgetting the return’ ” to his home and to the
loved ones waiting there (Segal 215). Harry’s false memories, which gradually emerge,
operate in inverse to the possibility that he too may forget the return, and instead stay
with the Tauresians. To “remember” the Tauresians is to forget Voyager and the
desire to return to Earth. As Odysseus continually chooses the glory of nostos (return
home) over the possible delights to be had elsewhere, so too the crew of Voyager
consistently pass up opportunities to settle on hospitable alien planets. Although
aliens often aid their journey, alien planets themselves always pose the potential of a
replacement Earth that will divert the crew from their quest.
But the Sirens may pose a greater threat than merely their potential to halt the
homeward journey. Odysseus is warned by Circe that those who listen to the Sirens
do not depart again (Odyssey 12.40-46). Odysseus does not say whether there are
indeed bones of the dead around the Sirens as Circe claims (Odyssey 12.45-6), and
the Sirens themselves assert that one can listen and then freely depart (Odyssey 12.188).
Unlike Odysseus, in “Favorite Son” Harry receives no warnings about the deadly
intent of Tauresians, and instead is lured by fake memories which make him believe
he belongs with them. But while the presence of remains surrounding the Sirens is
never corroborated in the Odyssey^ the lethal nature of the Tauresians in “Favorite
Son” is confirmed with the discovery of the corpse.
This threat is directly related to the Tauresians’ sexuality. The viewer of Star