Violations

Many people have been violated, or is in a relationship with someone who has suffered from someone's sub-human behaviour. And it will, in both cases, affect their lives for a long time.

This is why this Star Trek episode shines. Its touching a subject that is not only uncomfortable, but needs to be addressed. The violation of someone else.

I've never liked the episode. Mind you, it came to my country in the 80' and I've rewatched it many times after. The topic is unpleasant. The setup unravels me. Deanna's despair is disjolting. All whilst I wanna punch the villain in the face. And frankly, that emotional evocation along with metaphoring real life, is what Star Trek does phenomenally.

It feels as if they failed, however, in the final hour. Picard's diplomatic speech, the sentence-on-planet. No justice dispatched. No on-screen retaliation for the viewer of the abuser. It fell flat.

Just like it often does in real life. That's why it shines.

Granting that this is (at least in theory) a family show, and a space opera, this is a rather good examination on the issue of rape. Others might find the tackling of this issue objectionable for their own reasons, but I personally found it very well done. Even the flashback sequences are designed to keep the episode within a PG rating, dream like and psychological, not Hitchcock. Also, having both male and female victims brings in awareness that anyone could be a victim of assault.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

"Violations" is just what it says on the tin: a series of psychic violations against the crew of the Enterprise, but more importantly a more systematic set of violations against the rules of good drama.

I watched this episode when it first aired, and a reviewer whom I admired at the time (but whose name I have since forgotten) said it best: "There's no suspense here, only rape." That sticks with me because, having re-watched the episode recently, I can see exactly what he was talking about. From the very beginning - from the very end of the teaser, in fact - we already have a sense that the villain of the piece will be Jev (played with an almost mustache- twirling abandon by Ben Lemon). The last shot of the teaser focuses on him, and the trademarked "danger" music swells up. You'd have to be a fool not to guess that something is going to be wrong with this guy.

The episode does itself no favors by then featuring Jev in each of the violations that he commits - against Troi, then Riker, then Beverly - and in the least subtle of ways. He takes the place of a particular character in that person's memory, though it's only in Troi's memory that he's actually forcing himself upon the victim in a rapey way. (I'm not trying to be facetious, by the way - the mental violations that Jev commits are clearly meant to be considered a form of rape, though only in Troi's case does that metaphor become all too literal. Twice, even.) There's no build-up of suspense, no possibility given that it COULD be Jev's father Tarmin, as Jev tries to make everyone believe later in the episode. Before he gets all rapey again and gives himself away, of course.

And that's really the problem with the entire episode: there's no sense of control for the purpose of dramatic effect. Just like Jev, the episode's writers can't help themselves - this episode is going to be about RAPE, dammit, and forget telling a good story. Instead of subtlety, let's just knock the audience over their collective head with the message, or else it won't get through.

Consider how much more interesting and suspenseful this episode could have been had the writers and director gone a different route: having Troi, Riker, and Crusher NOT see Jev's face in their visions, so that we know it's got to be one of the Ulians (which would also have allowed the woman Inad to be one of the suspects, if it had been handled right) but we don't know which one. Only at the end is it revealed that it's Jev - probably because he couldn't control himself, and Troi really IS that damned lovely.

But that doesn't excuse his final act of self-revelation, nor the reasons why the producers of this episode didn't handle the story much more carefully. Not giving away the attacker's identity would have done nothing to cheapen the anti-rape subtext - if anything, it would have returned it to the level OF subtext rather than making it so obvious that the episode should carry a trigger warning for those who care about such things. And on top of it all, we'd get a creepy and mysterious story with a strong payoff at the end, rather than a story that's just...creepy.

This episode makes Riker look bad. It is disturbing because they show Riker forcefully force Troi. They did not make it clear whether it is a "memory" or a implanted "memory". Also is disturbing that the alien' trial was not shown.

The concept of a telepath invading a person's mind and being equivalent to rape is a good one. It should not have been actual images of rape or even sex.

I could have gone something like this: The villain has a good one-on-one conversation with Troi, but when it gets too personal, Troi is uncomfortable and leaves. It needs to be specific, such as describing a memorable date with Riker, but stopping when they enter the bedroom. We then see the villain talking to his father about his intriguing conversation with Troi, perhaps remarking that human dating rituals are very peculiar. Later, Troi then has a dream about that event but it continues into the bedroom. It should not be rape, but something should feel "off". For example, when she runs her hand through Riker's hair, it is long blonde hair, which freaks her out and she passes out. Both the villain and his father have the same long blonde hair (or maybe they both have ridges on their hands and that freaks out Troi when she clasps Riker's hands), so we don't know, which one invaded her thoughts.

We then see both the villain and his father have a conversation with Beverly about something that intrigues both of them, but Beverly gets uncomfortable and ends the conversation. Again, Beverly has a dream that replays the end of that scene and continues beyond where Beverly wanted to stop. Something clues us in to the fact that the other character is one of the aliens but it is again we can't tell which one.

Picard and Riker then talk to the aliens. The villain can see that Riker is very agitated, asking tough questions but is tempered by Picard, who says "Ok, we will discuss this." We see Picard meet with Riker and agree with his plan to contact their alien home world (or something). The villain is concerned and wants to know what was said, so he invades Riker's mind to learn what was said in the meeting, but we see the villain's father take the place of Picard and argue against Riker's plan, but before Riker collapses, we see the alien mother or father walk in on the villain and disrupt the session, so Riker is confused and groggy but doesn't pass out. He remembers seeing the father's face, so he comes on even stronger to accuse the father, who tries do defend himself, but is placed in the brig. The audience knows that he is wrongly accused but how will they prove it?

Soon after, Geordie provides the evidence that the other events could only have been caused by the son. So now we have a dilemma. Could both the father and son be doing this? The son on the other worlds and the father on Enterprise? Is it possible for the aliens to implant thoughts, a false image? When they acknowledge that yes, they can implant thoughts, their entire body of work is questioned. The villain, as much as he is frustrated by his father, does not want to see all of his father's work ruined, so he confesses. Can we believe the confession or is he protecting his father? They then look at the times that these events happened and prove that it could only be the son.

So, it is possible to show the mental violation without showing sexual rape or having the audience wonder if Riker actually raped Troi, or whether that was only the villain. And the audience doesn't need to know too early who the true villain is.

Another possibility is to have a series of more subtle, minor invasions that the characters can talk about "I had dreamt about x but it felt weird, different, but I can't explain how." this builds to them passing out.