Favorite Son (Star Trek: Voyager)

"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. Lisa Klink wrote and Marvin V. Rush directed the episode. Set in the 24th century, the show follows the adventures of the 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 (Garrett Wang) experiences déjà vu and develops a rash when the Voyager enters a new sector of the Delta Quadrant. Mostly female aliens known as Taresians tell him that he is not human but is a member of their species. On discovering this is a ruse by the female aliens to attract and kill their men during reproduction, the crew rescues Kim and restores him to his original state. Deborah May and Kristanna Loken play two of the Taresians, Patrick Fabian portrays a man tricked by them and Irene Tsu appears as Kim's mother.

Klink originally developed the script to reveal that Kim is an alien, but this concept was abandoned following multiple rewrites. Wang preferred the original idea, believing it gave his character greater depth and further storyline opportunities. However, the show's writers thought it would be too unbelievable. During filming, the cast and crew adapted the plot as a take on a male fantasy, and Rush modeled the Taresians on geishas. Scholars have discussed "Favorite Son" as a reference to Odysseus' encounter with the Sirens, and analyzed the Taresians' method of sexual reproduction. According to Nielsen, the episode was watched by 6.17 million viewers, a drop from the previous week. The show's cast and crew had a mixed response to "Favorite Son", while the episode received largely negative reviews from critics who viewed the Taresians as sexist stereotypes.