Star Trek: Voyager/Recap/S4/E23 Living Witness
| A story from Star Trek: Voyager | |
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| Preceded by: | "Unforgettable" |
| Followed by: | "Demon" |
| Central Theme: | History is written by the survivors. |
| Synopsis: | The Rashomon in Space! |
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The Doctor: Voyager wasn't a warship! We were explorers! |
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Quoting from Wikipedia:
The episode opens with a scene on the "warship Voyager", an unrealistic depiction of the ship which turns out to be a museum's recreation of events. Although the brutality and detachment of the crew is chilling, there are several dark, campy elements of the alternate reality that provide comic relief: the crew wear altered versions of their uniforms with no combadges or rank insignia, but sport black gloves and turtlenecks. First Officer Chakotay's name is repeatedly mispronounced (as "Chak-ooo-tay") by the crew and his tattoo has grown in size as to cover half of his face and appears in the design of Māori Tā moko markings. Captain Janeway sports a butch haircut and excessive schadenfreude. Meanwhile, the holographic Doctor has become an android mass murderer and torturer with neon yellow-green eyes while Tactical Officer Tuvok has a sinister sense of humor; former drone Seven of Nine is a full Borg with several other Borg drones serving as shock troops onboard Voyager. The depiction also show violent Kazon members as part of the crew, mistaken to have joined in the same manner as the Borg. Neelix is not the cook, but a member of the bridge and a brutal henchman.
In the actual course of events, Captain Janeway had agreed to provide the Vaskans with medical supplies in exchange for dilithium crystals. The Kyrians, who were at war with the Vaskans, boarded Voyager to stop the deal, which they thought was a military alliance of some sort. During their time on the ship, they stole a data module carrying a backup copy of the Doctor. Seven hundred years later, this module was part of a Kyrian museum exhibit which showed their version of the encounter. This biased encounter showed Voyager as a warship with a savage and sadistic crew that was willing to commit genocide. Even the Vaskan in the simulation became horrified over the atrocities committed, but the simulated Janeway told him it was too late to stop now. Quarren, the curator at the museum, always fascinated by Voyager's story even though they were "the bad guys," had found (with the help from an archaeological team) the Doctor's backup module three weeks prior. He was able to activate it using Voyager's own tools. The Doctor, upon seeing this biased simulated version of history, is appalled and offers to show Quarren his own accurate version of events from 700 years ago aboard Voyager. Initially, the Doctor's claims that Voyager was unfairly depicted by the Kyrians are ignored, and he is told he could be held accountable for war crimes when he presents his version of history before the Commission of Arbiters. The Doctor states, however, that a presently non-functional Starfleet medical tricorder would settle the issue of who killed Tedran, a Kyrian revolutionary hero who died during a raid on Voyager.
After fending off an angry mob of Vaskans intent on destroying what they now know to be a museum of false history, the Doctor initially wishes to abandon his quest to set the 700-year-old historical record straight and says that the truth may cause more harm and violence. Quarren objects, saying that the tension between the Kyrian and Vaskan cultures has already reached the breaking point. Quarren stresses that both races on his planet need to hear the truth about the real course of events on Voyager. This persuades the Doctor to continue searching for the tricorder. The episode ends an indeterminate number of years later, as the museum's new curator explains that the two species finally made peace thanks to the efforts of the Doctor and the information from the tricorder, although he always regretted that he would never see any of his friends again. It is revealed to the viewer that all the scenes that we had been witnessing were computer simulations revealing real life events which occurred in the past such as the Kyrian-Vaskan conflict, Quarren's discovery of The Doctor's backup program, and Quarren and The Doctor's proposal to the Commission of Arbiters. Following the peace, The Doctor served as the surgical chancellor for the Kyrians and Vaskans for many years, but eventually he took a ship and departed for Earth; he said that "he had a longing for home." As for Quarren, it is stated that he lived only six years after seeing the Kyrian-Vaskan reconciliation.
- Alternate Reality Episode: This was clearly meant to be Star Trek Voyager's version of an Evil Twin Mirror Universe episode, though unfortunately it lacks the Bare Your Midriff uniforms and blatant Ho Yay.
- Badass Crew: Taken to its most terrifying extreme, the warship Voyager's crew are clearly insane. Even Neelix manages to get in an awesome line in a putdown to Paris.
- Brick Joke: Also leading to a Call Back that in "Worst Case Scenario", Tom Paris suggests that a holographic Janeway execute some mutineers. We see this version of a holographic Janeway do just that to hostages.
- Call Back
- Cool Starship: It has to be said, the alternate Voyager armed to the teeth with guns isn't a bad sight.
- Depending on the Writer: The curator's initial idea when he finds the Doctor is to use him to help him alter the program to make it a more accurate simulation. He admits that over the years they've had to extrapolate certain things to fill in the gaps.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The biased depiction of the Vaskan leader has him going to war with the Kyrians simply to steal their land. He contracts Voyager as mercenaries to accomplish this, but even he objects on moral grounds and tries to cancel the deal when Janeway decides to effect massive genocide of the Kyrians as the best solution.
- Final Solution: Evil Janeway's genocide of the Kyrians, which apparently kills at least 900,000 people.
- Future Imperfect: The historian's interpretation of the event is... misguided, to say the least. This is due to the fact that he barely has any data to work with and a heavy bias against the Vaskans. The crew wear fascist uniforms and are portrayed as violent sociopaths. The Doctor is an android. Seven of Nine is still a Borg leading a contingent of captured drones. Even Voyager herself has become a darkly-lit ship, armed to the teeth and referred to as a warship.
- Hand of Death: The evil Voyager crew all wear black gloves.
- Historical Badass Upgrade: See Badass Crew and Cool Starship above.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: The Kyrians, Tetran in particular.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: The Voyager crew and the Vaskans.
- My Friends and Zoidberg: The Doctor points out that the way his colleagues have been depicted in the historical recreation has morphed them into violent thugs, but he actually finds Paris to be pretty well portrayed (who from what we've seen admittedly is not depicted so much as a bloodthirsty villain rather than just cocky and prone to skirt-chasing).
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These weren't the people I knew! They didn't behave like this! [Beat] Well, except for Mr. Paris. |
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- Politically-Correct History: The Kyrian recreation portrays Tedran as a martyr for the Kyrians who was executed by Janeway while trying to stop an alliance between the Vaskans and Voyager. Later averted when it's revealed that Voyager was merely trading with the Vaskans when Tedran attacked unprovoked, tried to loot the ship, and then was killed by the Vaskan ambassador without warning.
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old: The Doctor himself in this episode, or rather his backup copy, which is reactivated 700 years later.
- Show Within a Show: The reveal that the Doctor setting the events of the Voyager recreation straight were in turn themselves another recreation at the same museum, many years later.
- Torture Technician: The Doctor is portrayed as this, much to his horror.
- Writer on Board: Also subverted; the original recreation was this, while the Doctor and the curator are seen this way by the historical council when they try to correct it.