Living Witness (episode)

From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference

"Living Witness"
VOY, Episode 4x23 Production number: 191 First aired: 29 April 1998
←	90th of 168 produced in VOY	→
←	90th of 168 released in VOY	→
	{{{nNthReleasedInSeries_Remastered}}}th of 168 released in VOY Remastered
←	518th of 727 released in all	→
Teleplay By Bryan Fuller and Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky Story By Brannon Braga Directed By Tim Russ
Unknown (ca. 3074/Unknown)
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Reactivated after lying inactive for 700 years, a backup version of The Doctor tries to uncover the truth about war crimes supposedly committed by Voyager when they passed a planet centuries ago.

Contents 1 Summary 2 Memorable Quotes 3 Background Information 3.1 Video and DVD releases 4 Links and references 4.1 Guest stars 4.2 Uncredited co-stars 4.3 References

[edit] Summary

"When diplomacy fails, there's only one alternative; Violence. Force must be applied without apology. It's the Starfleet way."

Captain Janeway, sporting uncharacteristically short hair and black gloves, negotiates with a Vaskan diplomat about fighting a war with the allegedly innocent Kyrians in return for the way to a wormhole.

All of a sudden, a screen freezes to hear a voice commentary from a Kyrian tour guide at the Kyrian Museum of Heritage, named Quarren, explaining how after seven hundred years, they are still recovering from the acts of the evil Warship Voyager. A Vaskan participating in the tour asks how they know any of this is true, to which he is replied by the tour guide "Look at all the evidence we have."

Quarren proceeds to tell his tour that a data storage device, buried nine meters beneath the ruins of Kesef and that came from Voyager, has been recently uncovered. The device might contain personal logs or other proof directly from Voyager. After the museum closes, Quarren uses recreated tools from Voyager to attempt to open the data.

"Please state the nature of the medical emergency." The data source is actually a backup copy of the EMH (The Doctor). Quarren tells him that as a mass murderer, The Doctor will have to pay for his crimes. The Doctor is confused, wondering what crimes he is charged with. He then learns the Kyrian version of events. When he attempts to explain the correct version of events to Quarren, his explanation is met with skepticism.

After taking some time to think, Quarren decides that The Doctor may be correct and that for seven hundred years, the Kyrians have been teaching falsehood. The Doctor is then allowed to edit the simulation of Voyager's encounter with the Kyrians. Apparently, Voyager was trying to negotiate for dilithium in exchange for medical supplies. But just as they were about to seal the deal, the ship was boarded by a Kyrian party, which killed three engineering crewmen and took Seven of Nine and another crewman hostage. They accused Voyager of being the new allies of the Vaskans before they were cornered in the mess hall. This new recreation sparks a heated debate, as The Doctor's version of events implies that it was the Kyrians rather than the Vaskans who provoked the Great War.

Still, some people do not believe The Doctor's testimony and demand that he be terminated. The Doctor, however, is convinced that with the medical tricorder that is on display he can prove that Tedran, a Kyrian hero and revolutionary, died at the hand of a Vaskan weapon.

These new revelations snap the tension that has been steadily building between the Kyrians and the Vaskans over the previous hundreds of years. During the attack of a mob at the museum, The Doctor accidentally loses the tricorder while trying to help Quarren, who was injured.

After the attack, The Doctor states that he should be shut down because as an EMH, he is obliged to help people, and his continued presence is causing riots and intense anger among both races. Quarren convinces him that his information is vital and will save many more people, not only now but hundreds of years from now as well, as both races cannot forge lasting relations without the real truth being known. The Doctor relents, and they begin to look for the tricorder.

Further into the future, a group of Kyrians and Vaskans stand around a viewscreen, watching these events unfold. A tour guide explains how this was a turning point in the people's history, and how it brought about equality between the Kyrians and the Vaskans. The Doctor became Surgical Chancellor for many years, before taking a small craft to trace Voyager's path back to the Alpha Quadrant, "claiming to have a longing for home".

[edit] Memorable Quotes

"Why do you always keep me waiting, Tuvok?"

- Captain Janeway in the historical simulation

"Captain, don't you think that's excessive?"
"You picked a bad time to have second thoughts, ambassador."
"I want them defeated, but... but this is genocide."
"Defeat? Genocide? Why quibble with semantics?"

- Vaskan diplomat and Captain Janeway in the historical simulation

"Don't look so shocked, ambassador. This is what you wanted, isn't it?"

- Captain Janeway after shooting Tedran in the historical simulation

"What's going to happen to me now? Will you put me on display? The holographic Rip van Winkle?"

- The Doctor, concerned about his destiny

"Voyager wasn't a warship! We were explorers!"
"Yes, I know. Trying to get home, to Mars."
"Earth! You see, you couldn't even get that right!"

- The Doctor and Quarren

"You have a better idea, lieutenant?"
"As a matter of fact, I do. Fighter shuttles – a direct assault."
"Led by you? Good luck."

- Chakotay, Tom Paris, and Neelix, in the historical simulation

"Pure fiction. This is absurd."
"Halt re-creation. This is a reasonable extrapolation from historic record. But if you'd like to point out any inconsistencies..."
"Inconsistencies? I don't know where to begin. Granted, this looks like the briefing room, but these aren't the people I knew! No one behaved like this... well, aside from Mr. Paris."

- The Doctor about the holographic simulation

"Somewhere – halfway across the galaxy, I hope – Captain Janeway is spinning in her grave."

- The Doctor, regarding further inconsistencies in the historical simulation

"You’ve portrayed us as monsters: the captain is a cold-blooded killer, the crew is a gang of thugs and I am a mass-murderer."

- The Doctor, summing up what he saw in the historical simulation

"I'll go first, Captain, and draw any fire if need be."
"Your crew is heroic, Captain..."
"I just happen to be invulnerable to phaser fire - but I appreciate the compliment."

- The Doctor and Daleth in the Doctor's own recreation of the same event

"For your information, I don't appreciate being deactivated in the middle of a sentence. It brings back... unpleasant memories."

- The Doctor

"You miss them, don't you?"
"B'Elanna Torres... intelligent, beautiful, and with a chip on her shoulder the size of the Horsehead Nebula."

- Quarren and The Doctor

"Please state the nature of the medical – oh... it's you."

- The Doctor, to Quarren

"From my perspective, I saw them all only a few days ago. But in fact, it's been centuries. And I'll never see them again. Did they ever reach home? I wonder."

- The Doctor

[edit] Background Information

• Roxann Dawson (B'Elanna Torres) does not appear in this episode, as she was recovering from the birth of her daughter, Emma Rose Dawson, who was born on 16 January 1998.
• Some sets in this episode, including the Kyrian Museum of Heritage, were also used in Star Trek: Insurrection. The museum was used as a part of the Son'a ship in the film.
• This episode marks Tim Russ' directorial debut. This is the only episode of any Star Trek series that he directed.
• In several scenes set in the fictional sickbay, in the biolab (the room typically seen in the background of most sickbay shots, opposite the portion of sickbay which contains the biobeds) can be seen a tall, cylindrical glass chamber. This cylinder later appeared as the quarantine chamber on Cold Station 12, in ENT: "Cold Station 12", as well as the agony booth in ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly".
• Henry Woronicz previously played another alien attempting to learn his species' history though USS Voyager in "Distant Origin".
• The transwarp drive prop used in VOY: "Threshold" can be seen on Quarren's desk.
• This episode could technically be considered the first Star Trek episode ever not to feature any regular characters, as they all appear only as holograms in Quarren's recreation of Voyager with the exception of The Doctor, who also appears as a backup version of his program.
• Robert Picardo plays three different holographic versions of The Doctor in this episode (one of them an android) but does not actually play his usual character.
• The Warship Voyager features a Kazon crew member who is an ensign.
• In Quarren's original recreation, none of the crew of the Warship Voyager wear rank insignia or combadges. In addition, the normal gray undershirt worn beneath the Starfleet jumpsuit has changed to black, and many crew members wear black gloves. Some other visible differences include different hairstyles (notably Janeway's) and a much enlarged tattoo on Chakotay.
• One of the misconceptions the Kyrians had of Voyager was that their home was Mars. It is possible that they deduced this from Voyager being built at Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards orbiting Mars. VOY: "Relativity"
• When Chakotay's name was said by the holographic Voyager crew they pronounced it differently than they normally do (CHAkotay, rather than chaKOtay), suggesting that those that created the holographic simulation did not know how to pronounce it themselves.
• Several costumes from this episode were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, including the costume of Robert Scott. [1]
• The events in this episode took place at least 700 years from the time Voyager encountered the Kyrians. Since no date, or stardate, was given in the episode, the only thing that dates the episode is Seven of Nine, placing this episode sometime after "The Gift". This places the activation of the EMH backup and subsequent upheavals in the late 31st century (appx. 3074). The final scene, however, takes place no sooner than 7 years later, although the docent's monologue, and Quarren's statement that "it could be another 700 years," both imply that several generations had passed. It is reasonable to conclude that the final scene took place as early as the 32nd century, and as late as the 38th century. Chronologically, this scene probably takes place farther in the future than any other filmed scene in the entire Star Trek franchise.
• This episode suggests that it is possible to make a backup copy of The Doctor. However, in many other episodes (for example, VOY: "Blink of an Eye", "Life Line") it appears that his program will be lost forever if it is transferred and cannot return. This may be because the backup module was lost (as explained in this episode) and therefore unusable.
• Depending on one's viewpoint, this episode either flatly contradicts or firmly upholds the events of VOY: "Message in a Bottle". In that episode, Harry Kim's efforts to make a new version of The Doctor fail. The presence of the EMH backup module in this episode suggests that either Kim had no need to make a copy of the Doctor or that his failed efforts to do so prompted the creation of the module. A third option is that the events leading to the loss of the module take place before "Message in a Bottle", since the presence of Seven of Nine only means that the episode happened after "The Gift". The determinative question never directly answered by any episode of the series is whether Voyager launched with this technology on board.
• In one of the scenes set in the fictional sickbay, a small, clear, cylindrical object with a gold coil-like accent inside can be seen on the table where the biobed is normally kept. This object was used as one of the parts of Steth's coaxial warp ship in VOY: "Vis à Vis".

[edit] Video and DVD releases

• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 4.12, catalog number VHR 4633, 7 December 1998
• As part of the VOY Season 4 DVD collection

[edit] Links and references

[edit] Guest stars

• Henry Woronicz as Quarren
• Rod Arrants as Daleth
• Craig Richard Nelson as Vaskan arbiter
• Marie Chambers as Kyrian arbiter
• Brian Fitzpatrick as Tedran
• Morgan Margolis as Vaskan visitor
• Mary Anne McGarry as Tabris
• Timothy Davis-Reed as Kyrian spectator

[edit] Uncredited co-stars

• Tarik Ergin as Ayala
• Glenn Goldstein as a Kyrian commando
• Fred Hafner as a Kyrian visitor
• Tom Morga as a Warrior Borg Drones
• Jeff Pruitt as a Kyrian commando
• Shepard Ross as Murphy
• Robert Scott as a Vaskan
• Steve Silverie as a Vaskan spectator
• Unknown performers as
  • Kyrian commando
  • Tedran's accomplice
  • Tortured Kyrian

[edit] References

arbiter; assault probe; biogenic weapon; Borg drone; cerebral cortex; dilithium; Emergency Medical Hologram backup module; Great War; hedgehog; Horsehead Nebula; hyperspanner; Kazon; Kesef; Kyrian; Kyrian fighter; Kyrian-Vaskan homeworld; Mars; medical tricorder; Museum of Kyrian Heritage; neural solvent; optic nerve; particle weapon; photon torpedo; Syrric Ocean; Vaskan; Van Winkle, Rip; The Voyager Encounter; Warship Voyager; wormhole

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Star Trek: Voyager Season 4

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