"Living Witness"
Air Date: April 29, 1998
Star Date: Unknown
PLEASE NOTE: This file is frozen. I think we've done all we're going to do on it! You're welcome to send addition nits but they will be filed for future reference instead of uploaded.
Holodoc's backup module is reactivate only to find that it's 700 years in the future and the Kyrians blame Voyager for a "great war" that devestated their world. They have even created an entire museum with holographic-like creations of Voyager's involvement. Holodoc is shocked to see that the recreations feature the "warship" Voyagers bristling with weaponry; commanded by a ruthless Janeway and a feuding mass-murdering senior staff. But when holodoc tries to set the record straight as show that the war between the Kyrians and their neighbors was, in fact, started by the Kyrians themselves--and the Kyrian martyr Tedran actually led the first attack on Voyager--riots break out. There is even talk of a new war commencing over which version of history is correct. For a moment holodoc wonders if it might be better to deactivate himself: to remove any possibility of being reposible for more blood shed. Then the museum curator, a Kyrian named Quarren, convinces holodoc that the truth must be told, that all must know that they are responsible for there own actions and destiny.
Brash Reflections
Well, how do you like that? I REALLY enjoyed this episode. Interesting concept. True to the human condition. Nice turn on the end. See! See!! Those wily creators CAN put together an innovative show when they try! ;-)
Just a few things and I'll turn it over to you fellow nitpickers. Anybody think that Janeway--as a character from the beginning of the entire series--would have been better served by having a bit of Alt-Janeway's grit all along?
And what about this interesting equipment anomoly. Quarren is trying to read the backup data module. His computers can't manage it. So he goes inside the voyager simulation and then he can. But, but, but the simulation has been created by . . . his computers?! Did he actually forget to tell his computers that the backup storage module came from Voyager in the first place? If the computers already had all the information on the storage systems of Voyager in the first place--and you had recently located a data module from the ship--why wouldn't you have the computer emulate Voyager's processor IN THE FIRST PLACE?!
Lots of fun stuff by the way with the inaccuracies of the reactions.
Of course, I was amazed yet again that Tuvok didn't just stun everybody when Seven is taken hostage in Engineering by the Kyrians but that's pretty much par for the course. I just kept yelling, "Stun them! Stun them all. Janeway will choose her own!"
Reflections from the Guild
(Note from Phil: I haven't verified these reflections but they sounded good to me!)
Jason Liu: Gotta' question about tonight's (4-29-98) episode of Voyager, "Living Witness". At the very end of the episode, we see a Kyrian museum guide talk about how the events we just witnessed signalled a new age of harmony, blah, blah, blah, yada, yada. My question is this - is that guide Majel Barrett Roddenberry? She looks and sounds a lot like her, but I'm not sure. A friend of mine doesn't think so, and now we have a bet on it. Neither the credits in the beginning, nor the end list her, nor does the official web site, but they've been known to thrown in cameos before, haven't they? Anyway, just wondering if you have some info that might clear this up. (Note from Phil: Not that I know of but I could be mistaken because I watch Voyager on FuzzyTV!)
Corey Hines, Hamilton, ON: It didn't really matter whether this episode took place since only the Holo-Doc's back-up program was taken. The odd thing is that we've never seen the back-up program. Why was Kim trying to create a second Holo-Doc in "Message in a Bottle"?
In the ugly simulation, wasn't Chakotey's tattoo the same one Q wore in "The Q and the Gray"?
Why would people believe the second simulation at the end when they saw how inaccurate the first one was?
Corey Reid: First impressions: liked the alterna-uniforms, Chakotay's hair, but the Doc's eyes...we...ird...
AOTW: the Wishbone people vs. the four-nostriled Amish people
Was that a KAZON I saw in a Starfleet uniform?
Janeway's hair is getting shorter and shorter! (Even though it's not "accurate") But still, at this rate, she'll look like Picard or Sisko in two more episodes.
Paris: Aye, aye ...SIR? Boy are the Kyrians WAY off....
Poor Harry is a wimp even in
Chuckles' new and improved tattoo makes him look Maori...
CHA-ko-tay....er...yeah...
Recycled clothing: Tedrin is wearing Acost Jared's clothes from "Devil's Due" (TNG).
Message of the week: "Can't we all just get along?"
If he's a hologram without a mobile emitter...how is he able to stand in a museum without any holographic emitters? (The data storage device?) If not, than he should have disappeared the minute he left "Engineering"
Fighter shuttles!?!?
Continuity!!! Intruder alert siren!! KEWL!
Again, no B'Elanna...only a mention..OK...lots of comment about a person who wasn't in this episode...
Cool ending...(A similation in a similation...)
Patrick Wenker: Those writers really had me wondering which way this story was going to unfold. At first I thought it was a 'Mirror, Mirror' scenario, but was pleasantly surprised when it ended up being a story about misinformation. I can see a lot of parallels to today's white-male-now-we-are-the-minority-and- it's-not-fair-so-let's-change-ourselves-into-victims-problem. (I can say that cuz I am a white male.) The doctor, again, played an exceptional part, full of wit and humor, and to have him flying off into the sunset to look for home was great. Not a lot of nits that I noticed, but then again, I missed dinner and was quite hungry during the episode. Kudos to Tim Russ for his direction.
Shane Tourtellotte: I was rather impressed with "Living Witness", although it did stumble at the end. Perhaps "Voyager" is going to finish strong, like last season.
But there were nits. Oh my, were there ever nits.
In the simulation, when the Kyrian vessels first attack Voyager, Paris reports "They're returning fire." I don't recall Voyager having fired at them, although it seems the kind of thing they would do.
7o9 gives a Kyrian intruder the nanoprobe injectors in the neck. Only later does Janeway give her permission to assimilate the survivors, but shouldn't the prongs have already done that job? Granted, this was in the simulation ...
The photon torpedo on display is said to have a 25-isoton yield. I thought earlier episodes gave its yield as something higher. Yes, this is seven centuries after the fact, but if anything, you'd expect the Kyrians to _over_estimate the destructive force.
Granted, the Kyrians have Starfleet artifacts lying around, but the historian's dialogue seems to indicate they have duplicated considerably more 'period tools', and more, gotten them to work. This seems a touch farfetched.
And now, the great flaming gonzo nit of the night: the EMH backup module! So often before, we've heard that The Doctor has no backup. That fact has shaped the course of many episodes: "The Swarm", where his program begins degrading catastrophically, is a prime example. But now, when it's convenient for an unusual plot, suddenly he has a backup. I *suppose* we could say they devised a backup for him sometime in the last several episodes, but frankly, that would just excuse sloppy thinking on their part. Boo. Hiss.
Tuvok makes a poor showing in the engineering hostage situation. He lets the Kyrians escape with crewmembers, when he could have used a wide-field stun setting on his phaser, knocked everyone out, and sorted them out afterward. Phasers have only had wide settings since Classic Trek's "The Return of the Archons", but I suppose this could be more Technology That Time Forgot(TTTF).
A very few seconds after the hostage-takers leave Engineering, Tuvok reports that they are on Deck 2. Engineering is nowhere near Deck 2, so how could they get that far up in the time it would take them to run 20 yards, maximum?
I will let The Doctor's little "Facts are irrelevant" speech at the end pass, except to recall that those who forget history, even willingly, are doomed to repeat it. (Note from Phil: Yeah, this was the only part of the episode where I was scrunching up my nose.)
Chris Booton: Pretty good episode, well done action scenes and such, interesting ending with the people in the future watching what we have been seeing all along as history. This episode finally answers the question of does the doc have a backup with the answer being yes. I found a couple of nits;
Near the end we see holo doc in the museum outside of the replay holoddeck thing and he does not have his emitter on! The thing the that the other guy (im terrible with names) was the backup device I dont see how it could also be a projector but it is possible.
In the engineering scene we see seven of nine as a borg do what looks like assimilating someone and yet after the battle janeway tells her to assimilate them, if she wasn't assimilating him when she 'poked' him then what was she doing.
The museum guy mentions photon grenades as what are being used against the museum, this is something that the federation and no one else is mentioned as having, no other photon type weapons were mentioned as part of their arsenal so it seems unusuall for people to be using these.
Kirk Johnson - Roselle, IL: I thought this was a great episode. It was like "How the West was Won" up against "How the West was Lost." Anyway, the nits:
First I'll address the Kyrian theory that Voyager carried with them multiple drones. The only way they could jump to that conclusion is from observing that there were multiple alcoves in the cargo bay. This means Voyager NEVER gets rid of the extra alcoves and we can stop picking that nit.
Quarren tells the museum visitors that Voyager "assimilated" Talaxians and Kazons. It surprises me that non-historians, or even historians for that matter, living so far away from where Voyager started in the Delta quadrant, would know who the Talaxians and Kazons were.
Mabye my memory doesn't serve me, but it seems like every race Voyager has encountered in the past few weeks have had identical writing systems.
In the beginning of the Doctor's simulation, Janeway has a glass on the table in her ready room that is filled with a blue drink that looks like Romulan ale - which is illegal - which means it shouldn't be in the replicators - and she certainly can't get any from Romulus.
Finally, during the riot, Quarren tells the Doctor that they have to TAKE COVER, and he leads the Doctor to a corner. Some cover. As soon as they get there, parts of the ceiling fall on them.
Don Ferguson: At first I thought this was going to be a difficult episode to nitpick because it takes place through the keerriens point of view, after 700 years. Boy was I wrong...
before I go into discrepancies, I want to know why Starfleet hasn’t reached the Delta quadrant after 700 years... in the first voyager episode with Q, Q said that humans were not suppose to reach the delta for another 100 years, well it has been 700 years.. shouldn’t Starfleet or at least other races from the Alfa quadrant be living in the delta quadrant now?
If 700 years has passed and they don’t know much, how did they create a complete recreation of voyager? how could there be so much misconception if they had enough detailed information to recreate a holographic representation of the entire ship and the crew's physical appearance?
At first the guy that activated the doctor was surprised that the Doctor was a hologram and not an android...yet seconds later he is telling the doctor that he doesn’t experience time while deactivated.. how did he know so much about the program that he could tell the doctor how he experiences time?
so they finally made a backup of the doctor huh? who wants to be the will never try to make another or that we will never hear about it in any other episodes?
That back up module didn’t look very federation to me.
Everyone wanted to know what happened and if the doctor was lying or not.. here is a way to prove one part of his story, according to the Keerian's hologram, voyager started the war in return for the location of a wormhole home and help on stabilizing it. why not just scan where the wormhole is suppose to be? if voyager did indeed stabilize it and go home... it should still be there no? and once they find that there is no wormhole (if there was, voyager would have gone through and been home by now) they will know that they has misjudged history.
even though it was fictional, I want to know why every wormhole that exists seems to lead back to the Alfa quadrant.
how can the doctor survive outside the museum’s holodeck?
in both the doctor's recreation and the keerian's original one, the keerian's beam on board voyager while their shield's are up.
when the museum is being raided, the museum’s creator tells the doctor that the raiders are using photon grenades, funny....looks to me like they are using pipes and sticks.
Brian O'Marra: Well, it looks like the Ginkoba bug hit me last week like it hit you. I forgot to record the episode. And guess what? We have no second chances in Little Rock. Voyager is not repeated later in the week.
I remembered this week, fortunately. or should I amend that to unfortunately....
Interesting idea: A Voyager mission that is revisionist history. Since it was part of a simulation 700 years later chock full of built-in inconsistencies, you could say it's nitproof. (Boy these creators are trying to beat us nitpickers to the punch!)
However...I find the whole concept full of nits! First, the Kirians (sic?) built the entire simulation from fossils and artifacts. The Kirian museum curator announced to the Vascan (?) in the musem that they found a data storage device three weeks earlier. It may contain crew logs, etc. It might finally confirm his simulation.
In other words, an entire simulation was built without any crew logs or data files. Yet, how did they get the crew to look and sound so accurate? Oh yes, the uniforms are a tad off, and Chah' kotay's tattoo covers half his face (it's the Kirian pronunciation), but I find it way too unbelievable to construct that sophisticated a recreation with only schematics and tools!!
And if the Kirians have that sophisticated a technology to construct a very accurate simulation, would their history be that distorted to paint the Vascans as the aggressors and get all the events that wrong?? This is not some primitive, superstitious culture trying to paint some false history from verbal myths. This is to us the 31st century. I find all these inaccuracies amidst all the impressive accuracies hard to fathom!
If it is to be exaggerated, then it should really be exaggerated!!
Also, we get the crew uniforms to look pretty close, all except the gloves (Must have mixed in some Kremin into the simulation), and yet Seven looks totally different, like a full fledge Borg.
Joe Buss: This was an almost impossible episode to nitpick, since any inconsistancies can be chalked up to mistakes in the historical records. But, ever vigilant, i still found some..
First, it was bore an uncanny resemblence to the middle vingette in the Babylon 5 episode "Deconstruction of Rising Stars".
Second, In Message in a bottle, a large part of the plot revolves around the fact that the Doctor/EMH program has to be downloaded in its entirety. This episode indicates a copy can be made, and even stored in a memory device seperate from the computer.
David T. Shaw, Hamilton Ontario: Oh, those tricky, tricky Voyager writers- trying to write a nit-proof episode by making it nothing but second-hand recreations of long past events- and yet they failed.
For example- does it strike anybody as odd that these people could recreate only slightly flawed copies of the original crew, get the names right, even know that Tom was a skirt chaser, know that Voyager had came into contact with the Kazon, that all these details are correct- but the basic facts are incorrect? I mean, it is bad enough that they had the ship being run by pirates, but they got the entire history of the battle wrong as well (they must have- Voyager wouldn't have attacked population centres). Just a collection of right and wrong is too unlikely to believe.
Which brings up the idea of the Kirians writing the history. IT would seem that they had lost the war, on the bases that they played up Voyager's frightfulness and the fact that they are second hand citizens. So why are they writing the history books? That's the job of the victors- and they certainly wouldn't have made this story of an alien space ship coming in and winning the war for them (although they are a convenient scapegoat). How did the Kirian raiding party get aboard Voyager- it's not a nit, but I am curious. I imagine that Tuvoc would have been as well- after all, if one party can get aboard, you need to find out ASAP to prevent another (As I said- it's not a nit- the Doctor wasn't present for the events on the bridge). Why does a medical tricorder have encryption levels? Seems like a very odd feature for a piece of medical equipment (and I'd imagine that it would be against whatever the future equivalent of the Geneva convention as well- you don't want to issue equipment to medical personnel that can be used in espionage, and if the medical tricorders can hide what they record, then they are tools suited for spies....).
The doctor was re-activated in a simulation- fine and dandy. How was it that he was able to wander around outside the simulation chamber? There may have been holo-emitters there, but I never saw any evidence of holo-objects there.
And the biggie: When did the Doctor get a back-up module? I don't ever recall hearing about it- not when his program was fracturing, not during the year of hell when he went off line- not when people were concerned about sending him on away missions- and all of a sudden, here it is. Are we ever going to hear about it again? Call me a cynic, but I bet no... On the plus side- I liked the story a great deal. I especially liked the beginning- when Chakotay was saying to the prisoner "My people are peaceful" it was just close enough to the standard federation party-line that I realised I was watching someone else's version of the events- I wonder exactly what the circumstances were that a crew member of Voyager said that. So- it wasn't nit-proof, but I liked it.
John Burke: How did these aliens get a record of the Voyager crew, anyway? I realize many (OK, most) of the details were wrong, but they still knew a lot of individual officers by name. Either these people keep incredibly detailed histories, or they found a crew manifest somewhere. But there's no mention of that, is there?
Even if you accept that they knew the high-ranking officers, how'd they find out about the Kazon? Aren't they way on the other side of Borg space?
During the recreation, when Kim is about to bludgeon the guy with some kind of pipe, does Doc call it a "hydrospanner?" That's a Star Wars term! (He might have said "hyper-spanner," or something, but it sounded similar...)
How did the aliens get all these Voyager relics, anyway? It seems like they have more at the exhibit than their boarding party would've been able to steal...Is Voyager really leaving bits and pieces of it's technology all around the Delta Quadrant to be dug up by future civilization? Isn't there a rule against that? (Like...the Prime Directive?)
Getting an awful lot of mixed messages from this guy who runs the exhibit. Sometimes he talks like Doc really is a mass murderer...and sometimes he speaks of secretly admiring Voyager? Isn't that a little weird--he does think they committed genocide after all.
So what're all these personal arguments among the crew (like Tom calling Neelix a hedgehog?) Did they program those in just for effect, like a made-for-TV dramatization? How'd they even know what a hedgehog was, anyway?
Evil Janeway says at one point that they'd only attacked military installations., and that was their mistake. Actually, I thought her very first attack was aimed at the most populous city...that's not a military target! (note from Phil: I believe that this part of the simulation actually came *before* the first part that we saw since the holodoc suggested biogenic weapons and Janeway had already decided to use biogenic weapons when we join the action at the beginning of the epiosde.)
In Doc's "true" recreation, doesn't he give up on Tedrin awfully easily? Given all the ways we've seen Voyager revive people, couldn't he at least have tried CPR or something?
This wasn't a bad episode, actually...the crew make very convincing super-villians. Incidentally, wasn't it kind of refreshing to have a preview without that over-dramatic Narrator-Voice?
Steve Oostrom, Oshawa, ON: Well, this sure was one of the stranger episodes of "Voyager" I have seen, the first Star Trek episode of the thirty-first century. This of course begs the question, "how can you nitpick scenes that are historical recreations, or even fictionalizations, seven hundred years in the future?" The "warrior Voyager" was clearly an elaboration based on the prejudiced views of the Kirian, and it looked bizarre, with Janeway completely out of character and the ridiculous tatoo on Chakotay (notice the bizarre mispronunciation of the name by the crew?) It was a hoot seeing the crew so out of character, though.
Anyway, the only nit of notice was that the writers of this story forgot that the doctor is a hologram. I can understand him existing inside the recreation since that is holographic, but did the entire musuem have holoemitters so that the doctor could wander anywhere? The doctor apparently became a "surgical advisor" to the people of that planet, but did he live his entire life inside a holographic simulation?
The doctor's recreation of Voyager was a little off, with those padded white things on the walls and the red alert indicators in the corridor that looked somewhat different, but I guess that was dealing with the limited resources of the Kirian, but he should have known better--or should he? I doubt details such as those would be preserved in the backup program module.
How did the backup program module get into the hands of the Kirian? They had a boarding party, but they were captured and their leader killed. Did the devices seen in the musuem fall into Kirian hands in a subsequent attack? This episode sure produced a lot of questions, as we only saw a fragment of what really happened seven hundred years ago. We don't know, for example, how things turned out for the ship, though we do know that the crewmember count dropped by three.
Naturally, in an episode such as this, we're not talking nits here but observations, such as, know we know why they left all those Borg alcoves in cargo bay two, so that they could film this episode!
I see that the powers that be did not lose the Kazon wigs and makeup--too bad--but how would the Kirian even know about the Kazon, since they are ten thousand light years away, and I doubt that the boarding parties would be after information like that.
The Kirian believe that the Doctor could actually manufacture something that dissolves optic nerves and neurons and then he can reverse the process? Then again, it was a recreation (that will be the excuse for many comments about this episode, I bet).
B'Elanna Torres--absent with leave? (Roxann Biggs-Dawson must have had the baby about now)
5/4/98 Update (Note from Phil: Note from Phil: A quick reminder. It is not my intention to upload every message that I receive on an episode. I will always upload comments--i.e. "I enjoyed the episode." "I felt like the episode lacked . . ."--but if a nit has already been picked, it's picked . . . unless I decide to list it twice because it's repicked in a funny way or I just wasn't certain it had already been picked and I was bombing through my mail and I let it pass just in case!)
Joshua Truax: Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday, Kate Mulgrew...
and what a great episode, too!
In an interesting quirk of the Voyager TV schedule, a new episode, last
night's "Living Witness", aired on Kate Mulgrew's birthday -- and the
season finale is scheduled for May 20, which as you no doubt recall from
"Year of Hell" (Part I) is the birthday of Mulgrew's character, Captain
Janeway! How "Hope and Fear" turns out remains to be seen, but "Living
Witness" is easily one of Voyager's finest hours. In fact, I dare say
it is one of Star Trek's finest hours, period.
The story, like "Random Thoughts" and "Retrospect" earlier this season,
is another example of the type of story that forged Star Trek's
reputation over the years: an examination of an issue relevant to us
today, in this case the phenomenon of revisionist history, from an alien
perspective. Unlike those two episodes, this one is executed nearly
flawlessly under the supervision of Tim Russ -- and to think that this
was his first time in the big (director's) chair! This alien version of
"political correctness" in history was also a clever new way of creating
alternate personas of Star Trek characters, as opposed to the usual
suspects (time travel, parallel universes, etc.)
But I was particularly impressed with the way the episode ended. At
first it appeared to be heading for a "Sins of the Father" [TNG] -type
ending, in which the truth is ultimately acknowledged but suppressed for
the greater good. Even before Doc brought up his Hippocratic Oath, I
could understand his willingness to effectively keep Voyager's
reputation tarnished forever for the sake of peace. Still, not only did
he and the museum curator finally set the record straight, but despite
the violence in the short term, their efforts did wonders for that
planet's race relations in the long term. Now, there's an ending Gene
Roddenberry would definitely have been proud of.
So well done was this episode, in fact, that the only bona fide nit I
could find occurred in the female tour guide's statement at show's end.
She says that Doc eventually left the planet to investigate what became
of Voyager 700 years before. My question: In all those centuries, why
hasn't Starfleet ever come back this way? I find it very hard to
believe that as of the 31st century, Starfleet either remains incapable
of reaching this part of the galaxy in a reasonable amount of time, or
has never bothered to do so. In fact, I would have thought that the
future Starfleet would be particularly interested in checking up on all
the civilizations visited by Voyager along its journey home...
Next week: The Voyager crew goes to Hell and back. (Wouldn't be the
first time, and probably won't be the last.)
Mark Bowman: The curator says that if Holo-Doc is found guilty, he may be "decompiled".
Do they mean that Holo-Doc will be turned back to source code? If so,
how would that be a penalty? They might have ment erase, but then to
why would they erase holodoc if they can get knowledge out of him? Finaly,
why would they punish a computer program in the first place? (I guess
we should give Windows 95 the death penalty if it crashes our computers ;)
Stephan Lavavej: I know you're filing this, but anyway: Someone said:
"Was that a KAZON I saw in a Starfleet uniform?"
Yup. And the tatoo, and the hedgehog thing, and the black gloves (why gloves?
BILC.), and poor Jeri Ryan having to be Borg-makeuped again, and on....
This is almost unnitpickable, Because Its Only a Simulation. BIOS.
Brian Henley: Whoo hooo! I LOVED this episode! This is an excellent episode!
Maybe the best one of the season so far. What a story! What a moral to teach us. It is imperative that we
keep an open mind on history, and not get too comfortable with the idea of
the traditional history heroes (Texans at the Alamo , Abolitionists before
and during the Civil War) and baddies (Mexicans @ the Alamo, Confederate
generals + plantation episodes). History doesn't read like a story book...
the good guys aren't always good (and are NEVER perfect) and the bad guys
aren't always 100% bad.
But the ep had nits ... Oh,yes ... It had nits.
In the Kyrian simulation, EvilChacotay, EvilHarry, and EvilDoc interrogate
a hapless Kyrian. EvilDoc resorts to that eyeball-melting device. Here's
my nit ... wouldn't a truth serum of some sort be more effective - and a
lot less messy? Of course, our heroes are being portrayed as the nasties,
and some good ole sodium penethol wouldn't be quite as much fun for a
baddie.
Here's a REALLY tiny nit. In one of the shots, people are checking out the
exhibits. On a pedestal in the mid-distance, there's a green thing that
looks a little like some kind of abstract art. Is a history exhibit room
the right place for it (if that's what it is?) I know, I know. Nobody like
an art critic.
Aparently the Kyrians had cloaked ships, since Janeway wasn't even
notified about the presence of the ships untill the ship shook from the
impact of the attack. Only then did Tuvock come on the air and sound the
Red Alert.
TIOTS!!! - Voyager gets zapped again and again and Janeway doesn't even --
Oh, forget it. Never mind.
The Kyrians also have that unique ability to beam through shields. Who
needs Voyager's IFOS when you have enemies this good?
Why Oh Why oh why doesn't Tuvock just stun everyone in the room?
H-Doc moves in to draw fire, but Janeway and the Vaskien are right behind
him. It is usually a good idea to have your main attack tack place at the
same time and the same place as your feint?
H-Doc speaks of his duty to do no harm and thus asks that he be deleted to
do just that. Conveniently, he never mentions "the First Duty", something
Picard was fairly fond of. That would be to THE TRUTH. And it's a good
thing he didn't, too. Then he'd never have given a thought to keeping his
mouth shut, since allowing this abuse of history to continue would be a
serious breach of the First Duty.
John Latchem: The Warship Voyager scenes were fascinating to watch. Unfortunately, it boils
down to this being an interesting concept once again botched by Voyager
writing.
Nice touch though. Warrior Doc is an android. . .he even has Data's yellow
eyes.
This does begs the question. . .where do they get the idea that androids have
yellow eyes? Have they actually met Data? Wouldn't this mean Starfleet has
already contacted this world? If they had they certainly would have set the
record straight.
The whole historical progression of events seems unrealistic to me. I have
only seen the episode once, so this is a first impression, and may be altered
upon subsequent viewings.
From what I can tell, this world has two factions, which are also races. So
there is a kind of racial cold war between the Kyrians and the Vascans. The
Vascans are dominant in their position, and the Kyrians resent this and become
hostile. The Kyrians think Voyager will team up with the Vascans and provide
the technology to destroy the Kyrians. The Kyrians then raid Voyager and
attempt to steal the technology themselves. They attack the Vascans, who
retaliate, and thus begins the great war. Along with peace comes segregation.
The Vascans win and apply their laws, but to keep the Kyrians in line, and
appease dissenters in their own ranks, the Vascans give the Kyrians some
liberties, like having "token" members of tribunals.
Okay then. So this museum presents a display that Voyager was a Warship that
showed up, formed an alliance with the Vascans, and attacked the Kyrians,
wiping them out.
Either way the Vascans win. The recreation presents them as kind of
innocent, standing by and watching as Voyager attacks their enemy, protesting
when the measures are too harsh, but not doing anything to stop it. I suppose
this would be how the dominant Vascans allowed the recreation, created by the
Kyrians, to exist. Peacemakers during the war got together and presented a
myth that Voyager started the war, and villified the crew. It is this myth on
which a tenuous peace has rested.
So a Vascan claims it is wrong, and they activate the Doctor, which raises
questions about the society and who is to blame for the war.
The truth: The Kyrians rebelled and were put down. The lie: Voyager
started it all.
So why in the future does it seem the Kyrians won? The Vascans are in power,
it's in their interest to preserve the status quo. It stands to reason that
THEY would want the doctor tried, not the Kyrians. The Kyrians should want to
discover the truth, and try to turn people to their side.
So the Vascans decide to destroy the museum to learn the truth, because they
believe the Kyrians are lying. And when it is learned that the Kyrians ARE
lying, they decide to sit down and talk? Wouldn't this entice them to attack?
I think this episode would have been better served if the Vascans were
perpetrating the myth, and Doc tries to piece together the truth. The truth
turns out to be that the Vascans stole the technology and used it to gain
power. The Kyrians attack and the museum, and the Doc, are destroyed.
Episode ends. Or maybe the Doc covers up the truth to maintain peace. Or if
the rolls of the races were consistent. (Note from Phil: Of course, we aren't really given that much to go on concerning the actual relationships between the races. I think the creators have given themselves some wiggle room here!)
Scott McClenny: Just a note to say how much I enjoyed Living Witness yesterday.
It was great to see everyone act so out of character for a change.
Brian Lombard: I'm probably the 20th person to submit this one, if so forget it.
Both the Doctor and his Kyrian friend state that as a hologram, Doc
wouldn't have felt the passage of time when he was stored in the
computer for 700 years. Wait just a minute. This was a big point of
TNG's "Ship In A Bottle". In that episode, Moriarty had been on ice
for only four years, and he experienced every minute! (Note from Phil: Some kind of difference in the technology?!)
The writers really did themselves a disservice by killing off three
engineers. First of all, the ship's going to be on auto-pilot before
too long. Secondly, B'Elanna is never featured in this episode, and
the three dead engineers are never identified. Then Holo-Doc starts
saying how much he misses Torres, talking about how she was a good
friend. Now I know Torres isn't dead, but given all this, doesn't it
look like she might have been killed?
The final photograph we see of the Doctor on display in the Kyrian
museum is a Voyager publicity shot, and it should not have been used.
The picture was taken in Voyager's hallway, and Doc ain't wearing his
mobile emitter. Perhaps the Hirojen generators are still in place?
And speaking of the Hirojen, since history painted Voyager as alien
assimilators (Talaxian, Kazon), how come they didn't re-use the
Hirojen makeup and have one as a crewmember?
And just exactly how do the Kyrians know about the Kazon? The tour
guide speaks of them matter-of-factly, like everyone in the room
already knows about them. (Talaxian too, for that matter). Have the
Kyrians of the 31st century traveled the 10,000 light years to
Kazon-Talaxian space?
Sure looks to me like Borg Seven assimilated that Kyrian in
engineering. Minutes later, Seven asks Janeway what to do with them,
to which Janeway says "assimilate them". Seven complies like this is a
good idea! Why didn't I think of that?
Josh Truax: The lack of an EMH backup system is a
frequent point of discussion on the Nitpicker Central Website. Then again,
maybe this backup system is something Torres and her staff developed
themselves only recently (which still begs the question of what took them
so long!).
Actually, I can understand why the EMH wouldn't have a backup system to
begin with. Most starships (i.e. those that *aren't* stuck half a galaxy
from the Federation) use their EMH only on very rare occasions, and I would
imagine that those EMHs would have to be upgraded rather frequently (to
reflect current medical advances, etc.). Therefore, if something happens
to their EMH it would make more sense to just download a new one from a
starbase or something than to use a copy of the one they had. Granted,
this doesn't consider the scenario in which an EMH backup is needed
immediately, but if the EMH system is so badly damaged that its software
has been corrupted, chances are it would be useless anyway...
Robert: What I found interesting in this episode was the EMH backup module. I
have, for a long time, wondered why they could never make backups of the EMH.
Isn't it just a computer program? I understand that it needs to be running
constantly (or have "active data"). This episode answered my question -
yes they do have the hardware to make backups of the EMH.
The nit is this: Why haven't they used it before? There have been plenty
of episodes where the Doctor's program (life) has been at risk. Why not,
before going into battle, make a backup of his program? If the doctor is
deleted, then just reactivate his backup. What did you lose, maybe one
day? It would be like the doctor was just deactivated for one day.
Christine Grabb: Excellent episode!! It's nice to see that someone finally gave Harry a
promotion. (It must be the new and improved attitude.)
Most of the nits have already been picked so I only have two:
Where did the museum get a photon torpedo (that is what it was, yes?)? I
assume that Voyager doesn't just leave them lying about. Also, HoloDoc
makes a reference to being Rip VanWinkle and the curator apparently
understands the reference. How is that possible?
Johnson Lai: After the Keirians take Seven and the other crewmember
hostage, how did they get up to Deck 2 so quickly from Engineering. More
to the point, how did Tuvok know where they went? But then again, it's
just an "imperfect" simulation...
Jeff Winkle: I just have one more question about this episode:
What really happened to Voyager? If they "found" the items from Voyager
(some in the ocean), it sounds like they were eventually shot down or
forced down and destroyed. Or is this like the dinosaur episode where
they just left miscallenous items around? (Note from Phil: I'm actually hoping that some of this stuff is resolved in future episodes. And, really, it can be resolved at *any* time since we don't know when these events occurred.)
B.B.B. (Bring Back B'Elanna) A.S.A.P.!!!
Steven Lichtenstein: And in addition to [the "Rip van Winkle" reference,] the curator also seemed to understand "chip" (as in B'Elanna's having a "chip on her shoulder the size of a horsehead nebula"). He smiled understandingly at Holodoc's utilization of the Earth metaphor,
instead of furrowing his brow in confusion and asking if she had some sort of
physical deformity!
Ross F.: Doesn't this episode somewhat answer whether or not Voyager will return
home? Suppose they did eventually get home and it took them the full
sixty years. Then Starfleet would have a complete map of their route as
well as information on the species encountered. Why not send a few
ships back and open negotiations. There are a few other notes to
mention. Maybe Voyager returned home but found some really nasty enemy
(Kazon, Hirogen, 8472, Borg...) and decided that it would be too
dangerous to make a return trip. Or (bad news time) Voyager enver made
it home. It's also fully within the realm of possibilities that Voyager
made it home and the powers that be deemed the Kyrians unworthy/not
sophisticated enough to contact. But in that situtation, they would
just need to monitor their frequencies on a regular basis and see what's
going on. Lest you think this is too much work, Starfleet monitered a
pre-warp civilization in "First Contact" (episode, not movie)
Also, didn't Quarren tell Holodoc that he was found in a backup module
thingamajig. Doesn't this seem like something you'd want to lock up in
a safe somewhere? A schematic of the ship shouldn't be that high on the
list of priorities, but the (possibly) only backup for the doctor.
Suppose you were in sickbay, the doctor fizzles, the backup doesn't kick
in and Paris waltzes in ready to operate. Does this inspire
confidence? But, then again, all you need to do is copy teh doctor's
file onto another module thingamajig.
Clay: I thought that Romulan Ale was only illegal during the time of TOS. Am I
wrong? (Note from Phil: I'm trying to pull out some reference to Romulan ale in NextGen but I'm in a rush this morning and drawing a blank. Anybody?)
Aaron Nadler: When the Doctor first rematerialized, he states that ". . . my program ceased
to be active when my back-up program was stolen . . ." Does this mean that the
crew of Voyager ceased to have a doctor after he was stolen? Did they travel
the rest of the way home without medical care?
Brian: I was impressed with this episode. At the risk of sounding like yet
another pale-skinned warmonger, I thought the Kyrian's over-estimation
(understatement) looked pretty cool. Also, 700 years in Kyrian time
could be very different. Like Vulcan time. For Voyager, it may only have
been a few decades since this whole thing. Yeah, right.
A little note, I'm sure the Doc loved being considered a hero. BTW,
Paris's mention of Figther Shuttles, yet another case of Star Fleet
Battles material (a strategy game based off of Classic Trek) being
recycled for the new shows.
Jonathan Klein: Fantastic episode! Possibly my favorite Voyager so far! They should have
more episodes featuring the Doctor in the primary role. I have to say, the
Evil Janeway had the only hairdo I've liked on Mulgrew yet... it rocked.
So the Dr. has a backup program huh? Remember when he was going nuts from
lack of memory and they had to splice his program with that of the
diagnostic Hologram? This seems to imply that the holodoc uses a HUGE
amount of computer space for storage, as there was no memory on the ship
left over to use to supplement his existing memory. And now we see this
PUNY backup unit... this is consistent with the unit Dr. Moriarty and wife
are in in terms of size, but if a hologram's data can truly fit in this
small unit (I am willing to accept this in light of how fast computers are
developing) then what was the problem? Don't tell me that Voyager couldn't
have built another unit of this size and hardwired the two together? Or for
that matter, forget the backup, and wire the backup into the primary system,
doubling memory. I know this would erase the backup, but realistically, who
cares? The Doc on the ship doesnt' have a backup now anyhow. The only
answer I can come up with is perhaps the backup unit contains a "zipped"
form of the holodoc, and he had to be "unzipped" to be used from the backup.
John Zaborske: How does the Holographic doctor know what happened during the whole
encounter? If they took the original doctor Voyager will now be
permantly without him or if it is a second backup completly independent
of the computer I find it hard to believe that someone would have the
time to update the backup in the middle of a hostage situation. Also
why couldnt the doctor remember the exact name of Tedran's murderer ( I
guess after 700 years there may be some program degradation)?
Steve: Didn't the doctor walk right out of the Kyrian holo-exhibit? One Kyrian acts
very rude, and very biased in one part. She basically says "I don't want to
know the truth and do what is fair, I want to look good." Good, we finally see
a photon torpedo now. You can't see them very well in ST:VI. Here is the iso-
tonne problem: In The Omega Directive I ignored the iso-tonne problem. I got
iso- (equal) mixed up with icosa- (twenty). However, even if it was an
icosatonne it would be a nit because icosa isn't approved for the SI system.
At least the writers realize they can make backups of the doctor like they
forgot to in Message in a Bottle. Is it 700 years in Kyrian time, or seven
hundred years on the Gregorian Calendar? Now the iso-tonne torpedos and 700
years reveals another common problem: Almost all alien races use our metric
measurements! Why did the Kyrians even bother making a museum about Voyager,
if they knew they got "a few" details wrong? Holo-Android-Holo-doc says the
pain will increase exponentially until their prisoner talks, or it liquefies
his cerebral cortex. I don't see what makes your brain turn to water if you
are in pain, or how pain can increase exponentially. How do they measure the
pain to make sure it increases exponentially? And last: how can the Kyrians
get some of the details wrong? I can't understand any way that they would
mistake something damaged, to say we are from Mars, and not Earth, or Qo'Nos,
or Vulcan, or Romulus, or Andor, or Betazed...
David D. Porter: "[Holodoc will] face charges? I guess these people have no statute of limitations. (Note from Phil: Is there a statute of limitations on genocide?)
Why did H-doc forget the ambassador's name? As he said, to him, these
things happened yesterday.
Just how accurate is history after 700 years? Do we *really* know
what started the Hundred Years' War? What do we know of the personality of
England's Edward III?
Johnson Lai: Where did all these artifacts of Voyager come from?
Supposedly, the ship left the planet after the "encounter". And yes, I can
see how some of the items could have been stolen by the boarding party, but
the main computer itself was sitting in the museum.
Glenn St-Germain: Is it just me, or is the alternate crew in the simulation more interesting than
the real thing? I particularly like the simulated Janeway, with the short hair
-- she looked great! And the uniforms -- black collars instead of grey, and
black gloves. But no fleet insignia pins (communicators), and no rank
insignias? How would they know who had what rank? (Note from Phil: If you have to ask, you're not a member of the crew and they kill you!)
(All I have to do is substitute a black dickie for the grey one, add my black
Isotoner gloves, and I have myself an alternate / simulation uniform of my
own. Cool.)
Anyway, I'd like to see Janeway keep that hairstyle...
One more comment on the sim: a whole roomful of senior officers, all of them
male, arguing to the point of violence, and Janeway gets them under control
with a display of violence. I wonder how they'd view humanity as a species --
"It seems the women are more forceful and are obviously the ones in charge..."
Nina Culver: Okay, so Data is unique. So if these people think the Doctor is
an android, how did they know about his "positronic net"? Did they
finally mass produce Data so even people thousands of light years away
know about it? One thing that no one has mentioned about the Doctor's
simulation...how could he possibly know all that? He wasn't present for
all the events. I think everything else has been mentioned.
Melanie Koleini: I live in St. Louis so I didn't see the story.
I was just reading the nit page and I had a question.
Is there a reson the aliens couldn't have had additional contact with the
Alpha quad. in the last 700 years? Maybe a Ferange(sp) trader sold them
some artifacts and "accurate" infomation about V'ger. Maybe the
Federation is currently in the Delta Quad. and avoiding contact because of
the Prime Directive. Or maybe the planet is or has been under the control
of another power that knows more about V'ger. (Kazon maybe or the aliens
from "The Killing Game")
Since I couldn't see the episode I don't know how far-feched any
of this is. If some said they hadn't herd of Star Fleet since V'ger went
though the worm-hole I apologize for postulating wild theories. (Note from Phil: As far as I know there was no explanation for why no one has heard from the Alpha Quadrant. Perhaps the Dominion took over and locked everything down?)
Michael Bucca: I thought that an episode like this couldn't have nits becuase od
discrepincess with the Kierian recreation of Voyager. Oh man, they botched up
big time.
First off, I just want to point out about that intruder alert signal. Where
did it come from?? It just appeared out of nowhere. One time Janeway called
intruder alert ("Distant Origin") and the normal Red Alert signal went off? Is
the crew THAT bored to create new types of sounds for alerts?
Okay but mainly in this episode, is the guy BLIND? He didn't even notice that
the Doctor's uniform was totally diffrent from there recreation. You mean to
tell me that of all those details they had right, they didnt see the
commbadges? Theres only about 1500 of them lying around on Voyager.
The Doctor is a Kierian linguest. He reads the schematic in the Kierian
language and perfectly counts the number of photon banks and phaser arrays
that were supoosedly on Voyager.
That tricorder was DEAD! it is nearly impossible to extract data from a dead
tricorder isn't it. (And another thing, what are the chances of the ONE
tricorder recovered that the one in the future was the EXACT same one he used
to examine Tetrin??)
How does the stealing of a BACKUP module cause the main program to go offline?
Thats what the doc says happened.
Thats it, Im done ranting.
Steve Guerra: When the Doctor first met the museum director and tried to tell him what
really happened. The Doctor was struggling to remember. Isn't the
Doctor an extension
of the computer. Shouldn't everything the Doctor experiences be
recorded
permanently in his data banks and therefore immediately accessable.
Murray Leeder: How on Mars did the Kyrians possibly put together all of that purely
circumstancial evidence together and pass it off as reality? Especially
that simulation... it's clearly just somebody's unfounded theory. When
was the last time you saw "JFK" playing in a museum of history? (Note from Phil: I think it's much too early in our existence to predict the effect that media will have on history. Who knows? Sometimes I fear that movies like "JFK" will eclipse what little true history is known about the events. And if not eclipse then certainly come to be held on the same level.)
So we're now totally certain that the Federation will not expand to the
Delta Quadrant within the next 700 years.
Dave Walcher: This was a great episode!!! Finally. hard to nitpick cuz it's all hearsay,
but.
How did doc's backup emitter get onto the planet? Also, how about all that
equipment? ( Even a photon torpedo- we've talked about this before, but
thisone never went off and they LEFT IT BEHIND!! this is very careless, even
for voyager. I bet doc took off for home in a shuttle they left behind,
after all they seem to have dozens of the things!!) I KNOW!!- Voyager
exploded in orbit!! they never got home!! next week's teaser is all a lie,
the show's cancelled! this nit can never be picked because we don't see the
resolution of vorager's visit. By the way, fellow nitpickers, Voyager is
trying to get back to the ALPHA quad. The alfa quad is filled with little
furry dog like aliens that eat cats. I don't think they want to go there.
Sarah Meland: I really enjoyed this episode, although that's nothing new; this whole
season has been exceptional (excluding "Mortal Coil"). That's about it, except for
one more thing I have to say: LOVE THE GLOVES! An evil crew who knows
how to accessorize -- it's beautiful! Next week looks fun, too...
J. Andrew Keith: Phasers modified to carry a bio-weapon
into the planet's atmosphere? These Kyrians have quite an imagination
when it comes to recreating history. Up until now we've always seen
phasers as (essentially) a technobabble variant of lasers -- phased
coherent light. A beam weapon. Now suddenly people think you can somehow
mix in a biological agent into that? Strange.
The Doctor, without his holoemitter, ends up hopping aboard a shuttle
and heading for the Alpha Quadrant. Hmmm . . . hope he doesn't have to
stop anywhere on the way, like for fuel or something. Hope the
electronics don't go on the fritz. And what does he do when he does hit
Federation space? Open a hatch and yell "Take me to your holodeck?"
The Kyrians know Paris is a womanizer, Chakotay has a tattoo, and Neelix
is a Talaxian who looks like a hedgehog. Yet somehow they think Torres
is Transporter Chief? To be as accurate as they were in putting together
these simulations they must have had access to something like the crew
manifest from the TNG episode where everybody lost their memory and had
to look up their service records. So how could they then screw up as
many things as they did?
Why does every alternate time-line and such always turn Neelix into a
Security Officer? I would have thought that he was dangerous enough
belonging to the elite Starfleet Catering Command, the dreaded,
deathdealing "Cooking Commandos" who can bring an entire starship down
in a matter of days . . .
Ah, well. Still a better episode than some.
Robin Londner: Anti-nit: It's a little weak, but maybe we can assume the Kyrian
calendar is different from the Federation calendar. This would explain
why the Federation isn't in the Delta Quadrant yet after "700 years."
We have no idea how long Kyrian life spans are or the rates of
sedementation and erosion on their world.
This assumption has the added bonus of helping me deal with the ending.
If it has only been 100 years or less, it is reasonable to assume that
the Doctor could find children or grandchildren of his friends, and that
the Federation still exists (according to many eps, it is still around
in the 29th century at least).
Lisa Shock: There is a skeleton in the musuem. It can be clearly seen as the
fighting/riot begins. It's a skeleton of the now extinct giant
ground sloth. I wonder what it's doing in a museum dedicated to
Voyager.
Craig Sapp: I think most of the nits have already been picked, and I’m not going to get
into this episode’s many baffling and unexplained mysteries. Just wanted to
mention a few things:
First, I was pleasantly surprised. Overall, Braga and company did a great job
on "Living Witness". When an episode is this enjoyable, I can almost overlook
its flaws.
I was glad that the writers didn’t keep ignoring Torres’ sudden and extended
absence. Janeway’s call for her in Engineering and Holodoc’s description of
her were nice touches. Does anyone know when Roxann Dawson gets back from
maternity leave, is she in any of this season’s remaining episodes?
What about Janeway’s "…entering section 31…" dialogue when she arrives on Deck
Two. I wonder whether that was just a coincidence or a deliberate reference
to DS9’s "Section 31" ["Inquisition" -DS9]. Should we start looking for
"31’s" along with the "47’s", what do you think? By the way, why were the
intruders taking the hostages from Engineering up to Neelix’s dining hall on
Deck two? If they needed food that bad – maybe Voyager should have helped
them out?
Speaking of Neelix’s cooking. I believe someone mentioned a while back on the
"Ask The Chief" page that Paramount was releasing a Neelix cookbook. Wouldn’t
that be about like someone trying to market an Elly May Clampett ("The Beverly
Hillbillies") cookbook?
Next week’s preview also looks promising. Maybe Voyager will finish the
season strong?
Travis McCord: Been reading through what you've got, and I'm surprised
this nit hasn't come up: H-Doc's recreation is supposedly
an accurate simulation of what happened ... except, it
includes scenes and interactions that he didn't see!
Best example: how could he possibly know about the
conversation in the Ready Room? He wasn't there, and they
weren't communicating with him until later. Did they take
a moment to tell him "Oh, by the way Doc, we just had a
conversation in the Ready room ... first the captain said this,
then the ambassador said this, then I scratched myself like
this..." while the ship's under attack, and before his backup
was stolen? (It's especially problematic, since he's trying to
give an 'honest' account of the events that could prevent--or
start--a race war! The opposition could look
at this and ask "How do you know of this when, by your own
admission, you were not there to witness this?")
Stephen Dickson: The museum has a piece of Voyager deck paneling, and some Voyager
equipment, including a Medical Tricorder, PADD, and the doctor's backup
storage unit. They say that this has been found in ruins in a dig. This
would imply Voyager being destroyed, and on the planet.
However, the doctor takes off for the Alpha Quadrant at the end of the
episode to trace Voyager's path and find out if they made it home safely.
Which is correct? Was Voyager destroyed, and in ruins on the planet, or was
it able to head back to the Alpha Quadrant? It all depends on how the
events after the doctor was deactivated went.
Sara Greenblatt: The doctor's "Facts be damned!" speech out-nits all the others put
together!
"... It's all open to interpretation; who's to say what really
happened"??!!! Whatever happened to "The first duty of a Starfleet
officer is to the truth"? And who's to say that the Kyrians and
Vaskans would have *stopped* fighting if Holodoc had been decompiled
(i.e., killed)? They were fighting when they first met Voyager, and
they've been fighting for the 700 years since! And of course, we saw
that it was just the opposite that happened -- because Doc and Quarren
kept looking for the truth, peace finally came about.
Doc, I think you need your circuits checked -- advocating revenge a
few weeks ago ("Retrospect"), and now this appeasement speech (hey,
Doc, would *you* have told Gul Madred there were four lights?).
5/11/98 Update (Note from Phil: Remember, if a nit's been picked, it's been picked. It you sent me a message this week and you don't see it in the list, it's probably because I thought it had already been mentioned somewhere in this list! Let's remember that this nitpicking thing should be done with light-heartedness and good cheer!)
Norman Buchwald: Who is to say that Starfleet has never contacted the planet during the
past seven hundred years since? Considering the history the Kyrians and
Vaskans believe of their one contact with a Federation ship ("Voyager")
maybe they asked to be left alone and are in fact, hostile with the
Federation (like the Romulans)? Of course, they do not know how Voyager
got home (wormhole, etc.). Either that or Janeway's report on the
incident had not encouraged the Federation's intervention and the
current hostility between the two races may make the Federation's
current prime directive not intervene with their culture even if they
blacklist Voyager's name (perhaps they came to a decision similar to the
Doctor's) and the prime directive can change in seven hundred years so
they can decide the "truth" is not the most important thing in this
case.
Did anyone catch the element that the Kyrians that invaded Voyager (in
the real time) were in Section 31 of Voyager? So we have another number
going on along with 47? (Section 31 is the "secret spy agency" of the
Federation, established in a recent DS9 episode). What is the "hidden
joke" considering 31?
Tim Blake: Just a thought about how the Kyrians knew so much about Voyager. Wasn't
that the computer core in the background of the museum at one point? It
sure looked like the one stolen in "Concerning Flight." But, I could be
wrong.
Ronnie Londner: To everyone who said this episode may mean that "Voyager" didn't make it
home: they said right in the episode that "Voyager" continued on her way
after the conflict. It can be assumed that the materials in the museum
were stolen by boarding parties.
P.S. I hated Evil Janeway's hair. Good Janeway's is much better.
[From Someone Identified Only As Shadow7463]: The day after the riot in the musium, the doctor is milling around (without
his mobile emitter) and still walking through the musium, which by that one
guys warnings, (I forget the curators name) should have been leveled by the
dreaded proton grenades. And only a few burn marks are on the walls.
John Latchem: As to how the Kyrians got anything: I think the intention was that the 24th
century events were supposed to occur chronologically with the other episodes,
taking place after the last episode, and before the next one. The
storytelling twist is that the story is told from the POV of an alien race in
the future.
I also thought Doc said that the Kyrians stole a lot of technology. I would
think that the Kyrians beamed the technology to their ships, and tried to
escape. The Vascans intercepted them, and shot some down. So some of
Voyager's technology was scattered across the planet.
Question is how could Voyager be so careless as to allow their technology to
be stolen like that.
Also I don't think it is a good sign that the last two episodes have had
absolutely no consequence whatsoever. First, an episode where everything is
forgotten anyway, and now one set so far in the future that it doesn't even
matter.
Richard Poythress of Madera, California: Haven't seen Voyager for a while but if the creators keep coming up with crazy ideas like this, I might have to become more religious in my
viewing. Did anyone think "Matter of Perspective" (TNG) while watching
this? The parallels were a bit too blatent for me although the creaters
did a great job recrafting it. Also, at the end, did anyone think
"Frame of Mind" (I really love TNG). I'm still not sure if any of
Voyager is actually real or just a loooooooong Academy simulation. ;-)
Clay: Brian says that Moriarty experiened the time he was inactive in the holodeck.
This is true. HoloDoc and Moriarty are different. HoloDoc is a program of
its own. Moriarty is a character in the holodeck Sherlock Holmes program. I
kinda thought that the reason he could experience time was that Geordi made
him be able to understand 24th century technology and ideas. Consequently he
therefore became sentient. HoloDoc as yet is not considered sentient. This
is why I think he wouldn't experience time while deactivated.
Amos Painter: Great Show. Best this season so far (excluding "Year of Hell') Very Good
Ending. Could make bring a tear to your eye...
I thought I would bring in a few anti-nits to the party.
1. The BACK-UP Unit-- The Kyrians say The Voyager Encounter was 700
(B110) years ago, but that doesn't mean this episode takes place this
year in the Voyager Time. For all we know Living Witness could take
place in season 7. All we can assume is that it happens after Scorpion
because Seven is there. Perhaps the BACK-UP doesn't come along for 10
years.
2. The Destruction of Voyager/Lots o' Artifacts-- The Kyrians admit
they don't know what happened to Voyager. VOY could have crashed into
the Craen? Ocean (evidence the Corroded Display). Or the ship could have
taken massive damage venting supplies into Space in the Attack. Or the
Artifacts could be from a second raid. or as suggested by several
nitpickers bought from another race. or they could be recreations. (Like
Ancient Pots reconstructed from three or four fragments, or always
accurate by sometimes).
3. The Artifacts-- Why are the Artifacts sitting out in the open? Where
are the Glass Cases? (We don't go the Museums and play with 700 year old
artifacts. Speaking of 700 years, who knew a the life expectancy of a
tricorder is 700 years. "Star Fleet build 'em tough" What a slogan.
4. The Doctor-- Many nitpicker's had a problem with the Doctor failing
when the BACK-UP was removed and his memories of it. For the Doc
remembering, maybe the update adds data to the BACK-UP constantly and
when removed it breaks the data loop causing the Program to fail (This
kind of drive system is used on the Enterprise-D all three computer
cores have the same data and constantly Update each other. From
strictly a hardware standpoint if I pull the Hard drive out of my
computer while it is running the least that will happen is a system
failure if not paramount damage.
Joshua Truax: Someone mentioned the "First Duty" of Starfleet officers: to the truth.
When I read this, it occurred to me that the situation faced by the Doc
at the end is actually a case of this "First Duty" directly conflicting
with not only Doc's Hippocratic Oath to do no harm, but with the Prime
Directive as well. On one hand, Doc's "First Duty" obliges him to bring
the truth about Voyager to light. On the other hand, his efforts to do
so are not only "causing harm on a global scale," but amount to
interference with the Kyrian culture, if not the Vaskian culture as
well. If the Kyrians believe that Voyager caused their suffering
centuries ago, whether or not it is actually true, wouldn't any attempt
to change that belief be a violation of the Prime Directive?
Murray Leeder: In retrospect, "JFK" was a poor example, since the movie (and this is
its greatest strength) never says "THIS is how and why JFK was
killed"... it just depicts a theory. However it is true that in the
future that fact may be overlooked (if the film was called "The Jim
Garrison Story" then maybe the point would be understood!). I probably
should have said "Braveheart" or something similar (also a good film,
but dubious history).
Andrew Kibelbek: Interesting idea... sloppy writing.
Also, I express similar confusion as to how they could get such
accuracy in regard to internal ship design, physical characteristics of
the crew, voices of the crew, design of the hand-held weapons, sounds
that the weapons made, etc., and yet they have such gaping holes in the
history! I don't see how they could have gotten so much physical detail
of the ship and crew correct, first of all. And, they obviously made up
the whole story of the "Voyager Encounter", except for the fact that
there was a firefight between it and its crew and Kirian vessels and
their crews. And there are parts of the simulation that are totally
absurd-- such as when all the people in the meeting in the observation
lounge push each other into the wall. Then Janeway whips out her phaser
and shoots a computer console! (Do they have a storage of a couple
thousand computer displays in the cargo bay?)
There are places where the dialogue is shabby, too. When Kim was
torturing that captured Kirian, his lines don't sound to menacing.
("You'd better start talking. I can keep [hitting you in the face with
this little metal doohickey] up all night.". *Hurts his wrist* "Ok,
maybe I can't.) Also, unfortunately, while Garret Wang tries, he didn't
portray a very formidable torturer.
And later, the Holo-doc gives his "The truth doesn't matter" speech
with great passion and resolve. Then, the museum caretaker says two
sentences, and Doc basically says, "Well, Ok." Somehow this doesn't seem
quite realistic.
In the Kirian version of events, of course they portray their leader
as a noble, heroic martyr. But when the Holo-Doc is presenting his
version of events, he makes the leader quite the opposite. For instance,
when the Kirian boarding party seizes Seven of Nine as a hostage, the
leader curls his lips into an evil sneer and growls in a direly
overplayed malicious voice, "Back off!" The doctor wants to get the
Kirians as well as the other race (can't remember their name) to believe
him. Does he really want to make the great heroic figure whom they all
look up to act like this? That's not a very good way to get the Kirians
on his side.
Alex Smith: I must say, I was pleasently surprised by this Voy episode. I really
enjoyed the evil versions of everybody, especially Janeway. I also
enjoyed Chuckles and Kim's good cop/bad cop routine. Now the warship
Voyager and its evil crew...THAT would be a cool show! (Next week,
evilNelix gives pointers to the evilDoctor on how to kill civilizations
with cooking...)
Was it me, or did all those people in black clothing and black gloves
seem like B5 psicorps rejects?
7 seemed to be pretty nonresistant when she was first captured in the
real sim. I would think that she would knock 'em out on first sight.
Why should the Doctor be worried during the museum attack? He's a
hologram!
In a way I thought it was amusing how the Doctor volunteered to enter
the hostage room because he is "impervious to phaser fire." Well, what
about his holoemitter? Oops.
Was it me, or did the alien who questioned the curator (asking about
proof about the Voyager involvement, upsetting everyone) seem like
Charlie Sheen?!
I know how the holodoc could exist outside of the holodeck. Two words:
light bee. (Should he have an "H" on his forehead?)
Jacob Boxer: WOW!! This was an amazing episode. This is one of the first that I have seen
in a long time that was actually not a disappoinment!!
I really liked the depiction of the Voyager crew from the point of the
Kyrians! They should do a few episodes with them like that. I especially like
the mispronounciation of Chakotay and the use of SIR when addressing Janeway.
This episode was good because it touched on relevant issues like racism. Most
Voyagers don't have a point to them, but this did. Now onto the nits:
1. When the Doc is asked to tell his version of the history and what is
different, he has a number of things to choose from, but he goes right for the
personality differences. Why? He has any number of things to choose from. The
uniforms come to mind. They have black undershirts and everybody wears gloves.
2. How could these people have made such accurate recreations of Voyager's
crew? They had wreckage from the ship, so I'll give them the room designs, but
the people?? Even right down to the voices? That's some extrapolation
technology!!
Some more good points:
An excellent performance by the doctor. He seems to be the most complex member
of the crew in terms of personality.
Nice schematics of the new Voyager!! 25 phasers and 30 torpedo tubes! I dont
think that Voyager even has 30 torpedoes!!
So, Seven has a few Borg cronies now? Cool
The new Kim is much better than the old one. As well as Tuvok. They finally
have something to them.
I think the creators were taking the Titanic in mind when they were talking
about the Kyrian scientist's fascination with Voyager. It has some parallels.
Joe Griffin: I wonder how much Voyager operated within the Prime Directive on this
mission, since the end result 7 centuries later is so obviously
something the PD was intended to prevent.
And the "Good cop/Bad cop" scene was priceless.
I understand it's the simplest and cheapest way to do alien makeup, but
can we please stop simply moving people's nostrils around? It's getting
darn annoying!
Re: "Facts be damned!" I don't have as much of a problem with this,
especially as Doc changed his mind about it soon after he said it. I
understand the objections to the speech, but I saw it as a reaction to
the carnage around him: "The system here kinda stinks, but it's
gotten so much worse since I got here that maybe I should just shut up
about all this Truth garbage" is an appropriate first reaction, IMHO.
Of course, at this point the "facts" have already been called into
question and so the damage is done, but I don't see it as a bad choice
neccesarily to show the Doctor second-guessing himself. He's obviously
been wrong before, and prone to such knee-jerk reactions.
[Concerning the amazing detail in the Kyrian reproduction,] Along with other nits along this line, I'd say we can't know what
records were made of the events, on what media, and how much of it was
destroyed during the ensuing conflict. They may have had to build up
completely from scratch, or they could've gotten lucky and preserved
most of their historical info on non-corruptible material. We can maybe
assume some partial visual record, perhaps photos or the equivalent,
maybe some computer tapes, satellite images of V'Ger...we can further
assume that computer records were not kept of the actual events on the
ship and that in lieu of these, the events were pieced together from
eyewitness accounts, word-of-mouth and rumors, all of which are prone to
confabulation and exaggeration over time.
Some Earth examples include the story of Atlantis, the sequence of
events the night the Titanic sank, subtle differences in detail between
the four Gospels, and wildly different accounts of the Kennedy
assasination. And there's even film of that one.
And we construct models of dinosaurs from "only" bones--who knows how
right we are? Within my lifetime I've seen scientists revise what they
say actually happened and how the dinos actually looked, acted and lived
several times. And anthropologists make assumptions that lead them to
models of societies from just a few tools and possibly the odd fertility
goddess statue. We used to think Cro-Magnon man didn't stand up
straight. Then we learned that the one skeleton we had based that on
was an individual with a seriously bad back. But schoolbooks for
decades pictured Cro-Magnon man as the last hunched-over step before
Homo Erectus in the evolutionary chain.
Who knows what we'll do when we develop holotechnology? We're already
doing stuff like this with 3D modelling on computers.
Of course, they could've cast other actors to portray the V'crew in the
simulation, and that would've taken care of the "how did they get the
faces/voices etc. so exact?" nit, but it wouldn't have been as much fun,
would it?
[By the way,] There's no statute of limitations on murdering one person in the U.S.;
why should there be for murdering an entire race? And I don't think
there's a statute of limitations for war crimes either.
Jason Haase: I just love the way this episode ended. The doctor being such a
heroic simble and all.
Murray Leeder: I HAVE THE ANSWER!
The only thing we see in this episode that is "real" is the last scene.
Everything else is just a simulation. However, like the simulation
within the simulation, this could also have certain biases! Who says
that it's based 100% on fact? That could toss out a lot of nits
plausibly.
Furthermore, if you accept that the Federation has contacted the
Kyrians by this unspecified time in the future (definitely plus 700
years), then that would explain why sim-Voyager's crew physically look
exactly like the real crew!
JoAnna Walsvik: I loved this episode! Definitely one of Voyager's best, and IMHO
the best Doctor episode ever!
In my United States History class, we're studying WWII. One day
last week, the day after "Living Witness" aired, in fact, my teacher
brought up the quote, "The winners write the history books." (Or somthing
to that effect.) Anyway, he asked our Japanese exchange student, Asami,
what the Japanese history books have to say about Pearl Harbor, the atomic
bombs, etc. All she would say was, (and she looked very uncomfortable
while she said it) "The Americans weren't very nice." It makes you wonder
what exactly is in those history books! Any Japanese nitpickers out
there? I'd love to hear more about that subject. It would be interesting
to see what the the German history books have to say, also. But I
digress. All of my other nits have been taken, anyway. Until next week,
when Voyager goes straight to hell! (Again.)
Michael Teplitsky: No one seemed to have mentioned that Tuvok SMILED during one of the
incorrect-recreation scenes. Nice touch by the director (Tim Russ
himself).
Mike Bucca: Okay maybe I want to correct you or inform you of a nit on that page. A member
wrote in and said how come Moritary expierenced every minute and Doc
didnt....you commented diffrent technology. Well, as I remeber the episode,
Moriaty becmae sentient and beyond the computer. Just want to clear that. (Note from Phil: Um . . . "beyond the computer"? Certainly, there were things about his program that Barclay and Laf Roge didn't understand but I don't recall that Moriarty was no longer confined by the hardward. In fact, wasn't he downloaded into an active memory matrix at the end of the program?)
Matt McLauchlin: The curator of the museum says that artificial lifeforms are considered
sentient. There are some problems with this. What if an artificial life
form is created to mimic a nonsentient life form (eg tamagotchi,
SimLife)? And how do they tell if an AI is "I" enough to be accountable?
PLEASE NOTE: This file is frozen. I think we've done all we're going to do on it! You're welcome to send addition nits but they will be filed for future reference instead of uploaded.
If you would like to add some comments,
drop
me a note at chief@nitcentral.com with the Subject line "Living Witness". Please include your real name, city and state (or province
and county as the case may be) in the body of the e-mail so I can give you
credit if you are the first person to bring up a particular nit. (Remember
the legalese: Everything you submit becomes mine and you grant me the right
to use yourname in any future publication by me. I will do my best to give
you credit if you are the first person to submit a particular nit but I make
no guarantees. And finally, due to the volume of mail received at Nitpicker
Central, your submission may or may not be acknowledged but that entry will make you a part of the Nitpickers Guide if you aren't one already!)
Copyright 1998 by Phil Farrand. All Rights Reserved.