Gegen, a Voth scientist, has discovered that his reptilian species shares a large number of genetic markers with the remains he has found of a Voyager crew member. He and a colleague catch up to Voyager and cloak themselves, content to study the crew before making their presence known. However, Kim detects them when entering a tachyon-rich part of space, and due to a misunderstanding, Voyager captures the other scientist (who self-induces a coma-like state), and Gegen absconds with Chakotay. Voyager notices the genetic link too, and discovers that the closest earth species to the Voth are the long-extinct Hadrosaurs.
Shortly after making this discovery, Voyager is captured by a technologically-advanced Voth city-ship: the ruling government of the Voth feels threatened by Gegen's theory that they weren't actually native to the delta quadrant, but were actually refugees from Earth. Gegen returns with Chakotay to stand trial, and refuses to speak out against his own research until the Voth leader makes it clear that she will destroy Voyager if he does not. Before departing, Chakotay gifts Gegen with a small globe of Earth, and urges him to keep fighting the good fight.
I love the science fiction here. Sure, it's a bit odd that there's no evidence in the fossil record of a species that is capable of interstellar travel, but Chakotay does a decent job of explaining that away as a result of tectonic activity. I'd be surprised if a species with that much tech were so isolated on a planet, but who knows, maybe they were better suited for atmospheric conditions caused by a prominent volcano on their particular continent. The details are good too: the Voth's closest analogue, the Parasaurolophus happens to be a species for which we've only found a handful of fossils, which meshes nicely with the habitat destruction explanation.
Of course, there's no evidence of the kind of quills that the Voth have (but those could have escaped fossilization), and I would have liked for the Voth to use some of the horn-like noises that the Parasauralophus was likely to be capable of. There's a pet sci-fi idea I've had, and I can't think of a show that has explored it, that would have been nice as a component of this episode: the hadrosaurs were herbivores. How would being a non-predatory sentient being inform their culture? Maybe it doesn't: there are plenty of present-day herbivores that are capable of great violence, but usually in defense. Maybe Gegen's cautious approach to Voyager is just that: the herbivore instinct in action. Did I mention that this is a great episode?
The Galileo/Inquisition-parable aspect of the episode is a wee bit ham-fisted, but definitely compelling. At least it was a slight variation to have the Voth's "doctrine" be a product of societal order rather than directly the result of religion. Certainly, any human endeavor that places rhetoric ahead of fact is capable of committing the atrocities that the Inquisition did. This story also has my favorite kind of non-happy ending, one that leaves a glimmer of hope that, off-camera, the protagonists will keep working for the advancement of truth.
I'm also currently watching Earth 2, a short-lived major network sci-fi series where Earth is barely habitable, and a group of colonists have set out to establish a new home on an earth-like planet. Probably the most interesting part for me is that, since most of humanity is stuck in space stations, there's a very sinister amount of government control. If someone's controlling the air you breathe then that power's going to go to their head. Similarly, the very controlling Voth society is also based on a space-borne city. I think that's a nice touch, just in the background of the episode without much attention being called to it.
There's only one sour note for me: when Janeway is in the holodeck, reconstructing the Earth-bound Voth ancestors, she asks the computer to extrapolate the "most likely" result of evolution for the Parasaurolophus (incidentally, the holodeck model is waaaaay too small), like there's some sort of genetic destiny (a la Threshold). That's really not how evolution works, guys. If you don't have environmental conditions, you don't have evolution. Then again, if there's any more convincing argument for teaching evolution in schools than the terrible understanding of it on the part of the Voyager writers, I haven't heard it.
Watchability: 5/5
Bottom Line: My favorite episodes are the ones that I mull over for hours afterwards, research on wikipedia, and mull over some more. Great science-fiction, great story. This is a new #1.
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