S4 E23: Living Witness

Seven hundred years in the future, Quarren, a Kyrian historian, is curating a holographic museum exhibit about Voyager's encounter with his people. In his version of the events, the crew sided with their enemies, the Vaskans, in a war of aggression, using brutal mass killings and biogenic weapon attacks. But a new archaeological dig has provided him with a new artifact: the Doctor's backup emitter. The Doctor is incensed with all of the inaccuracies, and gives Quarren his version of the events: Voyager was inadvertently caught in the middle of an ongoing conflict between the two peoples, when a Kyrian leader was killed aboard Voyager by a Vaskan leader. Quarren is skeptical at first, but maintains an open mind, eventually deciding that the Doctor has no reason to lie, even though his story makes the history of his people significantly more complicated. When he approaches his world's government with his new findings, it ignites new race riots by reopening old wounds - the Vaskans won that war centuries ago and have long been an occupying force on the Kyrian homeworld. The Doctor is horrified by the new bloodshed, and offers to take back everything he said in order to restore order and stop the killing. However, Quarren is convinced that the truth is necessary, and convinces him to help him and his people move forward.

Wow. Just... wow. I was beginning to lose my enthusiasm for this season, and then this episode happens. The first fifteen minutes are a delightful romp through the revised Voyager crew; Janeway practically yawning as she orders the killing of millions; Tuvok cracking a wry smile at her gallows humor; Kim and Chakotay (whose tattoo now covers a whole side of his face) interrogating a Kyrian with the Doctor's detatched assistance; and Seven leading a team of Borg shock troops in decimating boarding parties. Torres doesn't show up, but that's just because Dawson was busy with her newborn - but it fits well as just another inadequacy of the revised history.

Quarren is perfect. His reaction to the Doctor's retelling is understandable, and his manner of coming around is gradual and believable. His characterization as someone who just loves history too much to cling to his old cultural narrative is exceptionally compelling. And his admission to the Doctor that he's always been fascinated with the Voyager story, despite its dark overtones, I can identify with that. I've always found the great depression and its aftermath to be one of the more interesting periods in US history, even though it was an era of great suffering. So, yeah, Quarren, it's cool, buddy.

It would have been very easy for this show to have slipped into being the "revisionist history is bad" episode, with lots of preachy bits about yellow journalism and the like. It's easy to do, even great shows like Battlestar and Babylon 5 have examples: Final Cut (BSG, Season 2) and The Illusion of Truth (B5, Season 4). Both are easy 0/5s for me, with their one-sided (and frankly, condescending) presentation of an important issue. But here we get the fantastic, penultimate scene, with the Doctor offering to take it all back, to take one for the team; the Voyager's reputation doesn't really matter anymore, who is he to cause unrest just because the myths that this society is founded on make him out to be a mass murderer. It is selfless and noble, despite being a lie.

And that isn't even the moral of the story. Quarren convinces him that he should not give up, and the camera pans away to show that that scene is actually a holographic reenactment in another museum, even further in the future; a future where that decision helped start the mending of the rift between the Vaskan and Kyrian people. Remember a couple reviews ago, when I called out The First Duty (TNG, Season 5) for rising to awesomeness by allowing people with opposing viewpoints to both make good points? That's happening right now, and I couldn't be happier. This is Star Trek, this is what I came here to see.

Watchability: 5/5

Bottom Line: I think this one episode has guaranteed that I'll see this project through to completion. Voyager has had other 5/5s, but if I were to translate those to a more granular "out of 10" scale, they'd all be 8.5/10s or 9/10s. Let me state in no uncertain terms: this is a ten. It can stand up with the big guns of TNG and DS9 and B5 and BSG and Firefly and be counted. I'll keep watching the rest of the series just to see another one of these.

Side Note: Wow, the Babylon 5 wiki is terrible. Someone go edit some useful information into that thing.