VOY: “Living Witness” and “Demon”

Date: December 3, 2020

Season 4, Episodes 23 and 24

Musical Accompaniment: Still on songs that start with the letter ‘F’, there are quite a few apparently.

Interstellar News: It’s the 3rd day of my birthday month!

“Living Witness” in TL;DR: 700 years in the future, the Kyrians have a museum dedicated to their history and they show a holodeck recreation of what they think happened when Voyager “butted into their business”. Janeway and crew wear black gloves and she’s cold, the Doctor is an android, Chakotay’s tattoo now covers half of his face, Seven is her old Borg self and there are other Borg on board, along with Kazon and others that Janeway supposedly assimilated and enslaved. The simulation shows Janeway executing two of the Kyrians making way for the Vaskans to take over like the Cardassians did Bajor. Quarren finds a backup of the EMH and runs it, so the Doctor tells his side of the story. Unfortunately for the Kyrians a lot is wrong since they were really the aggressors. Some Vaskans come to destroy the museum and another war breaks out so the Doctor offers to lie instead of setting the record straight, but both he and Quarren decide to tell the truth and that issues in an era of peace and harmony. Quarren dies some years later but the Doctor stays to help the planet get on their feet medically and then he decides to travel toward the AQ to see if the crew made it home.

Favorite Quote:

EMH: Voyager wasn’t a warship. We were explorers.

Quarren: Yes, I know. Trying to get home, to Mars.

EMH: Earth! You see, you couldn’t even get that right. This is a nightmare.

I mean, they had a 1 in 9 chance of getting it right… and yes, Pluto is a planet!

“History has been abused. We keep blaming each other for what happened in the past. If you don’t help us now, it could be another seven hundred years.”: At first, I thought this was a weird Mirror Universe episode. Right away you know something is wrong with the black gloves and cold demeanor. Then everything is just a little off, like the EMH looking more like Data and less like himself, Chakotay’s tattoo suddenly taking up the entire side of his face instead of just above the eye, and even Tuvok… smiling (shudder). Once it’s revealed to be a simulation it starts to make sense how some things were right and other things were way, way off. When the Doctor does his recreation it’s so different from what Quarren expects that he’s immediately distrustful and shuts down the Doctor. I absolutely love that Quarren eventually comes around and wants to learn the truth, no matter how painful, just as the Doctor eventually becomes more concerned with the well being of the planet rather than the image of Voyager. It’s an absolutely wonderful ending where Voyager being in the DQ may have caused 700 years of strife by their act of trying to make a deal, but eventually the EMH is able to help them move to a place where they can coexist and be at peace with one another. 9 orders of steak fajitas for this episode, with an extra side of guacamole!

“Demon” in TL;DR: Voyager is running out of power and they are running on “grey mode”, the crew all have to find different places to stay. Seven finds deuterium on a demon-class planet, and they decide to take the risk. Kim volunteers to modify a suit and mine the deuterium with Paris. They take a shuttle down, find liquid deuterium, but then Kim falls in and both of their suits are compromised and they pass out. When they don’t return, Janeway decides to land Voyager on the surface. Neelix and three others invade sickbay to temporarily stay in and the Doctor is less than pleased. Chakotay and Seven of Nine go after the boys but they find Paris and Kim alive and without their suits and a large cache of deuterium. The four of them beam up but Paris and Kim can’t breathe, so the Doctor gets them the air they need as they were “bioformed”. Back on the surface Chakotay and Seven find the bodies of Paris and Kim still in their suits and they all realize the liquid was able to make copies. The substance, speaking through duplicated Kim, demands to copy the whole crew. Janeway makes a deal, let Voyager go and she’ll ask the crew if anyone is willing to be copied so the substance can try to create a new way for itself. Voyager is shown leaving as a duplicated crew are left waving goodbye on the planet.

Favorite Quote:

Chakotay: Looks like they went this way.

Seven of Nine: My tricorder isn’t picking up any life signs. How did you reach that conclusion?

Chakotay: Footprints. I guess you never assimilated any Indian scouts.

Seven is curious and Chakotay is being cheeky.

“A deep, almost fluorescent green, if I remember correctly.”: At first I was worried that the silver substance was going to be like the black blob that killed Yar, so I was pleased it just wanted to make more of itself and could be reasoned with. I will admit I didn’t see the copies coming, I thought that this was going to be a medical mystery episode. That was a nice twist. My biggest problem with this episode is they’re all like “oh no, we’re running out of fuel” and then THEY DON’T TELL US IF THEY GOT THE FUEL OR WHAT. I mean we have to assume that happened, but does that mean they took not-quite-sentient silver substance for fuel in exchange for making clones of the crew? I just have a lot of problems with a copied Starfleet crew being left in the DQ just chilling, as they share all the same memories and are genetically modified. I don’t really see a problem if I think hard, though, as the duplicates really, really, really wanted to stay on the planet and seemed perfectly happy there… so no harm, right? 6 regular flans with ripe blueberries on the side for this one.

TA Out!