‘When diplomacy fails, there’s only one alternative: violence. Force must be applied, without apology. It’s the Starfleet way.’
It’s often said that history is written by the victors and while not often true, events are often relayed through time with a sense of bias. When it came to the USS Voyager getting in the middle of two warring factions, the story told over the centuries would become that of a warship led by a relentless Captain who’d commit genocide in exchange for the location of a wormhole that would get her crew home. War mongers from the other side of the galaxy blasting the Kyrians to pieces with biogenic weapons, abusing their powerful technology and murdering billions on a whim. That was the story passed through generations and retold through holographic re-enactments to visitors at a Kyrian museum, a historical record for all to learn from.
None of them knew it was a lie. Not until part of the relics from the battle uncovered the only person who was there. Voyager’s own Doctor. Well, kind of. Same person, same memory to a point. But a backup buried in the ruins of the past who was stunned to see how they were remembered; as collaborators of the Vaskans brought a reign of terror. The core story may be of Voyagers, butt he larger tale was to show how dangerous the Vaskans are and how responsible they are for the atrocities of the past. The museum is on big guilt trip. And after uncovering the Doctor, curator Quarren is faced with doubt about everything he had known to be true.
In the Doctors the Vaskans had asked for medical aid. The Kyrians boarded Voyager to intercept and assassinate the Vaskan leader. After centuries of being seen as a lesser people, the Vaskans are close to proof that they weren’t responsible for the war, weren’t the aggressors and had been fooled and bullied into an oppressive regime. And while faced with having to re-examine what the truth is, it all begins again…
Episodes that tend to last the test of time tend to be ones with themes that never seem to fade. On one hand it’s a compelling story of how the truth was distorted and how the Kyrans manufactured their own history to gain power and control. Theres also some nice elements from Robert Picardo getting yet another chance to show why he’s one of the cast’s finest while the rest of the regulars get a chance to ham up like a bunch of Terrans.
But the largely unspoken backstory is the key to why this works so well, even all this time later. Their society was built to elevate one side, and push another side down. A race seen as less than, subjugated by a ruling class and over the centuries of being told this story the tension has been bubbling until the Doctors presence throws the balance into chaos. It’s a story that’s been told since the first iteration of Star Trek and it’s not a story that’s came to an end in the real world either. If anything, since the episode was first seen, things have only gotten worse with a not so subtle rise in suprematist ideals to fantasy authors obsessively leading the charge to some of the most vulnerable minorities in the world.
Quarren is the one in the story who learns the lesson. Or at the very least, opens his mind to the idea that what he believes – both at this interpretation of history, as well as hows thats shaped an unbalanced division within his society. And in turn becomes that small glimmer of hope that’s been in the fabric of Star Trek since the beginning; science, truth, justice and overcoming prejudice so the divided instead become the greater whole.
Living Witness doesn’t give a full background. It doesn’t even give a solution. It only shows us that, while the world falls apart, even farther into the future they find the solution. We kind of skip to the end there. But we know that learning the truth about each other began the path to healing and thriving towards an equal society.
There’s some parts of the episode where you’d be forgiven for missing the parable and parts that leave you wanting more about what led to the first war, and how bad things got afterwards. But for the story they’re telling, it’s all just enough to give a fairly tight, self contained story that does what Star Trek always does best in using science fiction as a mirror to ourselves and our own societal baggage.
And just as it always has, gives you the smallest of hope that even if we’re still no closer to the ideals of the Star Trek future, maybe one day….
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