Post by @toddhorowitz@fediscience.org

2026-10-25 18:06 UTC

What was she going to do if Chakotay didn't fall in love with her again? How would a relationship work when one partner would forget the other if they were ever separated for more than a few hours? How many times was she willing to start over? But a lot of the first part of the episode is taken up with the question of whether they (not just Chakotay) should trust Kellin. The solution is: they overlay her navigational logs over Voyager's, proving that they traveled together for a time. When someone suggests that her logs could be faked, she answers, "You can run a diagnostic on them". This is a classic Voyager mistake, solving an emotional problem with technobabble. Interestingly, there's a much better pivot point later in the episode, when Kellin is frustrated that she doesn't know whether Chakotay returns her love, and offers to return to the Ramurans and have her memory wiped so she no longer endangers the Voyager crew. At that point, Chakotay gives in and admits he has feelings for her and rekindles their relationship. But that should really be the point at which the whole crew starts trusting her, not the "run a diagnostic on my navigational logs" bullshit.

Replies (1)

@toddhorowitz@fediscience.org 2026-10-25 18:07

Finally, there's "Living Witness", which is in some ways a great episode. I was initially annoyed by it, thinking that we were seeing a Voyager Mirror Universe episode (which I wasn't aware of), but I liked the twist. It's a rare "true Voyager" episode, in that it really works best as a Voyager episode, rather than as TNG Season 8. Bonus points for not involving the tease of a shortcut home for the crew. But it makes the same mistake as "Unforgettable", in that the dueling "evidence" presented for both sides of the historical argument are just holographic recreations. It is unclear what would be the source for the wildly inaccurate Voyager simulations from the museum, and the source for the Doctor's recreation is obviously just his memories. I guess it makes better TV than actual historiography, but it's unconvincing. At this point, Quarren seems influenced mostly by the fact that he was wrong about the Doctor being an android. But again, the real pivot point happens later, when the Doctor offers to erase himself and abandon his quest for vindication in order to not inflame the planet's race war. That is the selfless act that indicates he's not a mass murderer, but again it's timed too late in the episode. In all these cases, I felt as though they needed maybe another pass on the script, but I guess that's easy to say when I don't have to shoot 26 episodes!

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