"Living Witness" Appreciation Thread

[patlandness]

While I'm usually up for continuity, I'll overlook the whole "EMH back-up module thing" for an episode of this quality. That said "Living Witness" has been my favorite episode of Voyager without question. (with "Death Wish" as a runner up).

It has what Trek reviewer Jeff Bond refers to "spirit and fire" and Jammer even gave it the full four stars and it's easy to see why.

Starting with one hell of a teaser to an ending that packs an emotional wallop this side of TNG's "The Inner Light" it features a story that is timeless and relevant (and doesn't cop out with the usual reset button as so many Trek episodes dealing with The Future do). Also Robert Picardo gives one of his best performances as the EMH and Tim Russ did an absolutely brilliant job of directing this episode (it's a shame he never got to direct again on the show...)

This episode gives Star Trek: Voyager a sense of mythological power it has never had before or since.
Gene Roddenberry would have been proud of this criminally underrated episode.

Anyone else have this episode in the "Top 5"? (Maybe even in the #1 spot too?)

 

[Guy Gardener]

It's hardly,outlandish to put this the last ever voyager story in your top 5. I mean sure, it aired prematurely but it the end of the story, which counts for more than something.

The back up makes complete sense.

Even if you discount my vampire theory, the 29th century Codec's discovered in Futures End allowing him to squeeze into the mobile emitter, trump the previous accounts that he is an integrated component of Sickbay from Eye of the Needle.

It's hard to find a more interesting episode once you get over the disappointment that this isn't a Mirror Universe story from the fake out in the teaser.

 

[Christopher]

I have no problem with the backup thing, since the encounter with the Vaskans and Kyrians took place after "Message in a Bottle." I just assume that they managed to create a backup successfully in the wake of MiaB in case the situation arose again.

 

[Kegek]

It's certainly one of the best VOY episodes, yes. I wouldn't call it underrated, though - it seems to be in high regard fairly consistently.

 

[MrPointy]

Living Witness is definitely in my Top 5 Voyager eps.

 

[Smiley]

"Living Witness" is #7 on my personal list (#5 if you count two-parters as one episode).

 

[nx1701g]

Christopher said:
I have no problem with the backup thing, since the encounter with the Vaskans and Kyrians took place after "Message in a Bottle." I just assume that they managed to create a backup successfully in the wake of MiaB in case the situation arose again.

That's how I myself always saw the situation as well. They knew there would be the chance that the Doctor would be lost (like Before and After - they mention in that episode with Kes jumping through time periods they had to reprogram him) so they created a backup for such a happening.

 

[WalkinMan]

Great episode....sadly a few crewmembers were killed in Main Engineering in it.

However, I liked it a lot, and thought the alien city images reminded me of TOS.

 

[Christopher]

I was really impressed by the huge museum set in "Living Witness" and wondered how they could ever have afforded to build it for just one episode. I wondered if it might be a real location, but it didn't seem they'd be allowed to trash a real location as extensively as they did. Then I happened to be looking over the website that has scans of all the set diagrams from the ST Fact Files, and I noticed these two:

http://www.st-spike.org/images/interiors/kyrian_museum.jpg
http://www.st-spike.org/images/interiors/sona_operating.jpg

It was a redress of the Son'a "health spa" set from Insurrection!

 

[Unicron]

Do you think the backup unit was a result of Voyager's improvised "improvements" over the years? The only reason it seems potentially implausible is that it was said earlier in the show that his program couldn't even be transfered out of Sickbay because it contained too much data.

 

[Anwar]

They probably reverse-engineered the mobile emitter to create a makeshift backup program.

 

[patlandness]

Who cares about the back-up module! This is Voyager with compelling storytelling! That's definitely worth a minor continuity flub.

 

[Candlelight]

In the extended version of Equinox, Pt 2, the Doctor clearly says:

"Computer, delete the Equinox EMH... and save as a back up for personal use later"

 

[Blueicus]

I had more problems with the doctor being able to simply delete the other EMH with a few words than the backup module. What if one day Janeway just blurted out, "Computer, rm -rf *"???

 

[Computer]

I absolutely loved the twisted alter-egos of the crew, it almost suited them waaaay to well, Janeway as an evil warlord and Tuvok as the ambitious henchman.

Tuvok: 15 Million dead.
Janeway: That's it?
Tuvok: The virus is still spreading
Janeway: Why do you keep me waiting Tuvok?
Tuvok: (evil smile) Apologies captain, increasing the yield.