Remember (episode)

B'Elanna Torres receives vivid dreams from an unknown passenger aboard Voyager.

Summary

 * "Captain's log, stardate 50203.1. We're three days away from Enara Prime, home of the passengers we picked up from a colony in the Fima system. Our high warp capability has greatly reduced the time it takes them to make the journey home. In return, the Enarans have shared their energy conservation technology with us and, perhaps more importantly, their friendship."


 * "Captain's log, stardate 50211.4. We're approaching Enara and preparing to host a farewell party for our guests. They've made every effort to help us understand their telepathic abilities but it's still a mystery why they've affected Lieutenant Torres so strongly."

The USS Voyager crew picks up passengers directed to their homeworld, Enara Prime, and learns of their telepathic ability. They are able to share their experiences through a telepathic link. To do so, they usually place themselves behind the other person and place a hand between their shoulders.

During a party, such a telepathic link is used by Jor Brel, the Enaran leader, to drive Captain Kathryn Janeway to play a traditional Enaran musical instrument. She is upset because she didn't expect such an intense contact but at the same time she appreciates the experience. Jor Brel apologizes and the incident is settled.

Before long, Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres begins having intense, sensuous dreams of herself as a Enaran young girl named Korenna Mirell involved in a forbidden romance with Dathan Alaris, a member of the Regressives, a subgroup which once resisted Enaran technology.

When one of these dreams catches her in daytime, she is brought to sickbay unconscious and The Doctor finds signs of telepathic activity. The Enarans are then questioned but they deny being the source of such activity.

The dreams turn haunting for Torres as the young girl's father, Jareth, participates in a resettlement of the Regressives - and eventually their total extermination.

Torres finds Jora Mirell, the old Enaran woman who is transmitting her those dreams, which are a summary of her personal experience as a young girl. Jora forces her to receive the last part of the story and dies immediately thereafter.

Strongly affected by the horrible visions, Torres realizes that the Enarans have concealed a part of their history from their descendants and that one of them aboard Voyager doesn't want her buried memories to die. She walks into the goodbye party organized for the Enarans and tells everybody about what she has discovered. The older Enarans refuse to admit that what she experienced was a true story, while the younger ones refuse to believe her. Torres also accuses the chief of the Enarans of having killed Jora Mirell.

After finding no proof of murder, Janeway decides to allow the Enarans disembark and takes no actions to force them to reckon their history. Torres reluctantly accepts that if they want to conceal a part of their history from themselves it is their right to do so. However, Janeway has trade negotiations as well as shore leave cancelled, and orders that Voyager leave orbit as soon as all the Enarans have disembarked. Janeway mentions that the Enaran engineers are still packing up their equipment, and suggests that if Torres has anything more to say, she should talk to them. Torres thanks Janeway and leaves.

In engineering, Torres meets Jessen, an Enaran engineer she has worked with during the previous days, who strongly refuses to believe her. Torres asks her to search her history when she returns to Enara Prime and wishes to be able to transmit her the memories she has received from the old woman. Convinced by Torres' earnestness that she might be telling the truth, Jessen offers to establish the telepathic link and in turns she begins experiencing the same story herself.

Memorable Quotes
"Maybe he's right. The Enarans haven't shown any hint of subterfuge, any hidden agenda. They've been nothing but straightforward and honest. You're in no immediate danger. They'll be gone in another day. The situation will resolve itself."

"And yet, you fully intend to continue investigating."

"I wonder how long it's been since I did anything that surprised you."


 * - Captain Janeway and Tuvok

"''Why don't you go on without me." (Harry Kim and Jessen leave) "No, really. I insist.''"
 * - B'Elanna Torres

"I wish... I had your abilities. I could just show you."

"You would do that? Share your experiences openly?"

"Of course."


 * - B'Elanna Torres and Jessen

"So that's it? We just go on our merry way and nobody ever has to take any kind of responsibility?"


 * - B'Elanna Torres to Captain Janeway

Story and script

 * This episode was meant as a parable to the Holocaust and was conceived of as a Deanna Troi episode for Star Trek: The Next Generation. Joe Menosky, co-writer of the episode's story, recalled, "That episode was actually a Next Generation story that Brannon [Braga ] and I came up with a long, long time ago, and it was going to be a Troi story. Lisa [Klink ]  took it over and reworked it and made it a Voyager episode." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 92)
 * The final draft of this episode's script was made on.

Cast and characters

 * Actress Roxann Dawson was thrilled with the teleplay of this episode. She remarked, "It was a brilliant script [....] I felt the show had something to say." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #12) Additionally, Dawson enthused, "I loved the story – it was so well written." (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 2, p. 18)
 * Dawson also enjoyed appearing in this episode, as well as the connections between her two roles of Torres and Korenna Mirell. The actress raved, "I loved having the opportunity to do that show [....] I loved being able to play the two characters, and how Korenna's life influenced B'Elanna's." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #12) In fact, Dawson cited this episode – towards the end of Voyager's seventh and final season – as being "the episode I'm probably most proud of," and further said, "It was a great opportunity to play two characters, really." (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 2, p. 18)
 * Roxann Dawson's performance herein made the episode a prominent one for both Lisa Klink and director Winrich Kolbe. Following her work on the third season, Klink remarked, "[Roxann] was amazing in this episode. I think that all of our actors are very good, but in this particular instance, this one performance stands out in my mind from the whole season as just being remarkable." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 92) At the end of Voyager's fourth season, Kolbe said of "Remember", "That sticks out because of Roxann. She did a terrific job and she's getting better and better." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #15)
 * An aspect of the episode that thrilled Roxann Dawson was the opportunity to perform alongside the actor who played Jareth. "Bruce Davison was extraordinary," Dawson commented. "I've always wanted to work with him. I had known of him since I lived in New York City, and he was just brilliant." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #12)
 * Janeway actress Kate Mulgrew also enjoyed this episode. Midway through saying that she thought highly of both Roxann Dawson and Winrich Kolbe, Mulgrew enthused of their work here, "I loved 'Remember' which she [Dawson] shot with my boyfriend [Kolbe]." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 84)

Reception

 * Ultimately, Brannon Braga was disappointed by this episode; he would have preferred that the episode had been done as an installment of TNG and felt that  as well as subsequent awareness of the Holocaust had taken the edge off this episode's genocide-related story. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 92)
 * On the other hand, Joe Menosky favored the episode's final form over its TNG origins. "I think, ironically enough, that it was better as a Voyager than it would have been as a TNG," he enthused, "and I think better as a Torres story than it would have been as a Troi story. Because in some ways, not having a 'sensitive' character and to be thrown into this situation is a little more effective." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 92)
 * Winrich Kolbe was impressed with the writing of this episode. Referring indirectly to Roxann Dawson, Kolbe opined, "The story they built around her for that show was very good, very creative." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #15)
 * This episode achieved a Nielsen rating of 4.7 million homes, and an 8% share.
 * Cinefantastique rated this episode 3 out of 4 stars. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 90)
 * Star Trek Monthly scored this episode 3 out of 5 stars, defined as "Warp Speed". (Star Trek Monthly issue 24, p. 59)
 * The unauthorized reference book Delta Quadrant (p. 145) gives this installment a rating of 6 out of 10.
 * Executive producer Jeri Taylor stated that both this episode and the previous one were examples of episodes which "didn't work", yet maintained that  and  did work. (Star Trek: Voyager - A Vision of the Future)

Continuity

 * In this episode, Janeway quips to Tuvok, "I wonder how long it's been since I did anything that surprised you." The longest this could have been, though, was only two episodes prior, in ; in that episode, Tuvok claims to be surprised by her decision to pass through the swarm's space.

Video and DVD releases

 * UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 3.3,
 * As part of the VOY Season 3 DVD collection

Starring

 * Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway

Also starring

 * Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay
 * Roxann Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres
 * Jennifer Lien as Kes
 * Robert Duncan McNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris
 * Ethan Phillips as Neelix
 * Robert Picardo as The Doctor
 * Tim Russ as Lieutenant Tuvok
 * Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim

Guest stars

 * Eugene Roche as Jor Brel
 * Charles Esten as Dathan Alaris
 * Athena Massey as Jessen
 * Eve H. Brenner as Jora Mirell/ Korenna Mirell

Special guest star

 * Bruce Davison as Jareth

Co-stars

 * Nancy Kaine as Woman
 * Tina Reddington as Girl
 * Majel Barrett as Computer Voice

Uncredited co-stars

 * John Copage as a science division officer
 * Scott Leva as Fredick
 * Jack Nolan as an Enaran cadet
 * Richard Sarstedt as William McKenzie
 * Paul Seymore as an Enaran soldier
 * Pablo Soriano as Demelos
 * John Tampoya as Kashimuro Nozawa
 * Unknown performers as
 * Enaran soldier
 * Murphy
 * Four Enaran cadets
 * Lishan
 * Two Enaran children
 * Vareth

Stunt double

 * Leslie Hoffman as stunt double for Roxann Dawson

Stand-ins

 * June Jordan - stand-in for Tina Reddington