Voyager Flashback: Ex Post Facto

Depending on who from Star Trek: Voyager you ask, "Ex Post Facto" was one the first season's best -- or worst -- episodes.

Tom Paris is accused of a murder by the people of an alien world, and they punish him by implanting the final memories of his victim inside his mind -- he'll relive the crime through the victim's eyes every 14 hours. Tuvok sets out to prove Paris' innocence, investigating an unhappy housewife, two warring alien races, and suspicious government officials.

While "Ex Post Facto" began as a pitch from outside writer Evan Carlos Somers, it's mainly the work of series co-creator Michael Piller, who seized the opportunity to write what is essentially a film noir (right down to the memories shot in black and white by director LeVar Burton). Piller thought this was one of the best episodes of the first season. Another series co-creator, Jeri Taylor, thought this was the worst by a mile. She found the film noir indulgent, and the damage to the character of Tom Paris unforgivable (portraying him as a womanizer not nearly reluctant enough to get involved with a married woman).

I tend to side with Taylor on this one. So much about this episode falls flat. Robert Duncan McNeill may have been good so far bringing us a smug, swaggering Tom Paris, but I'm not sure he's a strong enough actor to portray the pain and torment called for here. He gets no help from the script or guest star Robin McKee as the "femme fatale" of the piece; her character of Lidell Ren is cold and aloof as the film noir style demands, but this gives nothing for any scene partner to act off of.

The whole "first person murder" element doesn't work at all. A scene that should be violent and dangerous plays like everyone is trying to protect an expensive camera from damage. The spoken dialogue is stilted and wooden, feeling exactly like what it almost certainly was: actors trying to play to an off camera script supervisor reading the unseen victim's lines (with the real actor dubbing them in later).

The story borrows from a lot of other sources. The role of the "dog that did not bark" in solving the crime is a lift from Arthur Conan Doyle. The way Tuvok gathers all the suspects in one place to solve the mystery is straight from Agatha Christie. This doesn't even feel particularly original for Star Trek. Starfleet trying to tiptoe neutrally through two warring alien races is one of the franchise's most enduring tropes. And this murder mystery construct with its conflicting witness statements feels a lot like The Next Generation's "A Matter of Perspective." (Not that repeating parts of an earlier Star Trek means the results will be bad by default. One year after this episode was made, Deep Space Nine would use the "implanted memories as punishment for a crime" idea in one of the very best episodes of that entire series.)

The good intentions do at least shine through in some elements of the episode. It does a pretty good job of giving most of the characters something to do: the protagonist baton is handed smoothly from Paris to Tuvok partway through the episode, while Kim gets center-stage in filling us in on what happened, Chakotay gets to take point when the ship is attacked, and the Doctor has some nice character building moments (and some fun "just the facts"-style interactions with Tuvok). Director LeVar Burton also stages some good moments with the camera: the extreme close-ups during Voyager's first mind meld are effective, and Janeway's command strength comes through loud and clear when she delivers threats directly into the camera.

Other observations:

• While considering names, the Doctor pauses before mentioning "Spock." It's enough of a pause to create some ambiguity about whether he means the 20th century pediatrician/author, or the Star Trek character. (But it's almost certainly the former, right?)
  

• The budget for this episode is clearly tight in places (a reused matte painting from The Next Generation) and clearly not in others (the strange feathery, coral-like "hair" of the Baneans is pretty wild).
  

• It seems to be Neelix's principle character trait that he cannot read people/situations. During different serious moments of the episode, he's cracking unwanted jokes and rushing to point out that he was right.

• I praised some good staging earlier, but Paris and Lidell kneeling together during a prolonged scene of flirtation is truly awkward. (And maybe it's my "old man knees" talking, but they're doing it in a rainstorm too -- it just seems painful.)
  

The bottom line: The Next Generation told a better version of this episode before this, and Deep Space Nine told a way better version of this episode after this. Voyager's take is quite superfluous. I give "Ex Post Facto" a C+.