Episode Behind the Scenes

TREKCORE > VOY > LIVING WITNESS > Behind the Scenes

This episode proceeded from a story pitch by Rob DeBorde, former writing partner of teleplay co-writer Bryan Fuller. "He had The Doctor reactivated in the future, realizing that he was responsible for an artificial intelligence movement and having them be accepted as living beings, as members of society," Fuller said of the original plot concept.
Bryan Fuller, Brannon Braga, and Joe Menosky then worked on DeBorde's story idea, deciding to change The Doctor's predicament. "We [initially] felt that was a little too close to Data," Fuller recalled.
The idea of The Doctor in a futuristic museum was one of the episode's earliest plot points. Joe Menosky commented, "All we really had going into this story was the very powerful, very compelling image of The Doctor in a museum in the future." An aspect that needed to be addressed, however, was the museum's location. "For a while we thought it was in the Alpha Quadrant," Menosky recollected. "Was it a Romulan museum? A Klingon museum? We didn't know." Executive producer Rick Berman was involved in settling this issue. Menosky remarked, "I think it might have been Rick Berman who said, 'No, it's got to be in Delta, it's got to be an alien museum,' for the very good reason that he didn't want to let it be known that Voyager had successfully gotten home. If you've got The Doctor in a museum 700 years from now, there is a good chance that people at that museum know about the fate of Voyager. We just didn't want to have to deal with that. So with Rick's input we realized that it had to be an alien museum."
Rather than have The Doctor be reactivated to realize that he had influenced artificially intelligent individuals being socially accepted as living beings, the trio of writers decided to have The Doctor's discovery, upon reactivation, be that of an unfortunately misconstrued history. Bryan Fuller remembered, "We took it the other way with the historical revisionism, and that was fun to do." The revised version of the plot was inspired by the controversial issue of extremists and their reinterpretation of historical facts.
Commenting on this plot development, Joe Menosky stated, "When Bryan was writing the story, we realized that one of the cool issues today is the revolution in thinking about history. What are you doing when you are telling history? Are you just telling a story from the point of view of whoever is telling the history? How you can use history for political ends. How can people want to think about history in a different way to make them feel different about themselves in the present–a very rich lode of ideas."
Bryan Fuller felt that Brannon Braga was solely responsible for the act of changing the plot. "On that one, Brannon's responsible for the story completely, as far as reworking Rob's premise," Fuller maintained, "and the historical revisionism is all Brannon. He wanted to tell that story."
Braga himself said about the episode, "It's [partly] a show about revisionist history, which is a very topical issue. Cultures are taking issue with the way history is portrayed in the books right now, and controversies come out of that. Is the revisionist history accurate? Or is it being done to bolster one's cultural identity in the present? There are no easy answers, and that is one of the issues we try to tap into in that show."
Joe Menosky enjoyed taking part in writing the characters differently from how they usually were, in scenes such as the one in which conflict breaks out in the warship Voyager's briefing room. Menosky reminisced, "It was really fun to cut loose with what I call the briefing room brawl. It's a blast to write things like that."
Robert Picardo plays three different holographic versions of The Doctor in this episode (one of them an android) but does not actually play the usual version of that character (i.e., Picardo's normal role in the series). Picardo generally liked this episode, describing it as both "a very interesting show" and "an interesting, classic sort of Star Trek mind-bender episode."
uring the making of the episode, actor/director Tim Russ frequently encountered Robert Picardo's habit of offering suggestions during production. "In some cases," stated Russ, "I had to say, 'Bob, I can't do it, I've got four or five pages of dialogue and I've got to get out of here in two and a half hours.' But I did allow for extra time in some of the most important scenes."
Robert Picardo's performance here was a highlight of the episode for both Tim Russ and visual effects supervisor Mitch Suskin. "Bob Picardo was absolutely amazing!" raved Russ. "Ironically, when he directed his show, I was featured in almost every scene of it, so this time the shoe was on the other foot, and it was really wonderful." Suskin enthused, "Robert Picardo, as usual, is fabulous to watch for 44 minutes on the show."
Robert Picardo himself was impressed by Janeway actress Kate Mulgrew's acting herein. "Kate is great, Kate is evil," Picardo said.
Star Trek: Voyager's regular cast extremely enjoyed playing the collection of malevolent roles that differed from the characters the performers were used to portraying. Robert Picardo (who commented that the evil versions of the characters were "like Hitler and the S.S.") noted, "It was fun for the actors to do."

Tim Russ (who regarded this episode as "a chance to see us in a very different light") agreed, "I think for the whole cast, it was fun to be able to behave in an entirely different manner than they normally would [....] It was an absolute kick to all of them to do this work."

Tim Russ not only directed this episode but also appeared as his usual character of Tuvok. The actor/director declared of his acting role herein, "[Tuvok] was only on for a short period of time, but in the time that he was on he was different, definitely. You'll definitely see that, no question about it."
Although her character is referenced herein, Roxann Dawson (B'Elanna Torres) does not appear in this episode, as she was recovering from the birth of her daughter, Emma Rose Dawson, who was born on 16 January 1998. Dawson had attended Star Trek's workshop for budding directors at the same time as Tim Russ but, due to her pregnancy, her chance to direct would not be until the sixth season.
Tim Russ was surprised that this episode involved the use of as many as three stages. However, Tim Russ was aware of the same set also being "extremely expensive."
While the sets for the warship Voyager were reuses of the normal Voyager sets and were permanently situated on Paramount Stages 8 and 9, the set for the Museum of Kyrian Heritage – which was built by 9 February 1998 – was located on Paramount Stage 16, a stage that simultaneously housed the permanent cave set and a set that was under construction for the later fourth season installment "One".
 Mitch Suskin thought highly of the museum set. "The art department really came up with a set that was phenomenal for this museum of the future," Suskin remarked.
Some sets in this episode, including that of the Kyrian museum, were modified and additionally utilized for Star Trek: Insurrection; the museum set was used as a part of the Son'a ship in that film.
Prior to directing this installment, Tim Russ commented, "I may or may not consider directing an episode of the show down the line to get my feet wet." Between the time that he made that statement and the event of its publication in Star Trek Monthly, the arrangement was made whereby he was indeed set to direct a Voyager episode. However, Russ was originally scheduled to direct a third season installment.
Before directing this episode, Tim Russ was entirely unaware that this would be the one he would direct. "I had no idea what kind of show I would get. It could have been a character show, a light show, a spooky show or an action show," Russ explained. "For my first show, I would rather do something not so crazy and all over the place. I decided to make the best of whatever they had me do."
By the time Tim Russ was eventually permitted to direct for Star Trek: Voyager, he had been working towards producing this episode over a previous three-year duration. Russ later clarified that he spent that duration "not so much lobbying [to direct] as learning how to do it." He elaborated, "The three-year wait was primarily because of the time it took to get a turn, because there are so many other people who want to do the same thing, but also because the producers ask you to go through a program, which takes about two years [....] It took almost a year to get this one once I was ready to go."
He further recalled, "I was next in line, and it was my turn." Russ was extremely thankful that this episode finally gave him the chance to direct. He noted, "It was nice to get a chance to do it." Russ elaborated, "It's a rare opportunity. [I was] completely beholden to the producers for having this opportunity to do so and I'm very grateful to them for giving me the chance to work behind the scenes for three years as an intern and learning the process, and then getting a shot to do it [...] and to have the opportunity in time to prep for the episode, a wonderful opportunity and a hell of a learning experience – you can't beat it."
Russ elaborated, "It's a rare opportunity. [I was] completely beholden to the producers for having this opportunity to do so and I'm very grateful to them for giving me the chance to work behind the scenes for three years as an intern and learning the process, and then getting a shot to do it [...] and to have the opportunity in time to prep for the episode, a wonderful opportunity and a hell of a learning experience – you can't beat it."
Prior to and during the episode's production period, Tim Russ had close contact with some key members of production staff about the installment. "I had to work very closely with the writers and the producers," Russ noted. This was a typical step in a director's work on an episode, as the intense communication allowed them to make a few suggestions and ask many questions. "So you're basically in contact with [the writers and producers], for the week and a half or so before you shoot," Russ continued. "Brannon [Braga] was always open." Russ found that the producers were also very helpful, even more so than they usually were. He recalled, "Mostly with an actor it's dialogue and story points, but from a directing standpoint I used to get a lot of larger questions answered."
Tim Russ was also grateful for the assistance provided to him (during filming) by the production crew, describing them as "a very tight and professional crew to help me out along the way." In particular, Russ found Director of Photography Marvin V. Rush to be very helpful. "I worked with the DP very closely," Russ recalled, "and I knew what I wanted and if it didn't work then he might suggest 'Okay, this might be better.'"
Tim Russ found this installment challenging. "It was quite a step for me to be able to take the helm on one of the episodes," he noted. Russ explained, "'Living Witness' was expensive for a first-time director and it was certainly bigger than I thought it would be." He went on to say that "some of the surprises I had to work around" included not only the quantity of the stages required for the episode and the expense of the set for the Kyrian Museum of Heritage but also "some very interesting lighting, which was somewhat time-consuming in terms of the actual shooting." The fledgling director nevertheless "came in under budget."
Another specific challenge that Tim Russ was tasked with overcoming was finding the right balance between focusing on the technical elements of the installment, such as camera angles and eye-lines, with being aware of the performances that the cast delivered for the episode. Russ had initially expected that he would be concentrating much more on the technical requirements, which he had paid a lot more attention to during the pre-production period, so he was very shocked and surprised to find, within one or two days of the installment's production, that he needed to pay more attention to the performances.
He remembered, "I just discovered by doing it that I [tended] to focus, by the end of the episode, a little more on the faces and what people were saying and doing and how they were doing them. And less on the specifics of the shot, which is where the DP comes in." Russ also said, "It caught me off guard, so it was very interesting."
The problem of concentrating on the acting was heightened for Tim Russ due to the fact that the performances of the regular cast were far different from how they normally were on Star Trek: Voyager. "It was even more of a challenge, I think, coming into it," Russ conceded, "because [the lead actors] had to behave or act in a different manner than they normally would [....] From time to time, all I did was tweak them." Russ elaborated, "It was a bit of a tweak here and there to try to get the parts refined because the tendency is to go overboard when you do something like that, to get carried away. So I had to keep it in line, because I'm looking at it as a third-party observer, an objective standpoint. Everybody came up with their own sort of twist." Additionally, Russ expressed that being witness to the cast twisting their portrayals was "very nice" and "very interesting." Russ also tweaked the performances of the guest cast. "We had several guest stars in key roles, and that was a little trickier than I had planned, because I found myself having to tweak the performances a lot more than I would like to have done."
Tim Russ found that the plot of this episode seemed to allow for some technical conventions to be broken. He commented, "For me, the story itself, the concept carried or supported the foundations of being able to defy some of the conventional editorial rules."
A shot in the first act of this episode, showing Quarren watch the Kyrian museum's viewscreen as it changes between a picture of the warship Voyager and an image of the fictitious Janeway in the ship's command chair, was controversial among the episode's production staff. Although Tim Russ (who was concentrating on the dramatic aspects of the shot) felt that the short moment worked well dramatically and would probably not be especially noticeable to viewers anyway, some individuals (who were concentrating on the technical aspects of the shot), such as supervising producer Peter Lauritson, thought the moment was not absolutely correct from an editorial, post-production perspective. Brannon Braga agreed with Tim Russ, so the decision was made to use the shot.
The episode includes two shots that pan across to a screen or window, through which futuristic spectators can then be seen. Mitch Suskin noted, "We had a couple of tracking shots where we let the production company pan from the set into these windows." One of the two occasions on which this occurs follows the malevolent Janeway's execution of Tedran and his accomplice, at which point a group of observers in the Kyrian museum are shown through one of the warship Voyager's briefing room windows. Recalling the filming of the footage from inside the briefing room as well as the view of the watchers, Suskin remarked, "Both of those shots were shot on stage with no electronic data gathering or motion control support, not even any targets. We let the camera operator operate as if it were a regular production shot [....] For example, in the one shot in the mess hall, [where] we see Janeway execute the people, the camera operator pans over to the window where there's nothing but stars as usual. Several days later, we shot on the other stage an element of the people standing, staring [near] the camera. We matched the camera heights, and the lenses."
Mitch Suskin was delighted with Tim Russ' work on this episode. "Tim Russ did an amazingly excellent job as a first-time director," Suskin raved.
Only a single shot of the warship Voyager was created for this episode, visualized using CGI. Mitch Suskin talked about the digital ship model: "It's actually the same Voyager [as the usual CG one] with a lot of extra guns and weapons' ports on it, not terribly different, just beefier. As something that is just one shot in the show, it becomes much easier to sell that when it's a digital shot, and it doesn't cost as much. Also we're not going to damage the Voyager [studio] model that way. If we actually did it on the model, we'd have to fix it."
Much of the work that the visual effects artists had to do for this episode was assembling the two shots that pan over to a window or screen to show a group of futuristic observers watching through it. Mitch Suskin commented, "A lot of what we did was just to line up two different elements shot on different days and different stages, and put them together as if these people are looking through the port [....] Because we have enough horsepower in the technology we are using in the composite bay, now we are able to really without a great deal of difficulty, track the elements in, and match them as if they were shot together."