VOY: Memorial

         Sometimes Trek tries to hide its message behind crazy aliens with strange powers, and sometimes it just comes out and says we shouldn't forget attrocities. Which to be fair isn't exactly a controversial message. The idea of a memorial that forces the memories of what happened onto anyone who stumbles across it seems like a good idea, but it seems like it would likely cause some ships to fall apart into mutiny and chaos and almost certainly cause more death so maybe not such a great idea. Still, seeing the crew experience the events from different perspectives was really interesting. Some were much more hands on with the violence and some were just witnesses to it. But all felt the burden of what happened.
         The episode opens with the Flyer on its way back from a two week mission and tension is running high. Well, it is for Harry at least. He seems ready to never see Tom, Chakotay or Neelix ever again. The Doctor really helps too by insisting they all come in for physicals really soon. Torres welcomes Paris home with a gift, a television from the 50's! He loves it so much that he can barely pay attention to her. Late that night he realize the controls aren't working and then he sees himself on the screen in a battle. And then he is in the battle, and then he wakes up. The next day Harry is working on a Jefferies tube when he starts hearing voices and sounds of battle and crawls out as fast as he can before heading to sickbay. The Doctor finds nothing wrong and prescribes him two days rest. In the mess hall Naomi stops by to talk to Neelix but he freaks out and grabs a phaser. Chakotay has to talk him down. 
         The four who were on the mission all meet in the briefing room with the captain. It seems they all share memories of being in a military unit that was sent to evacuate a colony against its will. Things went bad and they ended up massacring all the colonists and covering it up. Janeway decides to go back to where the Flyer visited to find out what happened. As they approach she too is struck by the memories as are many of the crew. They head down to the planet and discover the battle happened centuries earlier. They find a monument that seems to be transmitting the memories, but its' power is failing. Janeway decides to repair the beacon and get the hell out of there.

         Review: Pretty straight forward, but not a bad way to examine both soldiers coming back from combat and how we memorialize the horrors of war. 

6 out of 10