Ex Post Facto (Star Trek: Voyager)

"Ex Post Facto" is the eighth episode of Star Trek: Voyager. The episode's title is Latin for "from a thing done afterward", and refers to the concept of retroactive law.

Plot

While on an away mission with the Baneans, Lieutenant Tom Paris is accused of the murder of the scientist Tolen Ren. Harry Kim returns to Voyager with horrifying news: Tom Paris has been convicted of murder and as punishment has to relive his victim's last moments over and over again. Earlier, Kim and Paris visited the homeworld of the Baneans and met engineering physicist Tolen Ren. Ren asked the two men to help him with a damaged piece of equipment and also invited them over for dinner in his house. While there, Paris allegedly got bored and spent some time with Tolen's young wife Lidell Ren.

Soon after, Tolen heard about Lidell's relationship with Tom and confronted her.

Sometime on the following night, Tolen was stabbed to death in his living room in front of Lidell. Paris was arrested and convicted of the murder. The sentence: to relive the crime through the victim's eyes once every 14 hours for the rest of his life. This was done by examining the victim's memories and implanting them into Paris' brain as part of the Banean punishment, a doctor implants Paris' mind. So the last memories of Ren, are played back over and over in Paris' mind every 14 hours. Voyager soon arrives after encountering the Numiri, another space-faring race the Baneans are at war with. Captain Janeway orders the crew to head for the Banean homeworld to investigate. Once they arrive, they talk with Paris about the crime. He denies having killed Tolen even though he did spend some time with Lidell. Immediately afterward, Paris relives the murder once again and loses consciousness. The Voyager crew finds Paris suffering ill effects of the treatment, and the doctor allows them to return Paris to the ship for medical care. Janeway asks the Benean minister to take him to their ship for a medical evaluation.

Soon after, Tuvok visits the murder scene and speaks with Mrs. Ren. She says that she witnessed the murder and that it has in fact been committed by Tom. Suddenly, the Baeneans' enemy, the Numiri, come across Voyager. While in orbit near the Banean planet, Voyager is surprised to find themselves under attack by the weaker Numiri, but are able to easily stop the assault.

Meanwhile, Chief of Security Tuvok begins to investigate Ren's murder, believing Paris to be innocent. Tuvok, speaking to Lidell, Ren's wife, finds several inconsistencies between her story, placing Paris in a romantic encounter with her, and what Paris has stated happened. Tuvok decides he must perform a mind meld with Paris to witness Ren's memories. As his experiences them himself, Tuvok notices a strange alien script overplayed on top of the visions. From the memories, Tuvok is able to quickly establish Paris' innocence, recognizing that the height difference between Paris and Lidell was not present in the memories, as well as Paris' lack of familiarity with the anatomy of the Banean species. Tuvok reveals the strange glyphs in the video, and told these are not standard in the process. Tuvok suspects these are confidential information in the Banean-Numiri war, and claims that the doctor altered the memories to plant these into Paris as a means of smuggling these to the Numiri attackers. Lidell and the doctor are arrested by the Banean authorities, and the memory implanting on Paris is reversed.

External links

• "Ex Post Facto" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Ex Post Facto" at TV.com
• Ex Post Facto at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Ex Post Facto at StarTrek.com