Star Trek: Voyager, "Memorial"

Star Trek: Voyager, "Memorial." Allan Kroeker, director. Season 6, episode 14 (2 February 2000).[1]

An away mission passes a "structure [that] contains a synaptic transmitter, powerful enough to permeate the entire star system the planet is in with neurogenic pulses. These pulses transmit vivid visions of the Nakan massacre into the minds of anyone within range of the transmitter. Thus anyone who enters the system experiences the visions as if they were their own memories; they remember the massacre as if they participated in it."[2] Since the Memorial is very effective and/but induces something like PTSD, it is a vexed ethical question whether to leave it operating as its power decreases or shut it down and let the massacre dissolve into oblivion.[3]

Discussed briefly by Victor Grech in Feature 101, "Brain and Dualism in Star Trek," SFRA Review #304 (Spring 2013): p. 16.[4]

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Anyone disbelieving in the entropy of memory of massacres should consult Matthew White's list of "The 30 or so worst bloodlettings of the Twentieth Century" — on our small planet, so very recently; linked here.[5]

RDE, finishing, 7Jul21