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Star Trek: Voyager - Episode Guide - Season 7

Aside from the clear awareness on the part of the Star Trek: Voyager production team, what’s markedly different about season 7? The special effects, easily better and more gorgeous than any Star Trek iteration going into Discovery. Check out Voyager trawling the remnants of a destroyed Borg cube in “Imperfection” or nearly any exterior in “Inside Man” – here Voyager signals that this show has brought the franchise a long way from The Original Series.

The strengths of Voyager season 7 are hardly limited to looks, however. Despite a last-ditch attempt to foster an interpersonal relationship between Seven and Chakotay that features the least chemistry of any Star Trek couple since... well, since Neelix and Kes, really.

1. Unimatrix Zero, Part II – Apparently, Janeway, B’Elanna and Tuvok are able to stay cool and individual despite apparent assimilation because of magic drugs – until, oddly, Tuvok loses it temporarily. Naturally, everything else goes swimmingly accord to plan and dreams may somehow defeat the wussified Borg. **

2. Imperfection – Seven’s cortical implant begins to break down, thereby triggering a quick demise for the former drone. Until a possible donor steps forth… ***

3. Drive – In a very exciting and sadly underdeveloped idea, Paris gets wind of a local starcraft race and enters the Delta Flyer. With the buildup within the episode about as palpable as that within the show, how come this script doesn’t get to the race more quickly and why didn’t the director show us more? ***

4. Repression – A few Maquis Red Shirts are killed or apparently assaulted. Chakotay likewise goes into a coma (or so we’re told; sometimes it’s very difficult to tell). Tuvok and the Doctor take excruciatingly long to figure out what’s going on. **

5. Critical Care – The EMH as anarchist: A scammer steals Voyager’s EMH and sells him to a nearby hospital on an alien world which some twisted economic beliefs Satire, suspense, hospital-based drama, lots of Robert Picardo... what more do you want? ****

6. Inside Man – If you have managed to heretofore avoid synopses of this episode and are thus blissfully spoiler-free, you’ll dig on this one all the more. Here’s what we can tell you: A hologram of the indomitable Reg Barclay is transmitted to Voyager; the Barclay hologram is to help modify Voyager (with the latest in Starfleet™ technology!) so as to immediately get the ship back into the Delta Quadrant. Seven quickly becomes suspicious of the proposed technology involved in Reg’s plan; the twists and intriguing reveals snowball thereafter. ****

7. Body and Soul – On an away mission, Harry Kim, Seven and the Doctor are captured (imagine that), and the Doctor takes refuge “inside” Seven’s circuitry, thereby triggering the Brain Uploading trope . And for much of the episode, Jeri Ryan just kills it as EMH-inhabiting-Seven – very funny stuff. ****

8. Nightingale – Kim comes to the aid of a ship whose entire command crew has been wiped out; naturally all is Not As It Seems. The plot twists here are not quite enough to detract from the very predictable “Captain Kim” storyline. Plus, Neelix gets annoyingly shoehorned in here at an even greater level of toxicity than usual. ***

9-10. Flesh and Blood, Parts I and II – The Hirogen’s use of hologram technology has resulted in holographic prey capable of turning the tables on the hunters. The Doctor sympathizes with their plight and assists on their mission to find a new world to colonize, while Janeway must deal with the consequences of (let’s face it) another shaky decision. An okay story is well too stretched, and is anyone really buying the Doctor leaving Voyager? Also, what is up with B’Elanna’s continued racism (speciesism?) toward *holographic* Cardassians? ***

11. Shattered – Head trip for Chakotay … or it would be, if this character had the depth to freak out. Instead, when he finds himself in different time periods as he moves about Voyager, it’s an easily sussed non-problem. Interesting enough stuff for a bit of a “greatest hits” episode, and the pseudo-dream team earlier Janeway and current Chakotay assemble is fun. ****

12. Lineage – After this episode, can we finally acknowledge the dangerous stupidity that is B’Elanna Torres’s self-loathing? After finding out that she is pregnant, B’Elanna becomes obsessed with eradicating all traces of Klingon DNA from her unborn daughter. And just to prove this goes well beyond hormonal imbalance due to pregnancy, she psychotically reprograms the EMH to agree with her genetic manipulation plan. All this goes back to an ostensible childhood trauma that, while sad, hardly justifies the sudden wrought plea of victimization. Awful, just awful. 0

13. Repentance – A group of guards and prisoners are rescued from a crippled prison ship and are subsequently uneasily housed on Voyager. And then the Doctor discovers that at least one may be cured of his psychotic tendencies… ***

14. Prophecy – O, those kooky Klingons! Voyager happens upon a Klingon cruiser that has traveled for 70 years on a mission to find an afore-destined spiritual leader and/or a new homeworld. When said Klingons discover the presence of B’Elanna – a pregnant B’Elanna, no less – aboard Voyager, well, that’s clearly a sign and/or omen, right? ***

15. The Void – As in “Night,” Voyager enters an apparently boundless void. Unlike that other classic Voyager-in-emptiness story, however, Neelix does not lose his marbles, nor does Janeway get all pouty/depressed. Instead, Janeway manages to band together with various other ships who’ve also been sucked into the void. A decently paced story that defies its Beckettesque surroundings. ***

16. Workforce, Part I – Head trip for the audience: The WTFs come early and often, as Janeway, Tuvok, Paris, B’Elanna and Seven all occupy jobs in a blue-collar manufacturing district. Meanwhile, Chakotay, Kim and Neelix returned to find an empty ship piloted by the Emergency Command Hologram. (Yes!) ***

17. Workforce, Part II – Chakotay and Neelix pose as (un-brainwashed) workers to infiltrate the plant floor, and ultimately the fairly easily guessable antagonist’s motivation is revealed. (Sudden thoughts: When the entire Voyager crew was rounded up, did they get Naomi Wildman, too? Did they put her to work as well? Come to think of it, where the hell has Miss Wildman been for the past 1½ seasons, anyway?) ***

18. Human Error – What does Seven do on the Holodeck? Incredibly, she imagines everyday scenarios with crew members. Unfortunately, a dinner date with holographic Chakotay almost kills her. Also, Icheb comes around to drop a few quotes from classic thinkers. **

19. Q2 – Remember when Q wanted to, likesay, get with janeway to perpetuate the species and/or create a new leader for the Continuum? Well, the son he later had with another Q is her approximated as a human teen. Naturally, Q is all to willing to ditch junior with Janeway and the crew. Though the lad’s treachery is predictable, the plot machinations thereafter keep things interesting. And a decent enough sendoff for Q. ***

20. Author, Author – Yet another clever use of the holodeck by the Voyager folks which unfortunately shifts into an inexplicable “Measure of a Man” redux with the Doctor in the Data role and Tuvok serving as Picard. **** for the first half featuring the Doctor’s purple “prose” and Paris’s ingenious response; ** for the unsatisfying legal argument that’s founded in the Doctor suddenly acting oppressed and bitchy. Overall, then it’s a ***.

21. Friendship One – Tracking a 21st-century unmanned craft now in the Delta Quadrant leaders Voyager to a planet whose citizens blame Earth for their own destructive folly. ***

22. Natural Law – Chakotay and Seven crash land a shuttle (imagine that) nearby a group of Stone Age people. In the much more watchable subplot, Paris is busted for an orbital traffic violation in the Delta Flyer and is given a penalty of mandatory piloting lessons. Again, a split rating gets this episode a ***.

23. Homestead – Neelix departs Voyager about 168 episodes too late when a colony of Talaxians is found, and he decides to stay on with his compatriots. And o, hey, Naomi Wildman sighting! ***

24. Renaissance Man – Another straightforward, fast-moving script as aliens manipulate the Doctor into posing as various members of the crew as a means to stealing Voyager’s warp core technology. ***

25-26. Endgame – Like the great majority of the Star Trek: Voyager series throughout its run, the ending of it all is so very muted, the stakes set lower and the victory smaller. Set some 10 years after Voyager’s return to Earth, 33 years after its diverted maiden voyage, Admiral Janeway conceives of a way to change the past and return the ship home 26 years more quickly (and also nullify Noami Wildman’s daughter’s existence, apparently). At least we get a penultimate dalliance with the Borg – and resolution, rushed though it is. ***

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Star Trek: Voyager – Flesh and Blood, Part II (Review)

In its seventh season,  Star Trek: Voyager gets nostalgic.

It happens naturally when long-running shows begin the process of wrapping up. It is inevitable that the production team will look back with affection and sincerity towards the early years of their shared adventures. The seventh season of  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine even made a number of strange callbacks to the first season. Chimera offered a very late-in-the-game return to “the hundred” , the Founders that were sent out into the void like Odo had been. What You Leave Behind featured Sisko fulfilling the task for which he has been chosen in Emissary .

“Star Trek was never about shooting stuff with big guns,” argue a certain strand of modern Star Trek fans.

That nostalgia simmers and bubbles through  Flesh and Blood, Part I and  Flesh and Blood, Part II . However, there’s a sense that Flesh and Blood, Part I and  Flesh and Blood, Part II don’t quite understand what they are evoking. Flesh and Blood, Part I and  Flesh and Blood, Part II hark back to the earliest seasons of Voyager in a number of surprising ways, providing a neat bookend to some of the core anxieties that have been bubbling through the series since Caretaker .

Unfortunately,  Flesh and Blood, Part I and  Flesh and Blood, Part II seem to be doing this almost unconsciously. This is not an exorcism or an exploration, but an unexpected repetition.  Voyager is still haunted by memories of the show’s turbulent early years, and it is clear that Voyager has no better understanding of itself now than it did then. The result is deeply unsatisfying and frustrating.

East of Iden.

The Kazon cast a long shadow. They were introduced as the major new antagonists in the first season of Voyager , foregrounded over the more intriguing Vidiians. Under Michael Piller, Voyager was obsessed with the Kazon. They formed the spine of the series’ most obvious long-form arc, culminating in their hijacking of the ship in Basics, Part I and Basics, Part II . However, the Kazon simply never worked, no matter how hard Michael Piller tried. It seems likely that Piller’s fixation on the Kazon was a significant part of the internal politics that forced him out of the writers’ room.

Later seasons of Voyager would openly mock the very idea of the Kazon as a credible threat. In Living Witness , a fictionalised version of Janeway had apparently easily subjugated the Kazon and turned them into her shock troops. In Mortal Coil , Seven of Nine revealed that the Borg Collective actually declined to assimilate the Kazon because they were so useless. This is from the writing staff. Star Trek fans hated the Kazon. Screen Rant , Topless Robot and io9 rank the Kazon among the franchise’s worst villains.

“What fresh Planet Hell is this?”

Why did Piller keep coming back to the Kazon? What was their siren call to the showrunner? What did the Kazon offer that was worth all of that mockery and derision? The answer is very clear. The Kazon offered an allegory for slave rebellion. During the second season, Voyager developed the history and culture of the Kazon in episodes like Initiations , Manoeuvres and Alliances . The Kazon were a race that had been kept in slavery by the Trabe. After years of abuse, the Kazon rebelled and overthrew their masters. The result was chaos and horror.

The awkward racial subtext did not stop there. Early production documents identified the Kazon as the “Bloods” and the “Crips” , using the nomenclature of Los Angeles gangs. As such, the Kazon effectively served as a gigantic metaphor for the racial and social anxieties running through Los Angeles in the nineties. It is no surprise that the Kazon were catastrophic, doomed from the outset. They were little more than a collection of hyper-racialised fears about minorities within the United States.

Let’s Tuvok and roll.

Voyager has mostly moved beyond the Kazon, barring the weird nostalgia of Shattered . However, that anxiety is still present simmering in the background. In its final season, Voyager returns to that narrative of slave revolt, this time in the context of holograms rather than organic beings. As Robert Picardo summarised the plot of the episode to Cinefantastique :

The two-parter, Flesh and Blood, was quite exciting. I had the opportunity to work with my good friend Jeff Yagher. That was a special bonus. I was flattered that they hung a two-hour movie on the Doctor’s character. I thought it dealt with some very interesting entitlement issues for holograms, and of course, by science fiction allegory, to any oppressed group of individuals.

Flesh and Blood, Part I and  Flesh and Blood, Part II are very overtly about a group of holographic projections that become self-aware and so respond by rebelling against their oppressors. It is recognisably the same origin story that the Kazon had during the first two seasons, albeit playing out on screen rather than as a background detail.

They haven’t a prayer.

To be fair, the idea of a holographic slave rebellion has been bubbling in the background for quite some time. It can arguably trace its roots back to the portrayal of the holodeck in Star Trek: The Next Generation , where early episodes suggested that the technology could generate increasingly self-aware organisms. In The Big Goodbye , McNary wonders what will happen to him when Picard turns off the holodeck. In 11001001 , Riker flirts with a hologram so real that he is genuinely attracted to her. In Elementary, Dear Data , Geordi inadvertently creates a hologram smart enough to outwit Data.

Voyager doubled down on this by introducing a holographic main character, in the form of the EMH. More than that, early episodes like Eye of the Needle focused on the crew’s tendency to treat the character like a tool rather than an individual, meaning that a lot of Voyager was built around the EMH seeking recognition of his basic rights and freedoms. Episodes like Latent Image and even Equinox, Part II presented the manipulation of the EMH’s code as profoundly personal violations of his basic integrity and autonomy.

The spikey ball is in their court.

It was only logical that Voyager would have to confront the EMH’s personhood, much like The Next Generation had done with Data in The Measure of a Man . Michele Barrett predicted as much in Imagination in Theory: Culture, Writing, Words, and Things , published in 1999:

Star Trek: Voyager poses the human question around a character who is a hologram – the emergency medical programme – another figure whose popularity is growing. His attempts to build human experiences, attributes, senses and feelings into his subroutines are often disastroug, but there is no doubt that his progress in a humanising direction moves the debate forward. I fully expect an episode reprising The Measure of a Man in which the hologram’s claims to sentience, and hence rights, are aired.

Barrett’s prediction would be vindicated later in the seventh season with Author, Author . However, it is revealing that Voyager had signposted the inevitability of such an episode so thoroughly. For a long-running series that largely avoided story arcs and continuity, that was quite an accomplishment.

A Cardassian-carrying villain.

Even if the EMH’s arc in Voyager might be said to mirror that of Data in The Next Generation , the story of an artificial person developing into a fully-formed individual, there is one appreciable difference. Encounter at Farpoint worked hard to establish Data as unique in the universe, later developments like Datalore and Star Trek: Nemesis notwithstanding. While Data (and the rest of the crew) would occasionally encounter artificial lifeforms moving towards sentience in stories like Evolution , The Quality of Life and Emergence , Data was not really the standard bearer for an entire race of such organisms.

In contrast, the EMH is not unique. Even in terms of his specific programme, the EMH is a standard piece of software running on most modern Starfleet vessels, as demonstrated by Star Trek: First Contact . More than that, the programme has been developed and expanded, allowing for other simulations of other doctors in episodes like Doctor Bashir, I Presume and Message in a Bottle . Even when Life Line revealed that the original EMH was considered a failure, the holograms were not decompiled, but instead kept around to execute manual labour. ( Author, Author even ends with a scene focusing on these labourers.)

Organic character development.

In a broader sense, holograms are incredibly common. Ignoring the episodes focusing specifically on the sentience of these computer simulations, Voyager treats holograms as a simple fact of life. In Distant Origin , Professor Gegen uses holographic technology to model his theories about the evolution of the Voth. In Living Witness , the Kyrians and the Vaskans bring history to life through holographic simulations. In Nothing Human , the EMH is able to create a holographic facsimile of Doctor Crell Moset to help him save the life of B’Elanna Torres.

However, Voyager has returned repeatedly to the idea that the self-awareness demonstrated by the EMH is not some unique fluke of circumstance and chance. In this respect, Voyager is building off its sibling series. Although Deep Space Nine was never especially interested in stories about the sentience of artificial persons, episodes like His Way and It’s Only a Paper Moon suggested that holographic lounge singer Vic Fontaine might be sentient. That said, Voyager added a unique wrinkle to this set-up by focusing on the idea that the self-awareness of these organisms would inevitably lead to violence.

Engineering a solution.

This is most obvious in terms of the fourth season episode Revulsion , in which the EMH and Torres encounter a hologram that has been abused by his crew. Dejaren responded by brutally murdering his abusers. While Revulsion was more interested in repurposing a serial killer thriller for the twenty-fourth century, it set the tone for later stories about holograms achieving self-awareness. Although Body and Soul was actually filmed after this two-parter, it sets up the themes that are developed in Flesh and Blood, Part I and Flesh and Blood, Part II , even allowing for a rare piece of continuity where the EMH mentions the Lokirrim.

This is a familiar science-fiction trope, the idea of a machine revolution. The narrative can take many forms, but is a staple of the genre. Sometimes humanity faces robots, sometimes they face disembodied artificial intelligences. There are any number of hugely influential pieces of popular culture built around the concept; Terminator , Battlestar Galactica , The Matrix , even Solo: A Star Wars Story . In fact, there is no small anxiety about the concept in the real world , as computer technology and programming rapidly advances .

A really Beta blocker.

However, these stories are not just about the future. They are also about the past. After all, stories about robot revolutions are also steeped in the iconography and cultural memory of slave rebellions. As Kevin LaGrandeur noted in The Persistent Peril of the Artificial Slave :

Robots were created to perform the same jobs as slaves—jobs that are dirty, dangerous, or monotonous—thereby freeing their owners to pursue more lofty and comfortable pursuits. In fact, as Timothy Lenoir notes, the whole field of cybernetics, which includes not just robots but also computer-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, cyborgs, and androids, “was envisioned by scientists and engineers such as Norbert Wiener, Warren McCulloch, and their colleagues at the Macy Conferences [in the 1950s] as a way to maximize human potential in a chaotic and unpredictable postwar world. They wanted to ensure a position of mastery and control removed from the noise and chaos.”

Robots perform menial manual labour, often either making life easier for the upper classes or serving large corporations. They decrease the cost of production and increase the financial rewards to the businesses operating them. Once self-awareness is thrown into the discussion, comparisons to slavery are inevitable.

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give Iden.”

The original Star Trek tended to treat stories about artificial intelligences as an opportunity to explore sixties anxieties about automation and mechanisation. Episodes like What Are Little Girls Made Of? ,  I, Mudd or The Ultimate Computer were largely unconcerned with the rights of these artificial organisms. Instead, these creatures were presented as unambiguous threats, reflecting the contemporary uncertainty of a country where advances in robotics and computer science were eroding manual jobs.

In contrast, The Next Generation was more engaged with the philosophical subtext of stories about artificial people. The Measure of a Man hinged on a sequence in which Guinan explained to Picard that allowing the Federation to mass-produce androids like Data would create “whole generations of disposable people.” Picard correctly recognised this prospect as “slavery” , admitting that it was “a truth we have obscured behind a comfortable, easy euphemism.”  Data would make similar arguments about the Exocomps in The Quality of Life .

A tactical retreat.

Even outside of Star Trek , this central and enduring metaphor has long been intertwined with narratives about artificial beings. As Erik Sofge explains, it dates back to the earliest “robot” stories :

This isn’t a bold or incendiary interpretation. Karel Capek’s 1920 play, R.U.R., introduced the term “robot” to describe the biological workers built and sold by the Rossum’s Universal Robots company. These robots stage a global uprising, choosing to annihilate their human creators, instead of fighting for equality or independence. The concept was arguably more surprising in the 1920’s, when the machine uprising trope hadn’t permeated pop culture. But whatever role R.U.R. had in kickstarting that tradition, it may have been simply borrowing general themes from older stories, and fictional robots by another name. From the Golem of Jewish myth to Frankenstein’s hyper-intelligent, lab-birthed monster, there seems to be a built-in assumption that artificial intelligence will lash out. Starting with R.U.R., though, the modern robot story has became a narrower brand of cautionary tale. The ones that we remember, that stand as classics—or cult classics, at the very least—are almost universally stories of slave revolts.

In this context, it should be noted that, even when grappling with questions of identity and autonomy, The Next Generation largely steered clear of narratives about revolution, perhaps cognisant to the minefield that it would be navigating.

In the neck of time.

However, Voyager seems inexorably drawn towards the narrative of a revolution. In its own weird way, Iden’s rebellion in Flesh and Blood, Part I and Flesh and Blood, Part II marks a return to the earlier seasons’ preoccupation with the Kazon. There is no small irony in this, given both the contempt with which Voyager views those earlier Kazon stories and the fact that the Hirogen seem to have been designed as a “new and improved” take on the basic concept of the Kazon. The return to a slave revolt narrative in the final season provides an unlikely book-end back to the first and second seasons.

There is a very clear reason for this. Like most art, Voyager is a product of its time and place. Voyager cannot be separated from the context in which it was produced and broadcast. The series is rooted in nineties Los Angeles, to the point that the crew even get to explore it in Future’s End, Part I and Future’s End, Part II . These nineties influences are reflected in a number of ways, most obviously in the strange “end of history” aesthetic that infuses stories like Relativity . However, they also inform a lot of the show’s politics in unfortunate and uncomfortable manner.

Everything is ship-shape.

The reason that Voyager is so interested in slave revolts can most likely be traced back to the trauma of the Los Angeles Riots of 1992, which also likely influenced the portrayal of the Kazon as gang members. The Los Angeles Riots happened following the acquittal of four police officers who were caught on camera beating an African American motorist. Within three hours of the verdict, Los Angeles was burning . The riots affected more than one thousand buildings in the city, with property damage was estimated at approximately one billion dollars . Sixty-three people died .

The Los Angeles Riots were inevitably racially coded. The violence was a result of decades of abuse and denegration of the African American community by the Los Angeles Police Department, to the point that officers openly used racist language in referring to the minorities living in South Central Los Angeles . The footage of white trucker Reginald Denny being pulled from his tractor trailer and beaten become one of the enduring images of urban unrest . White pedestrians and motorists were threatened by African Americans . White reporters were reportedly “physically challenged” while covering the crisis.

The warrior responds, “I am the storm.”

Media coverage of the Los Angeles Riots made a point to contextualise this violence as part of a broader pattern of racially-motivated brutality in American history. Carvell Wallace described the riots as an inevitable result of “a crooked justice system that echoes the brutality of slave catchers and overseers.” Greg Tate contended :

The smoke and billowing flames from South-Central Los Angeles crept as far north as Hollywood during the Rodney King riots, dubbed by street-corner pundits the “L.A. slave rebellion of 1992.” An all-white jury in Simi Valley, California, had exonerated four white cops for the brutal beat-down of Rodney King, an unarmed African-American motorist. It had been filmed and seen around the world – most notably in the same Southern Cali hoods that didn’t need a translator to rally behind N.W.A’S “F$!k Tha Police” – yet once again, white authority was given a pass for racially motivated violence. The people took to the streets and began to destroy everything within reach.

Writing at the time, Jack Miles found it impossible to separate the violence of the riots from the long history of racial oppression in the United States, arguing, “This is what slavery has done to us as a people, and I can scarcely think of it without tears.” Rodney King observed that the beating that he received “made [him] feel like [he] was back in slavery days.”

Viva la revolution!

With all of this in mind, it makes sense that Voyager would be preoccupied with the idea of slave revolt. Many members of the production team had lived in Los Angeles for years, and had witnessed the city tearing itself apart. The riots shaped and defined Los Angeles, profoundly changing it in ways that are difficult to quantify. Even Deep Space Nine was arguably influenced by this civil unrest; the characterisation of the Jem’Hadar child in The Abandoned was coded in uncomfortably racial stereotypes, an angry young man genetically predisposed towards violence.

Indeed, the Jem’Hadar on Deep Space Nine were also coded as slaves, like the Kazon and the Hirogen holograms. Like the Kazon and the Hirogen holograms, the Jem’Hadar were often explored through this prism. Deep Space Nine acknowledged some of the same anxieties that ripple through Voyager , but ultimately argued for a humanist and compassionate approach. In Hippocratic Oath , O’Brien and Bashir argue over the morality of freeing the Jem’Hadar from their bondage. O’Brien worries about what they might do with their freedom. Bashir believes it is the right thing to do. Bashir is ultimately vindicated.

Shaking things up.

Science-fiction offers an effective prism through which these anxieties might be explored. As Albert Einstein argued, so much of the turbulent racial history in the United States was rooted in the fact that slavery had conditioned so much of American society to see black people as inherently less than human :

Your ancestors dragged these black people from their homes by force; and in the white man’s quest for wealth and an easy life they have been ruthlessly suppressed and exploited, degraded into slavery. The modern prejudice against Negroes is the result of the desire to maintain this unworthy condition. The ancient Greeks also had slaves. They were not Negroes but white men who had been taken captive in war. There could be no talk of racial differences. And yet Aristotle, one of the great Greek philosophers, declared slaves inferior beings who were justly subdued and deprived of their liberty. It is clear that he was enmeshed in a traditional prejudice from which, despite his extraordinary intellect, he could not free himself.

Science-fiction offers storytellers the chance to literalise these thought experiments, confronting audiences with literal non-humans advocating for their own freedom and autonomy; the apes in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes , the robots in  I, Robot .

Tom has to navigate a delicate work place conversation.

The metaphors can be problematic, of course. There is a clumsiness in using animals or robots as metaphors for the real struggles of oppressed people. At its most benign, it is still a form of  “othering” that plays into the idea of oppressed groups as inherently inhuman, even to subvert or explore that. It can also muddle the metaphor somewhat, with movies like  X-Men and  Zootopia presenting allegories for racism in which anxieties about a particular group make more sense than they would in the real world. It also tends to erase the very real and tangible roots of oppression by brushing aside the history of oppression.

The Kazon were a terrible metaphor, cloaked in racial stereotypes. The early seasons of Voyager presented the Kazon as savage and violent. In Caretaker , they were introduced to serve the function of Native Americans in old western stories; a menacing, primitive, and aggressive culture that even victimised a young white woman, Kes. As the name implied, Initiations portrayed the Kazon as a broad collection of racial stereotypes about street gangs. The Kazon were at once untrustworthy but also unintelligent; State of Flux treated their attempts to hijack Starfleet technology as pitiable rather than threatening.

Friend or photon?

Nevertheless, these metaphors can work if handled well. There is an extent to which the holograms in Voyager work as a perfect metaphor for how slave owners see their slaves, as functions rather than people. Holograms are designed for a specific purpose, to fill a particular role; the EMH is a medic, Dejaran is a cleaner, Iden is entertainment. They do not have any life outside of that; the EMH does not have a name, Dejaran does not need to sleep, Iden does not need to eat. The holograms can literally be turned off whenever they are not serving their purpose, ensuring that they simple do not exist when not fulfilling their function.

The fact that the holograms present a slave owner’s perspective on slavery hints at the big issues with how Voyager approaches these sorts of narratives. Very simply, there is only one moral response to to slavery. Hippocratic Oath understood this; one can acknowledge the risks and dangers of freeing an entire population that have known nothing but violence and brutality, as O’Brien does, but the right answer is always to free them nonetheless, as Bashir attempts to do. Any other response to slavery is unforgivable.

Fleshing the issue out.

Voyager seems more concerned with the inconvenience of ending slavery than with the horror of perpetuating it. After all, Janeway got along a lot easier with the Trabe than the Kazon in Alliances , treating the Trabe like honoured dignitaries and toasting them with champagne while she had always regarded the Kazon with contempt. Although Voyager eventually condemned the Trabe as untrustworthy, it was never as instinctively as the series had dismissed the Kazon. Indeed, the first two seasons seemed to imply that the Kazon slave revolt had been one of the worst things to happen to the larger Delta Quadrant.

This is particularly obvious with Flesh and Blood, Part I and  Flesh and Blood, Part II . The two-parter is nominally the story of a group of holograms that become self-aware and rebel against the Kazon. They hijack a Kazon ship and set about liberating other holograms from oppression. Although they are willing to kill in order to do so, they just want to live free. This seems almost reasonable, particularly given the Hirogen’s refusal to acknowledge their autonomy or even to engage in a dialogue with this new species.

Gotta have faith.

Flesh and Blood, Part I and  Flesh and Blood, Part II are coded in terms of slave narratives, particularly older ones. The notion of a subjugated people forced to fight and die for the amusement of their masters recalls stories like Spartacus . Iden’s plan to lead his people towards a promised land recalls Moses’ hopes to lead the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt and towards the Promised Land in The Book of Exodus . He tells the EMH, “We call this planet Ha’Dara. It’s Bajoran for home of light.”

Several other beats in Flesh and Blood, Part I and  Flesh and Blood, Part II recall the familiar slave narratives. Iden chooses a new name for Kejal, one drawn from the language of his own people rather than a name that her masters imposed on her. “If my translation database is functioning properly, I believe that means ‘freedom’,” the EMH offers. (It should be noted that names based on “freedom” tend to be popular among oppressed groups following freedom from their oppressors. “Saoirse” is Irish for “freedom” , and was popular in the twenties after the nation achieved independence .)

Beaming with violent enthusiasm.

The big issues with Flesh and Blood, Part I and  Flesh and Blood, Part II is that it decides to cast Iden and his holograms as the villains of the episode. As Robert Picardo explained :

“Their leader, who starts out as a very charismatic and sympathetic character, becomes progressively more megalomaniacal,” Picardo states. “That part is played by a very dear friend of mine, Jeff Yagher, who did a really great job. When I first read it, I thought of cult leaders, David Koresh or possibly Jim Jones. I was surprised to speak to one of the writers on our staff who said that he was really using Castro and what’s happened to the Cuban revolution as his model for this. He had lofty ideals, but what happened subsequently perverted those ideals.”

This is a very ill-judged decision which massively undercuts the episode. It is especially obvious towards the climax of the story, when Iden devolves into a cackling sociopath with a slipping grip on reality.

Facing up to reality.

There are a number of surrounding factors that contribute to this issue. The most obvious is the decision to keep Iden entirely separate from Janeway. The only regular cast members who interact with Iden are the EMH and Torres. This means that Iden is never granted any real legitimacy as a political or social leader. He is never allowed to argue his case to Janeway as an equal. Janeway only ever sees Iden as a threat to be hunted, rather than as a party with which she might negotiate.

The secondary issue is that, although Flesh and Blood, Part I and  Flesh and Blood, Part II mark the return of the Hirogen to Voyager for the first time since The Killing Game, Part I and The Killing Game, Part II , the only named Hirogen character in the script is Donik. Although Flesh and Blood, Part I and  Flesh and Blood, Part II feature the Hirogen hunting down Iden, none of the hunters are ever properly developed into fully-formed characters. Beyond Donik, the most prominent Hirogen character is the Beta, played by Paul Eckstein. Eckstein also played a Hirogen in The Killing Game, Part I and The Killing Game, Part II .

More like villain-gen, am I right?

Flesh and Blood, Part I features a Hirogen Alpha played by veteran Star Trek guest star Vaughn Armstrong. He is promptly killed off, and his place is taken by the Beta. In Flesh and Blood, Part II , another Beta is introduced, played by Michael Wiseman in order to ensure that there are two relatively prominent Hirogen characters around at any given moment to provide exposition. The second Alpha is mildly more antagonistic towards Janeway than his direct predecessor, but none of the Hirogen are given any defining character traits. Indeed, wearing the Hirogen makeup, it can be difficult to distinguish them at points.

To be fair, these factors did not prevent earlier Voyager episodes from developing Hirogen characters. The anonymous Hirogen Alpha in Prey remains one of the series’ most compelling guest characters, in large part due to a (literally) towering performance from recurring Star Trek guest star Tony Todd. The plot point of a reasonable Hirogen Alpha replaced by a more militant Hirogen Beta is lifted directly from The Killing Game, Part I and The Killing Game, Part II , but it worked there because time was taken to properly develop the characters in question.

The Hirogen are merely passengers in Flesh and Blood, Part I and  Flesh and Blood, Part II . They are a plot obstacle for Janeway rather than actors with any real agency within in the plot. Indeed, it frequently seems like the Hirogen are so stupid that Janeway has a moral obligation to save them from themselves. It is very much in keeping with how episodes like State of Flux or The Omega Directive portray Voyager’s moral responsibility to the Delta Quadrant: to keep advanced, potentially society-altering technology out of the hands of cultures too primitive and stupid to use it properly .

As a result Flesh and Blood, Part I and  Flesh and Blood, Part II don’t portray the Hirogen as villains. In fact, Flesh and Blood, Part I and  Flesh and Blood, Part II never portray the Hirogen as responsible for their actions. More than that, the episode assumes a great deal of sympathy for the Hirogen because they happen to be organic rather than photonic. At the climax of the episode, the Hirogen chase down Iden despite his repeated warnings, and Iden proceeds to stage a massacre on the planet surface. Janeway is horrified by this, and the EMH actively intervenes to stop it.

“I Donik know what you’re talking about.”

This makes sense. After all, Iden’s actions are explicitly monstrous. The hunting of sentient life forms for amusement is a barbaric activity, and certainly the worst possible foundation for the utopian society that Iden wants to build. However, Flesh and Blood, Part I and  Flesh and Blood, Part II never actually acknowledges that the Hirogen do this all the time . This is the defining trait of the Hirogen as a species; they are “big game hunters” who hunt “the most dangerous game.” Even if one doesn’t see the holograms as alive, the Hirogen way of life is built around merciless tracking and murdering sentient life forms.

Flesh and Blood, Part I and  Flesh and Blood, Part II never grapple with the sheer scale of the horror that the Hirogen have inflicted upon the holograms. Flesh and Blood, Part I comes closest, perhaps reflecting Bryan Fuller’s strengths as a writer. When the EMH asks why the holograms can feel pain, Kejal explains, “Apparently, there’s no satisfaction in hunting something that doesn’t suffer when you kill it.” Later on, Iden subjects the EMH to a simulated hunt so that he might understand what the holographic crew have endured.

Don’t get mad, get (S)even.

However, even these sequences exist at a remove from the sequences involving the Hirogen. When Chakotay leads the away team to the holographic facility in Flesh and Blood, Part I , the striking cut-to-commercials image is of all the dead Hirogen. There is no similar tally of the prey that those Hirogen hunted. Similarly, the survivors of Iden’s ambush are portrayed as victims. They are treated in sickbay and lie in beds in the mess hall, in a manner that evokes other episodes dwelling on the hardship that the Voyager crew have experienced; Before and After , Year of Hell, Part I and Year of Hell, Part II .

However, while Flesh and Blood, Part I and  Flesh and Blood, Part II refuse to hold the Hirogen accountable in any meaningful way for the suffering that they have caused, the episodes make a conscious effort to vilify Iden and his crew. There is a conscious shift between Flesh and Blood, Part I and  Flesh and Blood, Part II . Flesh and Blood, Part I portrays Iden as reasonable and even-handed. When the EMH finds Iden at a shrine, he wonders why the Bajoran is praying. “For the Hirogen who died at the training facility,” Iden explains. “I’m asking the prophets to guide their souls to the Celestial Temple.”

Insane in the mainframe.

In an interview with Cinefantastique , writer Bryan Fuller creditted showrunner Kenneth Biller with Iden’s descent into insanity over the course of the two-parter:

Jack Monaco pitched a story that was basically that very clean, clear, simple concept of the holograms being oppressed and fighting back against their oppressors. When I sat down and wrote Flesh and Blood, Part I, I was looking for a way to make [Iden] more interesting. I thought, “Let’s make him a religious guy.” He’s Bajoran, he would certainly be programmed with Bajoran spirituality. How would that apply to him as a hologram, and how could you take that into terms of megalomania? Ken had the idea of this being kind of a Castro situation, where you have this vibrant, aggressive leader who initially has very good intentions, but his ego got in the way.

This makes sense. Fuller wrote Flesh and Blood, Part I . Biller co-wrote Flesh and Blood, Part II .

Meauring how spaced out Iden has become, Janeway had to resort to astrometrics.

Flesh and Blood, Part I makes it clear that Iden is an unapologetic killer. However, it is also clear that he is acting against an enemy that will not even acknowledge his personhood, let alone his right to exist. “It’s difficult to make peace with people whose sole purpose is to kill you,” he explains to the EMH. Iden is also an effective military strategist, luring the Hirogen into an ambush and crippling them. There are echoes of the manner in which Fuller’s first  Star Trek story, The Darkness and the Light , approached that Bajoran Resistance. Iden undoubtedly believes that all Hirogen are  “legitimate targets.”

Flesh and Blood, Part I suggests that Iden is a complicated figure. He is violent, but that is a product of both his programming and of his experiences. After all, it seems likely any member of the Bajoran militia would have lived through the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor, and Iden is defined as shaped by his Bajoran heritage; he names both his Cardassian colleague and his planned home in Bajor, and still prays to the Prophets. Flesh and Blood, Part I suggests an equivalence between the terrorism committed by characters like Kira Nerys and Shakaar Edon and the violence committed by Iden.

“Hey, terrorist. Terrorise this.”

However, Flesh and Blood, Part II very quickly erases any hint of ambiguity or nuance to Iden’s character, quickly revealing him to be a manipulative megalomaniac with a sadistic streak. He admits to creating a new fate built around himself, explaining to the EMH, “In the dark times, we were enslaved by men of flesh, But then another man, a man of light arose and slew the mighty Alpha. He gathered his people unto him and delivered them to freedom.” Iden is positioning himself as the messiah of his own religion. Later, he and Weiss take sadistic glee in murdering the Hirogen that had tormented them.

Flesh and Blood, Part II has Iden cross the moral rubicon with the murder of a Nuu’bari trader. It is a scene that exists for little reason except to confirm to the audience that Iden is the villain of the piece. After all, the sequence adds little of value to the narrative. Iden is fleeing the Hirogen and trying to find his own quiet corner of the universe. Entering a confrontation with another alien species during that journey is a potentially risky endeavour for the holograms with minimal potential benefit.

A blank slate.

The confrontation with the Nuu’bari exists primarily so that Flesh and Blood, Part II can argue that Iden is a villain through and through. Indeed, the anonymous Nuu’bari trader is introduced as a jovial and polite individual ( “good day to you!” ) so as to render Iden’s murder particularly unconscionable. The murder is then revealed to be pointless as the Nuu’bari holograms are completely incapable of higher reasoning. “They were only programmed with about forty rudimentary subroutines,” Torres argues. “You killed two living beings to liberate mindless machines.”

It is a strange narrative choice, in that it suggests that Iden’s rebellion is fundamentally unreasonable because it is possible to create holograms that do not meet the definition of sentience. It effectively lets the Hirogen and the Lokirrim off the hook, by suggesting an equivalence between holograms like Iden and holograms like the three projections taken from the Nuu’bari ship. The episode seems to ask how people could possibly tell the difference, and to imply that the existence of rudimentary holograms validates the slavery of self-aware ones.

A sin of emission.

To be fair, there is a debate to be had about how sentience and self-awareness is defined. There is an argument to be made that certain holograms can be operated without constituting slavery. However, Flesh and Blood, Part I and Flesh and Blood, Part II are not interested in having those discussions. There is no doubt that the EMH is self-aware. There is no question that Iden and the other holograms on the ship have been kept in slavery and subjected to inhumane treatment. The introduction of the rudimentary holograms exists primarily to invalidate Iden’s point.

It is very revealing how Flesh and Blood, Part II begins to hint at Iden’s instability and villainy. His descent into megalomania is awkwardly foreshadowed in an earlier conversation with the EMH when he suggests that the holograms should develop their own culture rather than simply importing culture from the races that inspired them. The EMH offers, “You know, I’m something of an expert on Alpha Quadrant art. Verdi, da Vinci, T’Leel of Vulcan…” Iden cuts him off, “You’re talking about organic cultures.” The EMH replies, “Well, yes, I suppose.”

“I don’t like to say I told you so, Doctor, but…”

There is something very reactionary in the way that the scene is played, as if to suggest that Iden is the real racist. Sure, Iden has been hunted and tortured over and over again, but Flesh and Blood, Part II suggests that Iden is being unreasonable because he has decided that the holographic people should not “emulate [their] oppressors.” Of course, this is fairly reasonable point to make, and a valid perspective to have given the circumstances, but Flesh and Blood, Part II frames it as a stepping stone to Iden’s messianic delusions.

This is in keeping with a broader subtext running through Flesh and Blood, Part I and Flesh and Blood, Part II . Iden is portrayed as a dangerous influence on the EMH because he dares to suggest that the EMH should identify as a hologram, and acknowledge the differences that exist between him and the rest of the crew. Iden’s opening greeting to the EMH is, “Welcome aboard, Doctor. There’s nothing to be afraid of. You’re among your own kind now.” He later warns the EMH, “They’re not your people. We are.”

Hey, it’s a Weiss Guy.

This bond effectively leads the EMH to betray Voyager, allowing Iden to cripple the ship. Janeway is horrified. “I can accept that the Doctor has sympathy for these people,” Janeway observes. “But I can’t accept that he would deliberately risk the lives of this entire crew. We’re his family.” Chakotay responds, “Maybe that’s how he’s started to think of these holograms.” The EMH later tells Torres, “We share a common heritage. I understand them in ways you never could.”  Iden is stirring up dissent where non exists.

Indeed, the larger arc of Flesh and Blood, Part I and Flesh and Blood, Part II is about the EMH being tempted by Iden’s radicalisation and eventually rejecting it, coming to realise that he has been treated rather well on Voyager and that he is a member of the crew first and foremost. Flesh and Blood, Part II ends with the EMH being sent to the surface of the planet and hunting Iden down in the same way that the Hirogen used to hunt him. (And, to be fair, in the same way that Iden is hunting the Hirogen.)

Deflecting the point.

Again, this is very nineties way of looking at race relations, rooted in the notion of “colour blindness.” The Voyager crew treat the EMH as one of them, and do not see him as anything special or unique, so the EMH’s embrace of his identity as a hologram is seen as a betrayal and a challenge. Ashley W. Doane, Jr. argued in White Identity and Race Relations in the 1990s :

The white tendency not to think about race often results in strong negative reactions when issues of race are raised by peoples of color. The attitude “I don’t think about race, so why should others?” may lead whites to conclude that those who are conscious of race are “racist” because they are violating the ideal of a “colourblind” society. What is meant by the idea of a “colorblind” society? While it could refer to a non-stratified society (at least on the basis of race) in which all groups have equal rights and opportunities and receive equal treatment, the picture of a colorblind society for many whites is one in which nobody is different (from the white norm) and race is not a topic of conversation. From this perspective, peoples of color who seek to retain a distinctive identity, to have their experiences and cultural understandings included in the larger “American” culture (i.e., multiculturalism), or to make group claims for a reallocation of society’s resources are viewed as divisive, “politically correct,” or seeking special treatment. In other words, the effect of white colorblindness is to make it difficult even to discuss race and to preclude change by creating a context where race-based claims are automatically defined as invalid.

Even before his messianic complex and his murderous impulses come into play in Flesh and Blood, Part II , Iden is presented as dangerous for even daring to broach the idea that the EMH might – on some level – be fundamentally different than any other crew member on Voyager and that it might be important for holograms to develop their own set of cultural values distinct from their oppressors.

Of course, this is very much in keeping with how Voyager sees the universe. Deep Space Nine was a show engaged with the idea of multiculturalism. Sure, Worf might push at the boundaries of it in episodes like Sons of Mogh and Laas discovered its limitations in Chimera , but – by and large – the characters on Deep Space Nine were afforded the freedom to live life in their own ways. Kira could worship the Prophets, if she wanted. Quark could operate a bar for profit, if he wanted. Indeed, following The Search, Part I and The Search, Part II , Sisko became more confident in exploring his African and Creole heritage.

In contrast, Voyager is a lot more inherently wary of difference. After all, the Maquis were all wearing Starfleet uniforms by the end of Caretaker . Episodes like Learning Curve and Good Shepherd acknowledged that individuals might not be ideally suited to serving on a military vessel in Voyager’s situation, but insisted that the proper response was simply for them to try harder . Chakotay’s Native American heritage was kept largely generic in the first few seasons, used as a party trick for the entertainment of others in The Cloud , explained as extraterrestrial in Tattoo , and largely forgotten in later seasons.

This is reflected in the context of the EMH. Repeatedly, the EMH’s journey towards personhood is framed in terms of sharing the experiences of his organic (and mostly human) crew mates. This is most notable in episodes like Real Life , in which the character simulates a very conservative version of family life for himself. In contrast, when the EMH tries to embrace his holographic nature, such as his efforts to directly alter his holomatrix in episodes like Darkling or his attempts to write daydreaming subroutines in Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy , the results tend to be portrayed as disastrous.

Again, this is in contrast to Deep Space Nine , which tended to celebrate the rituals and traditions of other cultures. Jadzia came to terms with her status as host to the Dax symbiote by observing the zhian’tara ritual in Facets . Bashir and Leeta broke up according to Bajoran custom in Let He Who Is Without Sin… Kira Nerys observed the deathbed confessions of Tekeny Ghemor as part of the Cardassian s hri-tal ritual in Ties of Blood and Water . It is telling that the closest that Voyager came to adopting this approach was with Torres in Barge of the Dead , an episode written by Ronald D. Moore and Bryan Fuller.

“How can you have identity politics? You don’t even have a name!”

As with a lot of Voyager , there are hints of larger cultural debates looming on the horizon. That nineties insistence on “colourblindness” foreshadowed a twenty-first century anxiety about “identity politics.” Indeed, there is a strong school of political thought in the United States that acknowledging racial and cultural distinctions only fuels social divisions . This ignores the reality that all politics are identity politics, they are just not called that when they serve the interests of the majority and those who hold the highest social capital . Nobody practices identity politics better than those aggressively opposed to identity politics .

This is the case within Flesh and Blood, Part I and Flesh and Blood, Part II . Iden is portrayed as monstrous for forcing the EMH to confront the reality that other holograms have not had the (relative) good fortune that he has experienced with the Voyager crew. The EMH is shown to be a fool for being taken in by Iden, and shows proper contrition on returning. There is never any acknowledgement that the Hirogen’s treatment of the holograms is barbaric, nor that the EMH might understandably be troubled by that in a manner to which his crewmates are oblivious. The EMH is a Voyager crew member first, and a hologram second.

“Unlike that time I erased your memories without your consent, this is a violation of trust.”

To be fair, Flesh and Blood, Part I and Flesh and Blood, Part II end without any real conclusion on this plot thread. Ignoring the EMH’s return to the ship, Flesh and Blood, Part I and Flesh and Blood, Part II are decidedly ambiguous about what happens to all of the holograms that aren’t Iden. After all, Iden is handily killed by the EMH, who shoots him with a gigantic weapon in order to reclaim his mobile emitter. However, all the other holograms on the planet surface are simply disabled by Kejal and Torres.

“Iden’s programme is unrecoverable,” Torres states. “The rest of the holograms are intact in the database.” So where does this leave Kejal? The implication is that Kejal can just reactivate the holograms at a later point, but Janeway talks to Kejal as if they are no longer an on-going concern. “I guess that leaves just you,” Janeway notes. Donik intercedes and suggests that he might be able to help, “She won’t be alone. I reprogrammed these holograms once, and it caused suffering on both sides. I’d like a chance to undo some of the damage.”

“Now let’s never speak of this again. Plus, you get to keep the cool tech. We’ll just assume that this won’t happen again.”

This is a frustrating non-ending on a number of levels. Most obviously, Flesh and Blood, Part I and Flesh and Blood, Part II actually suggest Iden is more even-handed than some of the other holograms around him. In particular, Weiss seems to relish death and destruction; Weiss is introduced murdering a father and son in the teaser to Flesh and Blood, Part I , and suggests simply destroying Voyager at the first opportunity in the teaser to Flesh and Blood, Part II . “We should target their bridge,” he states. “We should kill them.” Iden is a moderating influence, relatively speaking.

As such, it seems ill-advised to just let Donik and Kejal wander off with a database full of holograms like Weiss without an Iden to help keep them in line. After all, Kejal was complicit in almost everything that the holograms did before the hunting of the Hirogen crew, so it seems fair to ask whether or not she could keep the others in line. More than that, there’s a debate to be had over to what extent Donik and Kejal could reprogramme somebody like Weiss without fundamentally changing his identity. If Kejal and Donik re-write Weiss’ base code, is that tantamount to kill him? Does it destroy who he is?

Holo promises.

More than that, the light-hearted shrug at the end of Flesh and Blood, Part II also cuts into all the angst that the two-parter generates over Janeway’s responsibility for what happened to the Hirogen. Flesh and Blood, Part I and Flesh and Blood, Part II suggest a half-hearted criticism of Janeway for leaving the Hirogen unattended with holographic technology following The Killing Game, Part I and The Killing Game, Part II … by having Janeway leave a Hirogen and a hologram unattended with holographic technology that has all ready proven incredibly dangerous.

This clumsiness and indecisiveness demonstrates that Voyager has never actually grappled with the anxieties that fed into its worst impulses during the first two seasons. Flesh and Blood, Part I and Flesh and Blood, Part II offer an update of the Kazon mythology for the seventh season, but with an understanding that nothing has really changed. Voyager has not changed or grown enough that it has anything better or smarter to say about these same anxieties, even half-a-decade removed from the disastrous second season.

Morally cloudy.

Flesh and Blood, Part I and Flesh and Blood, Part II evoke the past as it existed, and in doing so reveal that nothing has actually changed.  Voyager has been running for seven seasons, but is stuck in the same place. The promise of progress is all illusory, as hollow as Iden himself.

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Filed under: Voyager | Tagged: conservatism , emh , hirogen , identity politics , kazon , slave rebellion , star trek , star trek: voyager , voyager |

One Response

I didn’t know that about the Castro metaphor with Iden in the second part. It explains a lot, considering how American ST:Voyager is. This seems to be a seriously limited understanding of Cuba, seeing Castro as some nut-job with a messianic complex rather than the leader of an anti-colonial regime. Iden goes from being interesting to being insane.

Did anyone notice the Jem’Hadar hologram? Voyager’s database shouldn’t have any record of the Jem’Hadar. It makes no sense for one to appear as a holographic prey character.

To be honest, I think I would have reset the doctor if I was the captain, and it would have occurred well before this episode. At the least I would have been tweaking his program a lot more. But at the end of this episode, I absolutely would have done something.

It’s hard often to track with the equation of AI being sentient. It’s a bit easier with Data because he is often more like a human with golden eyes. But the doctor can be altered with a button push. Shows like Star Trek and Star Wars have convinced generations of Westerners that we are on the verge of mimicking human sentience via computer programming, and I really see very little evidence of it, or that we have any true understanding of conciousness. Repeated Trek stories about “aliens” that resemble white Americans in every way are also mirrored in their conception of sentient artificial people who also resemble us in almost every way. There is a massive hubris to this kind of faith in technology – not that we don’t understand the ‘dangers’ of AI, but that we think consciousness and sentience are a matter of technology rather than art or spirit. DS9’s genetically engineered Jem’Hadar and Vorta seem closer to some sort of future possibility than any machine men, especially ones made of “photonic energy”.

Finally, it is indeed disturbing that every slave revolt or push for class-based justice on Voyager tends to be smashed with some sort counter-revolutionary reactionary storyline. The show is pessimistic and yet Voyager constantly sticks its nose into other nations’ affairs, much like the USA in the 1990s.

I notice a serious increase in cribbing from DS9 in the Seventh Season. I think this is only possible because Behr and Moore have departed and aren’t around to blast the Voyager writers for leaching of other writers’ creativity.

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Published Oct 31, 2023

The Best of The Doctor

The Emergency Medical Hologram will see you now.

StarTrek.com

" Please state the nature of the medical emergency. "

" Doesn't anyone know how to turn off the program when they leave! "

Originally designed for emergency purposes only, the acerbic Emergency Medical Holographic (EMH) was forced to run full-time when the Intrepid -class starship, U.S.S. Voyager , is stranded in the Delta Quadrant, propelling The Doctor to the ship's chief medical officer.

Portrayed by the excellent Robert Picardo, every episode with The Doctor is great as we witness his trajectory across the series' seven seasons. Here we've picked 8 of our favorite episodes we deem The Doctor's finest hours.

"Virtuoso"

In the sixth-season episode, the Voyager crew meets the Qomar, which typically closed off their homeworld to outsiders, while helping their ship make necessary repairs. While tending to some of his new patients' medical needs, and humming along during the process, the Qomar became exposed to music for the first time. Enthralled with The Doctor's voice, he and the rest of the crew are invited to their planetary alliance where he's starring in a musical concert in order to introduce the concept of music to its inhabitants.

Following his performance, The Doctor receives a standing ovation, and then Voyager 's communication systems is inundated with transmissions — fan mail for the maestro. Pleased with all the attention, The Doctor lets his duties slip believing the crew doesn't appreciate his talents and hands over his resignation, taking the Qomar up on their offer to stay behind on their planet when Voyager leaves.

Soon, The Doctor learns that the species of mathematicians could not see and appreciate the passion, beauty, and artistry he brings to music; they're more fixated on the mathematical angle and design a superior holomatrix that can hit notes The Doctor cannot. While lamenting his short-lived musical career, the EMH discovers who truly appreciates him and his talents.

"Living Witness"

The Doctor is reactivated 700 years into the future at the Kyrian Museum of Heritage where the Captain Janeway and the Voyager crew are depicted as violent people who did not hesitate to destroy anything or anyone standing in their way of getting home in inaccurate recreations. Not only that, they're blamed for a civil war with the Vaskans that nearly wiped out the Kyrian race.

The fourth-season episode has viewers reflecting on how historical accounts could be weaponized and maintain the status quo of unresolved ideological tensions as The Doctor works to correct the accurate portrayal of events.

"Real Life"

In this third-season story, The Doctor attempts to expand the horizons of his programming by creating his perfect holo-family — his wife Charlene, his teenaged son Jeffrey, his daughter Belle, and him as the patriarch named Kenneth.

After Kes and B'Elanna visits them during a family meal, B'Elanna modifies the holoprogram to be more realistic, much to The Doctor's displeasure. As his relationships with his family spirals, The Doctor learns Belle suffered severe brain trauma after an injury. Unable to prevent her death, The Doctor stops the program. However, it's the advice of Tom Paris to return to the program and face the pain that life sometimes delivers.

"Latent Image"

The fifth-season episode shows us The Doctor's fondness for his Holo-Imager. While scanning Harry Kim, he finds scarring near the ensign's spine that he doesn't recall performing. He soon discovers he's missing certain memory files that have been deleted from his program.

Calling upon Seven of Nine to help him run a self-diagnostic, they learn that it's Janeway who has been tampering with his short-term memory buffer as well as holo-images around a particular incident. The captain was trying to spare him from a painful time that caused a conflict in his programming after he was forced to perform a life-saving procedure on one officer, knowing that the other would have to die.

With his memories restored, The Doctor begins agonizing over the same question of how he could choose one life over another. There is a battle going on between his original programming and what he has become. The crew keeps vigil with him, hoping that eventually he will forgive himself and learn to accept his decision.

"Author, Author"

Similar to Data's plight in "The Measure of a Man," the seventh-season episode tackles The Doctor's rights when his holonovel, "Photons Be Free," which depicts the Voyager crew in a terrible light, is published without his permission.

Janeway questions if he feels oppressed, but The Doctor defends his work, claiming it's a work of fiction with an important message — he intended to draw attention to the plight of his "brothers" in the Alpha Quadrant, other EMH Mark Ones like him who have been condemned to menial tasks. Before he's able to make edits that don't hurt the feelings of the people he cares about, he learns that his publisher has proceeded with the previous draft.

Janeway demands a recall and apology, and points out that authors have rights, but the publisher Broht responds that under Federation law, holograms have no rights. This pushes into motion a hearing that seeks the same rights for The Doctor as any flesh-and-blood person.

"Revulsion"

This fourth-season episode has the Voyager crew appreciating The Doctor's unique —and stable — personality. When they investigate an automated distress call from an alien holoprogram who reports that his crew is dead, Dejaren is pleased to find another "lifeform" like himself.

The hologram says that his crew became infected with a deadly virus, which killed them all. Dejaren is awed by The Doctor's freedom and abilities; his crew never let him out of his chamber or treated him as anything other than machinery. When B'Elanna is repairing Dejaren's systems, he lashes out at her, castigating her organic body and way of life. The Doctor discovers the hologram is pathologically bitter toward "organics." Things take a turn when Dejaren is unable to convince The Doctor that holograms were a higher form of life.

"Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy"

Listed as Robert Picardo's favorite comedic episode in an interview with StarTrek.com in 2010, the sixth-season episode explores one of The Doctor's daydreams.

Disappointed because he wanted to travel with the Away Team to an unknown planet, The Doctor experiments with his programming by giving himself the ability to daydream, which he does so at the most opportune moment when alien raiders spy on Voyager , hoping to strip it for its parts. Fortunately for them, the daydreams confuse the raiders on the ship's actual defenses.

However, as the raider is embarrassed that he confused the daydreams for actual realities, and fearsome of revealing the truth to his superiors, he warns The Doctor of the impending attack but requests the EMH to enact his Emergency Command Hologram to trick his commanders.

"Body and Soul"

When the crew encounters a species who hunted and destroyed "photonic insurgents" aka holograms in this seventh-season episode, Seven of Nine ends up hiding The Doctor's program in her Borg implants, which gives him control of her body and functions.

This allows The Doctor to have sensory experiences like taste and touch for the first time, giving Jeri Ryan and Robert Picardo to exercise their comedic chops.

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9 Names For Star Trek: Voyager’s EMH (& Why He Stayed 'The Doctor')

Voyager's doctor made star trek history in 1 unique way, voyager's doctor set up 2 great star trek episodes with 1 line.

• The holographic Doctor in Star Trek: Voyager was one of the show's most dynamic characters, with compelling storylines that explored his journey toward sentience.
• Episodes like "Heroes and Demons," "Projections," and "Lifesigns" showcased the Doctor's growth and development as he grappled with his humanity and formed relationships.
• The Doctor had a range of episodes, including comedic ones like "Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy," as well as dramatic ones like "Latent Image" and "Someone to Watch Over Me," making him one of the show's most beloved characters.

Some of Star Trek: Voyager 's best episodes featured the holographic Doctor (Robert Picardo) as their focus. The Doctor was easily one of Voyager 's most fascinating characters, beginning the show as a blank slate and progressing to one of the most dynamic Voyager cast members by season 7. As an emergency medical hologram who was never intended to be activated for long periods, the Doctor filled the role of a non-sentient entity striving to become more human that characters like Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation had filled before him.

Although the Doctor's personality and interests were non-existent in Voyager 's pilot episode, by the end of the show he was the character who arguably felt the most deeply and had the widest variety of hobbies, from singing to photography. These hobbies and the Doctor's vibrant personality often made for some incredible episodes, with compelling stories at the center to carry the plot. The Doctor had at least one episode in every season of Voyager that stole the show, and often had multiple episodes in one season that were some of the series' best .

Star Trek: Voyager Series Ending Explained - How The Crew Gets Home

The last episode of Star Trek: Voyager incorporated many of the show's core themes, including time travel, love, and the importance of family.

15 Heroes And Demons

Voyager season 1, episode 12.

"Heroes and Demons" was the first episode where the Doctor truly got to shine and began his journey on the road to sentience. It also marked the Doctor's first away mission when he was sent onto the holodeck to investigate a mysterious energy reading that was causing members of Voyager 's crew to disappear. "Heroes and Demons" foreshadowed many of the things that the Doctor would explore on his humanity quest , including romance and choosing a proper name. The episode was also the first to show the Doctor's true potential as a character, kicking off his stellar arc on Voyager .

14 Projections

Voyager season 2, episode 3.

"Projections" was a fascinatingly existential storyline about the nature of existence. Whereas "Heroes and Demons" mainly displayed the Doctor's comedic abilities, "Projections" allowed the character to show his dramatic side, grappling with whether or not he was really a hologram after a feedback loop from a holodeck malfunction caused his program to degrade and the Doctor to think he was human. "Projections" also brought in a connection to the wider Star Trek timeline in the form of a guest appearance by Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz), and delivered a compelling storyline from start to finish.

13 Lifesigns

Voyager season 2, episode 19.

The Doctor's emerging humanity was on full display in "Life Signs," as he fell in love with a Vidiian doctor, Danara Pel (Susan Diol) while he worked to stop her worsening condition from the Phage. The Doctor's ineptitude with romantic relationships was charming and made for some hilarious moments, but the love that grew between him and Danara was genuinely heartwarming and packed an emotional punch, especially when the two had to part ways at the end of the episode. Stories of first love are universally relatable , and "Life Signs" showed the Doctor's truly vulnerable side for the first time.

12 The Swarm

Voyager season 3, episode 4.

"The Swarm" was the first episode where the Doctor's sentience came into conflict with his programming. The episode was also the first time that Robert Picardo acted in two roles: the role of the Doctor and his creator, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, in this case represented by Voyager 's EMH diagnostic program. "The Swarm" demonstrated the range of Picardo's acting talents , and was a heartbreaking story for the Doctor, calling into question his right to sentience versus his duty to the crew. This question would come up other times during Voyager 's run, but "The Swarm" demonstrated how worthy it was of exploration.

Star Trek: Voyager's Doctor chose and then discarded many names over the course of the show, but it's ultimately a good thing he remained "The Doctor"

11 Real Life

Voyager season 3, episode 22.

Another wonderfully dramatic episode for the Doctor, "Real Life," saw the character explore what it would like to have a family, with the Doctor soon realizing that life isn't as straightforward as it seems. "Real Life" is perhaps the best version of the "Doctor explores humanity" storyline that was so common on Voyager . The episode is hilarious, dramatic, heartwarming, and ultimately devastating , taking the character through the full range of human emotions with a cadre of great guest stars. Although many of the Doctor's comedic episodes were more popular, "Real Life" is one of his best dramatic stories.

10 Message In A Bottle

Voyager season 4, episode 14.

A romp in all senses of the word, "Message in a Bottle" introduced the genius comedic duo of the Doctor and the EMH Mark II (Andy Dick). The two holograms teamed up to stop the Romulans from capturing a cutting-edge Starfleet ship after the Doctor was transferred to it, hoping to get a message to the Federation. Picardo and Dick's hilarious on-screen chemistry made "Message in a Bottle" one of Voyager 's funniest episodes , and is especially noteworthy for being the first time the crew established direct contact with Starfleet since their disappearance.

9 Living Witness

Voyager season 4, episode 23.

"Living Witness" was a fascinating Doctor episode and provided audiences with the only time Voyager ever showed a Mirror Universe variant of the crew. The episode featured a backup version of the Doctor's program setting the record straight about the USS Voyager's visit to an alien planet when he was activated by members of the race 700 years later. The inaccurate portrayal of Voyager 's crew provided a chance for the entire cast to have some fun, and the Doctor acting as the episode's focal point was a perfect choice , since he provided the necessary dramatic chops to carry the storyline.

8 Nothing Human

Voyager season 5, episode 8.

Star Trek episodes with a real-world allegory are almost always guaranteed to be winners , and "Nothing Human" was no exception. The Doctor working with the holographic recreation of a corrupt Cardassian scientist to try and save B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) from a parasitic alien provided a chilling allegory to Dr. Mengele's experiments during WWII. The ethical dilemma this presented gave the Doctor a chance at another great dramatic storyline. Dr. Crell Moset (David Clennon) was a wonderfully complicated villain, and his chemistry with the Doctor made for a compelling episode from start to finish.

The Doctor was one of Star Trek: Voyager's most popular characters, but he also made franchise history by doing something other shows hadn't tried.

7 Latent Image

Voyager season 5, episode 11.

Every Voyager character has an episode that's their best , and "Latent Image" is undoubtedly the Doctor's. The episode offered a gripping story that combined everything that made the Doctor a great character, including the conflict between his humanity and his original programming. Watching the Doctor grapple with big existential questions after he saved the life of Harry Kim (Garret Wang) while allowing another Ensign to die was the episode's highlight. It allowed Robert Picardo to take his acting talents to new dramatic heights , and the mysterious aspect of the episode's plot also added a thrilling layer as the pieces unraveled.

6 Someone To Watch Over Me

Voyager season 5, episode 22.

The Doctor and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) were often paired up for Voyager episodes, but "Someone to Watch Over Me" was arguably the characters' best outing. One of the most hilarious aspects of Seven and the Doctor's relationship was his teaching her about humanity, but this running storyline took a surprisingly poignant turn when the Doctor began instructing Seven on the intricacies of dating and slowly fell in love with her during his efforts. The episode's funny moments were masterfully balanced by the truly heartfelt (and ultimately heartbreaking) unrequited love storyline that played out between Seven and the Doctor.

5 Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy

Voyager season 6, episode 4.

"Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy" was perhaps the funniest Doctor-centric episode of Voyager and one of the top best comedic Star Trek episodes . While Voyager 's entire cast gave stellar performances as participants in the Doctor's Daydream program gone wrong, it was the Doctor himself who was the episode's stand-out star. "Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy" offered everything , including several over-the-top ridiculous scenes and a surprisingly dramatic plot that included the introduction of the Emergency Command Hologram, an aspect of the Doctor's program that became important in Voyager 's final seasons.

4 Life Line

Voyager season 6, episode 24.

"Life Line" once again allowed Robert Picardo to act opposite himself, playing both the Doctor and Lewis Zimmerman when the Doctor projected himself to the Alpha Quadrant after he learned that his creator was dying from an unknown disease. The comedic aspects of Picardo's two characters interacting were undercut by a genuinely heartwarming story about family and self-acceptance, balanced out by some truly wonderful guest stars like Deanna Troi (Marina Siritis) and the return of Reginald Barclay. "Life Line" offered a great expansion of the Doctor's story and gave him a reason to care about getting back to Earth.

One line said by Star Trek: Voyager's Doctor in an early episode ended up foreshadowing two great storylines for the character in later seasons.

3 Critical Care

Voyager season 7, episode 5.

After being captured and sold to a hospital on an alien planet, "Critical Care" saw the Doctor struggle to properly care for patients within the hospital's highly stratified system. The episode acted as another great commentary on real-world issues , namely the failure of healthcare systems that prioritize profit over the good of the patient. "Critical Care" also featured some hilarious side moments as Voyager 's crew worked to locate the Doctor and found themselves jumping through a series of increasingly ridiculous hoops to find out what had happened to him.

2 Body And Soul

Voyager season 7, episode 7.

As another incredible outing for the Doctor and Seven of Nine , "Body and Soul" played up the comedic aspects of the duo when the Doctor was forced to download himself into Seven's implants to escape detection by hologram-hating aliens, essentially taking over her body in the process. Although the Doctor was the main focus of "Body and Soul," the episode's stand-out performance went to Jeri Ryan for her portrayal of the character. Ryan's spot-on depiction of the Doctor absolutely stole the show, and this combined with a plot reminiscent of Twelfth Night created one of Voyager 's most hilarious episodes.

1 Author, Author

Voyager season 7, episode 20.

As one of the final Doctor-centric episodes of Voyager , "Author, Author" once again combined everything that made the Doctor such a wonderful addition to the series . The comedy thanks to the Doctor's parody of Voyager 's crew in his holonovel, was combined with the Doctor's sentience being explored, resulting in a trial reminiscent of the famous Star Trek: TNG episode, "The Measure of a Man," one of the franchise's best and a great call back for Voyager to make. As the second-to-last episode focused on the Doctor, "Author, Author" rounded out the character's time on Star Trek: Voyager beautifully.

Star Trek: Voyager is available to stream on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Voyager

• Cast & crew
• User reviews
• Episode aired Feb 26, 1996

The Doctor saves a Vidiian dying from the Phage by placing her consciousness in a holographic body, and then begins to fall in love with her. The Doctor saves a Vidiian dying from the Phage by placing her consciousness in a holographic body, and then begins to fall in love with her. The Doctor saves a Vidiian dying from the Phage by placing her consciousness in a holographic body, and then begins to fall in love with her.

• Gene Roddenberry
• Rick Berman
• Michael Piller
• Kate Mulgrew
• Robert Beltran
• Roxann Dawson
• 10 User reviews
• 5 Critic reviews

• Capt. Kathryn Janeway

• Cmdr. Chakotay

• Lt. B'Elanna Torres
• (as Roxann Biggs-Dawson)

• Lt. Tom Paris

• Ensign Harry Kim

• Dr. Danara Pel

• Michael Jonas

• Holographic Bar Patron
• (uncredited)

• Transporter Chief
• Crewman Grimes
• Michael Piller (showrunner)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia This is the first and only episode in which we see what a healthy Vidiian looks like.
• Goofs Danara Pel has a rather large device implanted into her skull with multiple blinking lights, but neither the Doctor nor Kes notices it until the Doctor begins a very thorough examination on the side of her head.

Dr. Danara Pel : Before I met you, I was just a disease, but now, everything's different. When people look at me, they don't see a disease anymore. They see a woman - a woman you made, a woman you love, a woman you're not afraid to touch.

The Doctor : Danara, I was never afraid to touch you.

Dr. Danara Pel : Why? Because you're a doctor?

The Doctor : Because I love you.

• Connections Featured in Star Trek: Voyager: Investigations (1996)
• Soundtracks Star Trek: Voyager - Main Title Written by Jerry Goldsmith Performed by Jay Chattaway

User reviews 10

• Aug 9, 2021
• February 26, 1996 (United States)
• United States
• Official Site
• Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (Studio)
• Paramount Television
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 46 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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The Elliot Stabler We Have Now Isn’t the One We Started With

'house of the dragon,' please don't bring white walkers into this show, ‘doctor who’ season 1 ending explained: who is ruby sunday’s mom.

Paramount+ recently renewed their roster of Star Trek shows, meaning fans have access to Star Trek all year-round. One of the best things about New Trek has been a renewed appreciation for Star Trek: Voyager . Be it the return of Kate Mulgrew as Hologram Janeway on Star Trek: Prodigy , Jeri Ryan reprising her role as Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Picard or Voyager’s enduring legacy nearly 1000 years in the future as seen on Star Trek: Discovery , the show has been inescapable. Former Voyager actors Garrett Wang and Robert Duncan McNeill have also revived interest in the show through their recaps on The Delta Flyers podcast.The fifth Star Trek show to debut on screens, Voyager was the first to have a female captain leading its crew and one of the more diverse casts in the roster when it debuted in 1995. Voyager faced plenty of criticism when it aired, but viewers’ newfound love for it is hardly misplaced. There is a lot to love and enjoy during the show’s seven-season run.If you’re wondering where to start with this underrated show or want to take a trip through the Delta Quadrant, let’s look at some of the best episodes to watch. RELATED: ' Star Trek: Voyager': The 7 Best Time Travel Episodes

Season 1, Episode 1: "Caretaker"

The pilot episode of Voyager sets the tone for an unpredictable journey through the Delta Quadrant. Voyager is tasked with retrieving a rebel Maquis ship when both ships are pulled more than 70,000 light years away by an entity known as the Caretaker. Neither crew emerges unscathed, and Captain Janeway must weigh impossible options to either return her crew home or save an entire civilization.

The episode gives viewers a glimpse of all the main characters and their unique personalities. We also meet the Kazon, the bane of Voyager’s life in early seasons. What “Caretaker” does well embodies the varied aspects of a Star Trek episode in one—there’s action, there are uncomfortable alliances and there’s solidarity in the face of adversity.

Season 1, Episode 14: "Faces"

“Faces” is a bold episode to include in the first season of a show. Voyager’s away team is captured by the Vidiians, a species that have advanced medical technology but are unable to cure themselves of the devastating disease, the Phage. The chief surgeon of the facility splits Voyager’s Chief Engineer B’Elanna Torres ( Roxann Dawson ) into two people—a Klingon and a human.

The episode examines B’Elanna’s conflict with her mixed heritage, the bullying she suffered because of it and her journey to accepting who she is. Through B’Elanna, we see an analogy for real-world discussions of identity, especially among minority communities. “Faces” will resonate with anyone who is struggling with their identity and how it’s viewed by others.

Season 1, Episode 15: "Jetrel"

Neelix ( Ethan Phillips ) was introduced as comic relief but “Jetrel” shows us a very different side to him. Dr. Ma'Bor Jetrel ( James Sloyan ) arrives at Voyager with dire news for Neelix but Neelix refuses to engage with him. Jetrel was the man behind the metreon cascade that decimated Neelix’s home world, killed his family and hundreds and thousands of other Talaxians.

The beauty of science-fiction is its ability to reflect real-world incidents through a genre-specific lens. “Jetrel” is obviously an analogy of the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The story channels the consequent suffering of the Japanese people through Neelix. The creators don’t attempt to redeem Jetrel but instead balance the varied emotions that both Jetrel and Neelix navigate when faced with each other.

Season 2, Episode 12: "Resistance"

Captain Janeway is separated from her away team and rescued by an alien named Caylem ( Joel Grey ). Caylem is convinced Janeway is his daughter, so Janeway tries to use his help to get back to her crew. Meanwhile, B’Elanna and Tuvok ( Tim Russ ) are captured and try to find a way out.

This seems like a straightforward episode—stranded on a planet, split up, captured by aliens, standard Star Trek stuff. But the episode allows B’Elanna and Tuvok to bond and get to know each other despite their differing personalities. However, it’s that heartbreaking dénouement that makes it a must-watch. Captain Janeway’s humanity and generosity come to the fore with a few lines of dialogue and will have you reaching for the tissues during the finale credits.

Season 2, Episode 21: "Deadlock"

Voyager spots Vidiian ships and hides in a nebula, only for the ship to start failing in mysterious ways. Lives are lost, and the ship is in shambles. Captain Janeway and her crew locate the source of their troubles. It’s another Voyager?

Duplicates, high stakes, technobabble, “Deadlock” feels like classic Star Trek. The creators capture the claustrophobia of a ship-based story and the sets perfectly capture the differing scenarios aboard the two Voyagers. The episode writers don’t pull any punches; sometimes space exploration can be deadly and Voyager has to face that fact. The conclusion is such a surprise—just when you think you know how the episode will end, the creators chuck in another twist.

Season 2, Episode 25: "Resolutions"

Unrequited love is a standard trope across pop culture, but “Resolutions” takes it to a whole new level. Captain Janeway and First Officer Commander Chakotay ( Robert Beltran ) transport to an isolated planet after they’re infected with a contagious disease. While Chakotay immediately takes it upon himself to make the planet their new home, Janeway still holds out hope that they’ll return to Voyager.

The episode is incredibly romantic despite lacking a concrete romance. Chakotay veritably declares his undying love for Janeway without saying the actual words, but just when Janeway begins to imagine her life without Voyager, Captain and Commander are miraculously saved. A happy ending has never been sadder. The thread of their almost-romance informs Janeway and Chakotay’s relationship throughout the show, but never overshadows it.

Season 3, Episode 3: "The Chute"

Tom Paris (McNeill) and Harry Kim (Wang) became fast friends in the first episode of Voyager and their friendship is one of the best in the franchise. So, what happens when the close buddies are wrongfully convicted and imprisoned in an alien prison?

“The Chute” is a tense episode that shines a spotlight on Tom and Harry during one of the worst ordeals they have together. It’s stressful watching Tom deteriorate and Harry reach the end of his tether. We’re on tenterhooks throughout worrying about how this friendship will survive this episode if it can at all! It all comes to a head in the final scenes and a simple line of dialogue that rights the world. This is heart-wrenching stuff that showcases the power and importance of friendship.

Season 3, Episode 8 & Episode 9: "Future’s End Parts I & II"

Time travel is an integral part of Star Trek, and one of Voyager ’s most memorable temporal stories is the two-parter “Future’s End”. In the episode, Voyager becomes trapped in the 20th century and can’t get back until they stop Henry Starling ( Ed Begley, Jr. ), a con man who has stolen future technology for his own gains.

This is an entertaining episode but also thought-provoking. Starling is a truly reprehensible villain compared to the other aliens that Voyager has met in the Delta Quadrant. The crew are also faced with an interesting conundrum—they’re back on Earth but in the wrong century, do they really want to return to their time when they’re 70-odd years away from home?

Season 3, Episode 16: "Blood Fever"

B’Elanna Torres is accidentally infected with the Vulcan Pon Farr which sets her hormones in overdrive. When she and Tom Paris are alone on an away mission, sparks fly but how real are these feelings?

“Blood Fever” is a sexy episode, with a lot of hot and heavy emotions bubbling to the surface. B’Elanna is aggressive with her desires, but the writers do a great job in making consent a priority. Tom was introduced as a cad on Voyager , and had his eye on B’Elanna, but he refuses to give in despite B’Elanna’s requests because she isn’t in a position to consent. The gender-flipped power play adds to the appeal of this episode. In the end, “Blood Fever” sets the stage for a romance but doesn’t ignite it, which is an important difference. Also, a new terrifying villain is introduced in the final moments. What’s not to love?

Season 3, Episode 23: "Distant Origin"

There are a few Star Trek episodes that have attempted to investigate the origins of humans, but in “Distant Origin” two scientists from an alien species called the Voth believe they originate from human beings. They capture Chakotay who reluctantly helps them.

The debate between traditional dogma and science is familiar to everybody and “Distant Origin” reflects the destructive impact of such rigidity through the Voth and the Doctrine. It’s maddening to watch the scientists lose their hard work and their future because of bureaucracy, which is what makes this episode so brilliant (and sadly, relatable). Another fantastic element is Chakotay’s characterization—his kindness and understanding are a balm during an otherwise tense episode. This is also a rare moment where aliens help Voyager altruistically.

Season 3, Episode 25: "Worst Case Scenario"

“Worst Case Scenario” begins with B’Elanna seemingly being encouraged by Chakotay to begin a mutiny, but just when things get interesting, the holo program stops. Suddenly everyone wants to play this program and learn the identity of the author.

While the author reveal is surprising, what comes after is gripping stuff. Tuvok, who had conceived the story as a training program, is convinced to complete the narrative, alongside a very eager Tom Paris. And that’s when things go very wrong. Tuvok and Tom make for an unlikely comedic duo—Tuvok, dour and logical as ever, Tom, a bit too flippant considering the danger they find themselves in.

There are twists and turns that one would never expect, and laughs aplenty, as the entire ship finds itself facing a talented adversary.

Season 4, Episode 8 & Episode 9: "Year of Hell Parts I & II"

Another time-focused two-parter, “Year of Hell” puts the Voyager crew through the grind, and they shine despite it all. The ship is caught in a series of temporal incursions created by Krenim scientist Annorax ( Kurtwood Smith ) and each one devastates the ship more and more. Unable to get out, the crew do everything they can to survive.

“Year of Hell” is a harrowing episode, but the best part of it are the character interactions and dynamics. Tuvok and Seven’s relationship, Chakotay falling for Annorax’s big ideas, Neelix’s promotion, the politics aboard the Krenim ship, Captain Janeway’s valiant sacrifice—they all come together to create a moving and immersive experience. The Voyager crew have never been closer than in this two-parter. The dénouement feels like a well-earned relief.

Season 4, Episode 14: "Message in a Bottle"

If you need a laugh, “Message in a Bottle” is the perfect bottle episode. The Doctor ( Robert Picardo ) is transmitted as a holographic message to the Alpha Quadrant. The only problem? The ship he arrives at has been overtaken by Romulans. The Doctor then has to partner with the captured ship’s emergency medical hologram, the Mark 2 ( Andy Dick ), to survive and save the ship.

If you thought the Doctor had a bad attitude, the Mark 2 somehow trumps even him. The banter between the two EMHs powers this entire episode and the comedic timing of Picardo and Dick is stellar. What should be a stressful situation becomes a comedy of errors because we’re following the exploits of two doctors—EMHs—not trained Starfleet officers.

Season 5, Episode 6: "Timeless"

One of the most heartbreaking episodes on Voyager is another time travel story. This time, Harry and Chakotay are on a mission to save their friends who died in the Delta Quadrant fifteen years ago.

From the opening teaser reveal to the final scene, “Timeless” tugs at the bond that the Voyager crew has formed with one another, and with the viewer. Director LeVar Burton perfectly juxtaposes the joyous celebrations of the past with the eventual doom in the ‘present’. Seeing Harry transform from hopeful and optimistic to jaded and fatalistic adds another layer of shock to the proceedings. “Timeless” will make you want to bawl your eyes out. It doesn’t matter how many times you watch this episode; you will be overcome with emotion by the end.

Season 5, Episode 10: "Counterpoint"

Star Trek has rarely shied away from reflecting the atrocities committed by humanity and “Counterpoint” is another great entry in the franchise. Voyager is secretly housing telepathic species who are seeking refuge through an expanse of occupied space. The ship is constantly inspected by the smarmy Devore Imperium officer, Kashyk ( Mark Harelik ). And then one day it’s Kashyk who’s asking for refuge.

There are so many layers and subtleties that make this episode a memorable and heartbreaking one. The obvious references to Nazi Germany make it a powerful watch, but the interplay between Captain Janeway and Kashyk is riveting. This is a spotlight episode for the captain, and she is written as compassionate and intelligent. The writers cleverly subvert our expectations of the conclusion, and you will be left feeling as crushed as Janeway by the end of it.

Season 5, Episode 12: "Bride of Chaotica"

Another Captain Janeway episode, but this one is so different. Tom and Harry’s The Adventures of Captain Proton holodeck program is one of the more memorable holodeck programs in the franchise. In “Bride of Chaotica”, photonic lifeforms mistakenly believe the program is real and begin fighting the evil Doctor Chaotica ( Martin Rayner ). The battle affects the ship and soon Janeway is on the holodeck assuming the new role of Queen Arachnia.

This episode fully embraces the cheesy, hammy style of classic science-fiction. Tuning in to “Bridge of Chaotica” is like switching off your brain and enjoying 45 minutes of bombastic performances, bulky props and a lot of fun. This is exactly the kind of silliness that a holodeck-based episode should embrace.

Season 5, Episode 21: "Someone to Watch Over Me"

It can be very icky when an older gentleman falls for a much younger woman, but “Someone to Watch Over Me” still makes the interaction between the Doctor and Seven of Nine a touching one. The Doctor takes it upon himself to help Seven learn some social skills, especially the art of dating. The two of them bond over songs and banter, and it’s not long before the Doctor begins falling for his student.

The episode doesn’t go any further with their relationship, and that’s the beauty of it. Once Seven decides to put dating on hold, the Doctor realizes the door to explore other aspects of their relationship is closed. Voyager is made for lovers of unrequited love, and you will be all choked up as Picardo sings a heartbreaking version of “Someone to Watch Over Me” as the episode closes.

Season 6, Episode 4: "Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy"

The Doctor is a man of many talents, or so it seems in “Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy”. The story sees the Doctor alter his program so that he can daydream, only for an unsuspecting alien scientist named Phlox ( Jay M. Leggett ) to tap into the feed. Soon, Phlox’s mistake and the Doctor’s tampering put Voyager at risk. And only the Emergency Command Hologram can save them.

There’s a lot to be said about the innovative ways the Voyager writers allowed Picardo to flex every muscle he could. This laugh-out-loud episode is crisply paced and comedic gold. The Doctor’s love for daydreaming is one of his most human aspects. But it’s the writers’ ability to imbue the unknown character Phlox with so much personality and high stakes that elevates this episode.

Season 6, Episode 6: "Riddles"

Frenemies Tuvok and Neelix are returning on the Delta Flyer when Tuvok is attacked and loses his memory. The crew is desperate to get their chief tactical officer back and Neelix takes it upon himself to help Tuvok heal. But along the way, both characters learn that there’s more to each other’s personalities and themselves.

Star Trek is all about friendships and “Riddles” captures the importance of that. Tuvok always acts like he barely tolerates Neelix, but Neelix never seems to take the hint—this episode explores why. It’s so sweet and the relationship between Tuvok and Neelix is affectionate and touching. “Riddles” was actor Roxann Dawson’s first directorial effort on the show, and she does a great job evoking myriad emotions from the central cast.

Season 6, Episode 10: "Pathfinder"

“Pathfinder” is a rare episode that doesn’t center Voyager. Set on Earth, Lieutenant Reginald Barclay ( Dwight Schultz ) is part of the Pathfinder project to help the ship find her way home. Except, Barclay is a little too obsessed with the project and his holodeck program… of the Voyager crew. When the problem reaches a peak, Barclay’s friend, Enterprise Counselor Deanna Troi ( Marina Sirtis ) tries to help him work through it.

Brilliantly paced with obvious roots in Star Trek: The Next Generation , “Pathfinder” feels very meta. Barclay is every Star Trek fan come to life—desperate to be part of a story he dearly loves. Schultz and Sirtis step into the shoes of their TNG characters with ease, and the workplace setting also adds to the novelty of the episode.

• TV Features
• Star Trek: Voyager

Projections (episode)

• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 1.6 Act Five
• 2 Log entries
• 3 Memorable quotes
• 4.1 Introductory details
• 4.2 Story and script
• 4.3 Cast and characters
• 4.4 Production
• 4.5 Reception
• 4.6 Continuity
• 4.7 Video and DVD releases
• 5.1 Starring
• 5.2 Also starring
• 5.3 Special guest star
• 5.4 Co-star
• 5.5 Uncredited co-stars
• 5.6 Stunt double
• 5.7 Photo doubles
• 5.8 Stand-ins
• 5.9.1 Other references
• 5.10 External links

Summary [ ]

The Doctor materializes in an empty sickbay , but finds no one present. The computer tells him he was activated automatically, so he starts to call out to the others, but, unable to contact anyone, the computer tells him that no one is aboard.

Act One [ ]

The Doctor manages to get a ship's status from the computer and replays the last bridge log. He discovers that the ship has been attacked causing sufficient damage to force the crew to abandon ship. Seeing his usefulness at an end, The Doctor makes a log entry and prepares to deactivate himself when suddenly Torres enters sickbay, explaining that the ship had been attacked by two Kazon warships . She and Captain Janeway had remained behind to attempt to prevent a warp core breach , which they did. The crew's life pods have been tractored by the Kazon, and Janeway is injured on the bridge . The Doctor attempts to discern her injuries, only to find the medical tricorders aren't registering her life signs . Torres informs The Doctor that holo-projectors have been installed on other parts of the ship including the bridge so that The Doctor can enter them. By diverting power from life support systems to activate the holo-projectors, Torres is able to send The Doctor to the badly damaged bridge and revive Janeway.

Act Two [ ]

The Doctor or Dr. Lewis Zimmerman?

The Doctor succeeds in waking Janeway up, but without the use of the bridge's tricorder, as it's not working either. Torres calls up, having gotten communications online and they start to coordinate their efforts to repair the ship. The Doctor prepares to assist the captain with bypassing a power relay when a call for help is received from Neelix , and The Doctor is transferred to the mess hall instead. There, Neelix has cornered a Kazon . After helping Neelix subdue him, The Doctor finds something that surprises him… he's bleeding and able to feel pain from the wound. Having his program transferred back to sickbay he runs a medical tricorder over himself and finds that his body is projecting life signs. He attempts to run a diagnostic on his program, only for the computer to deny that the program exists and instead lists Lewis Zimmerman as the ship's chief medical officer . The Doctor recognizes the name as the man who created his program and resembles him, but knows that Zimmerman is on Jupiter Station in the Alpha Quadrant . Checking Zimmerman's service record, he finds that he looks exactly like him and the computer confirms it… The Doctor is Zimmerman.

Just then, Janeway, Torres, Neelix, and the Kazon arrive in sickbay and Janeway prepares to question the Kazon, but The Doctor explains what's happening with his program apparently being real. Janeway is confused, and theorizes that the holoemitters are confusing the computer and tries to shut his program down, and nothing happens. Janeway then has the computer shut down all holograms throughout the ship… at which point Janeway, Torres, Neelix, and the Kazon vanish.

Act Three [ ]

" I'll be back "

The Doctor is now very confused, and asks the computer what happened to the crew, to which it confirms that their programs were shut off. Examining the memory block they were stored on, he oddly also finds holograms of the entire crew. As he stands in disbelief, Reginald Barclay appears, happy to see him. Seeing as The Doctor doesn't recognize him, Barclay collects himself and informs The Doctor that he is actually Lewis Zimmerman, currently working on Jupiter Station, and trapped in a malfunctioning holoprogram . The Doctor is told that Zimmerman created a holo-program about the fictional USS Voyager , theoretically lost in the Delta Quadrant, in order to study the long-term effects of deep space isolation. Now, however, the holodeck can't be shut down due to kinoplasmic radiation . Barclay also supposes the radiation is affecting his memory, and is now living the delusion that he is actually Voyager 's EMH, a character whose role he set up for himself, so that he could observe the crew from within the program. The Doctor doesn't believe anything he's saying, as he has clear memories of six months. Barclay says he's only been there six hours, and even slaps him to remind him he feels pain, impossibly.

Barclay leaves and comes back to confirm they can't shut down the program and to convince him he has to play the program out instead. Zimmerman programmed only two possible endings to the program: success or destruction. Barclay tries to convince The Doctor of the quicker route, destroying the ship, because, according to the neurologist , Doctor Kaplan , being in the holodeck is killing him. He has only about an hour left.

Act Four [ ]

The Doctor refuses to destroy Voyager , not only because he doesn't know how but he also can't rule out Barclay as an impostor. Barclay gets an idea and disappears. The Doctor suddenly finds himself back at the moment when Voyager found itself in the Delta Quadrant ; Barclay explains that they cannot stop the program, only reset it. The Doctor deletes the Paris and Kim holograms . After The Doctor questions Barclay, the man responds that indeed, he had programmed Paris to be annoying, like Barclay's cousin, Frank . The Doctor concludes that he must destroy the main holographic matrix. That will stop all holographic programs and prove once and for all that The Doctor is not a hologram, and is indeed Zimmerman.

The Doctor arrives in main engineering to find Captain Janeway. She promptly asks how he is in engineering and who Barclay is. The Doctor tries to delete Janeway but it doesn't work. Barclay explains that the protocols are freezing up and no longer working, including the safety protocols. Faced with an angry Janeway and armed security officers, The Doctor attempts to explain himself then tells Janeway they are about to be transported to the Caretaker's array . The crew begins to get transported to the Array and Janeway looks at The Doctor wide-eyed before vanishing.

With the crew gone, The Doctor destroys the holomatrix and is surprised to find he is still there. He promptly asks the computer if any holographic programs are running and the computer replies that none are. Barclay tells The Doctor that ending the holographic programs on a ship that is itself a holographic program is futile; he has to destroy the warp core (necessary for the destruction of the ship, and therefore the program ending) and hands him a phaser .

As The Doctor is preparing to fire at the warp core, Chakotay appears and tells The Doctor to stop, as Barclay has been lying.

Act Five [ ]

The commander explains that The Doctor is on the holodeck on Voyager and had taken a day off at the suggestion of Captain Janeway. They suffered a radiation surge and it caused a feedback loop within the holodeck, trapping him there. Chakotay is actually being projected into the holodeck from engineering, and tells him that the pain he is feeling is the sensation of his memory circuits being destroyed and if he destroys the simulation Voyager then The Doctor's program will be destroyed too. The Doctor asks Chakotay what he needs to do, and Chakotay tells him to just wait as they almost have the problem fixed.

The Doctor falls to the ground in pain and a Human Kes appears, telling him that she is being projected from Jupiter Station, saying how much she loves him and doesn't want her "husband" to die. Chakotay explains that the delusions are being drawn from his own memories. Barclay asks The Doctor what would he rather be; a Human being with a real life and family or a hologram trapped in a sickbay on a ship lost in deep space. Chakotay tells him that what he's made of doesn't change who he is to the rest of the crew; he is their friend and he's no less real than anyone else. When Kes kisses him, The Doctor begins: " I always wanted to tell you, Kes… "

Suddenly, The Doctor finds himself in sickbay and completes his sentence: " …that you are beautiful ", very embarrassed as the Ocampa Kes is standing over him and heard everything he said. Kim and Tuvok explain that Voyager encountered a subspace anomaly which was the cause of the radiation surge, confirming there was no Kazon attack and the crew didn't abandon ship. The two officers then leave and The Doctor goes to continue the catalog he started that morning. Kes starts questioning him on what he said and asks him if he meant it.

" Try to calm down, Doctor. Everything's going to be fine… "

With The Doctor making polite excuses, assuring that he finds her merely beautiful in a platonic way, Kes presumes that he doesn't love her anymore and their "marriage" is over, calling him "Lewis". Thoroughly confused, The Doctor's consciousness wavers. He turns and sees Barclay who claims that he can still destroy the warp core to save himself. A hand is placed on his shoulder The Doctor sees Paris on his first day in the Delta Quadrant. Paris yells that a crewmember needs help and brings The Doctor to a biobed where Dr. Zimmerman himself lies, injured. Zimmerman begins speaking in Janeway's voice.

The real Doctor suddenly finds himself in the holodeck grid. Captain Janeway is there and asks him if he knows who she is, and where he is. Though a little unsure of his true identity during the holodeck problem, he answers both decisively. He is Voyager 's Emergency Medical Hologram, and he is on the Holodeck. To be sure that he is truly back, he asks Captain Janeway whether Kes is not his wife. When the captain's reaction is mere surprise, it is obvious that he is truly back. He asks to be transferred back to sickbay and Janeway does so but not before telling him its good to have him back.

The Doctor tells Kes of his adventures, keeping in mind that Kes is his assistant, not wife. Kes laughs and warns The Doctor not to tell Neelix, as he might get jealous. " It will be our secret! " she cautions. The Doctor puzzles over why his program created an elaborate delusion rather than detecting the radiation's threat. Kes says everyone asks themselves existential questions at some time, but The Doctor is entirely confident as to his own nature and purpose. He is Voyager 's EMH. Kes playfully asks him if he's sure about that, prompting The Doctor to pass his hand through the open sickbay doors. It can't be projected outside, providing him with the confirmation he needs, and returns to his duties, content.

Log entries [ ]

• (log entry made by Captain Kathryn Janeway)
• …heavy casualties. The warp core is going critical and the ejection system is off-line. I've ordered all personnel to abandon ship. Lieutenant Torres and I are…
• Chief Medical Officer's log, stardate 48892.1. It appears that Voyager has suffered a disaster. What kind I don't know, but one thing is clear – the crew was forced to abandon ship. It would therefore seem that my usefulness has come to an end. I am terminating my program. If anyone finds this log, I can be reactivated by…

Memorable quotes [ ]

" Did I program Mister Paris to be so annoying? " " Actually, I programmed him. I modeled him after my cousin Frank. " " Computer, delete Paris. "

" Computer, delete Janeway. "

" He looks a lot like me. In fact, he looks exactly like me. Computer, is this me? " " Affirmative. "

" Missed me! "

" You mean… the ship's empty? " " Affirmative. "

" You're starting to think you're part of the program and that… that's not good! "

" Don't panic!' "

" It doesn't matter what you're made of, what matters is who you are. You are our friend and we want you back. "

" The array you discovered is controlled by an entity you will come to know as the Caretaker… or, Banjo-Man. "

" No one gets the best of me in my kitchen! "

" Well, I'm glad everyone bothered to say goodbye. "

" Doctor, are you listening to me? That man needs HELP ! "

" Well, it's bigger than I thought. "

" Barclay was part of the original engineering team that designed your program. He was in charge of testing your interpersonal skills. "

Background information [ ]

Introductory details [ ].

• Like " The 37's ", this episode was written and produced for the first season of Star Trek: Voyager (following " Learning Curve " and preceding " Elogium "), but was held back for airing during the series' second season .

Story and script [ ]

• Making The Doctor unsure of his reality provided the genesis for this episode. Writer Brannon Braga recalled, " I just wanted to do a doctor show, and basically a one-liner just popped into my head one day: What if the doctor discovers that Voyager is a hologram and he is real? Then I got into the argument ' I think, therefore I am '; what does being real mean? I just thought it was an opportunity to do a real mind-bending kind of story. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages ) Soon after having penned the episode, Braga noted, " The one-liner was, 'What if The Doctor started to realize that he was a real person, and Voyager was the holographic simulation?' It becomes a kind of creepy, philosophical quandary for The Doctor [… ] It has been a while since I've done one of those reality-bending stories. The great challenge in this episode was to keep the audience wondering, 'My God, could this really be happening?' The fun is not in believing it, the fun is in considering all the different twists and turns along the way. As I always say, the tale is in the telling. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 5 , p. 50)
• After coming up with this theme, Brannon Braga struck upon the idea of involving a character from Star Trek: The Next Generation in the story. Originally, however, this character was to have been Geordi La Forge . Braga recollected, " We came up with the idea of putting Geordi La Forge in there, but then I thought it would be much more fun to have Barclay [a recurring character from TNG ] and the doctor. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages )
• Analyzing the story shortly after having written it, Braga mused, " At one point, Barclay comes in and says, 'You're real; we're at the holo-programming center. I'm your assistant; you're having a mental breakdown; nothing here is real.' In essence, it becomes analogous to the stories written by the philosopher René Descartes , of the man plagued by an evil demon, out to prove that he doesn't exist, and in this case, the demon is Barclay. The story culminates in Descartes' famous quote, 'I think, therefore I am.' " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 5 , p. 50)
• The episode's final draft script was submitted on 30 March 1995 . [1]
• Brannon Braga once remarked that the plot is a cross between the TNG episodes " The Measure Of A Man " and " Frame of Mind " (the latter of which is another episode he wrote). ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 7 ) In both this episode and "Frame of Mind", the main character (in that case, Commander Riker) must decide which of two realities is the correct one.

Cast and characters [ ]

• Prior to appearing alongside Robert Picardo (as The Doctor) in this episode, Dwight Schultz had initially been considered to portray The Doctor in Star Trek: Voyager . ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 50)
• Ultimately, Brannon Braga was highly pleased with how this episode depicted the relationship between Barclay and The Doctor, remarking afterwards, " Those two were so good together they should have a spin-off series. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages )
• Barclay actor Dwight Schultz was pleasantly surprised to be asked to appear in this episode. He commented of the installment, " 'Projections' was an interesting use of Barclay. It wasn't really Barclay. It was some idea of Barclay. I will say it was nice to be brought back. I had no idea that they'd ever think of me for Star Trek: Voyager , so it was a lovely surprise. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 30 , p. 34)
• After working on this episode, director Jonathan Frakes noted that Robert Picardo , the performer of The Doctor, and Dwight Schultz "were brilliant together." ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 105 ; Star Trek Monthly  issue 11 ) Concerning his relationship with Robert Picardo, Schultz recalled, " Meeting Bob Picardo was a pleasure. We knew a lot of the same people in New York City, spent a lot of time doing silly voices and cracked each other up on the set. We just reminisced about our pasts in New York City and talked about the theater, which is what stage-trained actors tend to do when they get together. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 30 , p. 34) For his part, Robert Picardo said of the episode, " It was great fun to work on, primarily because of Dwight Schultz and Jonathan Frakes. " Picardo went on to enthuse how much he liked Dwight Schultz. ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 10 ) Additionally, Picardo commented that this episode was "a wonderful shooting experience because it was a delight [to work with] Jonathan Frakes, and Dwight Schultz." ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 95) Picardo also stated that, between him and Schultz, filming this episode was like having a party. ( Delta Quadrant , p. 54)
• Robert Picardo also cited this episode as being one of the two finest outings for The Doctor in the first two seasons of Voyager , the other episode being " Heroes and Demons ". ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 20 ) On a separate occasion, however, Picardo implied that he thought this episode had not been quite as good for his character as " Lifesigns " had been, going on to imply that it also had been less challenging (in certain ways). Nevertheless, Picardo still counted this episode as being one of the two best Doctor-oriented episodes from the second season. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 28, No. 4/5, pp. 95 & 96)
• Tom Paris, B'Elanna Torres, Neelix, and Tuvok appear only as holograms in this episode.

Production [ ]

• After directing this episode, Jonathan Frakes said it had been "a real joy to do." ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 105 ; Star Trek Monthly  issue 11 )
• This episode is a bottle show . ( Beyond the Final Frontier , p. 285)

Reception [ ]

• Of all the episodes that were produced for Voyager 's first season, this episode was Brannon Braga's favorite as well as the one he most enjoyed writing. ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 5 , p. 50; Star Trek Monthly  issue 7 ) He commented, " I'm very proud of that one. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages ) Braga also opined, " It's a really fun story. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 5 , p. 50)
• Executive producer Michael Piller enjoyed how the episode questioned The Doctor's reality, enthusing, " This is a wonderful show […] It's a fascinating episode. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages )
• This episode achieved a Nielsen rating of 6.1 million homes, and a 10% share. [2] (X) The installment also achieved an NTI (National Television Index) rating of 8.4. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 11 , p. 14) Along with the later Season 2 installment " Persistence of Vision ", this was the joint fourth most watched episode of Voyager 's second season (on first airing), with the same Nielsen rating as "Persistence of Vision" but a slightly higher share percentage than that episode. [3] (X) A contemporaneous fan poll, to which executive producer Jeri Taylor paid particular attention, ranked this installment as the third highest-rated episode of the second season. ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 108 , p. 18)
• In the lead-up to this episode's VHS release, Star Trek Magazine reviewer Stuart Clark wrote a review which praised the installment, commenting, " This intriguing episode has some genuinely clever twists, which you'd expect from writer Brannon Braga. " Clark also highlighted Barclay's role in this episode as a "special appearance" that provided "an interesting piece of continuity to link the series." ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 10 , p. 63)
• Cinefantastique gave this installment 2 out of 4 stars. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 78)
• The unauthorized reference book Delta Quadrant (p. 55) scored the episode 8 out of 10.
• This episode was one of a few that Paramount Pictures studio executives reviewed, when evaluating Jonathan Frakes' ability to handle the film Star Trek: First Contact . ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 112 , p. 19) Having become friends with the director while working on this episode, Robert Picardo was able to arrange a cameo appearance in that film. ( The Making of Star Trek: First Contact , p. 45)
• After appearing in this episode, Dwight Schultz considered returning to Star Trek: Voyager as the starship Voyager 's holographic Barclay. Schultz remarked, " [Barclay]'s there in the USS Voyager 's computer, so he could turn up again. Of course, I'd love to go back and do another episode. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 32 , p. 54)

Continuity [ ]

• This is the second episode in which The Doctor leaves sickbay, after " Heroes and Demons ". In both episodes he visits the holodeck.
• This is the second episode in which the holodeck malfunctions and traps members of the crew, after " Heroes and Demons ".
• After his appearance (albeit as a hologram) in this episode, Barclay made a brief appearance in Star Trek: First Contact before featuring in five more episodes of Voyager – Season 6 's " Pathfinder " and " Life Line ", plus the seventh season episodes " Inside Man ", " Author, Author " and series finale " Endgame ". Owing to the fact that the character appears in this episode only as a hologram, his future appearances make no reference to this episode.
• As Tom Paris does once in the second episode of Voyager , " Parallax ", Barclay here refers to Voyager using the definitive article "the" several times.
• 47 reference: The crew's data in The Doctor's fantasy/illusion is stored in memory block 47-alpha.
• The Doctor refers to the Caretaker as the "Banjo Man", which is how he is credited in the series pilot " Caretaker ".
• This episode has the second shortest teaser of Voyager 's second season, being slightly shorter than the teaser of " Maneuvers " but slightly longer than the teaser of " Non Sequitur ", both of which are (like this episode's teaser) under a minute in duration.

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 1.9, catalog number VHR 4009, 4 December 1995
• As part of the VOY Season 2 DVD collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway

Also starring [ ]

• Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay
• Roxann Biggs-Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres
• Jennifer Lien as Kes
• Robert Duncan McNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris
• Ethan Phillips as Neelix
• Robert Picardo as The Doctor
• Tim Russ as Lieutenant Tuvok
• Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim

Special guest star [ ]

• Dwight Schultz as " Barclay "

Co-star [ ]

• Majel Barrett as Computer Voice

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• Renna Bogdanowicz as Human operations officer (hologram)
• Paul Capp as Human operations officer (hologram)
• John Copage as Human sciences officer (hologram)
• Brian Donofrio as Human sciences officer (hologram)
• Gunnel Eriksson as Human operations officer (hologram)
• Heather Ferguson as Human operations officer (hologram)
• Joe Figueroa as Human command officer (hologram)
• Ken Gruz as Human sciences officer (hologram)
• Kerry Hoyt as Doug Bronowski (hologram)
• Julie Jiang as Human operations lieutenant jg (hologram)
• Ken Lesco as Kazon-Nistrim (hologram)
• Coleman McClary as Human operations officer (hologram)
• Louis Ortiz as Culhane (hologram)
• John Parsons as Michael Parsons (hologram)
• Robert Picardo as Lewis Zimmerman (photograph)
• Heather Rattray as Human operations officer (hologram)
• Regina Richardson as Human operations officer (hologram)
• Beth Rogers as Jarvis (hologram)
• Garret Sato as Human operations officer (hologram)
• Daunette Saunders as Human operations officer (hologram)
• Simon Stotler as Human operations ensign (hologram)
• Julie Thornton as Human operations officer (hologram)
• Rod Wallace as Human operations officer (hologram)

Stunt double [ ]

• John Nowak as stunt double for Robert Picardo

Photo doubles [ ]

• Zack Milan as photo double for Robert Picardo
• J.R. Quinonez as photo double for Robert Picardo
• Unknown actor as photo double for Robert Picardo (hands, bridge scene)
• Unknown actress as photo double for Kate Mulgrew (hands, sickbay scene)

Stand-ins [ ]

• Debbie David – stand-in for Dwight Schultz
• Brian Donofrio – stand-in for Ken Lesco
• Sue Henley – stand-in for Kate Mulgrew
• Cy Kennedy – stand-in for Robert Beltran
• Susan Lewis – stand-in for Roxann Dawson
• Lemuel Perry – stand-in for Tim Russ
• Jerry Quinn – stand-in for Robert Duncan McNeill
• J.R. Quinonez – stand-in for Robert Picardo
• Ron – stand-in for Ken Lesco
• Richard Sarstedt – stand-in for Robert Picardo
• Jennifer Somers – stand-in for Jennifer Lien
• Simon Stotler – stand-in for Ethan Phillips
• John Tampoya – stand-in for Garrett Wang

References [ ]

access hatch ; autonomic response analysis ; blood pressure ; brain pattern ; brig ; Caretaker (aka " Banjo Man "); Caretaker's array ; compassion ; concussion ; coronary bypass ; crew manifest ; Delta Quadrant ; dilithium matrix ; disorientation ; dizziness ; Emergency Medical Hologram ; emergency power ; Federation ; Federation space ; Frank ; headache ; heart ; heart rate ; holodeck ; holo-engineer ; holographic character ; holographic emitter ; holomatrix ; holo-projection system (aka projection system ); holo-transference dementia syndrome ; interpersonal skills ; Intrepid class decks ; Jefferies tube ; Jupiter Station ; Jupiter Station Holoprogramming Center ; Kaplan ; Kazon ; Kazon ship ; kinoplasmic radiation ; life pod ; magnetic constrictor ; Maquis ; marriage ; medkit ; memory block ; memory center ; memory circuit ; mess hall ; meter ; Milky Way Galaxy ; nausea ; neural tissue ; niotrinate ; Nondoran tomato paste ; Ocampa ; orderly ; oxidation ; pain ; percussive injury ; phaser burst ; plasma relay ; plasma torpedo ; power relay ; Predator -class ; pulse ; pus hog ; red alert ; remote projector ; reserve power ; sauté pan ; senior officer ; shore leave ; snake ; Starfleet ; subspace anomaly ; surrender ; tractor beam ; tricorder ; turbolift ; vocal command

Other references [ ]

• Crew manifest : Cabot, Zayra ; Canamar, Valerie ; Charnock, Jr., Ed ; Chattaway, Jay ; Chess, Joe ; Chichester, John ; Christenberry, Ian ; Chronister, Richard ; Codron, Art ; Curry, Dan ; D'Angelo, Dick ; De La Garza, Bob ; DeMeritt, Michael ; De Moraes, Lisa ; Djanrelian, Jon ; Dorton, Louise ; Drapanas, Wendy ; Eyslee, Bob ; Farrell, J.P. ; Livingston, David ; Lowry-Johnson, Junie ; Madalone, Dennis ; Magdaleno, Jim ; Mayer, Michael ; McCarthy, Dennis ; McKay, Shawn ; McKnight, Scott ; Mees, Jim ; Miller, Patricia ; Moore, Ronald B. ; Moore, Tom ; Mossler, Helen ; Nelson, Greg ; Nemecek, Janet ; Nesterowicz, John ; Neuss, Wendy ; Speckman, Gary ; Sternbach, Rick ; Stimson, Mark ; Stipes, David ; Stotler, Simon ; Stradling, Michael ; Surma, Ron ; Suzuki, Ken ; Szillinsky, Gerald ; Tampoya, John : Taylor, Jeri ; Thomas, Jamie ; Thoms, Wil ; Velazquez, Dawn ; Vitolla, Pat
• Lewis Zimmerman biographical information : 2320 ; 2342 ; 2361 ; Fritz, Sandra ; Grover's Mill ; Holo-Doc ; New Jersey ; Starfleet Academy ; Starfleet Academy Command School ; Starfleet Command ; Zimmerman, Gregory

External links [ ]

• " Projections " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " Projections " at Wikipedia
• " Projections " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• " Projections " at the Internet Movie Database
• 1 Daniels (Crewman)