Changes: Lifesigns (episode)

Revision as of 04:29, 24 July 2007

The Doctor falls in love with a Vidiian patient whose life he saved.

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Summary

Teaser

Tom Paris arrives ten minutes late to his duty shift on the bridge and provides several obviously false excuses (even saying that he'd had to deliver Ensign Wildman's baby). Commander Chakotay doesn't believe any of it, informally reprimanding him for being late the third time in a week. Before anything more can happen between them, Tuvok announces that the Voyager has recieved a subspace distress call from a small, unarmed spacecraft. The weak lifesigns aboard the vessel indicate one passenger: a Vidiian female. Captain Janeway orders Ensign Kim to respond to the hail, but she ship does not respond. Because there are no other Vidiian ships in the sector, Janeway overrules Paris' suggestion that they may be falling into a trap and decides to have the woman beamed directly into Sickbay.

As the woman lies unconscious and slowly dying in Sickbay, Kes and The Doctor attempt to treat her. They find an extremely complex bioneural implant in her parietal lobe. The Doctor's scans find that the device is is storing her synaptic patterns and processing her neuroelectric impulses: essentially, she has a cortical stimulator built in to her body. While the device is functioning normally as far as they can tell, the nerve cells to which it connects are dying, severely reducing its function. Whatever they do, they need to act fast or their patient will soon be brain-dead.

Since the Doctor believes she is too far gone at this point for more conventional medicine, he decides to transfer the synaptic patterns stored in the device into the holo-buffer. He then creates, piece by piece, a holographic body for her: this will serve the dual purpose of allowing them to talk with their patient and providing a template of a healthy Vidiian body to aid them in treating the ailing one they have.

Act One

Chakotay reports to Janeway in her ready room that the ship's navigational logs indicate that the patient was en route to a remote Vidiian colony about ten light-years from Voyager's present location. Chakotay then turns the conversation to the behavior of Tom Paris. Although crew discipline is his responsibility as first officer, he wishes to discuss the problem with Janeway before taking action. While she shares his concerns, Janeway puts her trust in Chakotay to make a wise decision.

As the patient's synaptic patterns stabilize, the Doctor prepares to transfer her mind into the holographic body he has created for her while her physical body is in stasis. She awakens confused and groggy, wondering where she is and why she is healthy. The Doctor explains what he has done, giving her a mirror so she can see her healthy-looking self. The patient starts crying for joy, overwhelmed at the idea of seeing herself healthy once more. She reveals that she was first diagnosed with the Phage at seven years old, and started recieving replacement tissue and organs shortly afterward. She is also fascinated by the fact that the Doctor is a hologram himself, and asks his name. Though he has to admit he has none, she introduces herself as Denara Pel, a hematologist who had been helping to treat an outbreak of the Phage on Fina Prime and had been on the way back to her home colony when her disease worsened. They get started working to heal Pel's body, as her mind cannot survive in the computer for more than a week. Pel sees her physical body on the biobed and becomes briefly distracted before getting to work.

Act Two

The Doctor discusses with B'Elanna Torres his plans to extract a segment of her parietal lobe to transplant into Pel. Because her DNA is resistant to the Phage and compatible with Vidiian DNA, she is a perfect donor candidate. However, Torres has reservations about the procedure, remembering the last time she had been recruited to help the Vidiians (VOY: "Faces"). He begs her to reconsider, reminding her of the need for urgency and saying that while the treatment won't cure her, it will likely greatly prolong her life. Pel enters, expressing her sympathy for Torres and what the Vidiians had done to her. Pel asks for Torres' understanding: her species has been dying of the Phage for centuries and are obsessed with curing it. Compassion simply isn't that common in such a desperate situation. However, she is willing to accept her fate should Torres choose not to undergo the procedure. Taken aback, Torres chooses to help Pel.

As they perform the surgery, the Doctor and Pel discuss his unique abilities as an Emergency Medical Hologram. Once it is over, all there is to do is wait: it will be a day or two before they know whether it was successful. The Doctor suggests shutting Pel's program down temporarily, as that would slow the degradation of her neural pathways in Voyager's computer. Pel, however, is too energetic to want to be shut down: she wants to tour the ship. The Doctor suggests reading Voyager's medical database as an alternative, but then decides instead to take her to Chez Sandrine on the Holodeck.

Log Entries

Chief Medical Officer's log, supplemental. Test results indicate that the holographic body is functioning normally. The patient's synaptic patterns appear to be stable, so I'm now ready to begin transferring her cognitive and motor processes.

Doctor's personal log, stardate 49504.3. Inaugural entry. Kes and Mister Paris have conspired to get Denara and me alone together in a place Paris considers romantic. I've never felt more . . . uneasy.

Doctor's personal log, stardate 49507.2.The more time I spend with Denara, the more my programming continues to adapt. I look forward to perfecting my romantic skills once we've completed the synaptic transfer.

Memorable Quotes

"I never thought I'd see myself again."

- Denara Pel

"You're a computer simulation?"
"An extremely sophisticated computer simulation."

- Denara Pel and The Doctor

"Sometimes I think my people are so focused on trying to save lives, we don't know how to live anymore."

- Denara Pel

"Where are we exactly?"
"On a planet called Mars inside a primitive, land-based vehicle. It's called a '57 Chevy. Mr. Paris is quite an automobile aficionado; this is his program."
"What is it that we're supposed to be doing?"
"I believe it's called... parking."

- Denara Pel and Dr. "Shmullus"

"By the way, Denara, I've been meaning to tell you..."
"Yes?"
"I'm romantically attracted to you and wanted to know if you felt the same way."

- The Doctor and Denara Pel

"I have no intention of raising my child on a Kazon ship! One way or another, I am going to take Voyager, so you can either help me or suffer along with Janeway and the others!"

- Seska

Background Information

This is the first and only episode in which we see what a healthy Vidiian looks like.

Tom Paris continues his indiscipline that first started in Meld. This culminated with Paris having a scuffle with Chakotay on the bridge as Paris is 10 minutes late for shift. Tuvok escorts Paris to the brig.

The Doctor mentions a procedure by Leonard McCoy as he is discussing the neural implant on Pel's body with Pel.

When coming up with his excuse for being late to his shift, Tom jokes that he thinks he may have missed his calling in medicine. This foreshadows his later duty as assistant to The Doctor.

Links and References

Main Cast

Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway
Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay
Roxann 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

Guest Stars

Co-Stars

Rick Gianasi as Gigolo
Tarik Ergin as Ayala (uncredited)
John Tempoya as Kashimuro Nozawa (uncredited)
Kerry Hoyt as Grimes (uncredited)
Bob Moscagno as accordion player
Unknown actor as Murphy (uncredited)

References

1957, 2253, appendectomy, automobile, axonal pathway, basal ganglia, bio-neural circuitry, brain, cardiovascular system, cerebellum, cerebral cortex, cervaline, Chevy, constellation, compound fracture, Crabtree, Susie, Culluh, Cygnus, delta band frequency, DNA, Doctor Alpha, Earth, EMH, emission nebula, endocrinology, Fina Prime, Foster, gigaquad, Greek, Greek mythology, Hemikek IV, Hercules, Hercules (constellation), hiccup, Hippocrates, hives, holoemitter, hologram, humor, inaprovaline, Klingon, lectrazine, level 2 self diagnostic, Kazon-Nistrim, magnetic constrictor, Maje; Mala, Mars, Martian colonies, McCoy, Leonard, medicine, My Prayer, nanofiber, neural tissue, neuralyte probe, neuro-cortical stimulator, nytoxinol, parietal lobe, phage, Platters, The, Pleiades Cluster, rose, Shmullus, Starfleet Academy, Stellar Cartography (course), suicide, synaptic pattern, submicron suture, tactile acuity subroutine, teddy bear, terahertz, tetrahertz, Utopia Planitia, verterium cortenide, Vidiian, Vidiian program Alpha, waltz, warp coil, Wildman, Samantha, Zimmerman, Lewis

Previous episode:
"Death Wish"

Star Trek: Voyager
Season 2

Next episode:
"Investigations"

@@ Line 30: / Line 30: @@
 |aPrevInUniverseTimeline = Investigations
 }}
-The Doctor falls in love with a Vidiian patient whom he saved.
+The Doctor falls in love with a Vidiian patient whose life he saved.
-==Summary==
 {{pna-episode}}
+==Summary==
-After receiving a Vidiian patient who is about to die from the Phage, the doctor transfers her consciousness into the ship's computer and creates a holographic body. He soon finds himself becoming deeply attracted to her.
+===Teaser===
+[[Tom Paris]] arrives ten minutes late to his duty shift on the [[bridge]] and provides several obviously false excuses (even saying that he'd had to deliver [[Ensign]] [[Samantha Wildman|Wildman]]'s [[Naomi Wildman|baby]]). [[Commander]] [[Chakotay]] doesn't believe any of it, informally reprimanding him for being late the third time in a week.  Before anything more can happen between them, [[Tuvok]] announces that the [[USS Voyager|Voyager]] has recieved a [[subspace]] [[distress call]] from a small, unarmed spacecraft.  The weak [[lifesigns]] aboard the vessel indicate one passenger: a [[Vidiian]] [[female]].  [[Captain]] [[Kathryn Janeway|Janeway]] orders [[Ensign]] [[Harry Kim|Kim]] to respond to the hail, but she ship does not respond.  Because there are no other Vidiian ships in the [[sector]], Janeway overrules Paris' suggestion that they may be falling into a trap and decides to have the woman [[Transporter|beamed]] directly into [[Sickbay]].
+As the woman lies [[Unconsciousness|unconscious]] and slowly [[Death|dying]] in [[Sickbay]], [[Kes]] and [[The Doctor]] attempt to treat her.  They find an extremely complex [[bioneural]] implant in her [[parietal lobe]].  [[The Doctor]]'s scans find that the device is is storing her [[synaptic patterns]] and processing her neuroelectric impulses: essentially, she has a [[cortical stimulator]] built in to her body.  While the device is functioning normally as far as they can tell, the [[nerve cells]] to which it connects are dying, severely reducing its function.  Whatever they do, they need to act fast or their patient will soon be [[Brain-death|brain-dead]].
-[[Tom Paris]] continues acting unprofessionally, often arriving late for his [[bridge]] duties, and insulting [[Commander]] [[Chakotay]].  This comes to a head when Chakotay tries to approach Tom in the [[mess hall]], to ask if there's anything wrong, which provokes Tom into revealing his dissatisfaction with Chakotay in front of everyone else in the hall.
+Since [[the Doctor]] believes she is too far gone at this point for more conventional medicine, he decides to transfer the synaptic patterns stored in the device into the [[holo-buffer]].  He then creates, piece by piece, a [[holographic]] body for her: this will serve the dual purpose of allowing them to talk with their patient and providing a template of a healthy [[Vidiian]] body to aid them in treating the ailing one they have.
-[[Michael Jonas]] reports to his [[Kazon]] contact about the incident, and then requests to speak to [[Seska]] directly, a request which is flatly denied.  The Kazon then tells Jonas to sabotage ''[[USS Voyager|Voyager]]'', which Michael equally refuses until he can speak to Seska.
+===Act One===
-The next day, on the bridge Tom shoves Chakotay onto the floor in front of the entire bridge staff, causing the Captain to have Tom taken to the brig.
+[[Chakotay]] reports to [[Kathryn Janeway|Janeway]] in her [[ready room]] that the ship's navigational logs indicate that the patient was en route to a remote [[Vidiian]] [[colony]] about ten [[light-year]]s from [[USS Voyager|Voyager]]'s present location.  Chakotay then turns the conversation to the behavior of Tom Paris.  Although crew discipline is his responsibility as [[first officer]], he wishes to discuss the problem with Janeway before taking action.  While she shares his concerns, Janeway puts her trust in [[Chakotay]] to make a wise decision.
+As the patient's synaptic patterns stabilize, [[the Doctor]] prepares to transfer her mind into the holographic body he has created for her while her physical body is in [[stasis]].  She awakens confused and groggy, wondering where she is and why she is healthy.  [[The Doctor]] explains what he has done, giving her a mirror so she can see her healthy-looking self.  The patient starts crying for joy, overwhelmed at the idea of seeing herself healthy once more.  She reveals that she was first diagnosed with the [[Phage]] at seven years old, and started recieving replacement [[tissue]] and [[organs]] shortly afterward.  She is also fascinated by the fact that the Doctor is a hologram himself, and asks his name.  Though he has to admit he has none, she introduces herself as [[Denara Pel]], a [[hematology|hematologist]] who had been helping to treat an outbreak of the [[Phage]] on
+[[Fina Prime]] and had been on the way back to her home colony when her disease worsened.  They get started working to heal Pel's body, as her mind cannot survive in the computer for more than a week.  Pel sees her physical body on the [[biobed]] and becomes briefly distracted before getting to work.
+===Act Two===
+The Doctor discusses with [[B'Elanna Torres]] his plans to extract a segment of her [[parietal lobe]] to [[transplant]] into Pel.  Because her [[DNA]] is resistant to the Phage and compatible with Vidiian DNA, she is a perfect donor candidate.  However, Torres has reservations about the procedure, remembering the last time she had been recruited to help the Vidiians ({{VOY|Faces}}).  He begs her to reconsider, reminding her of the need for urgency and saying that while the treatment won't cure her, it will likely greatly prolong her life.  Pel enters, expressing her sympathy for Torres and what the Vidiians had done to her.  Pel asks for Torres' understanding: her species has been dying of the Phage for centuries and are obsessed with curing it.  Compassion simply isn't that common in such a desperate situation.  However, she is willing to accept her fate should Torres choose not to undergo the procedure.  Taken aback, Torres chooses to help Pel.
+As they perform the surgery, the Doctor and Pel discuss his unique abilities as an [[Emergency Medical Hologram]].  Once it is over, all there is to do is wait: it will be a day or two before they know whether it was successful.  The Doctor suggests shutting Pel's program down temporarily, as that would slow the degradation of her neural pathways in Voyager's computer.  Pel, however, is too energetic to want to be shut down: she wants to tour the ship.  The Doctor suggests reading Voyager's medical database as an alternative, but then decides instead to take her to [[Chez Sandrine]] on the [[Holodeck]].
 ==Log Entries==
 *''Chief Medical Officer's log, supplemental. Test results indicate that the holographic body is functioning normally. The patient's synaptic patterns appear to be stable, so I'm now ready to begin transferring her cognitive and motor processes. ''
-*''Doctor's personal log, stardate 49504.3. Inaugural entry. Kes and Mister Paris have conspired to get Danara and me alone together in a place Paris considers romantic. I've never felt more . . . uneasy. ''
+*''Doctor's personal log, stardate 49504.3. Inaugural entry. Kes and Mister Paris have conspired to get Denara and me alone together in a place Paris considers romantic. I've never felt more . . . uneasy. ''
-*''Doctor's personal log, stardate 49507.2.The more time I spend with Danara, the more my programming continues to adapt. I look forward to perfecting my romantic skills once we've completed the synaptic transfer. ''
+*''Doctor's personal log, stardate 49507.2.The more time I spend with Denara, the more my programming continues to adapt. I look forward to perfecting my romantic skills once we've completed the synaptic transfer. ''
 ==Memorable Quotes==
+"''I never thought I'd see myself again.''"
+:- '''Denara Pel'''
+"''You're a computer simulation?''"<br />
+"''An extremely sophisticated computer simulation.''"
+:- '''Denara Pel''' and '''The Doctor'''
+"''Sometimes I think my people are so focused on trying to save lives, we don't know how to live anymore.''"
+:- '''Denara Pel'''
 "''Where are we exactly?''"<br />
-"''On a planet called [[Mars]] inside a primitive, land-based vehicle. It's called a '57 [[Chevrolet|Chevy]]. [[Tom Paris|Mr. Paris]] is quite an automobile afficionado; this is his program.''"<br />
+"''On a planet called [[Mars]] inside a primitive, land-based vehicle. It's called a '[[1957|57]] [[Chevrolet|Chevy]]. [[Tom Paris|Mr. Paris]] is quite an [[automobile]] aficionado; this is his program.''"<br />
 "''What is it that we're supposed to be doing?''"<br />
 "''I believe it's called... parking.''"
@@ Line 67: / Line 92: @@
 ==Background Information==
+* This is the first and only episode in which we see what a healthy [[Vidiian]] looks like.
-*[[Tom Paris]] continues his indiscipline that first started in [[Meld]]. This culminated with Paris having a scuffle with [[Chakotay]] on the bridge as Paris is 10 minutes late for shift. [[Tuvok]] escorts Paris to the [[brig]].
+* [[Tom Paris]] continues his indiscipline that first started in [[Meld]]. This culminated with Paris having a scuffle with [[Chakotay]] on the bridge as Paris is 10 minutes late for shift. [[Tuvok]] escorts Paris to the [[brig]].
 * The Doctor mentions a procedure by [[Leonard McCoy]] as he is discussing the neural implant on Pel's body with Pel.
+* When coming up with his excuse for being late to his shift, Tom jokes that he thinks he may have missed his calling in [[medicine]].  This foreshadows his later duty as assistant to [[The Doctor]].
 ==Links and References==