Lifesigns
StarDate: 49504.3
Original Airdate: February 26, 1996
By Christina Luckings
The Story
Tom Paris is late again for his bridge duty, and has an array
of excuses all ready for Commander Chakotay when Tuvok picks
up a subspace distress call. It is coming from a small Vidiian
ship with weak life signs on board. Bio sensors identify the
occupant as a female Vidiian. There is no response to their hails,
and with no other vessels in the sector, Janeway decides to beam
the occupant to sickbay.
Kes and the EMH stabilise her body, but they discover an implant
which is designed to supplement her higher brain functions. Unfortunately
it is attached to mostly dead nerve cells and she is dying. With
no time left to try and stimulate cell regeneration, the EMH
decides to transfer her synaptic patterns into the holo-buffer,
the only thing capable of holding such huge amounts of data,
then creates a holographic body so they can communicate with
her. This procedure will have the added benefit of creating a
representation of a healthy Vidiian body so they have an accurate
model to help them treat the real patient.
Chakotay reports the findings of the Vidiian shuttle’s
navigational logs to the Captain in her ready room. The woman
was en route to a colony 10 light years away which they will
reach in 22 days. He also wants to discuss Paris’s recent
behaviour, as he is her personal reclamation project, but she
tells him that she trusts him to handle crew discipline in what
ever way he sees fit.
‘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.’
Danara Pel wakes in Sickbay, looks at herself in a mirror and
bursts into tears. The EMH is baffled at her reaction and she
has to explain she has had the phage since she was seven years
old. He proudly explains that what she is seeing is a holographic
representation extrapolated from DNA in her cerebellum, and that
he too is a hologram. She explains that she is a haematologist,
and that she was returning home from helping to treat an outbreak
of the phage on Fina Prime. As she is a fellow medical practitioner,
the EMH suggests that she assist him in finding a way to treat
her real body, so that she can be transferred back into it. The
sight of her phage ravaged body revolts her now that she has
seen what she ought to look like. However, Danara manages to
hide it from the EMH and agrees to discuss treatments.
B’Elanna Torres is summoned to the Doctor’s office
to be told that he wants to take one gram of brain tissue from
her parietal lobe and graft it into Danara. Torres is resistant
to the idea. The memories of Sulan’s laboratory and what
he did to her are still fresh in her mind. Danara comes in and
assures her that she only wants her help if B’Elanna is
willing to give it, and she will answer any questions she might
have about the procedure. Torres goes and gets changed into a
hospital gown.
The EMH completes the graft under Danara’s admiring gaze,
explaining that this procedure was actually developed by Leonard
McCoy in 2253. In two or three days they will know if the graft
will hold, and in the meantime he recommends deactivating her
programme to slow the synaptic degradation. Danara would like
to take a walk, but that is not possible. However, there is somewhere
else on the ship a pair of holograms can go.
In Sandrine’s, Danara is greeted by Neelix on behalf of
the rest of the ship, and the resident gigolo asks her for a
dance. The EMH shoos them away and apologises. Danara doesn’t
mind. She isn’t used to such attention and is enjoying
it. Vidiians are not allowed to gather in groups, for health
reasons. She is also tired of talking about herself and wants
to learn about the EMH instead, so he gives her a potted history – ‘My
program was developed by Dr. Louis Zimmerman in a lab on Jupiter
Station. I was activated on stardate 48308. Since that time I've
performed 347 medical exams, healed 11 compound fractures, performed
3 appendectomies, and in my greatest feat of medical prowess
I once cured Mr. Neelix of an acute case of the hiccups.’ He
does not have a name, however, and dancing is not part of his
programming. She resolves the first by calling him Shmullus,
after an uncle who made him laugh. Back in sickbay, the two part
like teenagers after a first date, as he finally gets to deactivate
her programme for 8 hours.
In the mess hall, Chakotay asks Paris if he has got a problem
which would account for his recent behaviour, and Tom tells him
that he is his problem. He didn’t agree with his suggestion
to go through the nebula last week, doesn’t trust his judgment
or let him use his initiative. Chakotay points out that he isn’t
always going to agree with him, but making decisions is part
of being a leader. Paris continues his attack, claiming that
other members of the crew have problems with Chakotay’s
leadership style too, then asks to be excused. Taken aback, Chakotay
lets him go. Jonas has witnessed this altercation and reports
it to his Kazon handler. Lorrum orders him to create an accident
that will damage Voyager’s warp coils. Jonas refuses, and
insists that Seska contact him.
Kes discovers the EMH running a self-diagnostic programme. He
is having difficulty concentrating and handling objects, ever
since Danara came on board. The young woman immediately diagnoses
that he is suffering from love, pointing out that his programme
is adaptive, and that he has all the classic symptoms. She suggests
that he tell Danara how he feels, otherwise he may never find
out if she feels the same way. Later, with his usual impeccable
timing, he does, while stimulating neural pathways in her real
body. Surprised, Danara suggest that they keep the relationship
professional.
So the EMH seeks out someone who he assumes has had a lot of
experience of being rejected by women, and finds Tom Paris in
Sandrine’s. Tom assures him that the pain does eventually
go away, until a scent, a melody, brings it all flooding back
again. Then he offers to help.
Kes finds Danara online and waiting for the EMH to return to
sickbay. She realises that the Vidiian really does like the EMH
and asks why she didn’t tell him so. It was the way he
blurted it out that startled her, and she isn’t very good
at taking compliments anyway. Kes recommends that Danara tries
to spend some time alone with the EMH, while Paris suggests he
try romancing her.
‘Doctor's Personal Log, Stardate 49504.3. Inaugural entry.
Kes and Mr. Paris have conspired to get Danara and me alone together
in a place Paris considers romantic. I've never felt more uneasy.’
The place is a 1957 Chevy parked on Mars. The EMH gives Danara
flowers, chocolates and a cuddly toy, on Paris’ recommendation,
then they sit and gaze at the constellations while he points
out some astronomical highlights until finally they kiss to the
strains of ‘I only have eyes for you’ on the car
radio.
On the bridge, Paris is once again late for his duty, and Chakotay
tells him that he isn’t required today. He can come back
when he decides to take his job seriously again. The commander
takes Paris’s arm and begins steers him back to the steps
when Tom gets angry and shoves his superior officer to the floor.
Tuvok escorts Paris from the bridge to the brig.
Seska herself contacts Mike Jonas, to thank him for his assistance
so far and give him instructions on how to disable Voyager’s
warp coils. She is not planning an attack, but she does not intend
to raise her child on a Kazon vessel. He can either help her,
or suffer with Janeway. Seeing his reaction, she tells him that
it is all carefully planned, and that they will be waiting for
the ship at Hemikek IV once the deed is done.
‘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.’
Something is going wrong with the transfer. The graft is being
rejected and the EMH is detecting high levels of the wrong drug
in Danara’s system. He concludes that someone with a grudge
against Vidiians is trying to kill her, but as he goes to call
Lt. Tuvok, Danara stops him and confesses that she is the one
trying to kill herself. She would rather live just two more days
as a hologram than go on wasting away a piece at a time, ugly
and ill. The EMH assures her that he will not feel differently
about her once her mind is back in her own body. He tells her
that before he met her he was just a collection of photons and
forcefields, but now his programming has adapted and he feels
that he is finally living, not just working. He begs her not
to die. Danara points out that once in her own body, she will
be obliged to return to her people and try to help them. That
time is still two weeks away. They have that much time to spend
together.
In Sandrine’s, the EMH tells the computer to play some
music, then he takes the fully Vidiian Danara in his arms and
dances with her.
Review:
The Lifesigns referred to in the title are those of the EMH,
as he moves from computer programme to a living being. Now I
personally find this whole business frankly annoying, but this
is after all a work of total fiction so I will attempt to set
that aside for the purposes of this review. As an exploration
of first love, and persuading someone that beauty is more than
skin deep, this story works. I suppose it helps when the object
of your affections is an attractive woman, and the fatal disease
she is carrying cannot affect you because you are a computer
generated projection of photons and forcefields……sorry.
But the love story isn’t the only one going on in this
show. This is a very busy little episode. Tom Paris is deliberately
setting out to annoy Chakotay in public, for reasons which only
he knows at the moment. A part of me wishes that the Commander
would resort to the Maquis way like he did in Learning Curve
and deck our Warp 10 hero to teach him some manners, but instead
it’s Chakotay who ends up on the deck this time and Paris
in the brig. Tune in next week to find out what is going on,
because we also have Seska wanting to acquire Voyager for use
as her personal nursery. Will Jonas do the dirty deed, and when?
All in all, a fair offering, with good performances from the
main protagonists. The effects of the creation of Danara’s
holographic body were excellent, although why a hologram would
need such internal details as a skeleton and organs is beyond
me. We got references back to season one, with Phage and Faces
(hence Torres’s involvement in Danara’s treatment)
as well as reminders about Wildman and Seska’s pregnancies
and evidence that Paris isn’t the only person capable of
flying the ship after all. Someone called Grimes can do it too.
For the trivia buffs out there, this episode was filmed AFTER
Investigations, but screened BEFORE it so that the continuity
could make some sense. I’d love to know why.
Grade: 6/10
Cast:
Kate Mulgrew as Kathryn Janeway
Robert Beltran as Chakotay
Roxanne Biggs-Dawson as B'Elanna Torres
Jennifer Lien as Kes
Robert Duncan McNeill as Tom Paris
Ethan Phillips as Neelix
Robert Picardo as The Doctor
Tim Russ as Tuvok
Garrett Wang as Harry Kim
Guest Cast:
Susan Diol as Dr. Denara Pel
Rick Gianasi as Gigolo
Creative Staff:
Director: Cliff Bole
Written By: Kenneth Biller
