---Synopsis:
While on a science mission, Harry, Seven and the Doctor are attacked by an alien race hostile to holographic lifeforms, leading the Doctor to hide in an unexpected place. Meanwhile on Voyager, Tuvok undergoes Pon farr.
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By Richie Vest
Nits: This was a good episode it would have been better if Tuvok's pon farr was explored a little more. I enjoyed Jeri Ryan's performance a lot in this episode she was really like the Doctor, even some of his mannerism.

1. Where was B'Elanna?

Happy nitpicking!
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By Kristina Kim on Tuesday, November 14, 2000 - 12:05 am:

From the teaser:
"...you became sexually aroused while in my body?!?!"


...why do i have the feeling we're all about to have a "rejoined" flashback???

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By Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Tuesday, November 14, 2000 - 12:34 am:

Hmmm... looks like I called it.

April 20, 2000 - 02:24 am on the Live Fast And Prosper board I wrote: The Doctor as Fake Janeway. I hope this doesn't foreshadow an episode where the Doctor explores his 'feminine' side. ("Me Doctor. Me Jane.")

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By Spornan on Tuesday, November 14, 2000 - 7:38 am:

Hey KAM, who's gonna win the super Bowl? You should exploit this gift as much as you can, especially in my favor.

What about winning lottery numbers?

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By kitt on Tuesday, November 14, 2000 - 11:06 am:

explain me six on we?

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By KAM on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 12:25 am:

Spornan, the team that will win the SuperBowl is the one that has the most points at the end of the game.

You can bet on it. ;-)

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By Spornan on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 1:47 am:

I dunno.

We'll see if that gift of yours works this time. I, for one, don't think it will.

I don't think you'll get two in a row.

:p

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By Chris Booton (Cbooton) on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 6:59 pm:

The doc while in seven says something along the lines of "I'll the the first POW to earn a medal(?) from his captors" , and no one does as much as flinch. Anyone else find that unusual?

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By Lee Jamilkowski (Ljamilkowski) on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 7:48 pm:

Wow! Chakotay actually got a line. If I'm correct, his "They're in bigger trouble than we thought," line was his first in this whole episode.

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By InSoc2000 on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 8:00 pm:

Okay... the clip of Voyager all beat up in the preview for next week was obviously from "Year of Hell". I don't think it's a coincedence that all of Deck 5 was blown out in the preview, too.

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By Spornan on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 8:03 pm:

Well I don't have too many nits for this one. A fun episode though.

Why exactly are they going off "chasing comets" in the first place? Aren't they trying to get home?

Jeri Ryan does a very good Doctor, heh.

Guess we shouldn't be surprised that Voyager is at impulse.

Are we to believe that Tuvok has his last Ponn Farr almost exactly before he joined Voyager? Seems kinda lucky.

Holy •••• on a crutch! They're going at Warp at the end!

Next on UPN 9 news at 10: We pretend that the viewers have a chance to pick the star of the next Star Trek show. We're a bunch of morons!

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By Shane Tourtellotte on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 8:10 pm:

7 seemed different at the start of this episode, with a sense of humor more bantering than sardonic, as is normal for her. It just struck me odd.

Inpulse shots: 2, when they're supposed to be hurrying toward a rendezvous with the Flyer.

Good catch on "his captors", Chris.

A very hidden 47: When Chakotay patches the comm into 7's cybercortical whatever, the console he's working on contains a number 752, which is 47 multiplied by 16. Yes, I am obsessing. That's what we do here.

Not much else I saw aside from that. I guess my nitpicking skills have been exhausted from talking back to TV reports on the election.

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By PaulG on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 8:44 pm:

Jeri Ryan and Robert Picardo were most excellent, as usual. These two are the main reason I still watch the show and they rewarded me quite nicely. Thanks.

But yet there are nits:

Generally, when I am in an outgunned shuttle craft being attacked by a capital ship, sending a distress call is usually on the top of my list. What was Harry waiting for?

These aliens have no better security than Voyager. When SevenDoc is called out the first time, both the guard and the medic turn their backs on Kim (who is inches away) for several seconds while the force field is down. I was waiting for the Kirkish double-axe handle and bionic chop.

Considering that SevenDoc called the aliens murderers for decompiling the Doc, these aliens were way too trusting. They are also way too trusting for aliens who believe the Voyager duo are smuggling in deadly spies and producing biological weapons. SevenDoc is left alone with isolated crewmen and walks unescorted through the halls as well.

IIRC, "decompiling" is breaking down a computer program into its original coding (usually an approximation in low level code). I think the term is misused. In computer terms, what the aliens were doing was either deactivating or deleting.

I thought we tried this holodeck gimmick with Vorik and it did not work. But I appreciate the writers remembering Pon Farr.

Finally, how in the world do these aliens detect photonics on the DFII and Voyager when they cannot detect a photonic ON THEIR OWN SHIP!?! All sorts of alarms should have gone off as soon as the Doc left Seven's body. Folks, we have found a ship with worse security than Voyager. Egad!

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By Lee Jamilkowski (Ljamilkowski) on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 9:23 pm:

When Doctor-in-Seven tells the doctor/engineer/tactical officer lady (an hour and a half later,and I can't remember her name! argh!) that they should keep the captain's reaction to synthehol quiet from the crew, she says it pretty loudly in front of two guards stadnind there. Now, given how fast rumors and other such things fly on Voyager, I bet it wouldn't take long for the captain's reaction to get told to every crew member on the alien vessel.

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By D.W. March on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - 10:13 pm:

This episode wasn't nearly as good as the last few, IMNSHO. Harry and Seven don't put up nearly as much of a fight as they should have.

What's that smell? Let's see... Harry is in a jail cell with Seven... all alone... TPTB missed a chance at a hilarious line which is much too rude for this board.

Speaking of strange smells, did anyone see a bathroom in that cell?

I guess Janeway is tired of having boarding parties raid her ship... interesting idea of diplomacy there. I wonder what Starfleet will think of that.

I'm surprised no one's caught this one yet: the Doctor's communicator is holographic! Haven't we seen him use it in other episodes?

Strange how Harry manages to hold the emitter just high enough that it'll end up in just the right spot on the doctor's arm every time.

At the end it looked like the doc didn't have his emitter on.

I also wondered about the alien's ability to detect holograms onboard other ships but not on their own. Perhaps the emitter had something to do with it?

Last of all, why won't TPTB let Seven have a real personality? It's been three years and she still has a stick up her butt. Her acting talents really do shine when she gets to play a part other than Borg Ultrabitch. It would be nice to see her smile once in a while.

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By WhoreBath on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 12:21 am:

I wonder why it was necessary to download the Doctor into Seven at all. Many times in the past he has been stored in the mobile emitter itself. But then we wouldn't have all of the funny-haha stuff. Of Course, I suppose they might not have been able to secure the emitter and didn't want to take a chance on losing him.

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By Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 12:29 am:

Well, I'm glad it wasn't as bad as I feared it could be. ;-)

In some respects, especially the overeating, it reminded me of Red Dwarf's Bodyswap.

Of course, we never found out why there was a war between this race & the photonics. (Did they get ahold of Tom's Chaotica program?;-)

When the Doc is talking about experiencing life & how 7 was more like a hologram I thought this would somehow lead to a peace treaty.

The actress who played the doc/engineer/tactical person was a terrorist on the DS9 ep Invasive Procedures.

7 is staggering from the synthehol, but she seems to recover quite quickly in the cell and is apparently sober again when the Doctor is back in control.

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By KAM on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 12:33 am:

Oooh, no board for the next ep yet. In the preview it sounds like they say Onaran ship. Wasn't that one of the races from NextGen's Symbiosis?

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By MarkN on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 3:41 am:

Wasn't the alien captain played by the same actor who was Dulmer or Lucsly (I forget which was which) in DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations"?

It was also good to see Megan Gallagher again. I've liked her ever since "Hill Street Blues".

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By Brian Lombard on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 5:11 am:

PAL. The preview for this episode put 7/Doc's line "Interesting sensation to say the least" on the Voyager viewscreen, as if she were talking to Janeway. But in the show, it was just a passing comment made when they're first captured.

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By Len on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 7:28 am:

It was also good to see Megan Gallagher again. I've liked her ever since "Hill Street Blues".

I agree..she was also good in DS9's Invasive Procedures & Little Green Men!

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By Anonymous on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 8:05 am:

I agree with Whorebath -- why couldn't they just turn off Doc's program and pocket his Holo-emitter? It's been done dozens of times before.

As for the "prisoner of war winning a medal from his captors" line, I don't think that's a nit --
I think it's acceptable for a woman to use the masculine voice when discussing the behavior of soldiers.

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By Anonymous on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 9:27 am:

Why was Tuvok perspiring so much? I don't remember Spock or Vorik breaking a sweat. Hmmm...Pon Farr lite.

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By ScottN on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 10:41 am:

Vulcans do not have sweat glands. Any time a Vulcan sweats, it is a nit.

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By Jason on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 10:48 am:

Perhaps Tuvok had Ted Stryker's "drinking problem" while in Pon Farr. He wasn't sweating, he tryed to take a drink and missed his mouth.

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By PaulG on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 10:51 am:

D.W. March: The emitter is not holographic. However, in "Critical Care" the Doc was transferred around the hospital with the emitter attached which means either a transporter beam or a nit. As for the emitter preventing detection, it did not do so on the DFII. Unless SevenDoc fiddled with it to block the scanning (which is never mentioned), it should not be a shield to detection.

Good pickup on the bathroom!

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By TJoe on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 11:05 am:

Kmorgan-
I also saw the similarities between this episode and Red Dwarf's "Bodyswap". In fact, many of the recent Voyager episodes have plots amazingly similar to our favorite British sci-fi sitcom. Has anyone here compiled a comparison list?

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By Benjamin Daniel Cohen (Bcohen) on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 1:45 pm:

In the preview it sounds like they say Onaran ship. Wasn't that one of the races from NextGen's Symbiosis?

I'm not exactly sure it was "Symbiosis", but that name does sound very familiar. It wouldn't be the first time the writers reused a TNG race name this season. In "Drive", one of the races in the interstellar rally was called "Terrellian".

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By Jwb52z on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 2:54 pm:

::Last of all, why won't TPTB let Seven have a real personality? It's been three years and she still has a stick up her butt. Her acting talents really do shine when she gets to play a part other than Borg Ultrabitch. It would be nice to see her smile once in a while.:: D W March

If they did that then people would be griping about how she's not borg enough anymore. It's a situation without an answer.

::7 is staggering from the synthehol, but she seems to recover quite quickly in the cell and is apparently sober again when the Doctor is back in control.:: Keith Alan Morgan

That's not a nit. You're supposed to be able to shrug off the affects of synthehol with a simple mental wish to do so, because it is just that, SYNTHETIC.

:ooh, no board for the next ep yet. In the preview it sounds like they say Onaran ship. Wasn't that one of the races from NextGen's Symbiosis?:: Keith Alan Morgan

No, that race was the Ornarans, not Onarans.

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By Zelbob Geeb on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 4:15 pm:

Ornarans... Onarans... Hmmm.. They sound too similar and they could be confused...

Sounds like a job for the GalCouRaNaConRes

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By Rene on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 6:28 pm:

"If they did that then people would be griping about how she's not borg enough anymore. It's a situation without an answer."

The answer is simple : People like her better when she's not herself. I certainly liked Doc Seven better than regular Seven.

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By KAM on Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 11:16 pm:

Jwb52z: It was established back in Timeless that Synthehol affects 7 the way alcohol affects a normal person.

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By Johnny Boy on Friday, November 17, 2000 - 8:42 am:

I wish Doc would have fluffed Seven's breasts while in her body. You know •••• well he's been looking forward to doing that ever since she's been on board.

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By Jwb52z on Friday, November 17, 2000 - 9:29 am:

::Jwb52z: It was established back in Timeless that Synthehol affects 7 the way alcohol affects a normal person.:: KAM

That's the one thing I never remembered.

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By PaulG on Friday, November 17, 2000 - 11:23 am:

I reviewed the SevenDoc drunken scene and this is what I see:

- In the DFII, SevenDoc appears to be somewhat drunk. The alien captain also seems a little buzzed though it is hard to say. He may be love drunk.
- Back at the cell, SevenDoc appears to be drunk.
- After the Doc is separated, Seven is somewhat unsteady and definitely feels ill and "impaired". She is upset both about 8 glasses of wine plus a good quantity of rich desserts.
- After SevenDoc is reassembled, SevenDoc looks fresh as a spring daisy.

The quickness of the recovery does seem unusual but not impossible. With the Doc back in charge of the body, perhaps he was able to override Seven's discomfort. SevenDoc while tipsy did not appear to be in the pain that Seven was in moments later.

There is also the possibility that SevenDoc's exuberance is not related to the booze. The Doc could have been experiencing an adrenaline rush from all the new experiences he enjoyed.

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By Q on Friday, November 17, 2000 - 4:58 pm:

Big Background Nit:
The Vulcans are one of the two primary species in the Federation. They've founded it, fought for it, been known across the Alpha Quadrant for hundreds of years. Doctors from all over have heard of Ponn Farr and researched it. There are probably Vulcan masters who spend their entire lives studying the process. And now TPTB are expecting us to believe that one human-based EMH on a starship lost in space can just come up with a simple Ponn Farr medication. Sounds like they just rushed to fill in the Ponn Farr thing when they realized that Tuvok would have to undergo it sometime or later.

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By RPGMaster on Friday, November 17, 2000 - 5:51 pm:

PaulG -
D.W. March didn't say the emitter was holographic, he said the communicator was holographic.

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By Jwb52z on Friday, November 17, 2000 - 5:55 pm:

Q, it is possible that being in the Delta Quadrant and meeting new species and technologies gave the Doctor some new ideas or hints of ways to possibly create new medications, and Tuvok says he did it WITH him, not alone.

By Anonymous on Friday, November 17, 2000 - 8:11 pm:

--I thought we tried this holodeck gimmick with Vorik and it did not work. But I appreciate the writers remembering Pon Farr.--

As I recall the episode, the reason the holodeck didn't work with Vorik was they tried to give him a Vulcan female, but he had already bonded with B'Elanna and no one else would do.

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By Newt on Saturday, November 18, 2000 - 12:13 am:

There are probably Vulcan masters who spend their entire lives studying the process.

Well, given the very Victorian attitudes towards sex and the Pon Farr process the Vulcan seem to have I find the idea of many Vulcan's studying it, and if they did they would be in my opinion society outcasts.

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By KenG on Saturday, November 18, 2000 - 12:19 am:

In the opening sequence when Harry is piloting the DFII, he turns to reply to Seven and, if you watch his right hand (on the joystick) it pulls to the left - which is a natural tendency. Why, then, did the ship not pitch to the left?

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By The Undesirable Element on Saturday, November 18, 2000 - 9:51 am:

Because the ship read the script.

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By Anonymous on Saturday, November 18, 2000 - 10:42 am:

It is obvious that what those Vulcans needed all along was not new doctors for their medical research, but new writers to re-write it! Now if we could only get someone to re-write cancer into a sweaty two-day flu!

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By PaulG on Saturday, November 18, 2000 - 11:36 am:

RPGMaster: DOH! You're right, of course. Yes, it does appear that the Doc has a holographic communicator - it makes sense since a "real" one would fall to the floor everytime he deactivated, which is inconvenient. They did get that right this episode (the Doc always had his on) - I was not paying attention to see if the show also was consistent in previous episodes. My apologies.

Anonymous: I find your explanation plausible. IIRC (and it has been a long time), Vorik did not yet have a wife so he bonded with Torres. A substitute would not do.

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By D.W. March on Saturday, November 18, 2000 - 9:34 pm:

My question about the communicator is this: if it is holographic, which it appears to be, can the doctor use it as a communicator? Have we ever seen him use it? And if he can make a functioning holographic communicator for himself, why not a functioning holographic phaser or tricorder? We already know that holographic weapons can inflict real damage. Perhaps the writers will explore this in the future...

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By Jwb52z on Sunday, November 19, 2000 - 12:46 am:

D.W. March, the problem with the holographic phaser is that it would still need a power source, and creating one would be rather difficult, it seems. Holographic tricorders are unnecessary since the real thing already exists. It would also require some interesting coding be written into the Doctor's program.

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By Jason on Sunday, November 19, 2000 - 9:04 am:

Its possible that the actual communicator is built into the moble emmiter itself. After all, they transfer the Doc's program all the time wirelessly. Its possible that whenever the Doctor taps his communicator, he is really activating the moble emitter's communicator and speaking through that.

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By Dan R. on Sunday, November 19, 2000 - 10:46 am:

Cbooton,
I noticed that line right away too. I think it might have been on purpose. I mean the doc is so used to refering himself as "he" (his favorite subject i believe...;-)) so its not hard to believe he'd have trouble say HER captors instead of him...It could be a nit...or it could have been on purpose...but I think the writers got lucky and can claim it was just Doc refering to himself as HIS instead of HER.

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By Bob Brehm on Sunday, November 19, 2000 - 11:00 am:

I thought the alien ship looked like a cross between a Cylon Raider and a Ferengi Ship.

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By Merat on Tuesday, November 28, 2000 - 7:14 am:

I loved the Holodoc's expression when Seven said her "you became sexually aroused in MY BODY" line.

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By Adam Bomb on Wednesday, November 29, 2000 - 7:19 pm:

How many of the Seven Deadly Sins did the Doc commit while in Seven's body? I have two-lust and gluttony. (Personally, I don't like cheesecake- much too rich for me, but to each his own.)

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By Adam Bomb on Wednesday, November 29, 2000 - 7:25 pm:

To Len: Megan Gallagher was also in "Millenium" (as Frank Black's wife) and in the first season of "The Larry Sanders Show."
Did Kate Mulgrew reduce her workload? Lately, her on-screen time seems to be down.

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By RPGMaster on Wednesday, November 29, 2000 - 11:48 pm:

Back to the holographic equipment discussion:
I've wondered something for a while. What would happen if you used the holodeck to create two holographic holoemitters, and set them to project each other? Could you take them out of the holodeck? We do know that holographic communicators and phasers work, so why not holographic holoemitters?

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By KAM on Thursday, November 30, 2000 - 12:19 am:

Maybe that's how the holographic ship in Red Dwarf's Holoship was created?

Reminds me of a joke I like to do with extension cords. If there is an extension cord with a multiple outlets I occasionally joke about plugging the cord into one of its outlets and getting power when we turn on the switch.

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By DujHoD on Thursday, February 08, 2001 - 7:11 pm:


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Quote:

I thought we tried this holodeck gimmick with Vorik and it did not work. But I appreciate the writers remembering Pon Farr.
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In addition to Anonymous's point, also note that Tuvok (unless I'm mistaken) is significantly older than Vorik. He has more experience with controlling his pon farr and with being a Vulcan in general. He is probably more disciplined than Vorik, who (if I recall correctly) deliberately sabotaged his own holodeck experience, so to speak.

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By Anonymous on Thursday, March 22, 2001 - 7:49 pm:

Wasn't it remarkable how the tubules in Seven's Borg hand implant aligned precisely with the two plugs on Doc's mobile emitter?

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By Anonymous Person on Sunday, April 08, 2001 - 1:37 pm:

Did anyone else see the alien captain as a hilarious parody of Captain Kirk? I especially loved the way SevDoc says that a Starfleet captain would be put in command of a garbage scow or something if he acted like that. Not so a hundred years ago.

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By Jwb52z on Sunday, April 08, 2001 - 2:44 pm:

Anonymous, it is possible that Seven can control the movement of her own assimilation tubules.

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By Trike on Thursday, June 28, 2001 - 11:10 pm:

Because Vulcans are touch telepaths, I thought there would be a sort of mind-joining when they mated, especially between husbands and wives. Tuvok could not have experienced this with the hologram of his wife. Anyway, A hologram could not come close to simulating the intimate details of lovemaking between married couples, so I was surprised the holodeck was even used. (Vorik was a different case because he wasn't married; heck, he looked young enough to be going through pon farr for the first time.)

I also thought Vulcans still hid details about pon farr from off-worldlers, yet Paris was familiar enough with it that he knew the seven-year cycle.

I recognized the female alien as one of the humans from the Roswell DS9 episode. A second episode involving this race's battle with its holograms would have been good to explore some of the serious themes about their struggle and culture that were brushed aside for this lighthearted hour.

The episode was fun and Ryan did a great job, but the premise was flimsily handled. It was never adequately explained why the Doctor had to retake control of Seven's body after the first time.

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By muas on Sunday, July 01, 2001 - 6:17 pm:

It was never adequately explained why the Doctor had to retake control of Seven's body after the first time.

The reason was because these people they had been captured by were at war with the "photonics". If they had discovered one with Seven and Kim, they would have destroyed him and them.

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By LUIGI NOVI on Sunday, July 01, 2001 - 10:22 pm:

Muas, I don't think that was the point of Trike's question. I think Trike was asking why, when hiding in Seven, did he have to be in control of her, and I think the reason for that, Trike, is that his being in her circuitry automatically gave him dominance over her.

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By Trike on Sunday, July 01, 2001 - 11:01 pm:

Strike one and strike two. Sorry guys. I meant, why not store the Doctor in his mobile emitter whenever the aliens showed up? (Somebody had already posted this way up on the board). He would have been much safer there in Seven body's, where his presence might have harmed her, and the alien captain had bought the story that Seven needed the emitter for her regeneration cycle.

This reminds me of another nit: The captain said he was going to have the mobile emitter studied when he took possession of it, but when Seven asked for it back, he had it stashed in his tunic.

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By Trike on Sunday, July 01, 2001 - 11:09 pm:

Aaaaaa! My kingdom for an edit post feature!

It should have read: "He would have been much safer there than in Seven's body, where his presence might have harmed her ..."

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By LUIGI NOVI on Sunday, July 01, 2001 - 11:46 pm:

Don't worry, Trike, I understood what you meant. Sorry I misinterpreted your original question.

First of all, there was no indication given that Doc's presence in Seven's circuitry posed any danger to her.

Second, Ranek scanned the emitter with a hand held device in the episode. It's possible it would've picked up the program had Doc been in there.

Regarding Ranek stashing the emiiter in his pocket, why does doing this conflict with his earlier statement? So he decided to hold onto this new piece of technology personally, and hand it over to Lokirrim R&D himself. Why not?
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MY NITS:
Or did this episode originally have a different solution for Tuvok’s pon farr…?
The preview for this episode that ran at the end of Inside Man contained a shot of an exasperated Janeway from Critical Care, right after she ceased her conversation with the merchant’s wife and promptly let go of Tuvok’s hand, which of course, does not appear in this episode.
That’s funny, Don’t people, specifically women, usually say "I’m late" after they have sex?
Paris learns in Act 2 that Tuvok is undergoing Pon Farr. As I pointed out under nits for Hope and Fear, Tuvok told Nidell Ren in Ex Post Facto that he had been married for 67 years at that point, and that if we assume he married when he underwent Pon Farr and took a mate, that he would undergo it again three years hence, or sometime during the fourth season, but did not. I also pointed out under nits for Unimatrix Zero part I that he told Janeway in the episode Flashback that he underwent Pon Farr in 2299, a conflicting date, and that if we assume that one as canonical, (speculating that perhaps he took a mate when he underwent Pon Farr, but didn’t marry until 5 years later) that he would undergo it again next in 2376, during the sixth season, but did not. He now undergoes the process in this episode, which, depending on which prior premise you regard as canonical, makes it anywhere from 1 to 3 years late.
Maybe we should send them a couple of cases of Ginko Biloba
Interestingly, many Internet commentators at Trek Nation, apparently totally forgetting the prior two established dates, fully accepted this episode as the proper date of Tuvok’s Pon Farr, and opined that he would’ve therefore been with the Maquis during his last one, which is absurd, since we don’t know how long he was with them prior to the start of the series. For all we know, if we were to assume this episode as the correct time of his current Pon Farr, and the year prior to the series’ first season as his last one, he could’ve very well have underwent Pon Farr in March of that year (which this episode is set in, given the stardate given in the opening shot of Act 2), and then joined the Maquis in, say, September. Why all of these talking heads not only forget about about the prior dates given in Ex Post Facto and Flashback, but also assume that his Pon Farr and joining of the Maquis could not have occurred at two different points during the same year, is beyond me.
Good idea, Tom! Or better yet, why not tell him to "think about football"?
Also, Paris suggests a cold sonic shower for Tuvok. As I mentioned under nits for If Wishes Were Horses(DS9) and Memorial, sonic showers, as seen at the very end of Juggernaut, do not use water.
Better reconfigure his memory too
Elated at the sensation of taste, Doc, inhabiting Seven in Act 2, suggests to Harry that they reconfigure his program when they get back to Voyager so he can eat. Harry points out that he has no stomach, and Doc says they can configure a holographic stomach. Apparently, Doc forgot that he ate elk back in Heroes and Demons.
Wish I had no taste. This scene definitely left a bad one in my mouth
Besides—and Doc should know this—Doc doesn’t have any saliva, and without saliva, not only is chewing and digesting food more difficult, but there is no taste. While in Seven’s body, he may be able to taste food, but as a hologram, he wouldn’t.
Or maybe Vorick had more particular tastes? Something with black leather, whip cream and midgets?
Tuvok’s use of a holodeck T’Pel to treat his Pon Farr apparently worked, despite the fact that it didn’t work for Vorick in Blood Fever, and despite the fact that that was Vorick’s first Pon Farr, and Tuvok is a century older, with, according to him, a much stronger libido. Perhaps the ability of each Vulcan to psychologically accept the hologram as real enough to use as an effective treatment affects whether or not it is able to do so?

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By ScottN on Monday, July 02, 2001 - 9:59 am:

Perhaps Pon Farr occurs every 7 VULCAN years? Anyone know how long Vulcan's year is?

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By Dustin Westfall on Monday, July 02, 2001 - 10:57 am:

>Also, Paris suggests a cold sonic shower for Tuvok. As I mentioned under nits for If Wishes Were Horses(DS9) and Memorial, sonic showers, as seen at the very end of Juggernaut, do not use water.
-Luigi Novi

What does water have to do with it? He could simply mean that there is a temperature control on the sonics (absurdist science, but this is Voyager, after all). It's also possible he was referring to taking a shower in a cold room. Either way, it should be sufficient to "cool" a human's libido for a little while. Whether it would have been enough for Tuvok, we'll likely never know.

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By LUIGI NOVI on Monday, July 02, 2001 - 2:13 pm:

Sorry, Scott, but ALL time references heard/seen on Trek are Earth ones; it's assumed the UT translates the alien time period into the Earth one, as stated in The Chronology.

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By Duke of Earl Grey on Monday, July 02, 2001 - 4:02 pm:

Then when did the Earth day aquire 26 hours? Deep Space Nine makes common reference to that, so Bajoran time references aparently aren't translated.

If that were true though, I'm going to assume that Starfleet officers with American ancestry never did learn the metric system.

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By Trike on Monday, July 02, 2001 - 11:55 pm:

Dang! I've got to anti-nit myself from the other day. I just caught the Vorik episode again, and in it, Tom becomes familiar enough with pon farr to know about the seven-year cycle and other details.

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By LUIGI NOVI on Tuesday, July 03, 2001 - 4:36 am:

Duke of Earl Grey: Then when did the Earth day aquire 26 hours?

Luigi Novi: It didn't. The Bajoran day is 26 hours long, not Earth's.

Duke of Earl Grey: Deep Space Nine makes common reference to that, so Bajoran time references aparently aren't translated.

Luigi Novi: Duke, I certainly hope you're not being obtuse here. Generic timespans ("Five minutes", "Two weeks", "A hundred years") are translated into Earth units, because they're relative, and don't include specific dates. "You have computer access 26 hours a day", as Kira tells Ghemor in the beginning of Ties of Blood and Water(DS9), however, is not generic. It's specific to Bajor's rotation, and isn't translatable. (How would you translate something like that?) Same as when Timicin spoke of his 60th birthday in Half a Life(TNG) or when Dukat spoke of his son, Mekor's eleventh birthday in Defiant(DS9). When they mention those things, they're talking about the 60th time Kaelon orbited its sun since Timicin's birth, and the eleventh time Cardassia did since Mekor's birth, not the 60th or 11th time Earth did.

But if a Vulcan year, for example, is one and a half Earth years, then when a Vulcan says "two years", the UT translates it to a human as "three years," and so forth for every other alien as their planetary year units, because those units are relative.

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By NarkS on Tuesday, July 03, 2001 - 1:12 pm:

Perhaps Pon Farr occurs every 7 VULCAN years? Anyone know how long Vulcan's year is?

I would suggest perhaps that it's not 7 vulcan years, but rather ROUNDED to 7 earth years. If it's, for example, 7 years and a month, or 7 years and two weeks, then this could account for the time difference, no?

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By Stone cold Steven Of None on Sunday, February 24, 2002 - 3:25 pm:

"Of course, we never found out why there was a war between this species and the photonics."

It was because TPTB were too busy creating holoporn; they could have started with "Revulsion" and taken it to "Flesh And Blood"; instead we got "Fair Haven" (Or "Foul Heaving", or "One Hour Of Pure Torture For Brokenhearted J/Cers Everywhere", as I've come to call it); _this_ mess: and "Human Error" (The title says it _all_). Thank _you_ so much, O PTB, for all three.

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By Sophie Hawksworth on Thursday, May 23, 2002 - 7:10 am:

Fun line from Neelix to Tuvok: "You should be in bed with your condition."

Of course, Neelix thinks he's got flu. He's actually got Pon Farr and should be in bed with his wife. Talk about rubbing it in...

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By John A. Lang on Saturday, January 01, 2005 - 3:45 pm:

Brilliant acting award: Jeri Ryan

Her performance as the EMH was fantastic!

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By John-Boy on Wednesday, September 28, 2005 - 11:39 am:

Thats what Jeri gets paid for: TO ACT!

Thats why they call it ACTING.

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By KAM on Thursday, September 29, 2005 - 1:20 am:

You mean she wasn't paid to be fanservice or Brannon's girlfriend??? *shock* *gasp* 8-o

Seriously while actors do get paid to act, some are not very good; some are good in certain types of parts, but not others; some can do what the script requires; & some go above & beyond.

JAL, apparently, felt she was above & beyond in this ep.

Interestingly while you have complained about posters 'bashing' Voyager you now seem to be bothered by a poster PRAISING A VOYAGER ACTOR'S ACTING ABILITY. I should have thought you wanted people to post nice things about this show.

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By John A. Lang on Thursday, September 29, 2005 - 10:23 am:

Thanks, KAM. That's exactly what I meant.

DW: the Doctor's communicator is holographic! Haven't we seen him use it in other episodes? [...]We already know that holographic weapons can inflict real damage.
He has definately used his communicator, but I attribute this as simply a formality. Why would a computer need to hit a badge to talk through itself? Your second point brings up a question: can the doc create holo-weapons, non-mechanical, like Odo can form them?

KAM: Of course, we never found out why there was a war between this race & the photonics.
Although it wasn't stated specifically, it was mentioned that some banded together because they felt oppressed and began harming people.

Jwb52z: You're supposed to be able to shrug off the affects of synthehol with a simple mental wish to do so, because it is just that, SYNTHETIC.
Mental wish? If a substance affects a person no mental wish will help him/her.

LN: Doc doesn’t have any saliva, and without saliva, not only is chewing and digesting food more difficult, but there is no taste.
I believe taste buds have something to do with taste. I thought saliva is an initial stage for digestion, and an lubricant for the esphagus.

When the Doc asks Harry to keep the DF II steady via intercom why does Harry yell? His communicator is a foot from his mouth. Harry contacts the attacking vessil as such: "this is the Federation ship Delta Flyer." The DF is a shuttle, not a ship. Ships are measured in size and crew compliment. Tuvok is obviously ill, asks for some meds, and Tom won't give him any without knowing what's wrong? Tuvok is second officer and you're not a real doctor Tom. Just do what you're told and help out a shipmate. "We're both reasonable people," Janeway to an alien she's never met before. The Doc being able to completely control Seven's body just seemed ridiculous to me. Conflicting minds, a la MPD, would've been better IMO.

Interesting line:

"One slice of New York Cheesecake" by 7 of 9 (Jeri Ryan)

It's interesting because Jeri Ryan >IS< one slice of "cheesecake"


(No disrespect to Marina...she is an ENTIRE SLAB of cheesecake)

Spornan: Why exactly are they going off "chasing comets" in the first place? Aren't they trying to get home?
Thank you for usually pointing out these things A good question but I believe they were 'mining' this comet for useful materials and Doc got carried away with studying microbes. Another question is why do they allow the only trustworthy medical practitioner, who is also a piece of technology prone to malfunction, leave the ship so often?

KAM: Of course, we never found out why there was a war between this race & the photonics.
Me: Although it wasn't stated specifically, it was mentioned that some banded together because they felt oppressed and began harming people.
Adding to this lack of basic plot information, this show has been building up the rights of holograms/photics throughout the show, in the same way androids and other artificials were in TNG, and I think it just fell flat in VGR. An uprising by holograms? Delete their programs and/or remove holo-emitters! It's really that simple; and essentially raiding ships because holograms are used is crazy considering that alien technology shouldn't be compatible and in most cases less sophisticated.

Despite displaying the appearance of a male I doubt the Doc was programmed as a male; I realize that his program was allowed to grow/adapt since season one but gender-specific urges/tendencies is ridiculous IMHO. Doc-Seven is 'aroused' by a female alien and turned off by a male while in 7's body; wouldn't it make more sense in this ep for Doc-Seven to enjoy the sensation of arousal in general, breaking the traditional gender roles? To me that sounds more interesting, and fun to watch Jeri Ryan perform, than the tacked-on Pon Farr sub-plot. I've suppressed most of the VGR eps that take place in the holodeck; has the Doc's gender been discussed before?

this show has been building up the rights of holograms/photics throughout the show, in the same way androids and other artificials were in TNG, and I think it just fell flat in VGR.

I think the basic premise was ridiculous. At least in TNG, IIRC, it was focused on Soong-type androids which were an attempt by Soong to create a sapient android rather than something which had the illusion of intelligence.

The Artificial in Artificial Intelligence actually refers to the "intelligence" itself, not the fact that it's in a machine. It's programming that simply appears to be intelligence. Not that very many writers go with that idea, but then some of them probably agree with the Soviet idea that tractors are people too.

has the Doc's gender been discussed before?

I believe an early first season episode established Holo-Doc's appearance was based on Dr. Zimmerman, who later made appearances on DS9 & Voyager and seemed to have similar personality traits, so one could argue that the Doctor's gender was "inherited" from Zimmerman. Maybe Holo-Doc's programming was accomplished using Dr. Daystrom's memory ingram technique? I mean if it worked for M-5... ;-)

Maybe Holo-Doc's programming was accomplished using Dr. Daystrom's memory ingram technique? I mean if it worked for M-5... ;-)

If Holo-Doc was programmed in that way then he has true sentience and not just an imitation of it.

Then again, the most obvious distinguishing feature of the male gender was not added to Doc's program until sometime between the pilot and Message in a Bottle.