A good but not great episode, in which the Doctor's programming is faced with a conundrum humans face every day: deciding between two equally bad choices, and not blaming ourselves for it afterward.
Picardo had to make a life-and-death decision between an ensign he barely knows, and Kim. He saves Kim. He goes nuts over his decision, and Janeway decides to erase his memories of the event to keep him functional. But he tracks down the erasure, and is in danger of going nuts yet again as he relives the whole incident.
I rate this somewhat lower than many users because the situation is a bit forced. Surely Federation programmers of the 24th century have heard of fuzzy logic? Surely Janeway would have realized to begin with that she can reprogram the Doctor any time, and it's worth giving him a chance while closely monitoring him to see if he recuperates the third time around. And the aliens who injured Kim and the ensign just appeared out of nowhere and disappeared into nowhere, a cheap deus ex machine effect.
It's worth a watch, and the Doctor is always fun, but he has better episodes - and worse; worth a watch.
Picardo had to make a life-and-death decision between an ensign he barely knows, and Kim. He saves Kim. He goes nuts over his decision, and Janeway decides to erase his memories of the event to keep him functional. But he tracks down the erasure, and is in danger of going nuts yet again as he relives the whole incident.
I rate this somewhat lower than many users because the situation is a bit forced. Surely Federation programmers of the 24th century have heard of fuzzy logic? Surely Janeway would have realized to begin with that she can reprogram the Doctor any time, and it's worth giving him a chance while closely monitoring him to see if he recuperates the third time around. And the aliens who injured Kim and the ensign just appeared out of nowhere and disappeared into nowhere, a cheap deus ex machine effect.
It's worth a watch, and the Doctor is always fun, but he has better episodes - and worse; worth a watch.