Renaissance Man
- Episode aired May 16, 2001
- TV-PG
- 43m
The Doctor abducts and impersonates various members of the crew when the Captain is kidnapped.The Doctor abducts and impersonates various members of the crew when the Captain is kidnapped.The Doctor abducts and impersonates various members of the crew when the Captain is kidnapped.
- Neelix
- (credit only)
- Voyager Ops Officer
- (uncredited)
- Engineer
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMention of the Beta Quadrant in this episode has led some fans to speculate that Voyager was approaching the edge of the Delta Quadrant by this stage in its journey. Voyager had traveled over 40,000 light years from its starting position (the edge of the Delta Quadrant and the known galaxy) in seven years. It is possible Voyager was nearing the center of the galaxy (where all four quadrants converge).
- GoofsAll entries contain spoilers
- Quotes
[the Doctor thinks his program is about to break down]
The Doctor: [to Janeway] I've had something on my conscience for a long time. After I was first activated, I kept a record of what I considered to be your most... questionable command decisions. It's in my personal database. I hope you'll delete the file without reading it.
The Doctor: [to Tuvok] Mr. Tuvok. I violated the most sacred trust between a physician and his patient. I told Mr. Neelix about the cutaneous eruption you developed on your...
[looks furtively around, realizing everyone else is listening]
The Doctor: That was indiscreet. I hope you can forgive me.
The Doctor: [to Kim] Ensign. At your recital last month, I told Lieutenant Torres that your saxophone playing reminded me of a wounded targ. I should have put it more delicately! I'm sorry!
The Doctor: [pushing Kim aside] Seven.
Seven of Nine: You should remain still.
The Doctor: You have no idea how difficult it's been, hiding my true feelings all these years, averting my eyes during your regular maintenance exams.
[the Doctor's holomatrix starts to glitch]
The Doctor: [falling on his knees] I know you could never have the same feelings for me, but I want you to know the truth. I love you, Seven.
[his program glitches again]
Seven of Nine: Your cognitive algorithms are malfunctioning.
The Doctor: [stands up and waves the others goodbye] Goodbye, my friends! Speak well of me!
[the Doctor disappears]
Captain Kathryn Janeway: Is he...?
B'Elanna Torres: No, I've got him.
[the Doctor reappears, with his hand still held up]
The Doctor: What happened?
B'Elanna Torres: I deleted the extraneous subroutines.
The Doctor: I'm not going to decompile?
Captain Kathryn Janeway: [dourly] You'll probably outlive us all.
[hands him back his mobile emitter]
Tom Paris: Doc... anything... else you'd like to confess?
- ConnectionsReferenced in After Trek: Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad (2017)
I get the intention here. Create an exciting caper with elements of a comedy of errors. But the entire episode hinges on the fact that it made no sense whatsoever unless you assume one of (or both of) two things:
1) the Doctor is a complete idiot who can't possibly think of any alternatives than doing everything he's ordered (except, of course, when the orders come from someone who actually has the right and responsibility to give him orders) and can only come up with the most abstruse way to leave a relatively minor clue of very limited usefulness
2) In the World of Tomorrow, humanity (and the occasional representatives of vulcanity and klingoninity) has forgotten the concept of the written word and does everything a starship is capable of doing by pressing pretty pictures on a screen
It was just too distracting to suspend disbelief here long enough to relax and enjoy the caper plot. The actual events weren't uninteresting, as such. The fact that the viewer has to wrestle with the overwhelming impulse to cry out "Oh, for the love of God, is he stupid as fu...?" at the screen kind of neutralizes any interesting aspects to said events.
And in the end, at the very least, the Doctor should have been stripped of his ECH powers. Happy ending or not, he demonstrated quite ably that he could easily represent an existential danger to Voyager even when his program is technically performing properly. He also demonstrates why real command officers are chosen from people with experience -- he has thousands of tactical subroutines but has no idea how to act competently. He could destroy the ship just because he doesn't have the wisdom to see past the tactical subroutines that have been programmed into him and find a less-obvious solution.
This is a rare episode for Voyager: a bad Doctor episode.
- GreyHunter
- Jan 26, 2020
- Permalink
Details
- Runtime43 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
- 4:3