The Voyager Doctor's Key Moments
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The Caretaker pt I & II
(season 1, episodes 1-2)
- Not only does the Doctor make his debut, he immediately transcends
his medical programming by following Tom Paris around sickbay, trying to
ascertain what happened to the crew during their three day absence.
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The Phage -
(1x5)
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The Doctor turns to his own physiognomy for a solution to Neelix'
missing lungs. The results are - to say the least - unconventional,
yet brilliant: holographic lungs.
He realizes that knowledge of medicine isn't enough for a physician to handle
a patient when Neelix gets a panic attack when distressed by his fate. And he
expresses sensitivity to further
inadequacy when a Vidiian berates his innovative hololungs as
"primitive".
Kes catches up with us to recognize his sentience. It becomes clear to
her (and us) that these personality quirks are not entirely
preprogrammed. When someone's nice to the Doctor, clearly he's nice to them back
(And obviously he enjoys how Kes treats him; he arranges for her to begin
training as his medical assistant). Kes insists his behavior is self-motivated,
thus causing the Doctor to consider the nature of his own actions.
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Eye of the Needle -
(1x7)
- The B-Plot of this worthwhile episode offers many interesting milestones as it
gives us another in-depth look at the Doctor:
- Kes becomes his advocate, bringing to the Captain's attention how the crew's
treatment of him is deplorable and that he's aware of it.
- We catch a glimpse of how he thinks. Several times during a sequence, he
displays
very human
behavior or uses subjective syntax, and *click* he suddenly corrects himself and
conforms to the dictates of his programming. A prime example of this is when Kes
informs him how the entire crew may transport off the ship through a wormhole to
get home. The dejected expression in the reaction shot before he reverts says it
all:
you know he's thinking about how he'll be left behind.
- The Doctor is declared Voyager's Chief Medical
Officer, and offered to consider his own needs to fulfill
that position. This results in an immediate
rise in self- esteem; he asks Kes to help him find a name.
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Heroes & Demons -
(1x12)
- This time, the crew catches up with us in realizing that the Doctor is capable
of exceeding his programming. The Captain assigns him to a non-medically related
away mission. In his first time out of Sickbay, the Doctor enters a holodeck
simulation of Beowulf to rescue missing crewmen.
The Doctor also comes up
with the first of many names for himself: Dr. Schweitzer.
He
drops it after a
lovely shield maiden dies in his arms uttering it.
For those keeping
track: he eats holographic food for the
first time.
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Jetrel
(1x15)
- In this Neelix-heavy episode, we witness for the first time Doc deactivating
himself.
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