The Delta Flyers - Life Line

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

The Delta Flyers is a weekly Star Trek: Voyager rewatch & recap podcast hosted by Garrett Wang & Robert Duncan McNeill. Each week Garrett and Robert will rewatch an episode of Voyager starting at the very beginning. This week’s episode is Life Line. Garrett and Robbie recap and discuss the episode, and share their insight as series regulars.Life Line: The Doctor gets himself transmitted back to Federation space to treat his mortally ailing creator, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman. A clash of egos ensues.We want to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Executive producers Megan Elise & Rebecca McNeillAnd a special thanks to our Ambassadors, the guests who keep coming back, giving their time and energy into making this podcast better and better with their thoughts, input, and inside knowledge: Lisa Klink, Martha Hackett, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Robert Beltran, Tim Russ, Roxann Dawson, Kate Mulgrew, Brannon Braga, & Bryan FullerAdditionally we could not make this podcast available without our Co-Executive Producers: Stephanie Baker, Philipp Havrilla, Kelton Rochelle, Liz Scott, Eve England, Sab Ewell, Sarah A Gubbins, Jason M Okun, Luz R., Marie Burgoyne, Daniel de Rooy, Chris Knapp, Michelle Z, Janet K Harlow, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Courtney Lucas, Matthew Gravens, Elaine Ferguson, Brian Barrow, Captain Jeremiah Brown, Heidi Mclellan, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, John Espinosa, Deike Hoffmann, Mike Gu, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Vikki Williams, Kelly Brown, Lee Lisle, Mary Beth Lowe, William McEvoy, Sarah Thompson, Samantha Hunter, Holly Smith, Amy Tudor, Adm. Bill "Seoulman" Yu, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Ashley Stokey, Lori Tharpe, Mary Burch, AJC, Nicholaus Russell, Dominique Weidle, Lisa Robinson, Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlman, Darryl Cheng, Alex Mednis, AJ Freeburg, Elizabeth Stanton, Kayla Knilans, Barbara S., Tim Beach, Ariana, Meg Johnson, Victor Ling, Shambhavi Kadam, Holly Schmitt, James H. Morrow, Christopher Arzeberger, Megan Chowning, Tae Phoenix, Nicole Anne Toma, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Daniel O’Brien, Bronwen Duffield, Brandon May, Andrew Duncan, David Buck, Jeremy Mcgraw, Jason Bonnett, Ali S, Danie Crofoot, Ian Ramsey, Feroza Mehta, Michael Dismuke, Jonathan Brooks, Gemma Laidler, & Rob TraverseAnd our Producers:James Amey, Patrick Carlin, Richard Banaski, Ann Harding, Ann Marie Segal, Chloe E, Nathanial Moon, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Jocelyn Pina, Mike Schaible, AJ Provance, Captain Nancy Stout, Claire Deans, Matthew Cutler, Maxine Soloway, Joshua Phillips, Barbara Beck, Species 2571, Aithne Loeblich, Dat Cao, Scott Lakes, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Tara Polen, Jenna Appleton, Jason Potvin, Cindy Ring, Jason Wang, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Amber Nighbor, Jamason Isenburg, Mark G Hamilton, Rob Johnson, Maria Rosell, Heather Choe, Michael Bucklin, Lisa Klink, Jennifer Jelf, Justin Weir, Mike Chow, Rachel Shapiro, Eric Kau, Captain Jak Greymoon, David Wei Liu, Clark Ochikubo, David J Manske, Roxane Ray, Amy Rambacher, Jessica B, E.G. Galano, Cindy Holland, Craig M. Nakashian, Will Forg, Max Wilson, Ryan Tomei, Charlie Faulkner, Estelle Keller, Russell Nemhauser, Lawrence Green, Christian Koch, Lisa Gunn, Lauren Rivers, Jennifer B, & Dean ChewThank you for your support!“Our creations are protected by copyright, trademark and trade secret laws. Some examples of our creations are the text we use, artwork we create, audio, and video we produce and post. You may not use, reproduce, distribute our creations unless we give you permission. If you have any questions, you can email us at [e-mail].”Our Sponsors:* Check out Mint Mobile: https://mintmobile.com/TDFSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-delta-flyers/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hello, everybody, welcome to the Delta Flyers with Tom and Harry, as we journey through episodes of Star Trek Voyager. Your two hosts along this journey are my fellow Voyager actor, who in 1999 portrayed the character of police chief Joe Frawley in a season three episode of the TV series Early Edition. Mr. Robert Duncan McNeil and myself, your favorite reverendson, Garrett Wong. Remember, you can get the full version of this podcast by signing up to become a patron

at patreon.com forward slash the Delta Flyers. Yes, patrons. Yes, patrons. Tell me about police chief, probably. Gosh, so when was that? 99.

Young to play the police chief at that point. 99. I was in the 30s. Well, here's the thing. So early edition was Kyle Chandler, Big, number one series lead, CBS show. He was a big. That's sort of what put him on the map.

I had worked with Kyle. Yep. On early edition and knew Kyle a bit from that show and some mutual friends. But early edition, yeah. That was at the end of maybe our season four or something like that. You filmed in L.A., right? No, went off to Chicago. Chicago.

Chicago. okay and i remember because i knew kyle and he was a motorcycle rider like me like you yes and when i got to chicago i had a bunch of days off and i was talking to kyle and he said hey if you want to take my bike and go uh you know have fun because i'm working and i'm not going to ride and i remember i borrowed his bike in chicago i didn't know chicago at all and i just headed up the lake lake short drive love it and just like took off and like rode his bike and it was awesome It was really fun. What month was this, though?

It was April. Oh, okay. We had just finished. Yeah. It was still a little chilly, but I remember that's my memory of doing that show. I don't remember the story of what I did in the show. Yeah. But I remember being in Chicago.

I didn't know the city very well. And Kyle given me his motorcycle. And for like three days, I had his bike and kept it at the hotel and would go out and just poke around. It was really, really fun. But don't you think you're, were fairly young to be a police chief though i mean police chief i think of guys in their 60s and you were not i think the story what i remember was kyle chandler's character goes back to his small town okay and i played a character who was gonna who was like the football captain i was the i was the big

winner guy yeah but when he comes back to the small town i'm still in the small town and he's the big and he's yeah and he's and so there was a there was a whole jealousy, you know, competitive thing with Kyle Chandler and my character or something. That's all I remember. Okay. So the conflict was there. Okay. Yeah, there was some conflict there. Yeah. So, yeah, so that's pretty cool that he let you borrow his bike. So do you borrowed his helmet? Did you borrow his jacket as well? You didn't bring your riding anything, correct? So you had everything from him. Okay. Yeah, I think so. Very cool. So this week's episode, Robbie, is Lifeline. Lifeline. So is this, Does this ring a bell for you?

Because it does not ring a bell for me at this point at all. Just from the title. I can't get anything. The title sounds familiar, but we should go watch it. Let's go watch it. I should go watch it. So let's go watch Lifeline. Lifeline.

And yeah, for all our Patreon, patrons, stick around for your bonus material. For everyone else. We'll see after we watch it. See it. All right. We're back from watching Lifeline. Yes, we are. What a different episode this was.

I had no clue, first of all, that Robert Picardo has a writing credit in this episode. My gosh. And then I did further research. There's only two Star Trek series regulars who've had writing credits. Do you know who the other one is? I thought Ethan Phillips sold a story. I think he sold a story on our show. Same as Bob.

Like, I think Bob and John Bruno, who's his friend and also directed on our show and a visual effects master. Bob and John Bruno were good friends and they were talking. And I think they came up with a story in their conversations and together. And then they went and officially pitched it, wrote it out and pitched the story. I think Ethan Phillips sold a story, although I don't know if it got made or not. No, that is not the correct answer. Walter Canig. What?

Yeah. What did he sell? What did he write on? The original series? No, for Star Trek, the animated series. Oh, wow. He has a writing credit for that. Wow.

Still, very impressive. Very impressive. Any actor getting a writing credit. You know, we hear of actors directing all the time, such as yourself and Bob and Roxanne and Tim. But in terms of writing, you don't see that. No, not often. Not often at all.

Okay, so Bob Picardo, John Bruno, sold a story. Yes. And then it was written by Brannon Braga, Robert Doherty, Robert Doherty. My favorite writer, so far. Yes. And Brian. Raff Green. And Raff Green. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Those three wrote it. Terry Wendell directed this episode, which he didn't direct a lot, maybe four or five episodes for us. Let's do our poetry synopsis first. Then we'll get into our cast. Let's synopsize this. Let's synopsize this. My haiku for Lifeline. Starfleet Transmission Doctor sent to Jupiter Chip off the old block Nice Very abstract But you know

That's haiku for you All right let's hear this I cannot wait to hear your limerick Here's a limerick Poetry Synopsis for the entire episode Lifeline Here we go

I'm going to get this in a limerick Here we go The Pathfinder project still there. It sends lots of messages to share. Doc's inventor is ill with a personality that's quite shrill. Root and grumpy are a family affair. You got shrill in there?

Wow. Oh, very, very creative. But we both had the same idea that very on point. His inventor, Zimmerman, and the doctor have the same personality. Pretty much. Root and grumpy are a family affair. There you go. I love it. Okay, guest starts. Dwight Schultz playing Barclay back again.

Love Dwight Schultz. We've talked about him before. Everybody knows him, loves him. I don't know if we've ever talked about his first job, so I wanted to make sure we covered that. It was a TV movie. I think it was a TV movie. It might have been a feature film.

But it was in 1981, and it was called Thin Ice with Cape Jackson. Cape Jackson was the star. From Charlie's Angels? Yes. My goodness. That's why I think it was a TV movie. Hard to, I couldn't figure that out. They're nice.

But Dwight Shultz did a lot of theater before that. He had won some drama long awards. Nice. He had done a lot of theater. So he came out of the theater and made his film debut in 1981, not long before the A team. That wasn't, you know. And arguably, that's his most well-known credit. At least that's what I know him from growing up.

watching the A team and the character he played was very quirky and very Barclay-esque, I might add, if you think about that. Yes, and very, he just was charming and he popped on the A team. I mean, you know, the A team was filled with lots of big characters and great, great personalities. But Dwight on the A team was pretty special. Yeah, he was unique. He was definitely, he played a character that could be on the spectrum, really, and a very good character as well, one that's very much.

memorable. And the fact that Star Trek was able to have him guest star as many times as he did is actually a wonderful thing. We have the character of Haley, the assistant to Zimmerman, was played by Tamara Craig Thomas, is her name. Yeah. Okay. I'm going to ask you right off the bat before you go into her first thing. When she came on screen, who did she remind you of? I don't know. And you may not. No, no. You may not know this answer right off the back because you may not know this actress's work

that I'm thinking of. But Maya Hawke, Ethan Hawke's daughter. Oh, yeah, she does. From Stranger Things. Yes, just the overall look of the actress that played Haley, even her voice has that little bit of a raspiness to it. Very similar to Maya Hawk also.

So I immediately, that was my connection. Okay. What's her first? What is her first? Tamara Craig Thomas, she's Canadian. Her very first job that I could find was a horror film in 1996 called Tromio and Juliet. Now, oh, this is probably with trauma films. It was Troma films. They were very famous for these low budget genre horror films. Yes. The writer of Tromio and Juliet is who is James Gunn. The Guardians of the Galaxy writer, director. Like James Gunn wrote this movie, Tromio. I love it. I love it. He cut his teeth with trauma. Oh, my goodness. Yeah.

Oh, that's amazing. That's funny, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. I've been to a few conventions where trauma, or at least, you know, the people, the team behind trauma, it has a booth basically at a few of the conventions I've been at. So, wow. I did not know that. Yeah.

That was her for 96. So just a few years before, I think she's now become a producer. I think she's returned to Canada. She produces a lot of Canadian content up there. Documentaries is what I found. Oh, wow. Interesting. And also she changed her last name to Watson now.

Oh, married name or? That's what I'm thinking. That makes sense. But it's still a three name. It's one of the, like you, Robert Duncan McNeilio, she still maintains a middle name as well. So. But again, I don't remember her at all. because I had no scenes with her, so okay.

We didn't have a lot to do in this episode, most of the cast, not much to do. Two more guest stars, Jack Shear plays Hayes. Yeah, we've seen him before. We've seen him before. His first TV job was in 1983, The Fall Guy with Lee Major. Oh, my goodness. I remember that show, yes. And last but not least, Marina Sertis, our special guest star as Deanna Troy.

It's so fun to see her. I remember she had done an episode of our show, but I couldn't remember which one. So this was it. Her first job was in England, where she's from. Yes. A TV show called Raffles. 1977.

Raffles was a jewel thief who steals from the rich and has fun along the way and solve some mysteries and things like that. So Raffles the Jewel's kind of a Robin Hoodish type of movie. Yeah, I think it was something like that. She was a guest star on 1977. Raffles, the British TV. Oh.

Yeah. Whoa, you were 13. Is that right? 13. Yeah, you were 13. And I probably did my first community theater play then, right? Around the time she premiered on raffles. In raffles.

Yeah, I think so. 1976, 77, 77 probably was, yeah, spring of 77 was Wizard of Oz, my first appearance on state and Marina Surdice's first appearance on TV. Raffles, it coincided. Oh, my gosh. That's funny. I also want to say there's another person in here who played the alien masseuse. Oh, yeah, who really turns out to be the doctor.

Right. So that alien is an alien from insurrection, which, again, I will say is one of the two worst Star Trek movies, next generation movies. and she is actually the same young lady who was Jerry Ryan's photo double. Oh, really? So that's Nicole, yeah. So if you recall, you remember Nicole. Because I remember, I remember, see, I passed her in that alien makeup.

And I didn't say hello because I didn't know who it was. And she was like, Garrett. I'm like, who? And she's like, it's Nicole. I'm like, oh, oh, hi. I didn't know you were working today and, you know, all that craziness. Yeah, that was a crazy man. That was a big makeup.

Yeah. So that's Nicole. I just want to give her props because. Oh, yeah. That was a nice bit. Yeah. She had a little bit to do. And a lot of time in the makeup chair.

Exactly. Yeah. All right. Okay. So we have everyone. Yeah, that's everybody. Let's get into our recap of this episode. Yeah.

It starts with a exterior space shot of Jupiter Station. And we see a shuttle that's heading. there and we later learned that's Reg Barclay's shuttle but here's the interesting note there has been comments about the Jupiter Station in multiple Star Trek

series including ourselves TNG and yet there has never been a shot of Jupiter station until us. This is the first time we've ever seen it yes there's reference to it in multiple shows but this is the first time we see it on Voyager so that's you know that's a little

special that's pretty cool. Yeah. And it looked cool. I like to look cool. It looks super cool. Inside the shuttle that's heading to the space station, there's Reginald Barclay. We see him.

He's approaching. He hails them, asks for permission to board, to dock. Mm-hmm. I just love Dwighton Schultz's dry, his eyes. It's just such a permission. It's so formal yet funny to me. He just makes the simplest thing funny. I was laughing.

Oh, you're right. At him. He's the best. Yeah. He really is. But again, he has so much cachet from a team that you almost, you're feeling, you're laughing with him because of that as well. Because of, yeah, because of his whole work history. Yeah.

Exactly. Yeah. Okay. We cut inside a lab and we're sort of panning across the lab. We hear the doctor's voice. It sounds like the doctor's voice. It's Bob Picardo's voice. Right.

But something's different about it. He's kind of grumpy. He's like, come in. Yeah. It pans across. across the lab and we see an iguana on the station just randomly. I was like, why? What is this iguana? Was this John Bruno's idea or Bob's idea to put an iguana in this episode? I don't know. Maybe this is, maybe this is Bob Picardo's favorite reptile. Maybe he likes that.

Bob Picardo had a, had a desert tortoise. It was, okay. When his kids were young, they had fostered because you can't own a desert tortoise they're very big they're big they're like and they live you know 200 years these tortoises i don't remember him having that he definitely had one yeah they're an endangered species the desert tortoise and so they applied to the state of california as a family to foster one and they had one in their backyard just roamed around this desert tortoise what yeah where is that tortoise now i don't know but i don't see the only pet i remember, and I've talked about this before, is their cat, Harry, which was probably the largest cat I've ever seen. It looked like a 45, 50, 60 pound cat. It was massive. But other than that,

they had a desert tortoise. I don't remember its name. Did you see it? Yeah, it was pretty big. Yeah. Oh, it was big already. Okay. So it wasn't a baby. Okay. I think it was like a 40-year-old tortoise, but they live to like 100, 200 years old or something. It was going to, you know, outlift Bob and all of them probably. You call the name they? gave the tortoise? I don't. I wish I could. Oh. I wonder if having a tortoise was an inspiration for him saying, well, Zimmerman should have a weird pet too. Can you give me a favor? Can you please just text him right now and say, what was the name of your desert tortoise? I just, I'm just curious. I just really, really, really. And I'm curious for silly things like this. That's just me. And as he answers,

we can, we can come back to that as, you know, when you get the response. Let's see if we get a response here. Yeah. Because that, to me, is important information. Yes. That is my forte is literally knowing little trivia facts that... Little stuff like that. Yeah, little things like that, which amount to pretty much nothing. But I still enjoy trivia. Okay.

So this lab, we realize, is it's... As the camera pans over, we hear Bob Carter's voice, and then we see him turn in a chair. It's Bob, but he's dressed in, like, gray hair. and civilian clothes he doesn't have uniform on no it's not the doctor it's clearly it's clearly his inventor something you assume at this point it is dr zimmerman yes he's the inventor of the emh the father father of holography i guess i think they talk about that and his first name is lewis that's lewis simmerman that we lewis simmerman he's there um he talks to berkeley about the pathfinder project um he's still searching you know that's that Barclay is still searching for Voyager and...

But he has that funny line beforehand because he guesses the name of Voyager as... Is it Pioneer? Right? Yes, that's right. And he's like, no, no, Voyager. Barclay corrects him. I do have the answer to the Desert Tortoise name. Ah!

Robert Picardo's Desert Tortoise was named Tilly. Tilly the Tortoise. What? Yes. No. Yeah. You're kidding me. That's what he says, Tilly the Tilly.

Yes. That's the name of the character from Discovery, Tilly. So I'm really shocked because that's such, it's not a common name. Unusual name. It's a very unusual name. My goodness. Tilly. Bacardo breathe or speak that into existence so that.

Maybe he wrote Discovery as well. He created that and used his tortoise name. Okay. So they're talking about the Pathfinder project. Barclay says they're on the verge of a breakthrough. Zimmerman is super grumpy. Yes, he is. And then they start talking about Zimmerman's health and how he's been prodded and

poked and they haven't found anything. And he does say something like, you know, time is a luxury that I can't afford Barkley or something like that. Yeah, I mean, the end of the scene, the scene ends with him saying, I'm dying. And so we're a little shocked by that. We're like, oh, okay. Zimmerman's dying. We have an earth shot here.

Yeah. We see, we got cut out to space after that. We have an earth shot and then it pans across. We have a probe shot. We see the Pathfinder probe. Did you like this shot? No. No.

Because it's so funny. Every time I watch things, I go, I wonder if Robbie likes this or not. And here we go. Well, it wasn't clear what the shot was saying. It felt like, okay, near Earth, we pan over and we see or we dissolve to a pathfinder probe, I assume. I think it's the Midas array, this is what I think it is. Okay, the Midas array.

Yeah. And then it pans off the Midas array and suddenly Voyager flies by. And I'm like, wait, that, to me, that shot is saying that Voyager is right near Earth. If all these shots are connected, it didn't make sense to me. It didn't make sense to you. It did make sense to me because it went, it went Earth and then pan away. And then it went either Midas Array or Pathfinder project. Yeah, whatever that it was.

Radar, whatever that is. And then it went to some nebulas. Yes. And then it went a little bit further. Yeah, a little blinking and a little bit further. So I understand, to me, it played as, hey, we're going from Earth all the way to the Delta Quadrant in an abbreviated Cliff Notes way. Okay.

So I, I know you don't buy it, but I bought it. And I was like, I'm fine with that. And I knew that you would not be fine with that. Because it doesn't make sense because a camera could not see Earth and Voyager at the same time. And that's kind of what that little shot. suggested is that we can pan from earth you know now if it had dissolved and dissolved and dissolve like we're traveling through light ears or something i don't know there's needed to be more dissolves they needed to be more to dissolves okay i agree all right let's keep going but we see

voyage or fly by we cut into astromatric seven's working way at a side console and suddenly there's an alert yeah and she steps over to a center console pulls up some data and up on the screen and astromatric pops all of these kind of fritzy data streams we see earth we see start We see Starfleet stuff. So it's clearly... It's a transmission from Starfleet. But it's not a Com link. She tries to...

She hails the bridge. Janeway says patch it through here. And she says, no, it's not a com link, Captain. But it is a compressed data stream badly, badly degraded. So now we know. And Janeway, everyone in the bridge is like, what? So Janeway's ready to head down to astrmetrics to check it out. Yeah, because seven calls, Janeway's got to go to astrometrics.

That's the game we play. It is. We have an exterior space shot, a Voyager flying through space, and then we cut to the briefing room. Now, when we're in space, we'll stop, pause at the space shot. I'll pause at the space shot. Go. It is the most extra dramatic music I've ever heard on our show. It's like, because it feels like this music of the space shot and us flying by is like, we've won.

We're going to get home in this episode. It is like the music you play at the end, the victory music. It just felt like, wow, is this extra? There's a little extra. I had no problem with that. So I know that you didn't like it. That's a little extra to me. Okay, fine.

All right. So now we're in the briefing room. So evidently, Janeway's already been down to astrometrics because seven, when she calls, Janeway runs. And now they move the whole meeting into the briefing room. And we find out that, yeah, everyone's there. All the main players are there, all the main heroes. And we discover that by using,

the Midas array, once a month, we will receive a short burst of information and we will have basically 17 hours to respond. So this is a monthly thing once a month. This is going to happen. And everyone's pretty excited about this. And Janeway's like, okay, I'm going to give everyone a chance to answer, but they have to be very, very short answers because the data stream can't carry much information. We can't have people, you know, writing novels. But still, people are excited. Any comments from you about the briefing room? I like that Janeway said, look, you know, when you're writing your letters, Barclay and the Pathfinder Project people have not given up on us.

And maybe say thank you. Yeah. Like that's, I like that little detail. Like this is, this is really significant. Yeah. I just like that. So that's all. A message of gratitude.

Yeah. Okay. Now we're in sick bay. Yes, we are. And Nelix arrives with the mail for the doctor. Mm-hmm. And the doctor starts reading through this and essentially it's a message from Barclay telling the doctor or informing the doctor of Zimmerman's failing health. And now this lights a fire under the doctor's bum.

He is so intent on, you know, doing something at this point. We are now having, we come back from commercial break and we're back in the sick bay. There is a passage of time. The doctor is now in his office on his big last. laptop reviewing the giant laptops that we used to have that seems so modern in the 90s but now they did see moderate but no they're they you know what they remind me of they remind me of if we were watching the Flintstones and the Flintstones had laptops that's what I think it looks like um so the doctor is in his office on his big laptop reviewing Zimmerman's medical data at this point seven arrives with a padda

da da da containing information that he requested and we find out that this information basically has Borg regeneration techniques. And this is the angle that he's going to take to heal Zimmerman, who at this point is unhealable by anybody in the Alpha Quadrant. So, you know, the doctor feels like my specialized knowledge is going to make the difference. He also makes a comment about how Zimmerman looks, how handsome he is, and how his looks are very inspiring. They inspire confidence, right?

Yes. Yes, his jawline is strong and inspires confidence. like he can relate to that he's very proud that he looks you know he's got to say that Zimmerman's very handsome just like him it was a fun little exit comment yeah there's no there's no humility with either Zimmerman or the doctor whatsoever okay so we have an exterior space shot of Voyager and then we go to the captain's ready room yeah so the doctor comes in he's telling the captain about different kinds of Borg regeneration techniques that he could use to stop this, you know, this cell damage that's happening, maybe even cure him completely.

Yeah. But he tells the captain that he wants to go back to the Alpha Quadrant to administer this treatment himself. She's quite reluctant in the beginning because she says, okay, to send you, we could not send any other messages back home. It would just be pretty much you. And the doctor is pleading saying, look, can't everyone just wait for a month? And then she says, well, you have your duties in sickbay. And that's when she says, Paris can take it over. He knows everything, pretty much. She can do anything. Well, he even says, Tom's already agreed to. Yeah, no, yeah. Her next thing was like, well, only if he agrees. He was already agreed. I already asked him. Yeah, I already asked him. It's covered. What a swell guy you are. You're going to take over

all the duties for the doctor while he's going. Yeah. She's also pouring coffee here out of a coffee pot. I don't know that I've seen before, but it was quite nice. It was a new pot? Sort of a silver pot. I don't know that I'd seen it, but she had a nice coffee setup. I just want to comment on that. It was nice. That's it. Just saying it's a nice coffee set up. Did you think about putting that into your limerick looking? Well, I have a coffee mug in real life called the ember mug and it's it charges. Your mug has a name. Yeah. I love it. It's a brand of battery operated mugs that you sit it on a little, you know, charger. and it charges the battery

and then when you pour your coffee it keeps your coffee warm and it's a very I love the design of my ember coffee mug okay okay when I saw her coffee pot and her mug and so I was like

oh that's like an ember coffee pot it probably keeps it hot a very sci-fi you know so it doesn't get cold in the pot I just like the design of her pot and her stuff it reminded me of my ember

I like that that's nice okay and you just you just did a pitch for them You just advertise me. I did. I highly recommend the ember brand of coffee mugs. I think emberos, you commissioned now. So you put in the code when you order your ember, Paris told me so.

And then hopefully they'll be able to give you something. You know, we'll see. But so the doctor is pleading. He's still pleading. She said, I did like when she said, well, Zimmerman created thousands of holograms. Like, you're not the only one. And, you know, you can hardly. you know consider him your father you know he created lots of programs wasn't there

I think in this episode they give us a number don't they give us a number of how many mark ones okay at some point I can't remember right off top of my all right it was either 600 or 6,000 yeah I feel like it was in the hundreds I feel like it's 600 and 78 something like yeah okay but there's an emotional plea here where the doctor basically says he's the closest thing like to me, you may not think of him as my father, but I do. Right. And at the end of the scene, Jane says, well, tell him Jane says, hello. That's what he used to call me.

And it bugged me, but he kept calling me Jane. At the conference where she met him at. Yeah. I love it. Yeah. And then we go back to sick pay. Then we go back to sick pay. Now the doctor is back in his office.

He's working on his enormous, ginormous laptop. And he is humming a tune. And while he's humming the tune, he's got the melody going. All of a sudden, his voice goes, it just disappears. hears his singing voice is gone he comes out into the main part of sick bay and seven is there she's working on removing all non-essential subroutines because guess what his program is way too large to send back to the alpha quadrant and so he asked how many how much information needs to be deleted and she says 12 mega quads must be left behind and then of course there's

a very humorous interchange where they start listing all the things that he you do chess or singing or what about lovemaking yeah sexual activities how about that he's like will you be reciting poetry when you get there he's like no so yeah a lot gets yeah taken out i like his line where he says i don't want to look like every other EMH on the block that was a nice little comment there's some good lines in here for sure but he thinks he thinks Zimmerman is going to be so excited to see him and see what he learned and how he's going to inspire Zimmerman he's got this fantasy of this reunion with his father figure of making his father proud yeah that's what he wants to do that's his goal his objective as an actor as a character so we're in astromatrics and we have

janeway seven and harry who are basically sending the doctor on his way to the alpha quadrant from astrometrics and i do remember filming the scene actually really yeah because i i was like this is awesome i get to take off his and i played it as if like i I was a little annoyed because I wanted to get my message back to my parents. And then he took all the data stream up. So I was just like, I was so happy to take it. I was like, you know, take your mobile meter off. And so take that.

Yeah. Because my one line was try not to get lost. Like it was a very just unenthused performance by me because I remember trying to, you know, give it to him a little bit for taking away that data stream. Yeah. Yeah. Nobody gets messages. Nope. Not this month.

Then we are in some quarters. We go from his disappearance in astrometrics. Suddenly, we see a salad in the foreground. Yeah, and Wendell is shooting from inside the replicator, right? So the angle is from the inside is when you see the fly land on it. So that's a cool shot at least, right? It was cool. And you see some quarters in the background, but you see the salad.

And suddenly there's a fly on the salad. Right. And it's chewed away by Haley, who we learn is Zimmerman's assistant. that's right but she speaks to the fly yes she's like you can't land there again whatever she says and there's something like i told you to stay away from it i was so confused i was just like what is going on why is she speaking to the fly we later learn what happens there but i had no clue what was happening at that point but she's got she's got lunch ready um and she she uh calls to the doctor in the other room and he says you know he's he's starving and he's kind of grumpy so again

And then we hear grumpy Zimmerman. As she's leaving, by the way, Barclay arrives. And he's got a small little canister with him or something. He says, hey, tell Zimmerman, I've got a surprise for him. Yeah. And he asked the computer, is the download complete? And the computer says, yes, it is. And you see this kind of flashing.

So we think that the doctor's program has been downloaded into this little canister or something. So what is that? What is he holding? Is it a hard drive? It's about the size of a modern-day portable speaker is what it looks like. Yeah, it looks like a little like a thermos or something. Is it a, is it a mobile, he doesn't have his mobile emitter. So is it a, a, what's my drive of some kind?

No, what's my, what am I trying to say? What, what projects the doctor in sickbay when he's not using the mobile emitter? The hollow emitters in sickbay. Maybe that's what it is. Maybe it's the mobile hollow emitter is what it is. to enable his program to appear. To move around. Yeah, to move around, exactly.

Because remember, I took his thing off. His portable home. Yeah, his mobile emitter, his futuristic mobile emitter was ripped off of his shirt, his uniform by me in Astrometrics or by Harry, excuse me. Yeah, it could be a portable emitter. That's what I'm thinking it was. Okay. Oh, we go in the lab, though.

Haley brings his lunch in. She says, Barclay's here. And he's still not happy because he doesn't want salad. He wants pork chops. Horchops. Yeah. But he does finally say, okay, send Barclay, and he's got three minutes. That's it.

Barkley comes in, activates the doctor. And I guess he's able to be in the lab because there's hollow emitters on the wall of this lab. So somehow, that's what I was guessing is that there's hollow, because there's a hollow grid on the wall in this lab. Okay. Okay. But I do want to say at this point, the doctor appears, you've got Bob playing the doctor, you've got Bob playing the doctor. You got Bob playing Zimmerman, and there's a lot of tricky camera work in this sequence. Oh, my gosh.

Tons of it. And this entire episode, not just the scene. Yeah, this is the beginning of it, but they had to have used a motion control camera. So what that means is there's a, there's a camera support. The camera is put onto it like an arm or a dolly of some kind, dolly and an arm that is computer controlled. So the motion can be repeated precisely over and over. So they had to do that camera moves with Bob as Zimmerman. Then they had to go change him and have the camera repeat itself in motion control with Bob playing Bob.

And then you use split screen and put those pieces together. And now you've got Bob in a scene with himself. But the motion control cameras are very time consuming. Very, very time. I've rarely used it in my career because it is so time consuming. There's also photo doubles used in the scene. for some of the cuts, there's green screen use. I cannot stress enough how time-consuming these scenes probably were and the precision.

And even though they're not perfect, it is really, it was a really ambitious sequence for our show at the time. Absolutely. Well, you know, well, then you got to give props to Terry Windell for at least that much, you know, having to deal with all that. I have to say, it was a gargantuan attack. It was, right? It was. Hey, Garrett, have you been traveling this summer? my gosh, so much already.

I don't always travel, but this summer's been insane. Trip after a trip. You've been doing your impersonation of me. Yes. You know what doesn't belong in everyone's epic summer plans, though? What? Getting burned by your old wireless bill. So while you're planning your beach trips and your barbecues and your three-day weekends,

your wireless bill should be the last thing holding you back. Well, that is why I made the switch to Mint Mobile. The coverage and speed are the same as I'm used to, but the savings. That is the difference. The savings are incredible. I'm saving all kinds of money for when my stepdaughter wants to go back to school shopping. She's currently at the mall right now as we speak. Well, all the Mint Mobile plans come with high-speed data, unlimited talking tax,

and they deliver the nation's largest 5G network. So this year, skip breaking a sweat and breaking the bank. Get this new customer offer and your three-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com slash TDF. That's mintmobile.com slash TDF. Up front payment of $45 required, equivalent to $15 a month. Limited time, new customer offer for first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan.

Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. But we do learn a few things in this scene. We learned that the original doctor, the original, the EMH Mark I, is obsolete. It's no longer in use. And the doctor doesn't know this. And when he finds out he's a little shocked, he thinks, thinks it's been retired. And of course, Zimmerman clues him in on it. He says, no, it wasn't

retired. None of the EMH mark ones were retired. They were reconfigured to scrub plasma conduits on waste transfer barges. So this is, you know, they basically turned all of, of what we know is the doctor, into Janelon, into Malon. Yes. The Malon, right, with the Malon waste people, waste of aliens. Yeah, scrubbing. But the doctor keeps saying to Zimmerman, like, I've adapted, and I'm different. I'm not just a plain mark one. I've learned a lot, and Zimmerman is not impressed.

Lewis is not even listening to that. He doesn't care. Barclay even says he's been running for six years continuously in the Delta Quadrant, seeing more things than most doctors will see in their lifetime. And I love when the doctor says to Zimmerman at one point, he says, I've even adapted to deal with difficult patients like you. or something. And then Zimmerman's like, I didn't program you for sarcasm.

Right. So he's starting to see that the CMH has adapted a bit, but still not. He's not buying it. He's not. I mean, he even exclaims to Barclay. He's like, you brought an EMH mark one, 30,000 light years to come treat me. Are you crazy? Like he doesn't, you know, he thinks this is the most ridiculous thing in the world.

And I love that Leonard, the. holographic iguana actually speaks in this scene he says yes he does just being thorough is what he repeats yeah he repeats what the doctor has just said yeah he goes just being thorough yeah the doctor says I'm just being thorough and you hear just being thorough and then doctor turns we cut to the hollow the iguana yeah and it turns out that that's a holographic iguana who can speak and he's his name is Leonard yeah the doctor does the doctor deactivate him deactivate it's like jeez He's like, what right do you have, doctor, to deactivate the pet?

He says, I'm a doctor, not a zookeeper. Yeah. He's got some funny lines in there. Doctor even asked Zimmerman, what was your first symptom? I think the Zimmerman says something like acute hair loss. Very funny. So there's some good jokes in the scene. There are.

There are. And the scene basically culminates or climaxes with this, you know, debate or argument between Zimmerman and the doctor about how the doctor has, you know, basically. been in charge of his life. He has control. And Zimmerman says, oh, really? Let me show you the who has the control. And he beams him out of, or he transfers his program. Transfer EMH. Yeah. He transfers the EMH from the lab to the living quarters area. And there's Barclay and Haley waiting. How did it go? The doctor's got a sour expression. Funny looks. It's good. And then we go to the space station shot again. Yeah. Cool space station design back to the living quarters yeah um barkley and haley and haley are there right the doctor doctor's

gone in for a second try it clearly all right that's the understood um scene that happened we did that this arguing is continued yeah doctor storms into the living quarters he's had it he says power of the minus array i want to go back to voyager right now barkley doesn't understand why he's like what happened what happened and he basically explains that he was doing a mitochondrial scan and the doctor noticed something unusual. And he just couldn't figure it out until he realized that his scan showed that Zimmerman was a Vulcan marsupial. So basically, a Vulcan kangaroo is what it showed up as on his on his tricorder. So he realized that Zimmerman had reconfigured the doctor's tricorder and the doctor was just absolutely beside himself, just not happy with what has happened. But Haley says it

sounds like he's making progress because he only teases those that he likes. I don't know about that. I think, yeah, but maybe. That's what she says. The fly buzzes by at this point. And the doctor's looking at the fly and Barclay says, oh, that's Roy, a holographic fly. Well, no, he doesn't say it's a holographic fly. He just says it's Roy commissioned by Starfleet intelligence, an experiment in micro-surveillance.

So it may be, instead of a actual holographic fly, it might be a real, yes, like, and said, so basically. Oh, it probably is real because the doctor swinging the book at him. He grabs a book and, and he says, well, Barclay said Zimmerman kept this fly, Roy, for a pet. Exactly. So now the doctor, you know, swiping at the fly around the room. And Barclay's trying to calm him down. Yeah. And the doctor says, you know, there's undercover insects in here talking iguanas.

Yeah. And Zimmerman is deranged and needs a counselor. He needs a counselor. But one important fact that we kind of glazed over is that Barclay kind of calms down the doctor and telling him, look, we cannot send you back. Remember, it's once a month. You have two more weeks here. That's it. You can't send you back right now.

But yes. But on the line about that he needs a counselor. and he does end up swatting the fly. He swats the fly, smashes it with a book. And he says, finally, I've accomplished something. Yeah, storms out. Storms out. Right.

But we are now, what I would say would be Barclay's quarters. Yeah. Maybe some place that he's hanging out. Yeah. And so he is now communicating on his different giant laptop. It's a different style of giant laptop. He's communicating with Deanna Troy. and he is begging Deanna to come help with Zimmerman.

She agrees that if she can convince Picard, Captain Picard, to let her go, she will try to make it there by the beginning of next week. And Barclay is overjoyed. He's so happy about that. But nice transition from talking about needing a counselor to Barclay actually reaching out to a counselor. We have another exterior space shot of Voyager, and then we end up in the captain's ready room yet again. do with a nice JC moment there.

Yeah. There's a lot of flirting going on in the scene. And also, she never sits on the other side. You know what I'm saying? There's a point where she kind of comes out from behind her desk and sits on the same side. She goes and sits at the guest chair. Yeah, with Chacote next to her honey. So she has just listened to this communique from, and no one ever refers to it as communicate, do they?

I mean, it was kind of odd. I was like, oh, yeah, it's a communique. she listened to her communicate from Admiral Hayes and he is very curious he wants to know everything he wants to know the information about about all the casualties that Voyager has suffered he wants to know about the marquee and he wants to know about this but this sort of a you know this makes gives Jayway a little pause how's the how's the what's the status of the marquee crew members on yeah you've taken prisoner basically the implication yes and she pauses it And she's like, you know, she doesn't think of him as mocky.

No. She thinks of them all as. Part of her crew. She didn't say Starflea, but she says, members of my crew. So that's it. But she's concerned. She doesn't know how to answer Hayes. And she wants Chikote to help.

So she actually invites him on a lunch date. She says, you know, you want to go to lunch with me and help me write this? And Chocote is very chill. He's like, listen, you know what? Well, we will cross that. bridge when that bridge appears basically i'm not gonna we don't need to tell him anything extra this or that we can you know we can work through this so it'll be all right yeah and it was a good but they they do decide to have a lunch date in a very flirty way yeah invites him to lunch and it was he says you're on

with a with a smile i was like uh-huh uh-huh what are you serving for lunch captain yeah huh a little slice a nookie i don't know okay but they talk about lunch we go back to the space station haley's making lunch again for zimmerman uh he's very healthy by the way lots of salads he does he does um and and you hear moaning as she's preparing lunch over the calm you're like oh give me a few minutes and i thought he was sick at first oh you thought he actually threw up it's like yeah i thought oh he's having a tough day and then you cut in the last cut inside and you see no he's getting a massage from some crazy alien um with a wig and all these like tubules or something tendrils going around her head but while he's getting the the massage

and um talking about the doctor harassing him you see this alien masseuse kind of using one hand for a massage and the other hand pulls out a tricorder yeah a medical tricorder and start scanning him and he notices he looks over his shoulder and sees the tricorder, he jumps up. He's like, what are you doing? He realizes that maybe this isn't a legit masseuse and he orders the computer

to realign Voyager's EMH I guess projection or something. The alien turns into a sort of cheapish doctor at the moment. Zimmerman is furious. Big screaming. scene here, by the way. It is a big screaming scene, but this is also the scene which kind of, it starts, my problem with this episode is that the doctor has scanned Zimmerman multiple times, but yet

you keep seeing scenes of him trying to scan him again. It's like, wait, you know, our, our tricorders are pretty darn advanced. It doesn't really take, it's not something that it takes 45 minutes to scan somebody. The minute you hit scan, they're scanned. So he's already been. scanned at this point. This is his third time being scanned. So to me, you know, this is this is the hole in the plot. It's sort of like, guys, come on. I mean, he's already been scanned. You're actually adding the scene in because of the humor element of the, of the, hey, here's a masseuse, you know, the doctor is posing as. And he's trying to scan him as the masseuse. Ha, ha, ha, ha. And it just to me, it pulled me out a little bit. It bugged me. Yeah, it did feel a little repetitive.

Yes. The scanning for unnecessarily. God. But. But. But. But they do have a screaming scene. But the screaming match, yeah. But you know what? This is not the loudest that Bob Picardo has screamed. No. So I'm actually, I was happy that he didn't go to the highest level of streaming. Yeah.

The Tom Paris level of screaming. The Tom Paris level of screaming from Alice when you were screaming there. Remember that? Yeah, that was some good screaming. That was good. Yeah. That was some good screaming. Mm-hmm.

They do talk about, you know, they argue about how the doctor's trying to convince him that he's grown and evolved and is able to help. And I think Zimmerman at one point says, oh, so you can sing and dance now. I should install you at a Ferengi nightclub. You know, they're throwing in these insults and barbs and sarcasms. Then he gets a call from Haley again that there's a visitor there. And Deanna Troy enters the lab.

Yeah. She comes in. She doesn't know which one's, she doesn't know which one to treat. actually when she comes in she's like uh and again another motion control shot just diana troy walking in and in the middle of the two of them had to have taken hours just so yeah yeah i think i read on memory alpha that someone interviewed marina about her her acting on this specific episode and and she said that it was a joy to work with bopacardo he was so easy to work with but all the you know in dealing with the camera and dealing with the two

Bob's that she had a hard time dealing with that. Like she said, I have to say perfectly still, I couldn't move an inch, you know, at this point and that point. So there was a lot of technical stuff. Technical challenges. Yeah, the Marina was not happy to have to partake in. I'm sure it was tricky. Yeah.

But she comes in. Zimmerman goes over. He thinks she's a trick, like another hologram. I mean, he pinches her. And she's like, ow, I'm real. Yeah. The doctor's very glad to see her. Zimmerman is not.

He's still grumpy. the doctor tries to explain to the counselor that you know he's turned paranoid and agoraphobic and he's just losing his mind he's going crazy and uh then the counselor troy she tries to get first the doctor to see zimmerman's point of view she says well you know to him you're obsolete like would you imagine letting a surgeon from a hundred years ago work on your work on your program and he's like sure if he knew what he was doing she's like really really from a hundred years ago. And he's like, okay, maybe, maybe I get it.

And then she goes to Zimmerman and she's like, look at the doctor's position and if things were reversed. So she's slowly just sowing the seeds. Getting them to see each other's. Yeah, just look at this for what it is, okay? But she does get them to see each other's point a little bit, but then. Well, he still cuts into him because he says, you know, thank you, counselor for extending the olive branch.

I'm willing to see past our differences if he is. And Zimmerman's like, all right, yeah, I am too. And he can start by purging the plasma conduits in deck six. Exactly. He's still sticking it to him. Yeah, another barb. Yeah, go clean the plasma conduits if he wants to be helpful. And the doctor gets angry again.

They start to bicker. Troy is like, that's it. You're both jerks. Yeah. And storms out. And then the iguana goes, jerks. Does he? Oh, he does.

That's right. Jerks. There's a nice button. You think she's getting somewhere, and then they just go back to bickering, and the iguana, the iguana calls it. I almost want you to text Bob and say, whose idea was the iguana, Bob? Tell me now. All right. So we are now in Zimmerman's living quarters?

Somebody's living quarters. Yeah, probably. And Troy is telling Barclay that, you know what, maybe I shouldn't have even come here. Like these two can't even be in the same room with each other. They're jerks. She goes on to say, like, you know, Zimmerman is, is hiding in the lab. He won't come out. And the doctor is on the holodeck and he won't come out of there.

They're not even speaking to each other. And Barclay says, well, I let the doctor use my Voyager simulation. It seems to be comforting him. So he's, he's, you know, they're in this standoff and Barclay and Troy can't figure out what to do. Haley brings in some ice cream for Troy to try to comfort her. Yes. And then Troy, yeah, Troy realizes here.

she says, you're a hologram, aren't you? And Haley's like, how'd you know? And she says, well, I haven't been around you. I've been around you a bunch. I haven't sensed any emotions. I'm an empath. We learn that Haley has been there nine years and she's older than even the doctor. The EMH Mark 1. Yeah. She was around when the MH Mark 1 was designed, basically. So Troy does a little, you know, a little digging here with Haley and just wanted to know, you know, why did Lewis make the EMH Mark 1 in his own image. And Hayle's like, well, maybe you should ask him. And Troy's like, I already did. But he evaded that question. I was hoping you would shed some light in this situation. Haley does give us some information. She tells us that Zimmerman was very, very proud of the Mark 1.

And he would dream about having hundreds of holograms and corner of every quadrant saving lives. And he put so much of himself into its development. He felt that it was only natural that the EMH Mark 1 should look like him as well. He was very proud to, like, reveal this to Starfleet. And then Starfleet didn't meet their expectations. Didn't meet their expectations. And so Starfleet ordered the Mark 1 to be reconfigured to clean the plasma conduits.

Well, it didn't go right to that. I mean, they were, they said he didn't, they said, hey, listen, Zimmerman, the Mark 1 failed to meet our expectations. And he spent two years trying to fix the defects. Like, he just locked himself away, trying to fix everything. and he finally just gave up and he started from scratch. Whole new Matrix and that was the Mark 2, which was then followed by 3, 4. But none of those other newer models were modeled after him. The only one that's because he was ashamed of the failure, he didn't want to model the new ones after him.

So the only ones that look like him are the Mark ones. Yeah. And so Troy kind of kind of has this realization at the end. She says to Haley, oh, so after all this time the Mark 1 shows up, It must be like staring in a mirror at a reflection that you do not want to remember. So great line there. I love that line. And when she has this realization, that's when she can eat her ice cream at the very end of the scene.

She's like, aha, I've gotten somewhere. I've got something out. I'm going to reward myself with ice cream. Yummy. Okay. We go to the lab again. And Zimmerman, this is a sad little scene. It is.

He's recording his will. He's recording his will. He's recording as Will. He thinks he's dying here. He wants to leave the Trojan Horse project to Barclay. He wants to leave all of his holographic art to Barclay, too. So clearly, in Berkeley or close. The only one that can appreciate them is Barclay.

Yeah. And he wants Haley to be running as long as his lab exists. Yeah. Because he says, she's as real to me as anyone. Anyone he's ever known. Yeah. It's very sad. It is.

He says something like, I feel like, you know, I don't have any other friends because all my friends are or you know I created all my friends I created Haley I created other than Barkley and Haley that's it and then his ailment his illness you know kind of flares up and he pain he kind of experiences a very sharp pain yeah he pauses his recording when he's buckled over he does kind of look up and he sees Leonard the iguana and he even says to Leonard look don't worry I'll find a place for you too so it is sad I mean this is sad scene yeah very much so. We see the space station again back to, I guess we're in the holodeck with the doctor. The holodeck of, it's Voyager's sickbay, basically, going on. Yeah. And the doctor's

there because it's comforting him to be on Voyager. And Troy enters. And she comments about this recreation that Berkeley made. Yeah. Well, she's never seen Voyager ever. Yeah. She's like, oh, cool. Yeah. Doctor says, yeah, Barclay got most of it right, except that Neelix does not purr. and she says oh well that's probably because he's he named his cat his favorite cat kneeling so he probably added the purring just for his cat but she says hey let's why don't you join me for dinner and he goes I'm a hologram I don't eat like I don't need to eat dinner she says well you know it's going to be a nice dinner to get to know each other Barkley will be there Haley and Doc Zimmerman no thanks no

Nope. I'm not doing it. And then suddenly he starts to fritz. Troy calls to Barclay, what's going on? Barclay says, well, he was running diagnostics on the doctor, but his program was sent 30,000 light years. It's starting to break down, starting to destabilize. Right. And that's actually we're in Zimmerman, the living quarters at this point, right? Yeah, living quarters where Berkeley. Yeah, Barclay says your program is destabilizing. And Barclay basically says there's nothing I can do pretty soon, very soon, he's going to be destroyed. Yeah, I mean, this is the end of the doctor. So now the doctor has a death sentence in a way.

So both Zimmerman and the doctor are now dying. We go to the lab next, and Barclay is explaining to Zimmerman that the doctor is dying. And Zimmerman's like, his files are degrading. Good riddance to bad photons is what it says. But Barclay's like, Voyager can't do without him. Yeah, there are people that count on him on Voyager. People are counting him. Yeah, we have to send them back.

And Zimmerman's like, we'll send him a Mark four. They're more reliable. And Barclay's like, they don't want a Mark four. They want their friend, which is another good piece of dialogue right there. Yeah. And Zimmerman says, he goes, you know, these EMHs were not designed to be anybody's friend. Like, these are, these are. Just a hologram.

It's just a hologram. And it's a bad hologram. Like, again, he's ashamed of it. Yeah. Haley pipes up. Haley pipes up. She's hurt. Yeah.

And she says, is that how you feel about me? I'm just a hologram. And he's like, oh, I'm being ambushed in my own lab. And then Haley tells him a story about when he was on Vulcan. That he canceled a lecture. Came all the way home to repair her. Because she was destabilized. Yes.

I mean, he says, well, he says, well, I was just looking for a reason to get out of there. I didn't want to give the lecture anyway. Yeah, right. And she's like, no, you came back because of me. You cared about me. Yeah. Just like you care about the mark one. He just won't admit it.

Haley says, you know, he may not be perfect. The Mark I may not be perfect, but he is one of your creations, and he needs you right now. He's going to die, too. Yeah, don't turn your back on him. Yeah. Time is passed now. We're still in the lab. Zimmerman's eating a salad.

He activates the doctor. Yeah, he activates the image. The image fritz is in and says, please state the nature of the medical emergency. And Zimmerman says, you're the emergency. And doctor's like, wait, you're going to repair me? You're going to fix me? And he asks, you know, well, how are you going to do it? What are you doing?

And he's like, is that a fractal algorithm? And he goes, no, don't do that. They're notoriously unstable. And then Zimmerman says something like, whoops. Yeah, he goes in the hands of a novice. And he goes, beep, beep, beep, beep. He goes, whoops. He's like, what's whoops?

What's whoops? And Zimmerman just shuts him up. He doesn't want a patient asking questions, jabbing in his ear when he's doing his very detailed handiwork there. We come back a little time has passed. He reactivates the doctor. And the doctor at first, he goes, I can't move. I can't move.

What's going on? He's pretty stressed. Zimmerman says, I took your mobility algorithms offline. I'm making improvements. And this is the way that I always wanted the Mark 1 EMH to be. I just never had the chance to. And he reactivates him again. So he fritzes out, fritzes back in by the hollow grid.

And the doctor's message. He has a new opening line instead of. Can I say it? Yeah. Can I say? Okay. He says, welcome to sickbay. How may I help you today?

So it's completely different. What am I saying? Yes. And he says, yeah, I've tried to upgrade your algorithms to make you a little more friendly, less grumpy. He says, I've added new subroutines. for compassion, patience, empathy, decorum, all these things. And the doc says, I don't feel anything as well because I haven't installed them yet. But I just thought you'd be, you'd like to be awake for the big moment.

But he does acknowledge in the scene. He does agree with Barclay that the doctor has exceeded his expectations and he's accomplished much more than he ever thought. Some of his programming, exactly. He also does say something like, you know, you have exceeded your programming, but you never overcame your inherent flaws, your arrogance, you're irritable. He says, a jerk. As counselor Troy would say, yes. But then he throws it back. Bob as the EMA says, I believe she was describing you as well. So it's, there's a, you know, there's a little bit of like, look, we are the

same people, basically. And so at this point, the doctor says, you know what, I like myself the way I am. I don't want these upgrades and changes. And Zimmerman says, I'm trying to do you a favor. And doctors, like, I don't want any favors from your new subroutines. And he says, why can't you just accept me the way I am? And Zimmerman responds, because you're defective. Yeah. And he gives other acronyms.

So instead of emergency medical hologram, he says, emergency medical hotheads, extremely marginal house calls, which is a very funny one. Yeah, very funny. And that's what everyone used to call. the mark one and that's when you know the mark one was reconfigured after two years of him trying to fix it couldn't fix it he basically admits what haley said he said you know i was humiliated yeah with uh oh here's the number 675 175 mark one's out there rubbing plasma conduits yeah all with my face yeah so he's humiliated yeah and um yeah and the doctor says well they're probably doing a good job

So they start now. They're starting to understand each other. And the doctor is empathetic. And he says, they're probably doing a good job. Scan Zimmerman. He wants Zimmerman to be proud of him. Yeah. Just give him a chance and be proud of him.

Exactly. A doctor then tells Zimmerman that his intercellular proteins are at a dangerous level. And they should begin the procedure immediately. And he says, please, just give me this chance to make you proud of me. So this is the turning point. Yeah, this is the turning point. Zimmerman says, okay, we can try. But don't expect me to put you in my will.

My will, yeah. He still has a bar, but even though it's like, oh, my goodness, classic, exactly. We go to the living quarters, Barclay's pacing. We learn it's been over 32 hours. The doctor's been doing this procedure. And finally, the doctor. That's a long time. A long time.

32 hours. Yeah. So that's one day and another eight hours. A quarter, is that right? Yeah, a third. A day and a third of a day to do this. My goodness. The doctor comes in and says that the procedure was successful, basically.

He's got a few questions, though, about his degradation. He said, apparently, this was started intentionally. He's like, what were you guys doing? And Troy. He found an algorithm designed to disrupt his matrix. and so yeah they were trying to set him up so that Zimmerman would have some empathy and and and the doctor gets it now yeah and so he's relieved that he's not going to be you know degraded and die and zimmerman's fixed and yeah and he needs Zimmerman does need more procedures though he's he requires

several more treatments but he will in his opinion make a full recovery so that's very positive and news. We go to the lab for our final scene here, and the doctor is taking photos with his giant camera. Zimmerman walks in, and he's like, what are you doing? And doctor says, well, photography is one of my hobbies that I develop. So we see that they're really kind of getting to know each other. And the doctor says, you've got a rest. And Zimmerman says, well, I hope you're not going to be coming back here to do more of this. And the doctor says, oh, no, I'm not going to be able to come back. The captain would not allow me to come back. This is it. So this is really their goodbye. It is. But then Zimmerman does say, well, that's fine. But the next time she sends a data

stream, you might want to drop me a line and let me know how you're doing. So this is, you know, progress. This is huge progress. He actually does care about the EMH mark one. And of course, the EMH says, well, if you insist. And then Barclay enters the room. Yeah. And, EMH asked Barkley if he could help him take a photo and he actually poses with his father, Zimmerman, and they snap that photo. It's a cool shot, the two, the Bob and the Bob, with a hand over his shoulder. Yes, yes. It's a tricky shot to do, but it was very well done.

Was that a photo double? That was standing? No, that had to have been a locked off camera or something. A locked up camera move. Oh, wow. Okay. Yep. But yeah, we've got that freeze frame at the end.

and there's the photo of Bob and Bob. And it's sweet. It's sweet. Yeah. And then that goes to credits. And that's the end of that one. That is the end of our doctor's father's story, the father's son story. My lesson for this episode is to be careful of assumptions because assumptions can usually lead to disappointment.

You know, that's what I took from this is like the doctor came here thinking he's going to have this fantasy reunion and he was disappointed instead of just taking people for who they are and learning to see the potential rather than being stuck with your preconceived judgments, you know. Yeah. That both of them had certain assumptions or judgments. And so that's why there was so much conflict instead of Zimmerman saying, hey, maybe you're not the failed mark one, maybe you're different. And instead of the doctor thinking, oh, he's got to be my father knows best, instead of, oh, well, he might be a grumpy guy, and that's okay.

Like, you know, these assumptions lead to disappointment and judgments, preconceived judgments. So that was my lesson. What about you? Similar to yours, my lesson from this episode is to remember to remain flexible. A lot of times you have a preconceived notion about something. before you go into it. Yeah. And if you hold fast to that and never, never change course, you could be in for a lot of misery because the bottom line is you never know.

Any situation that you think is going to be a certain way, there's always a little bit of a twist, a little plot twist, a little change in something. And so when you do come into some type of discussion, meeting, conference, whatever it may be with your preconcathed notion of how it's going to go. And the minute it starts going sideways, you must adjust. You must be flexible. And you must realize, okay, it's not working. We have to find another tactic or another angle to approach this to make sure that this thing can move forward.

And you can't move forward when you're just spinning your tires because you're doing the same damn thing. You're stuck in that judgment. Is it Cisophis? The guy, he rolls the rock up the hill and then it rolls all the way back down. He does the same thing over and over again. He doesn't change it. Right. Yeah.

So that's my takeaway. So similar to yours. Yeah. My rating, number one, because of the incessant use of the scanning of the tricorder over and over again, which pulled me out. And also because there wasn't your criteria, which is the usage of all of the main characters, I don't even think Tuvok even said anything in this episode. So for me, I'm going to give it a lower rating because of that. And, you know, I'm sure there's people that the doctor is their favorite character in Voyager, and this is their dream episode. Because not only you get the doctor, you get the doctor times two.

I mean, if you're ever, if you are a obsessive doctor fan, this is your episode. But for me, because of that criteria, I'm going to give this a 6.5. Okay. Yeah. That's fair. I'll be honest. This is one of my least favorite episodes. Of the entire series so far.

series. I think the story was repetitive. Ultimately, I don't, you know, I think there was a very simple message in it. And I think it lacked involvement of our crew. It lacked any kind of B story or C story. Often we have, you know, our A story and then a smaller story or two that sort of counterpoint and echo the same themes and, you know, open it up from a different perspective, the same ideas. This had none of that. Right. So I, I just, yeah, it lacks a lot of things. I give it a five. Oh, that's actually not your lowest rating.

You've gone lower than that. Oh, well, it's one of my least favorite. You gave a four or something. Did I? Yeah, you did. This is a five. I'm going to give it a five. Okay.

I think that the whole idea of the theme, these preconceived notions or disappointment or fantasies of what could be or misunderstandings, there were so many opportunities to open the story up to other characters like the the maquis scene with janeway and chakotay that could have been a beast or like you know the assumptions that the maquis you know that starfleet is making about the machi relationship on our ship it's an assumption it's not really you know things have changed but yet that story was not explored none of the characters hopes dreams of messages back were explored in any way i don't know it yeah okay i'm gonna give it a five i will and before you read the

rating. I almost, the entire time you're talking, I keep thinking, man, if they invent a time machine and 2000, the year 2000 era, John Bruno and Bob Picardo come to our time and listening to this podcast, they would then change the script. They would say, oh, we need to, we need to rework this. I don't know that Bob and John Bruno's story pitch was the flaw, because I think their story pitch is what got made. I think the writers as a team, the writing room and everyone, should have looked at what could have made it better. And they could have improved. Like, yeah, I think that there's a,

there's a lot of ways that this story had value, but could have been improved a lot. So then the players that ended up doing the teleplay, those are the individuals that could have opened it up and made this a more, you know, thorough exploration of this story, rather than felt pretty limited and a little redundant.

And also restricted to the 42-minute time constraint as well. So it's not all the writer's fault. I'm dying to see what our average rating is here because it's one of my lowest score. So our admirals and captain's average rating for Lifeline is 7.4. 7.6. Oh, I was close. Wow. My guess is close.

I'm going to do that from now on. Right before you say it, I'm going to guess what I think they're going to say. So then we'll have it there. 7.6. Wow. A lot of doctor fans out there. And I'm a doctor fan too. Well, no, who isn't a doctor fan?

I mean, that's definitely one of the most popular characters on Voyager, definitely. But we do have validity when it comes to our points that we made. I think they're valid points. Yeah. They really are. Agreed. I mean, it's to have a series regular, do you agree with me? Did Tuvok say anything in this entire show?

He didn't have a single line. I'm sorry. How can you not? Balana may have had one line, which may have had a couple of lines. Like, there wasn't a story. for anybody. No. Did you talk? Did you speak? You spoke a little bit, right? Or did you? Holy crap. You may not have even said anything. So again, you cannot have your main character say Zippo the entire episode.

There has to be something there, right? Agreed. Okay. Agreed. All right. Well, thank you everyone for tuning in and please don't get mad at us for giving it such a low rating. I know. I know their fans out there. This is their favorite episode. I know, of course. There's always every episode of Voyager has some number of fans that love that episode. And I'm sure this is one of those episodes for some of the diehard doctor fans out there. But Robbie and I, we have spoken. To each his own, right?

Everybody's going to have their own experience. Yes. Okay. That was good. What's next week? Yes, next week is the haunting of deck 12. We're getting very close to rounding out the end of season six at this moment. So it'll be the haunting of deck 12,

one other episode, and that'll be it. Wow. These and six is almost done. I can't believe. This is so crazy. We've been doing this since March of 20. Well, we launched on May of 20, but we started recording in March of 2020. So this is incredible that we've come this far.

It really is. And thank you, everyone, for tuning in and joining us on this journey for over two years now. It's been an incredible journey for both Robbie, myself, making end, Rebecca, and of course for all the fans as well that have tuned in. So thank you so much. And tune in next week when we will be reviewing and recapping and discussing the haunting of deck 12. For all of our Patreon patrons, please stay tuned for your bonus material.