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Life Line (episode)

• View history
• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 1.6 Act Five
• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3.1 Production
• 3.2 Continuity
• 3.3 Reception
• 3.4 Video and DVD releases
• 4.1 Starring
• 4.2 Also starring
• 4.3 Special Guest Star
• 4.4 Guest Stars
• 4.5 Special Guest Appearance By
• 4.6 Co-Star
• 4.7 Uncredited Co-Stars
• 4.8 Stand-ins
• 4.9 References
• 4.10 External links

Summary [ ]

Jupiter Station

Jupiter Station , Sol system , the Alpha Quadrant . A shuttle , piloted by Lieutenant Reginald Barclay approaches. He hails the station and requests permission to dock and board.

The station is the home and workplace of Dr. Lewis Zimmerman , the crotchety genius and holography engineer extraordinaire best known for the creation of the Emergency Medical Hologram . Dr. Zimmerman grumpily allows Barclay in to see him. They speak about Barclay's work on the Pathfinder Project and an annoyed Zimmerman mocks Barclay for still searching for that ship. Barclay tells him that they are on the verge of a breakthrough through the establishment of a communications link.

Then the subject turns to Zimmerman's medical condition. Zimmerman snorts angrily at this, stating that he has been scanned and probed a hundred times without anyone being able to tell him what is wrong. Barclay ventures that it is only a matter of time until they find something, but Zimmerman has none of it. His next words remind Barclay that time is a luxury Dr. Zimmerman cannot afford; his condition is fatal and he is dying.

Act One [ ]

Via the MIDAS array , Starfleet transmits a compressed data stream across the 30,000 light year distance to the USS Voyager . It is received in the ship's astrometrics lab by Seven of Nine , who quickly analyzes the data and informs Captain Janeway about the transmission.

Janeway calls a meeting of the senior staff explaining the receipt of the data stream and that every thirty-two days, Starfleet will transmit a short burst of data to them via the MIDAS array, utilizing a cyclic pulsar to amplify the signal across the distance. The data is usually correspondence from crew-members' families and news of the Alpha Quadrant. However, they only have about seventeen hours to respond before the pulsar's strength drops below sending range. She orders that the crew be informed and that everyone be given the opportunity to send something.

The Doctor finds out about Zimmerman's condition

As before, Neelix , the ship's morale officer, is put in charge of distributing the individual messages. This time, he also has one for The Doctor , which he promptly delivers to him in sickbay . It is a message from Barclay who informs him about Dr. Zimmerman's condition. Barclay explains that Dr. Zimmerman is suffering from acute sub-cellular degradation and that the doctors at home have not been able to find the cause, much less the treatment. Neelix informs The Doctor gently of the time the Captain needs his response by, if he wants to send one.

The Doctor, however, intends to send more than just a reply; he believes that he can actually help Dr. Zimmerman by adapting a variety of Borg regeneration techniques to arrest the cell damage and maybe even reverse it. And what's more, he intends to administer the treatment himself by being sent back to the Alpha Quadrant. Captain Janeway is not convinced, saying that even if they could send him, he was still needed on the ship. But The Doctor points out that for the short time he is gone, Tom Paris can take over. He goes on to say that Seven has discovered that they can compress his program and send him. He realizes that he would be asking the crew to make a sacrifice, because if his program is sent, then there won't be any room for personal messages, but he believes that while the crew can wait another month, Dr. Zimmerman might not have that luxury. He pleads with her, responding that he needs to be there and that he cannot treat a patient 30,000 light years away. He points out that everything he is, he is because of Dr. Zimmerman and his work and that in a way, both he and the crew owe Zimmerman something. Janeway points out that Zimmerman created thousands of emergency medical holograms and that he can hardly be considered to be a father to him, but The Doctor disagrees, stating that from his perspective, his creator is the closest thing he's got and that if he doesn't help him now, he may never get the chance. Captain Janeway finally agrees hoping that The Doctor will be successful in his endeavors.

Act Two [ ]

Seven prepares The Doctor for transmission. Despite The Doctor's protests, she extracts all his non-essential subroutines, such as his singing subroutine and his Grand Master chess subroutine, because his program is currently too large for transmission. Then, in the astrometrics lab, with Captain Janeway and Ensign Kim there to prep him and see him off, Seven downloads and transmits him.

After successfully arriving at Jupiter Station, Barclay excitedly rushes with a portable data device to Zimmerman's laboratory. Zimmerman's assistant, Haley , warns him that he is in a particularly cranky mood, but Barclay insists on seeing him. Zimmerman agrees to see while his assistant asks him to be nice to Barclay, because he is actually worried about him.

The Doctor makes it to Zimmerman's lab

Barclay enters and activates The Doctor, who is projected using the emitters Zimmerman has installed throughout his lab. Zimmerman is not very impressed with being presented with an EMH Mark I , stating that he is not in the mood for nostalgia. Barclay informs him exactly what EMH Mark I he is looking at, but this merely elicits yet another sarcastic dismissal of The Doctor from a still unenthusiastic Zimmerman.

When The Doctor informs Zimmerman of the reason for his visit, Zimmerman becomes angry. " You brought a Mark I 30,000 light years to treat me? " he asks Barclay with a baleful glare. " I was wrong about you, Reginald; you do have a sense of humor. " He curtly turns his back on both of them.

The Doctor asks Barclay what the joke is. Zimmerman tells The Doctor the EMH Mark I program has been reconfigured to scrub plasma conduits on waste transfer barges. The Doctor is horrified. Zimmerman loudly continues that he has been treated by the Mark III, Mark IV, along with real doctors in Starfleet, none of whom could help him. Barclay explains to Zimmerman that all The Doctor's unique experiences have vastly increased his knowledge in the medical field, but Zimmerman doesn't want to hear it.

Irritated but undeterred, The Doctor tells Zimmerman that he needs to run a complete analysis by scanning him with a medical tricorder , but Zimmerman refuses to let him do so. However, his persistence makes Zimmerman see that he is going to have to acquiesce in order to be left alone, so he finally relents, standing still and allowing The Doctor to take his scans.

It does not last, however. The Doctor, annoyed by a holographic iguana Zimmerman has in his lab for company, deactivates it. Furious at this, Zimmerman ceases his cooperation and shouts at him to leave. The Doctor refuses, defiantly retorting that he is no longer under Zimmerman's control, to which Zimmerman sharply orders the computer to transfer The Doctor to the living quarters. The flustered Doctor finds himself suddenly relocated outside the lab, where a concerned Barclay and Haley look at him in surprise.

Act Three [ ]

" He reconfigured my tricorder! "

The next day, Haley and Barclay are sitting in the living quarters, talking about the situation. A furious Doctor storms in, demanding that the MIDAS array be powered up to send him back to Voyager at once. He spent an hour analyzing the confusing data before discovering that Zimmerman, according to the readings, is a Vulcan marsupial . The Doctor is outraged because Zimmerman reconfigured his tricorder. Barclay chuckles a bit and Haley tells him that she thinks that he is making some progress because Dr. Zimmerman only teases people he likes. Finally, Barclay calms him down, reminding him that he cannot be sent back until the following month. The Doctor is becoming increasingly agitated by the situation he is in, especially when a holographic insect keeps buzzing into his ear. He angrily voices his opinion of the absurdity of the situation he finds himself, with undercover insects, talking iguanas and not to mention Dr. Zimmerman whom he considers to be deranged and in dire need of a counselor. This gives Barclay an idea.

Barclay contacts Deanna Troi for help

Barclay contacts the USS Enterprise -E and speaks to Commander Deanna Troi , the ship's counselor . He asks her to come to Jupiter Station and provide some insight into the situation between The Doctor and Zimmerman. At first, she is reticent, responding that the Enterprise is on an important mission, nearly seven light years away. But Barclay pleads saying that this situation needs the best: her. She is visibly pleased by his confidence in her, and agrees to come, provided Captain Jean-Luc Picard , grants her request.

Meanwhile, on Voyager , Chakotay enters Captain Janeway's ready room to find her mulling over a message she has received from Admiral Hayes . In the message, Hayes assures Janeway that Starfleet has not given up on Voyager ; in fact, they have redirected two deep space vessels toward Voyager 's position, and the ships would be able to rendezvous with them in five to six years. Hayes also requests information from Janeway regarding her first contact missions, interactions with the Borg , and the status of the ship's Maquis crew members. This last point troubles Janeway; she tells Chakotay that she no longer thinks of the Maquis as a separate political entity (and enemies of the Federation), but as a normal part of the crew. Chakotay confesses that while Janeway may have forgotten their ugly history, the Maquis have not, but he also reminds her that it will be years before she will have to address the problem with Starfleet, and she should wait until then to do so. Janeway invites him to lunch so that he can help her compose a proper response to Hayes.

The disguised Doctor scans a complaining Zimmerman

Later on, Haley, having prepared Zimmerman's lunch, calls and informs him. His response over the comm is pleasured groaning, then an acknowledgment of her message. Zimmerman is being massaged by a Tarlac woman, to whom he complains about The Doctor's harassment of him and the dread he feels just thinking about him. Then he notices her pulling out a medical tricorder to scan him. Shocked, he gets up, demanding an explanation. He orders the computer to realign Voyager 's EMH. The Tarlac woman is replaced by an embarrassed-looking Doctor.

Zimmerman becomes furious and threatens to report The Doctor to the medical ethics board, screaming at him to leave him alone. The Doctor sternly tries to get him to see that he is only trying to help, but Zimmerman screams that he doesn't want his help, again asking why he just won't leave him alone. The Doctor explains that for some reason unknown to him, he cares about him. Zimmerman mocks him again, saying that he was not programmed to care but to hold a scalpel. However, The Doctor reiterates that over the past six years, he has become more than the EMH Zimmerman had once created.

Just then, Haley calls, informing Zimmerman of a visitor, who enters shortly after: Commander Troi.

Act Four [ ]

Troi introduces herself and immediately gets to work, trying to engage them. The Doctor is appreciative, but Zimmerman is surly and obstinate. She first tries to get The Doctor to see Zimmerman's point of view on the situation but to Zimmerman's mind, The Doctor is obsolete. Therefore, he has difficulty putting confidence in him. The Doctor understands this.

She then asks Zimmerman to understand The Doctor's position. If the situation were reversed, The Doctor would not want him working on him either, considering him obsolete. Zimmerman appears to be conciliatory but this soon gives way to crassly commenting The Doctor can start purging the plasma conduits on Deck Six. This arouses The Doctor's anger once again and they begin to bicker, until Troi loses her cool, calling them both jerks before storming out.

Later, in the living quarters, Troi tells Barclay that perhaps she should not have come; Zimmerman and The Doctor now refuse to even be in the same room with each other.

Troi meets Haley

Haley brings Troi chocolate ice cream . Troi is very appreciative. Her empathic powers, not sensing any emotions from her, reveal Haley to be a hologram. Upon finding out when she was created, she realizes that Haley is in fact older than the Mark I. She asks why Zimmerman listens to her, but refuses to do so with The Doctor. Haley explains that the Mark I was Zimmerman's most prized work. He had dreamed about holograms in every corner of the Milky Way , rendering critical medical care, saving lives in situations where flesh-and-blood doctors could not go. He was so proud of the Mark I that he modeled its physical appearance after himself. But Starfleet was unimpressed, ordering the Mark I reconfigured as plasma conduit cleaners. Zimmerman was devastated and humiliated. He tried for years to repair the defects, until he gave up and started again from scratch, first creating the Mark II, then III, then IV. None of these newer models looked like him again; he made that mistake once and was not about to do it again.

Troi concludes that a Mark I then appears, a reminder of his failure and shame, like staring in the mirror at a reflection one never wants to see again. She now understands exactly what the root cause of Zimmerman's attitude and belligerence toward The Doctor is. Savoring her ice cream, she considers her next steps.

Zimmerman dictates his will

Alone in his darkened lab, a quieter and resigned Zimmerman dictates to the computer his last will and testament. He makes bequests to those few who are close to him, such as Haley and Barclay. Then pain seizes him and he sits in his chair, gasping.

Meanwhile, The Doctor is in the station 's holodeck , which Barclay has programmed to be a facsimile of Voyager 's sickbay. Commander Troi enters and speaks to him about having dinner with her, Barclay, Haley… and Zimmerman. Initially, he is interested, but at the mention of the last, he flatly refuses. Then he begins to fritz. Urgently, Troi calls Barclay who immediately transfers him to the living quarters, where he begins running diagnostics on him.

The news horrifies The Doctor: he is degrading, destabilizing. Soon, he will be destroyed completely. There is nothing Barclay can do.

Act Five [ ]

Soon after, Barclay, Haley, and Troi are in Zimmerman's lab, with Zimmerman. Haley busies herself cleaning while Troi and Barclay speak to Zimmerman about The Doctor's deterioration. Zimmerman could not care less: " Good riddance to bad photons, " is his response.

The officers plead with him: he is dying; Voyager cannot do without him. He says that he will send them a Mark IV as a replacement. They don't want a Mark IV, Barclay presses, they want their friend. This irritates Zimmerman even more, and he states that no EMH was ever designed to be anyone's friend and shouts at everyone that he is just a hologram. Hurt, Haley asks him if that is that how he feels about her. Zimmerman mutters that he will not be ambushed in his own lab.

" Don't turn your back on him. "

Haley reminds him of the time when he was on Vulcan to give a lecture and received a message that she was destabilizing. He immediately canceled the lecture and returned to Jupiter Station to repair her. Zimmerman responds without conviction that he was merely looking for an excuse to escape delivering the lecture.

" You came back because you cared about me, " Haley presses. " Just like you care about the Mark I; you just won't admit it. " She admits that The Doctor may not be perfect, but that he is one of his creations, and that right now, he needs his creator. She asks him to not turn his back on him now. Zimmerman looks around at all of them, and quietly relents.

Later, eating Haley's salad, alone in the lab, he begins his work. He activates The Doctor and informs him of his intention to repair him and begins working at a terminal. The Doctor pesters Zimmerman with questions about what action he is taking and why he is taking it. Finally, Zimmerman just shuts him off.

Seventeen hours later, he activates him again. He proudly informs him that he has succeeded. But The Doctor finds that he cannot move. When asked why, Zimmerman excitedly informs him that not only has he repaired him, he has made some "improvements" on him. These improvements are those that he always had wanted to do on the Mark I, but never got the chance to. The upgrades include changing his greeting protocol to something more friendly, as well as adding new subroutines for compassion, patience, empathy and decorum. Zimmerman is extremely pleased. He acknowledges that The Doctor has exceeded his programming and accomplished much more than Zimmerman would have predicted. But, he adds, he never overcame his initial defects as a Mark I but now, he has a chance to.

However, The Doctor is happy with himself the way he is. Zimmerman tells him that he is doing him a favor, but The Doctor doesn't want any favors or the new subroutines. He bluntly asks why Zimmerman just can't accept him as he is. Zimmerman responds that this is because The Doctor is defective. He tells The Doctor; about the pejorative acronyms Starfleet gave the EMH Mark I, such as "Emergency Medical Hotheads" and "Extremely Marginal House-calls"; about how he tried to have them decommissioned, only to have to watch Starfleet reassign them all to work waste-transfer barges.

The truth comes out

He sinks onto a couch, emotionally drained and pouring out feelings of extreme shame and embarrassment: " Do you know how humiliating it is? to have 675 Mark Ones out there, scrubbing plasma conduits… all with my face? "

The Doctor gently tells him that he is still doing what he was made for, and is quite good at it. And this is why he is here: to do that job for him, so that he may be proud of him. Somewhat comforted, Zimmerman states that at least one of the EMHs he created is still doing what he designed them to do. The Doctor points out Zimmerman's intercellular proteins are at a dangerous level and that he should commence treatment. Zimmerman considers this and finally agrees to let The Doctor proceed.

Thirty-two hours later, The Doctor emerges from the lab to happily inform Barclay, Haley and Troi that the procedure was successful. He is certain Zimmerman will recover. However, he has a few questions regarding his earlier degradation: apparently, it had been started intentionally. He rounds on Barclay and pointedly calls for an explanation. He and Troi sheepishly confess that they set up the whole thing about his program decompiling in order to break down Zimmerman's resistance. The Doctor smiles, not holding it against them.

Father and son

One month later, The Doctor is in Zimmerman's lab, snapping holo-images. Zimmerman walks in. The Doctor insists he go back to bed. Zimmerman sighs in annoyance. He voices hope that The Doctor will not be returning next month to ensure he is taking his medicine. The Doctor assures him with a smile that Captain Janeway would not allow it. Zimmerman then remarks that The Doctor may want to drop him a line next time Voyager sends a data stream, to let him know how he is doing. The Doctor happily agrees.

Barclay enters. The MIDAS array is ready to send The Doctor back. But before leaving, he has Barclay take a picture of him and Zimmerman.

Memorable quotes [ ]

" You're still searching for that ship? What's it called… Pioneer ? " " Uh, Voyager . "

" Can't it wait until I'm dead? "

" I'm a doctor, not a zookeeper . "

" A smattering of photons; that's all he is! "

" Hello, I'm Deanna Troi. Which one of you is Dr. Zimmerman? "

" I found a friend waiting for me at home. " " You don't have any friends. "

" I traveled halfway across the galaxy to treat you. The least you could do is show a little gratitude! " " Thank you. GET OUT OF HERE! "

" The Enterprise is in the middle of a mission…we're nearly seven light years away from you." " An important mission? " " They're all important, Reg. "

" Oh, spare us your psychobabble! " " I came here thinking that you were opposite sides of the same coin; identical, but different. Now I see you're both exactly the same. You're both jerks! " " Jerks. "

" Do you know how humiliating it is to have 675 Mark Ones out there, scrubbing plasma conduits… all with my face? "

" I can assure you I'm quite real. " " Oh, well, the last beautiful woman to walk in here turned out to be him." " I'll take that as a compliment. "

" You're arrogant! Irritable! A jerk, as Counselor Troi would say. " " I believe she was describing you as well. " " Don't change the subject. "

" What were your initial symptoms? " " Radical hair loss. "

" Computer, deactivate iguana."

" I also have an exceptionally high tolerance for difficult patients. " " I didn't program you for sarcasm. " " You'll find I'm full of surprises. "

Background information [ ]

Production [ ].

• Marina Sirtis ( Counselor Deanna Troi ), Robert Picardo ( The Doctor / Lewis Zimmerman ), Ethan Phillips ( Neelix ), Dwight Schultz (Lt. Reginald Barclay ), and Jack Shearer (Admiral Hayes ) all previously appeared in Star Trek: First Contact . With the exception of Phillips, all of them played the same characters in the film.
• This episode bears some resemblance to the episode TNG : " Brothers ". Both feature an artificial life-form ( Data , The Doctor ) meeting the reclusive Human scientist ( Noonien Soong , Lewis Zimmerman ) who created them (in both cases, played by the same actor as their creation). In both cases, the creator is terminally ill, though in his case, his creation is able to treat him.
• For this episode, Dwight Schultz is credited simply as "Barclay".
• Although Tim Russ (Tuvok) appears in this episode, he has no lines.
• This episode remains one of only two Star Trek episodes in which a cast member receives a writing credit, as it was written by Robert Picardo. The other was TAS : " The Infinite Vulcan ", written by Walter Koenig .
• Zimmerman incorrectly guesses Voyager 's name is Pioneer; this was a subtle homage to NASA's Pioneer program, the first spacecraft to leave the Solar System, Voyager was the name of the next generation of planetary explorers that also left the Solar System.

Continuity [ ]

• Reginald Barclay previously appeared in the second-season episode " Projections " (albeit as a hologram) and the sixth-season episode " Pathfinder ".
• Barclay says he's been busy on the "Pathfinder Project". This project, to establish communication between Starfleet and Voyager , was first shown in " Pathfinder ".
• The Doctor references the Vidiians in this episode, and the disease which afflicts them, the Phage. Voyager first encountered the Vidiians in the first-season episode " Phage ".
• Lewis Zimmerman appears for the first and only time in the series in this episode. He previously appeared in the Deep Space Nine episode DS9 : " Doctor Bashir, I Presume ". A holographic representation of Zimmerman previously appeared in VOY : " The Swarm ", and his image first appeared on a console in " Projections ".
• The Doctor disguises himself as a female member of the Tarlac species from Star Trek: Insurrection in order to examine Dr. Zimmerman.
• This episode is the first (and only) time that a piece of the USS Enterprise -E is seen on a Star Trek television series, in this case, Counselor Troi's quarters or office. Although a part of the saucer section from the Enterprise -E physical model was used as a piece of debris in the episode ENT : " Regeneration ".
• This episode takes place over the course of a little more than 32 days.
• Dr. Zimmerman comments that he hasn't left Jupiter Station in "over four years", referring to his visit to Deep Space 9 to interview Julian Bashir for the Long-term Medical Holographic program between Stardates 50564 and 50712 in DS9 : " Doctor Bashir, I Presume ". This suggests that this episode takes place in early 2377 .
• Doctor Zimmerman claims that there are 675 EMH Mark Ones. However, it is not known how much of the Federation fleet was equipped with the program. Given the number of ships mentioned during the Dominion War , it seems likely that only a portion of Starfleet received the holographic doctors.
• Although Jupiter Station is mentioned in numerous episodes of Voyager as well as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: The Next Generation , this is its only actual on screen appearance.
• This episode features characters who appeared in five live-action Star Trek series: the regular Voyager characters, Deanna Troi (who was previously a regular character on Star Trek: The Next Generation and who later appeared in both ENT : " These Are the Voyages... " and PIC : " Nepenthe "), Reg Barclay (who previously appeared in five episodes of The Next Generation ), and Lewis Zimmerman (who previously appeared in DS9 : " Doctor Bashir, I Presume ").
• Admiral Hayes, in his message to Voyager , asks for a casualties list, saying "I'm sure you've had more than your share." This would seem to imply that details of casualties was not transmitted to Starfleet in the fourth-season episode " Message in a Bottle ".
• Troi tells The Doctor that Reg's cat is named after Neelix. Neelix the cat made an appearance in " Pathfinder ".

Reception [ ]

• Robert Picardo enjoyed playing two roles in this episode: " I play not only The Doctor, but his programmer, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman. So I achieved a lifelong ambition of working with an actor who I've admired. Of course the hardest thing about acting with myself was coming up to my own level. I was very demanding, but also very generous, as an actor I gave myself everything I felt I deserved and more. " ( Star Trek: Voyager Companion  (p. ? ))
• Marina Sirtis enjoyed the opportunity to work with Picardo, who she had come to know through Star Trek conventions . " It was really great because he's so easy to work with. " Though she did acknowledge it was a hard episode to film because of the use of motion control. " You have to be standing in a fixed spot; you can't move an inch, and you're having to think of so many other things apart from your performance. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 18 , p. 46)

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment ): Volume 6.12, 27 December 2000
• As part of the VOY Season 6 DVD collection
• This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series.

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway

Also starring [ ]

• Robert Beltran as Chakotay
• Roxann Dawson as B'Elanna Torres
• Robert Duncan McNeill as Tom Paris
• Ethan Phillips as Neelix
• Robert Picardo as The Doctor
• Tim Russ as Tuvok
• Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine
• Garrett Wang as Harry Kim

Special Guest Star [ ]

• Dwight Schultz as " Barclay "

Guest Stars [ ]

• Tamara Craig Thomas as Haley
• Jack Shearer as Hayes

Special Guest Appearance By [ ]

• Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi

Co-Star [ ]

• Majel Barrett as Computer Voice

Uncredited Co-Stars [ ]

• Nichole McAuley as Tarlac hologram
• Robert Picardo as Lewis Zimmerman
• Willie as Leonard
• Unknown actress as Jupiter Station control (voice)

Stand-ins [ ]

• Brita Nowak – stand-in for Jeri Ryan

References [ ]

admission ; agoraphobia ; Alpha Quadrant ; amusement ; arrogant ; assimilation ; Bolian ; chess ; chin ; commissioning ; cycle ; cyclic pulsar ; Dawkins ; Daystrom Prize ; deep space vessel ; Delta Quadrant ; duty shift ; Earth ; Emergency Medical Hologram ( EMH ); Enterprise -E, USS ; eyes ; Federation attack fighter ; Federation deep space vessels ; field medic ; fractal algorithm ; hair loss ; holodeck ; hologram ; holography ; holophotography ; homesick ; hour ; house call ; hoverball ; iguana ; intercellular protein ; irritable ; Jem'Hadar battle cruiser ; Jenzo ; jerk ; joint inflammation ; Jupiter Station ; Jupiter Station Holoprogramming Center ; Klingon ; " La donna è mobile "; Leonard ; mail call ; Maquis ; Medical Corps ; Medical ethics board ; medical student ; medical tricorder ; megaquad ; MIDAS array ; Milky Way Galaxy ; mitochondrial scan ; mobility subroutine ; Neelix (cat) ; neutron flux ; nightclub ; nostalgia ; olive branch ; parent ; paranoid ; Pathfinder Project ; personality subroutine ; phage ; Picard, Jean-Luc ; Pioneer 10 ; pinch ; plasma conduit ; plasma generator ; poetry ; pork chop ; prank ; result ; Roy ; salad ; sarcasm ; second opinion ; sense of humor ; sexual activities (aka intimate relations ); scalpel ; Starfleet Intelligence ; Starfleet Medical ; sulfur ; Tarlac ; terminal illness ; therapist ; theta radiation ; time index ; tricorder ; Trojan Horse Project ; " Voyager 's EMH "; Vulcan ; Vulcan marsupial ; Woman in Four Dimensions ; Woman on comms at Jupiter Station ; " Z, Doctor "

External links [ ]

• "Life Line" at StarTrek.com
• " Life Line " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " Life Line " at Wikipedia
• 3 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

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Star Trek: Voyager – Life Line (Review)

Life Line brings Star Trek: Voyager ‘s daddy issues to the fore.

Voyager always existed in the shadow of Star Trek: The Next Generation , never quite breaking free in the way that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine managed to do. Voyager always felt shaped by and indebted to The Next Generation , always longing to affirm its heritage. Barclay appeared in Projections . Riker made a cameo in Death Wish . Geordi popped up in  Timeless . Deanna Troi paid a visit in  Pathfinder . The Ferengi from The Price popped up in False Profits . Q was a recurring character. The Borg were a recurring threat.

All my holo-children.

Voyager always saw itself as the spiritual successor to The Next Generation , the rightful heir to what was at the time the crown jewel in this iconic science-fiction franchise. However, this aspiration was not borne out in any quantifiable sense. The reviews for Voyager were decidedly more guarded than they had been for The Next Generation . The ratings were appreciably lower. The cultural impact was greatly diminished. If Voyager had positioned itself as the next in line to the throne, it was a disappointment by any measure.

The sixth season of Voyager is keenly focused on the idea of memory and legacy. It often feels like the series is reflecting on its legacy, cognisant of the fact that the end is rapidly approaching. Indeed, this preoccupation with mortality plays out even within Life Line , which is an episodes that finds the EMH journeying back to the Alpha Quadrant in order to save the life of his dying creator. Doctor Lewis Zimmerman was a pioneer when Voyager launched almost six years earlier; now, he is a bitter and disillusioned old man wasting away in seclusion.

Father yet to go.

There is something very pointed in this, in the idea of a son returning home to a dying father, to be met with disappointment and disdain. There is a funereal tone running through sixth season episodes like Barge of the Dead , Dragon’s Teeth , One Small Step , Blink of an Eye , Muse and Fury . It feels like Voyager is confronting the fact that it has declined over the slow withering death of the larger Star Trek franchise. The end is near, and Voyager has presided over it. Fury went so far as to request a do-over on the entire run of the series, resetting six years of continuity.

Life Line touches on these ideas, allowing one member of the regular cast to journey home and to try to make peace with a deeply disappointed father figure.

Creator hate.

Life Line is notable for the episode’s story credit. The basic premise of the episode originated with Robert Picardo, who plays the role of the EMH. Many Star Trek actors had transitioned from roles in front of the camera to behind the camera; Leonard Nimoy directing Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , William Shatner directing Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , Jonathan Frakes directing The Offspring , LeVar Burton directing Second Chances , Avery Brooks directing Tribunal , Rene Auberjonois directing Prophet Motive . Even Picardo himself had directed Alter Ego and One Small Step .

However, it was less common for actors to receive writing credits. William Shatner developed the story for the movie that he directed. Leonard Nimoy co-wrote the two movies that he directed and contributed to the screenplay of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . Brent Spiner received a story credit on Star Trek: Nemesis . Walter Koenig wrote the episode The Infinite Vulcan for Star Trek: The Animated Series . More actors have written for the tie-in material, with William Shatner writing his own series of books, Andrew Robinson writing A Stitch in Time and J.G. Hertzler writing the Left Hand of Destiny duology.

Invading Zim’s private space.

One of the more interesting through-lines in this journey from actor towards writer is that it tends to be character-driven. William Shatner writes a lot for Kirk. His novels even resurrect Kirk after the events of Star Trek: Generations so the character can continue saving the galaxy. Similarly, Andrew Robinson adapted a lot of the back story in A Stitch in Time from his own notes on Garak, his attempts to provide a history to the enigmatic spy-turned-tailor. Even J.G. Hertzler’s work on the Left Hand of Destiny books focus on Martok’s tenure as High Chancellor following Tacking Into the Wind .

Perhaps it makes sense that Robinson and Hertzler should feel so invested in their characters that they had stories to tell with them. After all Deep Space Nine had perhaps the most developed ensemble in the entire franchise. Similarly, Kirk and Spock are perhaps the most iconic figures in the franchise, so it makes sense that William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy would have some stories that they wished to tell focusing upon them. If the characters are rich or interesting enough, they  will prompt interest from the actors.

Letters from my father.

As Brannon Braga conceded in Star Trek and American Television , the actors would often contribute to the writing of the series when they weren’t explicitly credited:

Typically, some actors are more vocal than others. … Early on, you hear very little, but as the show progresses, over the season, you hear more and more feedback, because they get more comfortable with their characters and they start coming up with ideas. For instance, on Voyager, I would hear from Bob Picardo [the holographic doctor] every week. I’d sometimes find him lurking outside my office door. But Robert Beltrane [Chakotay] seemed totally disinterested in the show. I tried to get him to talk about his character, but I don’t think he really felt comfortable doing that.

This is the reality of television production. Actors spend years living inside the psyche of these characters. For some it may just be a reliable source of income and a steady gig, but there are inevitably a handful of actors who will embrace that.

In his image…

Patrick Stewart was very influential in shaping the movies featuring the Next Generation cast, particularly the reinvention of Jean-Luc Picard as a blockbuster action hero in movies like Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection . (Stewart had also pushed for more action-driven episodes, like Captain’s Holiday or Starship Mine .) Kate Mulgrew had encouraged Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky to write Janeway more aggressively, in episodes like Macrocosm and Night . Even Robert Beltran’s interest in boxing informed the basic premise of The Fight .

In the context of Voyager , it also makes a great deal of sense that Robert Picardo should be the cast member with a story to tell about his own character. The EMH is perhaps the best developed and most consistent character in the primary cast, with the possible exception of Seven of Nine. Janeway receives about the same amount of attention as either character, but her characterisation is more scattershot. Picardo had a firm grasp on the EMH even in early episodes like Caretaker and Eye of the Needle .

Scripting errors.

As with Michael Dorn on The Next Generation , it took the writers almost a season to identify what he brought to the ensemble. The first episode focusing on the EMH was Heroes and Demons , produced three-quarters of the way into the first broadcast season. The second EMH-centric story was Projections , which was produced as part of the first season, but held back for broadcast during the second season. Nevertheless, the EMH became one of the most developed and rounded characters on Voyager ; even in the sixth season, he’s the focus of Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy , Virtuoso and a major subplot of Blink of an Eye .

Picardo developed a keen grasp on his role. Indeed, much like Armin Shimerman, J.G. Hertzler and Andrew Robinson, Picardo would even write tie-in fiction about his character. Unlike Shimerman, Hertzler or Robinson, Picardo would approach the character from a place of humour. The Hologram’s Handbook would be published a little over a year after the end of Voyager , Picardo described the book as “a satire of the self-help book.” Its closest relatives in the Star Trek tie-in pantheon are probably Behr and Wolfe’s Rules of Acquisition and Legends of the Ferengi .

His writing rings holo.

Picardo explained that his desire to write The Hologram’s Handbook came from how deeply he’d come to understand the psychology of the character :

“I have maintained a strong interest in my character because there have been interesting twists and turns all along the way that have kept me engaged,” Picardo told TrekWeb. “I also find it fun and challenging to try and speak in his voice whether on the written page or to ad lib as The Doctor now. I’ve lived with him long enough and have a sense of how he thinks and what’s important to him and how he goes about accomplishing what he wants to, to sort of spin Doctor-type dialog out of my own brain. And that’s pretty much the genesis of the book, to have a little fun with creating my own Doctor-speech and ideas.”

There is a real sense that Picardo enjoyed playing the EMH, in a way that very few of his contemporaries seemed to enjoy being on Voyager .

Word salad.

As such, it makes sense that Picardo should have ideas about how best to develop the EMH on Voyager , that he should have story ideas for the character. Life Line is a story that is very keenly focused on the EMH, to the point that most of the cast are reduced to guest stars in their own episode. Tim Russ appears, but Tuvok does not have any lines. Barring one quick cut-away for a very strange scene to draw attention to a long-dangling (and long-forgotten) plot thread, most of the action in the middle section of Life Line takes place thirty thousand light years away from the rest of the ensemble.

There is nothing wrong with this, to be clear. Star Trek can produce character-centric and character-driven stories that marginalise the primary cast. Often one crew member will drive the primary plot, while the rest of the cast are relegated to a subplot. The Next Generation very frequently did this with Picard, with Darmok and The Inner Light standing out as two of the best examples. Deep Space Nine did this with O’Brien in Honour Among Thieves and with Bashir in Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges . Even Voyager has done this with Chakotay in Distant Origin and Nemesis or with the EMH in Living Witness .

We all become our fathers.

In crafting this particular story, Picardo was inspired by one of his favourite plays and by a pretty universal theme :

About the episode, one of my favourite plays is I Never Sang for My Father, so I thought it would be interesting to sort of borrow the structure of that play. It’s all about the disappointments from both directions – parents toward children and children toward parents. Parents, you know, ”why aren’t you what I’d hoped you’d be?” And children’s point of view is ”why can’t you accept me for what I am, and why don’t you love me as I am, and look at what I can do and look what my strengths are?” So, it was basically a father-child drama adapted for a programmer and a hologram.

It could be argued that Life Line is among the purest of father-son dramas, given the father has literally created the son in his own image.

Massaging the truth.

Of course, Life Line wasn’t purely the work of Robert Picardo. The pitch was developed with John Bruno. Bruno had directed two episodes of the sixth season, directing Picardo in Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy and also overseeing the effects-heavy time travel story Fury . Once Picardo and Bruno developed the story, it was passed to the writing staff. Robert Doherty, Raf Green, and Brannon Braga are credited on the finished screenplay. As such, Life Line was very much a collaborative effort.

At the same time, there is a sense that Life Line is the work of a relatively inexperienced writer. This is perhaps most obvious at the beginning and the end of the story. The teaser to Life Line is particularly frustrating. Reginald Barclay visits Jupiter Station. He stops in on Doctor Lewis Zimmerman. The two have a brief conversation, in which Barclay is defined as sweet and sincere while Zimmerman is bitter and acerbic. The teaser concludes with Zimmerman bluntly stating, “I’m dying, Reginald. And there’s nothing anybody can do about it.”

“As you already know, but the viewers don’t…”

Ignoring the inelegance of that line, which is effectively a sledgehammer on which the episode might cut to the opening credits, there’s something very strange in the set-up. Barclay and Zimmerman are not series regulars. Barclay was a recurring character on The Next Generation , who appeared in two early Voyager episodes. Zimmerman has only appeared (in the flesh) in a single episode of Deep Space Nine , as a visitor to the station in Doctor Bashir, I Presume . As such, it seems a strange choice to open the episode with these two characters, thirty-thousand light years from the regular crew.

Obviously, these characters have an emotional attachment for audience members familiar with the larger Star Trek franchise, who understand the complex back stories of these characters and their relationships to one another. (How does Barclay know Zimmerman? Barclay helped to design the EMH, as explained in Projections , and was “in charge of testing [his] interpersonal skills.” ) However, a casual viewer familiar with the basic premise of Voyager has little context for anything that happens within the teaser.

The long dark whatever-time-it-is-on-Jupiter of the soul.

The issue is not the dramatic beat itself. After all, there’s a pretty great hook in the idea that the “father” of the the Emergency Medical Hologram is dying, that a man responsible for creating a virtual physician should be facing his own mortality. The issue is in how the episode chooses to convey this information to the audience, relying on a lot of back story for relatively marginal characters instead of focusing on how the story relates to Voyager ‘s leads. For example, it might have been more effective to have the EMH get the letter revealing his father was dying.

Similarly, there is something very trite in the episode’s resolution, in which Barclay sabotages the EMH in order to force Zimmerman to care for his creation. The twist is relatively solid, and the reversal is a logical way to develop a story like this; the patient becomes the doctor, the subject becomes the caregiver. However, the handling of the beat is clumsy. The EMH starts malfunctioning without any context, the episode treating it as a dramatic act break. “Your program is destabilising,” Barclay warns the EMH. “You don’t understand. Your primary matrix is degrading and there is nothing I can do.”

This is a “code red.” Er, and a “code read.”

Of course, there is a reason that this plot development comes out of nowhere, why it is not set up and signposted in the narrative leading to this point. Barclay has sabotaged the EMH’s holomatrix, as part of a cunning plan to force Zimmerman to engage with his creation. This is a tricky plot beat in a number of ways, and there’s a sense that Life Line misreads the room in choosing to play it out in the way that it does. This development would work if played straight, even if it would seem a little contrived and convenient. However, revealing it to be a con orchestrated by Barclay undercuts it dramatically.

Most obviously, it represents a massive breach of trust between Barclay and the EMH, akin to a twenty-fourth century twist on Munchausen by Proxy. It is incredibly manipulative and cynical. It is also astounding that a trained mental health professional like Deanna Troi would sign off on this sort of plan, as it would seem to violate all sorts of ethics. Of course, it might also just demonstrate how completely oblivious Starfleet can be when it comes to acknowledging the autonomy and integrity of artificial life forms, an extension of The Measure of a Man or Quality of Life .

“Soon, I’ll be (i)guana.”

Even beyond the betrayal of trust, there would seem to be some level of risk involved in this gambit, particularly if it is intended to fool Zimmerman. To be fair, it’s highly unlikely that Barclay would introduce a problem into the EMH’s holomatrix that he could not fix in event of emergency, but it’s worth noting how notoriously volatile holographic technology can be. Tinkering with holodeck often has unintended consequences; Elementary, Dear Data , A Fistful of Datas , Darkling , Spirit Folk . As a result, toying with the EMH’s code to fake a glitch seems like a risky gambit, even given Barclay’s expertise in the area.

More to the point, the twist feels dramatically inert. It raises the stakes, and then casually brushes them away. The glitching of the EMH is treated as a big deal within the narrative, anchoring the episode across an act break. It is a narrative cheat to subsequently reveal that the EMH was never in any real danger, and that it was all just a clumsy attempt to force the two back together. Indeed, the only narrative fallout from this reveal is that Zimmerman and the EMH are mildly annoyed at Barclay’s meddling.

That’s SO Barclay.

There are other small indications that Life Line is the work of a first-time screenwriter. There’s some familiarity in the premise, in that Life Line depends on a hook that Voyager had previously employed in Message in a Bottle , with the EMH being transmitted to the Alpha Quadrant as a datastream and recompiled on the other side. It’s a clever application of the character’s core premise, his existence as a piece of computer software. At the same time, it is not a surprise that Picardo’s first screenplay credit should draw upon an episode for which the actor has an avowed fondness.

To be fair, these are relatively minor complaints. Life Line is build around a robust premise, an engaging central dynamic and some strong thematic work. The conflict between parent and child is universal, something that transcends a particular time or place. Indeed, this strife has been a focal point for any number of classic Star Trek stories already; Journey to Babel , Brothers ,  Family Business , Doctor Bashir, I Presume . The franchise has visited this theme time and again, as subplot or primary plot, from both sides: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , The Icarus Factor , The Alternate ,  Bloodlines , The Begotten , Barge of the Dead .

Laying it all on the table.

The tension that exists between parents and children has sustained art and drama since the dawn of time. There are numerous stories about parents and children within the  Bible ; if the reader chooses to read the text as the story of the creator’s relationship to the created, it is arguably one big story of inter-generational familial tension. It is a core element of Shakespeare’s work, from Hamlet to King Lear to The Tempest . It is something that many audience members can relate to, from one side or another, directly or indirectly.

Often, these stories succeed or fail based on the casting. It can be difficult for television shows operating on a weekly schedule to find guest performers who can convincingly portray relatives of the primary cast; not just physically, but in terms of chemistry. Several familial relationships on Star Trek , especially with one-shot guest stars, struggle because the guest performer doesn’t have the right chemistry to properly sell the dynamic; for example, the very brief reappearance of Alexander Rozhenko as portrayed by Marc Worden in Sons and Daughters and You Are Cordially Invited…

Finally, a scene partner worthy of his talent.

In this regard, Life Line has an ace up its sleeve. Dues to the nature of the EMH, it is entirely possible for Robert Picardo to play both the father and son in this dynamic. Picardo joked about the experience in The Star Trek: Voyager Companion :

I play not only The Doctor, but his programmer, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman. So I achieved a lifelong ambition of working with an actor who I’ve admired. Of course the hardest thing about acting with myself was coming up to my own level. I was very demanding, but also very generous, as an actor I gave myself everything I felt I deserved and more.

All joking aside, this allows Life Line a significant advantage over many other parent-child stories in the Star Trek canon. As with the use of Brent Spiner in Brothers , this conceit allows for one of the most consistent and reliable regular players to effectively play off themselves.

Hologram for a king-sized ego.

This is not to underestimate the difficulty and craft involved in these sorts of performances. These actors are essentially crafting entirely new characters, and have to subtly distinguish their performances from those that the audiences have been watching week-in and week-out. When Zimmerman appeared on Deep Space Nine , Picardo offered a version of the character that was defined by his similarities to the EMH. This was a canny approach, given that his guest appearance seemed like a thirtieth anniversary crossover between Voyager and Deep Space Nine . However, Life Line requires a different approach.

Because so much of Life Line hinges on conversations between Zimmerman and the EMH, Picardo plays up the contrasts. Zimmerman is recognisably the template for the EMH, as fathers tend to be for their sons; not only in his mannerisms and his appearance, but also in his attitude and his demeanour. However, Picardo makes a conscious effort to exaggerate these attributes. The EMH may have came by his arrogance and self-absorption as a feature of his design, but Zimmerman honed and developed them over a life-time.

Barc-ing up the wrong tree.

This creates an interesting back-and-forth between the two characters, with both Zimmerman and the EMH sharing fundamentally similar personalities that have developed two very different ways. The EMH is childlike in many ways; even as he bickers with Zimmerman, he desperately wants his creator’s approval and his validation. The EMH often lacks self-awareness for the simple fact that he is still young, being only six years old. In contrast, Zimmerman’s lack of self-awareness is a practiced defense mechanism, a man who has taught himself not to acknowledge what makes him feel uncomfortable.

It should be noted that there is also a technical element to this sort of acting that is often overlooked, particularly when it comes to recognising craft. Interacting with special effects can be a challenge for an actor, particularly when what they are responding to isn’t what the audience is actually seeing . As film and television production has embraced the potential of special effects to shape and expand storytelling possibilities, it is easy to overlook how these changes affect more traditional aspects of production . Andy Serkis’ work with motion-capture, for example, has yet to be properly recognised by awards bodies .

Haley frequency open.

Picardo acknowledges that the production of Life Line was a challenge :

There was quite a bit of motion control for a TV show of that era. It made it very difficult to shoot. I was constantly acting with an actor that I have always admired and always wanted to work with……me. It did get a little boring to do both sides of the scene as you are only imagining the performance on the other side. You are making eye-contact with nothing and it is very very technical. But I am proud of how it turned out.

It is to Picardo’s credit that the scenes between Zimmerman and the EMH pop in the way that they do, adding a spark to the episode.

Picture perfect.

The story of Life Line is that quintessential parent-child drama, albeit one heightened by the personalities involved. Zimmerman has devoted his life to the creation of something that should be the best part of himself, believing that his legacy would be secure through that extension on himself. Ironically, he is confronted with the possibility that the best parts of himself may simply amount to nothing. What was supposed to be a crowning accomplishment, and a grab at immortality, becomes instead a grotesque humiliation.

However, Zimmerman frames that anxiety in a much more ego-centric manner than most parents. Remarking on the repurposing of his his healthcare professionals to work as deep-space janitors, he challenges the EMH, “Do you know how humiliating it is to have six hundred and seventy five Mark Ones out there, scrubbing plasma conduits, all with my face?” The failure of the first iteration of the emergency medical hologram is not a loss for the program itself, or for the greater good, but a personal affront to Zimmerman’s self-image. Quite literally, in that this failure is built in his own image.

Familiar (sub)routines.

Similarly, the EMH desperately wants his creator’s approval. The EMH wants to be recognised as something special and unique, despite being mass produced. “I’m sure Starfleet is consulting their best physicians, Doctor,” Janeway tells the EMH when he first proposes the journey home. On being introduced to the EMH, Zimmerman dismissively explains, “I’ve been treated by the Mark Three, the Mark Four, not to mention the finest real doctors in Starfleet.” The EMH is desperately trying to prove to Zimmerman that he is better than any copy of himself, any improvement to his matrix, or any flesh-and-blood EMH.

The EMH is obviously concerned about Zimmerman’s welfare, but his own ego is undoubtedly tied up in the journey home. These motivations come out at the climax of his first argument with Zimmerman. “I travelled halfway across the galaxy to treat you,” the EMH states. “The least you could do is show a little gratitude.” When Zimmerman orders him to leave, he presses, “I may be the only physician who can save your life. You need me.” He insists, “I’m no longer a prototype. I have exceeded my original programming. I’m no longer under your control.”

“We can all take the opportunity to say something to our loved ones. Except for Tuvok, who doesn’t say anything.”

There is something very archetypal in this tension – something vaguely Jungian and Freudian in the idea of a son forced to confront his father’s mortality, in the father forced to look at his son and see both his own face and his greatest failure. This core dynamic is compelling enough to sustain the episode, elevated by two great central performances from Robert Picardo. Life Line is one of the stronger stories of generational strife within the Star Trek canon, resting just below the heights of Journey to Babel or Doctor Bashir, I Presume .

However, there is something else in Life Line , something simmering just beneath the surface. The sixth season of Voyager is very engaged with its own mortality, and in particular worried about its legacy. This may be driven by a variety of factors; the unfortunate departure of Ronald D. Moore early in the season, the end of Deep Space Nine , the critical and commercial disappointment of Insurrection , the continuing attrition of the franchise audience, the looming end of Voyager . The sixth season of Voyager has a very morbid and funereal air. Indeed, Life Line chooses to open with a terminal diagnosis.

Dead to the world.

The sixth season of Voyager engages with this idea in a number of interesting ways. In particular, there are a number of episodes that wrestle with the series’ place within the larger Star Trek canon. Stories like Blink of an Eye and Muse are essential odes to the idea of Star Trek as a franchise. More directly, the sixth season embraces the deep connection between The Next Generation and Voyager that has haunted the show since it first debuted, with Voyager very consciously designed as a replacement for The Next Generation .

The sixth season doubled down on these connections by introducing Reginald Barclay and Deanna Troi as recurring characters on Voyager . Barclay had been a recurring guest star on The Next Generation , prominent enough to have a small supporting appearance in First Contact . Troi was a series regular on The Next Generation , and the only female lead to appear in all seven seasons of the run. The pair were drafted into Voyager in Pathfinder . However, they were not treated as guest stars in the way that William Riker had been in Death Wish or Geordi LaForge had been in Timeless .

Speaking of raiding the Next Generation’s wardrobe and make-up department…

Barclay was the protagonist of Pathfinder , with the entire narrative unfolding from his perspective and following his own efforts to contact Voyager. In Pathfinder , the series reduced the series regulars to guest starring roles; playing Barclay’s holographic companions or appearing in a short scene at the end. Voyager had done this before, most notably in Living Witness or Course: Oblivion . However, Pathfinder reduced the cast of Voyager to guest stars in an episode focused on two characters from The Next Generation . This indicates the gravity that The Next Generation exerts on Voyager .

This is obvious even within Life Line . The episode is obviously more focused on the Voyager cast than Pathfinder had been, telling a story about the EMH. However, the episode opens with Barclay in the Alpha Quadrant, rather than with any character in the Delta Quadrant. Deanna Troi is drafted into the narrative despite being completely superfluous, if not becoming an obstacle. After all, the sabotage of the EMH makes more sense if Troi isn’t there. This sort of manipulation seems like the least safest and ethical way to get past the issues between Zimmerman and the EMH.

Against counsel.

Beyond that, Life Line demonstrates an obsession with the legacy of The Next Generation . Worf and O’Brien both appeared as series regulars on Deep Space Nine , but they made far fewer overt references than Life Line does. Troi makes sure to mention “Captain Picard” , so it can be cut (misleadingly) into the promo . Beyond that, the brief communication between Barclay and Troi in Life Line represents a very rare direct crossover between the film and television franchises. It is the only time at which any part of the Enterprise-E appears in an episode of any Star Trek television.

There is a sense in which the parent-child anxiety in Life Line hints at the tension that exists between The Next Generation and Voyager . After all, it is fair to describe The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine as siblings, given that their broadcast overlapped. Similarly, Deep Space Nine and Voyager might also be described as siblings, their own runs overlapping with one another and occasionally playing off one another. However, the familial connection between The Next Generation and Voyager is more firmly delineated, without that overlap.

“I am totally on the Enterprise. You know, the one from the films of that Star Trek show that everybody likes?”

All Good Things… aired eight months before Caretaker was broadcast. This was an appreciably large gap than the four months between Endgame and Broken Bow . In those eight months, there was even room for the Next Generation to transition to film with the release of Generations . Acknowledging the constant churn of nineties television production, there was not just a full stop between The Next Generation and Voyager . There was a line in the sand. The Next Generation and Voyager were not siblings. They were parent and child.

It seems fair to say that Voyager existed in the shadow of The Next Generation in a way that even Deep Space Nine did not. Deep Space Nine distinguished itself by virtue of its unique setting, its diverse cast, its embrace of serialised storytelling. In contrast, Voyager was much more archetypal Star Trek , downplaying the more unique aspects of its premise for the generic Star Trek formula that had made The Next Generation so beloved. Voyager was about a crew of explorers “boldly going” to meet “new life forms and new civilisations” in neatly-packaged episodic adventures.

“On the other hand, Voyager is the most popular Star Trek series on Netflix.”

It has been argued that the series “ultimately became The Next Generation by another name.” Ronald D. Moore has described Voyager as a show that retreated to the template of The Next Generation , living in the shadow of its parent rather than forging its own identity :

You could do a starship show, then you did this radically different space station show. OK then there could have been another version that was even radically different from the previous two. It was unfortunate that they went back to it being just a starship again and sort of doing another riff on The Original Series or Next Gen. You mean with Voyager and Enterprise? Voyager and Enterprise — they are both essentially the same format. I mean you mix up the crews, you mix up the sort of fundamental mission of it all in each show but you are still getting back to the notion that Star Trek equals a starship going someplace with a big viewscreen and that was what Trek had to be and I felt that we had proved that it didn’t have to be that and that to me implied that it could be many other things too. I always wanted the franchise to try and figure out what those other things might be.

There’s a sense that Life Line is working through some of this tension, with the EMH returning to the Alpha Quadrant to reckon with his creator. It is a clear attempt to process the complicated dynamic between The Next Generation and Voyager , even if Zimmerman himself is not a Next Generation character.

The Previous Generation.

Zimmerman sees himself as a visionary and an artist; it is telling that many of his holographic designs exist without any practical purpose. He keeps a fly named Roy buzzing around his office, a project “commissioned by Starfleet Intelligence” as “an experiment in micro-surveillance.” Of course, the practicalities of that approach are highly questionable given that flies don’t seem to exist within the Star Trek universe and Roy could only possibly exist in an office with holo-emitters. Similarly, Zimmerman keeps Haley and Lou around, despite the fact they serve no practical purpose; they are creative expressions of his artistry.

As Haley explains to the EMH, Zimmerman imagined leaving an impressive legacy. “He was extremely proud of the Mark One,” she states. “He used to dream about hundreds of holograms in every corner of the quadrant saving lives. He put so much of himself into its development. I suppose it only seemed natural that it should look like him, too.” Perhaps this is how the production team working on  The Next Generation felt. After all, the show had revived the idea of  Star Trek on television, and stepped off the stage at a point where the franchise had two ongoing series and a feature film franchise . That is an impressive legacy.

V-O-Y phone home.

However, Voyager was not The Next Generation . As Troi observes, “The Mark One failed to meet Starfleet’s expectations.” Haley explains, “He was devastated.” Barclay elaborates, “He locked himself away in this lab for two years trying to repair the defects. Finally, he just gave up.” This perhaps reflects the tension behind the scenes on the early seasons of Voyager , when producers like Michael Piller tried desperately to make the show work, before Jeri Taylor eventually stabilised the show by turning it into the most generic Star Trek series imaginable in the third and fourth seasons.

In this context, it is perhaps revealing that the one scene set on Voyager in the middle of the story finds Janeway dealing with a message from Admiral Hayes (another Next Generation character, having appeared in First Contact ) asking about the “status of the Maquis.” The Maquis were meant to be one of the core aspects of  Voyager that differentiated it from  The Next Generation , by setting up tension and conflict within a crew that was stranded far from home. However, these challenges were quickly brushed aside in  Parallax and only fleetingly raised in stories like  State of Flux or  Learning Curve .

It’s all a bit of a Hayes.

It feels rather pointed to see contact with the Alpha Quadrant raising the issue once again. As with Zimmerman’s disappointment with the EMH, it feels like an expression of frustration with how Voyager squandered this narrative hook. Indeed, Life Line raises the issue and quickly drops it within a single scene, which feels like something added to pad the episode. “I don’t think of you or B’Elanna or the others as Maquis,” Janeway states. “I think of you as part of my crew.” The resurfacing conflict is handled in a single line.  Voyager brings up its unique identity, what makes it different than  The Next Generation , and then brushes it aside.

In many ways, Voyager is a series about trying to return “home” , to recapture a lost and glorious past. It is a retreat to the familiar and the safe, trekking back from the mysterious Delta Quadrant towards the safer and more secure Alpha Quadrant. Life Line allows the EMH to return home, only to have him judged by that same past the crew is trying to recapture. As Troi reflects of Zimmerman’s reaction to the EMH, “Now, after all this time, a Mark One shows up. It must be like staring in a mirror at a reflection you don’t want to remember.” Would The Next Generation be proud of Voyager , or ashamed?

Signal compression.

One of the more interesting aspects of Life Line is the sense that the EMH has actually been flattened for broadcast, that his personality and identity have been simplified in order to facilitate transmission. “Your programme’s too large for the datastream,” Seven of Nine states. “I have to extract all non-essential subroutines.” The EMH replies, “They’re essential to me. They’re part of who I am.” Seven proceeds to strip out a lot of what makes the EMH unique: his operatic ability, his poetry, his hoverball technique, his photographic eyes, his sexual identity. All wiped away.

In the context of the story, this is to allow the EMH to be transmitted to the Alpha Quadrant as a series of ones and zeroes, a piece of software that can be transmitted and recompiled on the other side. However, in the context of this engagement between The Next Generation and Voyager , it seems to hint at something more profound. Voyager was perhaps a show restricted by the conditions of its broadcast in a way that The Next Generation had not been. The Next Generation aired in first-run syndication, giving it a great deal of creative freedom. Voyager aired as one of the flagship shows for UPN, a single network.

Jupiter ascendant.

Voyager was compromised from the outset. It could be argued that Deep Space Nine was able to experiment with serialisation because it aired in syndication, and so was not subject to the same network notes that made it harder for Voyager to forge a unique identity. Asked to summarise the tension around Ronald D. Moore’s time on Voyager with the benefit of hindsight, Brannon Braga argued that what Moore wanted from Voyager was simply not possible :

I can only give you half an answer because half of that involves Ron. But, to my recollection we never really talked about those things all that much. We were just telling stories. I did observe Ron chaffing, but we never had any creative clashes. I think when he came onto Voyager for that brief stint, he had some pretty bold idea on how to make that show kind of like “Year of Hell” the entire time, which was a great idea, but the studio would never go for it.

Braga knew that this would be impossible. He had proposed extending the story of Future’s End, Part I and Future’s End, Part II beyond the two-parter, but was vetoed by the powers that be. Similarly, he had originally planned to stretch Year of Hell, Part I and Year of Hell, Part II across an entire year. Braga arguably eventually got to do something like that with the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise , but only when the ratings were in freefall and the network panicked.

Friend or photon?

The seven seasons of Voyager arguably received less direct studio or network interference than the first two seasons of Enterprise . After all, Berman was only forced to pitch story ideas to network executives during the second season of Enterprise . Nevertheless, there was a constant low-key tension between the production team and the network during  Voyager ‘s run. Kenneth Biller argued that the show’s shift to action-driven storytelling was driven by the network, while Michael Piller would frequently get in arguments about the budget.

Voyager was very much a product of UPN, even in less direct ways. After all, regardless of whether the idea originated on staff or not, it seems fair to say that the cynical wrestling crossover in Tsunkatse was an example of the kind of thing that would only have happened because Voyager aired on a network that happened to be having great success broadcasting WWF . Similarly, while Brannon Braga takes credit for creating the character of Seven of Nine to appeal to his own interests, it seems fair to suggest that the character was very much in line with UPN’s brand. (Her use in Revulsion is a prime example.)

Damaging her rep(tile)…

It is fair to acknowledge that producers like Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor, Rick Berman and Brannon Braga all deserve some blame for the failure of Voyager . After all, they were in positions of power where they could have more aggressively pushed against outside interference. Indeed, even allowing for network and studio mandates, it seems fair to observe that Voyager was seldom its best self. The lack of serialisation, forward momentum and consistent characterisation would arguably be less of a central concern if the stories themselves were better.

Nevertheless, there is also a sense that Voyager began with a handicap that it never managed to work through. It was simplified and streamlined for broadcast, its unique aspects and central premises stripped away to produce something more generic and soulless. “Try to leave a few of my enhancements intact,” the EMH urges Seven of Nine. “I don’t want to look like every other EMH on the block.” It is a small moment, but it feels like Voyager acknowledging that it never really got to compete with The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine on a level playing field, that it never got to be what it should have been.

Troi, Troi again.

This mournfulness and disappointment simmers through Life Line , a story that hopes desperately for forgiveness and reconciliation. It is the tale of a disappointing prodigal son moving closer and closer to home, longing for an affectionate and familial embrace despite the fact that everything that makes him unique has been stripped from him. It is a sweet sentiment. Perhaps it is best to travel hopefully.

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Filed under: Voyager | Tagged: actor , dad stuff , father and son , lewis zimmerman , Next Generation , robert picardo , star trek , star trek: the next generation , voyager , writers |

10 Responses

I think that the introspectiveness of Season 6 is why it is my favorite season of Voyager. I really like all of the Joe Menovsky (sp?) episodes that tie in the idea of Voyager entering the memories of the planets it has left behind. The EMH is my favorite character, so I enjoy the strong focus on him in the season as well.

As you note, Lifeline’s strength is that Picardo, to his credit, plays off himself very well. You can tell that he’s relishing the episode and the chance to play his character to the hilt: it’s the same kind of joy in acting a particular role that I think is most evident in the original series from Shatner and Kelley. It’s not my favorite of the EMH episodes, but I think it’s a great showcase for Picardo’s comic talent 🙂

Interesting. I’d probably credit the third and fourth seasons of Voyager as the show’s strongest. The third because it’s so damn weird and pulpy, and the fourth because it actually coheres. I find the sixth kinda samey in a lot of places.

Robert Picardo is a talented actor, and I really enjoyed him in the role of the EMH. I definitely wish that he had been cast in a better Star Trek series than Voyager.

It was tantalizing to see Picardo on Deep Space Nine for an episode.

Yep. He’s the best of the leads. (Ryan, Mulgrew and Phillips are also great, even if Phillips doesn’t get enough material and Mulgrew doesn’t get consistent material.)

I don’t fully point to Voyager’s lack of story arcs as too big of a flaw since this system still formed the core of TNG. I’ve noticed in modern television with shows like Game of Thrones is that by having all the episodes connected, a bad episode can drag the entire season down with it and retroactively destroy the episodes that came before it. When Stannis’ character was assassinated by the writers in season 5, I could no longer enjoy the big climax of season 2 because the battle was lead by Stannis, whom had retroactively turned into a monster. Suddenly the battle was fought between monsters on both sides and I could no longer enjoy the action because I was disgusted with so many people involved in the story. And I know that shows like Game of Thrones has terrible writing because of the sheer time pressure they are under, it’s become a beast like the Hobbit Trilogy that has rampaged beyond the control of the crew working on it.

If Voyager had a bad episode, you could isolated it and forget about it, or even better skip it. While this does limit the potential of the series being the safe bet, I’ve just seen too many shows down ruin the entire series by having it all connected with a rotten episode. The perils of modern TV I guess.

Unrelated but I really do love this episode. A unique “franchise” episode since it’s borrowing from all 3 shows at the time with ambitious special effects and storytelling. For all the talk of dying, this franchise still had some life to it.

When did “binge” enter the lexicon as a verb related specifically to television shows (as in “binge-watch”)? I feel like people use it more for tv shows now than for its original meaning of eating excessive portions of a food they like in a temporary bout of gluttony. I feel pretty sure “binge” in the tv-show sense did not exist in general-usage at all in the mid-2000s but certainly did by the mid-2010s. In any case, it came in long after Voyager.

As the technological changes by which people consume these shows changed, a shift towards much stronger form of serialization seems inevitable. But criticizing Voyager, a show from before that time, is hardly fair.

The reviewer Darren I think has pointed out the largely-technological-driven nature of this change in a lot of his reviews but still seems to be overly harsh on “Voyager,” IMO considering it is a show which existed 1994-2001.

Serialized storytelling is not necessarily superior; there is always going to be some kind of trade-off.

A series/season as one long/threaded story, as more-or-less a movie spread over 20-hours or so of screen content, can for one thing become less appealing to the casual viewer, and could really lose their appeal in the old television era. How many casual viewers of “Game of Thrones” are there, people who just pick up one episode here or there? My impression is most people watch the show straight through (even if not all at once).

But then it’s also true that ‘serialized’ vs. ‘episodic’ is not an on-off switch. It’s really on a continuum, from zero continuity to the 100%-threaded-storyline, as in episode 4 impossible to understand or appreciate without episodes 1, 2, and 3 (in that order). Where exactly to put the needle on any show can be hard.

Zimmerman reminded me a lot of Soong: Both were obviously heavy narcissists. I guess I would not create an android or hologramm looking exactly like me, but being able to perform magic.

Yep, I think that narcissism is a logical extension of the character premise – to build a literal immortal monument in your own image takes a lot of self-assuredness.

Every time Troi appears on Voyager they flatten her down into a couple simple character points, just like they do with the rest of the Voyager cast. Troi is almost immediately offered chocolate ice cream. She mentions Picard in the first 30 seconds. We get it, Troi likes chocolate and her entire existence is rooted in relation to Picard, etc. It’s quite reductive. It’s like they think the audience needs to be reminded who she is or something.

I enjoyed the episode, but it does mark an acceleration toward Voyager becoming once-again a part of the Alpha Quadrant. There is a hint at orders coming from Starfleet’s command structure, ships being dispatched that are only six years away. It’s a pity season seven didn’t jump a head in time and have Voyager join some small armada of vessels sent to retrieve them or something. While this episode marks a big step in Voyager abandoning its lost premise, it also could have provided an interesting narrative path. But the writers only know how to work in a very narrow bandwidth.

I find the comments from Braga and others about what the network would allow a bit of a cop out. It often seems like they didn’t really try as hard as they could have. Braga pushed when it involved bringing in big-boobed women or action CGI effects. I get that Berman was looming in the background…but Braga also seems to have avoided asking for hlep from Behr or other producers, simply as a matter of pride.

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• Episode aired May 10, 2000

The Doctor gets himself transmitted back to Federation space to treat his mortally ailing creator, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman. A clash of egos ensues. The Doctor gets himself transmitted back to Federation space to treat his mortally ailing creator, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman. A clash of egos ensues. The Doctor gets himself transmitted back to Federation space to treat his mortally ailing creator, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman. A clash of egos ensues.

• Terry Windell
• Gene Roddenberry
• Rick Berman
• Michael Piller
• Kate Mulgrew
• Robert Beltran
• Roxann Dawson
• 7 User reviews
• 4 Critic reviews

• Capt. Kathryn Janeway

• Cmdr. Chakotay

• Lt. B'Elanna Torres

• Ensign Tom Paris

• The Doctor …

• Seven of Nine

• Ensign Harry Kim

• Lt. Reginald Barclay

• (as Tamara Craig Thomas)

• Counselor Deanna Troi

• Voyager Computer

• Alien Masseuse
• (uncredited)
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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia Robert Picardo enjoyed his double role: "I play not only the Doctor, but his programmer, so I achieved a lifelong ambition of working with an actor who I've admired."
• Goofs When Troi walks in and sees the two doctors, she asks which one is doctor Zimmerman. She is an empath and should have easily sensed emotions from the live doctor and nothing from the EMH. She even says this later on when she detects that the doctor's assistant is a hologram. Sensing the tension in the room, Troi is probably using a bit of sarcasm to try to lighten the mood.

The Doctor : You'd need a phaser drill to get through that thick skull of his!

Dr. Zimmerman : Get out!

Counselor Deanna Troi : Gentlemen...

Dr. Zimmerman : Oh, spare us your psychobabble!

Counselor Deanna Troi : I came here thinking that you were opposite sides of the same coin, identical but different. Now I see you're both exactly the same - you're both jerks!

Leonard the Iguana : Jerks.

• Connections Referenced in Star Trek: Enterprise: Fortunate Son (2001)
• Soundtracks Star Trek: Voyager - Main Title (uncredited) Written by Jerry Goldsmith Performed by Jay Chattaway

User reviews 7

• Sep 14, 2018
• May 10, 2000 (United States)
• United States
• Official site
• Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (Studio)
• Paramount Television
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

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• Runtime 44 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS6E24LifeLine

Recap / Star Trek Voyager S 6 E 24 Life Line

Edit locked.

This episode provides examples of:

• Armor-Piercing Question : Zimmerman: No EMH was ever designed to be anyone's friend! He's just a hologram! Haley: Is that how you feel about me? Just a hologram?
• Batman Gambit : The Doctor's sudden degradation spurs Zimmerman to take action and ultimately leads to them reconciling. Of course, the whole thing was caused by Barclay, but he and Troi neglected to tell the Doctor about it until the end. Subverted in that Zimmerman knew it was a ruse.
• Beneath the Mask : Zimmerman sitting in the darkness of his quarters , dictating his last will and testament. He admits that Reg Barclay is the only person who truly appreciates his work, and the only friends he has are Barclay and his own holographic creations.
• Catchphrase : Zimmerman tries to change the Doctor's "Please state the nature of the medical emergency" to something more friendly. He's not amused.
• Character Overlap : Deanna Troi from Star Trek: The Next Generation makes an appearance in this episode.
• Chewing the Scenery : Robert Picardo rolls up his sleeves, tucks in his bib, and has the hot lemon-scented towels on standby in this episode, and no mistake.
• Comfort Food : Chocolate ice cream for Deanna, when her initial efforts prove to be a failure.
• Commonality Connection : Deanna tries to get both doctors to see each others' position. It doesn't work. She then decides to force the issue .
• Continuity Nod : Dr. Zimmerman mentions that he hasn't left Jupiter Station in four years, which coincides with his trip to Deep Space Nine .
• Does This Remind You of Anything? : When Zimmerman decides to alter the EMH's personality, the EMH objects in an argument similar to a gay teen reacting to gay reversion therapy .

• Do Holograms Dream : The Mark One's having been reassigned for their inadequacies, Zimmerman isn't prepared to meet a Mark One who has exceeded his program.
• Dr. Jerk : Times two. Troi: Now I see you're both exactly the same. You're both jerks!
• Fire-Forged Friends : Janeway is disturbed when Admiral Hayes makes a 'casual' inquiry about their Maquis crewmembers. After all they're one big happy crew now. Chakotay agrees to help write a joint response.
• Foil : Barclay to Zimmerman, the reason he's Zimmerman's Only Friend — they're both genius engineers with poor people skills, but Zimmerman's problem is that he's insensitive, arrogant and rude, while Barclay's is that he's shy, neurotic and lacking in confidence.
• Forehead of Doom Doctor: What were your initial symptoms? Zimmerman: Radical hair loss .
• The fate of his fellow Mark Ones inspires the Doctor's literary efforts in "Author, Author".
• After discussing Admiral Hayes' message, Chakotay mentions that the Maquis crewmembers still consider themselves separate from Starfleet, to the surprise of Janeway (and perhaps the viewer), since the conflict between Maquis and Starfleet has barely been a plot point since season 2. Only a few episodes later though, the Maquis crewmembers are brainwashed and will attempt to take over Voyager in a bizarre attempt to revive the rebellion.
• A Friend in Need : Barclay and Haley save Zimmerman despite his efforts.
• Freudian Threat : Seven has to compress the Doctor's program to transmit it to the Alpha Quadrant. She starts ruthlessly culling the Doctor's hobbies — opera singing, chess playing... "Intimate relations?" The Doctor winces at the impending digital emasculation.
• Fun with Acronyms : The EMH Mark One were dubbed Emergency Medical Hotheads and Extremely Marginal Housecalls .
• Get Out! : The EMH is trying to examine Dr Zimmerman, who is not cooperating. Zimmerman: Enough questions! Finish your scans and get out of here! EMH: Doctor! Zimmerman: I said get out of here! EMH: Doctor, I traveled halfway across the galaxy to treat you. The least you can do is show a little gratitude! Zimmerman: Thank you! GET OUT OF HERE!
• Guile Hero : Reg creates an algorithm that affects the Doctor's program, forcing Zimmerman to become emotionally invested in repairing him.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold : Haley. Blonde and unfailingly kind to everyone. She's the one who gets Zimmerman to reveal his Hidden Heart of Gold .
• Ham-to-Ham Combat : Zimmerman vs Doc.
• Hidden Heart of Gold : Zimmerman once cancelled a lecture and headed back from Vulcan. Haley's program suddenly malfunctioned, though he insists he just didn't want to have to speak in front of "a bunch of pointy-eared blowhards."
• Homoerotic Subtext Troi: I can assure you I'm quite real. Zimmerman: Oh. Well the last beautiful woman to walk in here turned out to be him! EMH: I'll take that as a compliment.
• Hope Spot : Voyager gets a massive one as they're informed that other Starfleet vessels on deep space missions might be able to reach Voyager within five to six years. While subsequent events would render the matter moot it does at least mean Voyager would only be on its own (and relying on its own resources) for a few more years instead of decades.
• I "Uh" You, Too : Zimmerman is glad to hear Janeway won't authorize another house call, though he adds Doc is welcome to drop him a line... if he wants to, of course.
• "She's a counselor, not an engineer."
• I'm Standing Right Here Zimmerman: No EMH was ever designed to be anyone's friend. He's just a hologram . Haley: Is that how you feel about me? Just a hologram? Zimmerman: [beat] I will not be ambushed in my own lab.
• Insufferable Genius : Dr Zimmerman
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold : It's deeply buried, but Zimmerman does care about his creations.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice : The Doctor lampshades the importance of a good chin.
• Last of His Kind : The Doctor is the only Mark One still doing the job it was created for.
• Leave Me Alone! : Having been diagnosed as incurable by Starfleet doctors and even the later model EMH's, Dr Zimmerman has little patience for an 'inferior' model EMH who thinks he can cure him with a 'ghoulish assimilation technique' taken from a Borg Rogue Drone .
• Literal Surveillance Bug : As per usual for this trope, the Doctor ends up swatting it despite being a hologram himself. Barclay: Oh that's Roy. EMH: Don't tell me — another hologram? Barclay: It was developed for Starfleet Intelligence; an experiment in micro-surveillance.
• Locked in a Room : The Doctor is stuck on Jupiter Station until the next transmission to Voyager. Becomes an Invoked Trope when Reg sabotages his program so Zimmerman will work on him.
• Mad Science : Zimmerman isn't happy that the Doctor is planning to use Seven's do-everything nanoprobes to cure him.
• Malicious Misnaming : When agreeing to let the Doctor travel back to the Alpha Quadrant to treat Zimmerman, Janeway tells him to say that "Captain Jane" said hello. The two of them had previously met at a conference some years earlier, and she suspects he was getting her name wrong on purpose to annoy her.
• Meat Versus Veggies : Zimmerman gripes about Haley giving him salad; as he's dying anyway, what difference does it make? He's later shown scoffing down the salad as he works to repair the Doctor's program.
• My Greatest Failure : The Mark Ones are this for Zimmerman. They were deemed faulty and obnoxious by Starfleet, and weren't even decommissioned. "Do you know how humiliating it is to have 675 Mark Ones out there, scrubbing plasma conduits... all with my face?"
• "Not So Different" Remark : Troi: I came here thinking that you were opposite sides of the same coin. Identical, but different. Now I see you're both exactly the same. You're both jerks!
• Once Done, Never Forgotten : Lewis Zimmerman is depressed that his original Mark I EMH programs are now menial labor holograms bearing his face. The only bright spot he has is that Voyager 's copy of the EMH is one that escaped the same fate.
• Only Friend : While filling out his will, Zimmerman sadly realizes that Barclay is the only friend he has that isn't holographic.
• The Only One : Barclay insists that Deanna Troi is the best counselor for the job, even though Troi recommends someone on Earth. Troi says the Enterprise is in the middle of a mission, so she might not be there until the following week .
• Other Me Annoys Me : Doc finds his creator is not as grateful for his Character Development as he expected .
• Projected Man : In this case he's projected 30,000 light years!
• Punctuated Pounding : Sort of, as the Doctor is swatting at a holo-fly (but not actually hitting it): Doctor: This isn't a research station! It's a three...ring... circus ! You should charge admission !
• Robotic Reveal : Troi notes that she can't read Haley — realizing she's a hologram.
• Robotic Spouse : While the physical nature of their relationship is unclear, the dialogue between Lewis and Haley is often Like an Old Married Couple .
• Sarcasm Mode : To Zimmerman's surprise, as the Doctor isn't supposed to have one. EMH: I also have an exceptionally high tolerance for difficult patients. Zimmerman: I didn't programme you for sarcasm. EMH: You'll find I'm full of surprises. Zimmerman: Show the good Doctor to the plasma generator. I understand there's quite a build-up of residue. EMH: If we had more time, I'd enjoy trading barbs with you . But right now, there's a more pressing concern. Your life. I'm working on a treatment based on a disease I encountered in the Delta Quadrant, but I'll need to run a complete analysis. However, if it's impossible for you to believe that a lowly Mark One could have anything useful to offer, I'll be happy to pack my bags and go explore those sulphur mines.
• Series Continuity Error : Janeway saying that the last time they sent the Doctor to the Alpha Quadrant was three years ago (it was two) and Zimmerman saying that he hasn't left Jupiter Station in four years ( it was three ). Someone clearly added an extra year in there for no good reason.
• Shrine to Self : One that backfired badly. Dr Zimmerman put his face on what he assumed would be his greatest creation, a hologram that would save lives on Starfleet vessels throughout the quadrant. "Do you know how humiliating it is to have 675 Mark Ones out there, scrubbing plasma conduits, all with my face?"
• Space Station : The episode is set on Jupiter Station.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome : Unlike Janeway, Starfleet certainly hasn't forgotten that Chakotay and his crew are technically still classified as Maquis terrorists. Regardless of Chakotay's working relationship with Janeway, this was always going to be a problem once they re-established contact with Earth.
• Talking Animal : Leonard the holographic iguana. "Jerks."
• Technobabble : Zimmerman tells Troi to spare them the psychobabble.
• Tempting Fate : The Doctor tells Zimmerman he's exceeded his original programming and therefore no longer under his creator's control. Zimmerman demonstrates otherwise by having the computer transfer Doc to another part of the station .
• The Triple : Voyager's EMH is examining Dr Zimmerman. EMH: To your knowledge have you been exposed to theta radiation? Zimmerman: No. EMH: Neutron flux? Zimmerman: Never. EMH: Have you ever had intimate relations with a Bolian?
• Undying Loyalty : Haley, a holographic woman created by Zimmerman, who tolerates his acerbic ways because she knows from experience that Zimmerman cares about her.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy : The Doctor is basically this to his creator. Eventually.
• We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future : The EMH Mark One's are reconfigured for manual labor in the mines. This, when they have devices capable of disassembling matter to the subatomic level (including industrial ones, as mentioned on Deep Space Nine ), not to mention a race of friendly living ore processors (the Horta). But no, they consign outdated humanoid holograms with glorified shovels and picks to mining. This implies that the Federation either does this on a wide scale, or that they specifically modified this mine with holo-emitters to do such a thing.
• What Happened to the Mouse? : Zimmerman mentions that he was already treated by the Mark III and IV EMHs. Given that the Mark I's were reconfigured for manual labor, one has to wonder what happened to the Mark II .
• What Measure Is a Non-Human? : Zimmerman is outraged when the Doctor arbitrarily shuts down his holographic iguana (an act that's always infuriated the Doctor when it was done to him, even in Season One). This is the first hint that Zimmerman really does care about his creations.
• When the Doctor suddenly starts malfunctioning, Zimmerman gets grief from Barclay and Troi for not trying to help him and potentially leaving the Voyager crew without their doctor/friend. Haley gets in on it when Zimmerman angrily says that no one is friends with a hologram.
• The Doctor has a word with Barclay about the algorithm, but he doesn't make a big deal about it since everything worked out.
• "You!" Exclamation : Dr Zimmerman is griping about how the EMH keeps trying to diagnose his illness, while receiving a soothing massage from a holographic Tarlac female, who then covertly takes out a tricorder and starts to scan him. Zimmerman: (realizes something is wrong) Computer, realign Voyager's EMH. (Doctor smiles sheepishly as he returns to normal) Zimmerman: YOU!!
• Zeerust : Once again, Neelix hand-delivers e-mail .
• Star Trek Voyager S 6 E 23 Fury
• Recap/Star Trek: Voyager
• Star Trek: Voyager S6 E25: "The Haunting of Deck Twelve"

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The Star Gazer

Project daedalus.

The episode “Life Line” of Star Trek: Voyager sees Captain Janeway and the crew of the starship on a mission to help out a stranded alien in need. They are soon confronted by a hostile race called the Vidiians, who are looking to exploit the alien for their own ends.

The alien in question is a roboticist from the future called The Doctor. He is stranded in the Delta Quadrant, and has been using his skills to design a machine that will take him home. Unfortunately, this machine is also sought after by the Vidiians, who want to use it to cure their race from the deadly virus that is devastating their population.

When Voyager arrives, they find out that the Vidiians have captured The Doctor and are planning to take the machine from him. Realizing that the Vidiians’ plans will mean certain death for The Doctor, Janeway and the crew devise a plan to help him escape. They travel to one of the Vidiian’s outposts and rescue The Doctor, while also managing to recover the machine before it can be taken.

Once back on board Voyager, The Doctor reveals to Janeway that the machine is actually a transporter that can take him back to his own time. Now faced with the potential of a way home, Janeway begins to ponder the implications of such a device—especially since they would have to leave the Delta Quadrant without being able to help those they have come to care about.

However, the Vidiians aren’t willing to let The Doctor and the machine go that easily. As they follow Voyager, the Vidiians launch an attack that damages the ship’s warp core. With the warp core offline, the crew must make a difficult decision: will they risk using The Doctor’s transporter to get home, or stay behind and help those who need them most?

In the end, after much deliberation, the crew decides to use the transporter and make the jump to The Doctor’s home in the future. As they prepare to leave, The Doctor bids farewell and expresses his thanks for all that they have done. Janeway tells him that no matter what, they will never forget their time in the Delta Quadrant, and that they will always remember the friends they made along the way. With that, Voyager takes the leap and jumps to the future, leaving the Vidiians behind.

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Life Line (Star Trek: Voyager)

" Life Line " is the 24th episode from the sixth season of Star Trek: Voyager , the 144th episode overall. It is one of few episodes in the Star Trek universe in which characters from different Star Trek storylines overlap. Reginald Barclay and Deanna Troi from Star Trek: The Next Generation make appearances, and in addition Jean-Luc Picard is twice mentioned by Troi but not seen. This is also one of the few episodes where a character actually arrives in the Alpha Quadrant, and the only Voyager episode which has a cast member receiving a writing credit.

Voyager receives a message from Starfleet Command via the improved subspace radio amplifier, stating they believe they have found a way to bring Voyager back to the Alpha Quadrant within five to six years instead of the decades they had before them. Elated, the crew send back data regarding their journey to date. In Starfleet's reply, they learn that Lewis Zimmerman, the creator of the Doctor's Emergency Medical Hologram program, is dying and no Starfleet medical personal can determine the reason. The Doctor expresses that because of his experiences in the Delta Quadrant, he may have more insight to Zimmerman's condition, and asks to have his program transferred via subspace to help.

After eliminating several of his extraneous subroutines to reduce the program size, the Doctor is sent to a space station orbiting near Jupiter. The station has been Zimmerman's home for the last four years, where he spent much time researching hologram technology, and the entire facility is enabled to allow the Doctor and Zimmerman's holographic female servant, Haley, full reign. The Doctor meets with Reginald Barclay who has been assigned to help Zimmerman before meeting his creator in person. Zimmerman quickly proves to be old and cankerous, looking down on the Doctor as one of his earlier, outdated Mark I programs that are now all resigned to perform menial jobs. The Doctor attempts to prove his value to allow examination, but Zimmerman ignores him, and even one point manipulating the Doctor's program to make him his pet for a few hours. The Doctor grows frustrated in trying to help, and the two stop speaking to each other.

With Zimmerman's health declining, Barclay is able to gain the help of Deanna Troi to help come counsel the situation between the two. After meeting with both, she realizes that both Zimmerman and the Doctor seem to be beyond the point of reason. While discussing the situation, they realize that Haley is far less advanced of a hologram program as the Doctor is, yet Zimmerman speaks openly and kindly with her. Troi suspects that Zimmerman's behavior is one of injured pride, and devises a plan where they secretly fiddle with the Doctor's files as to make it appear that his program is failing. Troi and Barclay insist that only Zimmerman can save the Doctor, just as the Doctor can only save him.

Zimmerman finally is able get past his wounded pride of the fate of his Mark Is, and fixes the Doctor's program. Zimmerman attempts to add additional programming to the Doctor, but he insists that he is good the way he is. The Doctor then examines Zimmerman, and opts to try an experimental cellular regeneration therapy he had developed while on Voyager . The process is successful, and Zimmerman is soon back in good health. Zimmerman apologizes for his behavior and tells the Doctor that he is proud of him as the only Mark I that has gone well beyond his original programming. After saying his goodbyes, the Doctor is returned to Voyager and Zimmerman continues his hologram research.

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Science News

‘humanity’s spacecraft’ voyager 1 is back online and still exploring.

After five months of glitching, the spacecraft is talking to Earth again from interstellar space

The Voyager 1 spacecraft (illustrated) is back online after a few months of transmitting garbled data. It’s now poised to continue its exploration of interstellar space.

JPL-Caltech/NASA

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By Ramin Skibba

April 26, 2024 at 11:45 am

After months of challenging trouble-shooting and suspenseful waiting, Voyager 1 is once again talking to Earth.

The aging NASA spacecraft, about 24 billion kilometers from home, began transmitting garbled data in November. On April 20, NASA scientists got the probe back online after uploading new flight software to work around a chunk of onboard computer memory that had failed. They’re now receiving data about the spacecraft’s health and hope to hear from its science instruments again in a few weeks, says Suzanne Dodd, the mission’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

That means the iconic craft could be on a path to recovery — and to continue its exploration of interstellar space.

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 briefly visited Jupiter and Saturn before eventually departing the solar system. It and its twin, Voyager 2, are the longest-operating space probes, now tasked with studying far-flung solar particles and cosmic rays. In particular, the probes have been monitoring the changing of the sun’s magnetic field and the density of plasma beyond the solar system, yielding information about the farthest reaches of the sun’s influence .

“The spacecraft is really remarkable in its longevity. It’s incredible,” Dodd says. “We want to keep Voyager going as long as possible so we have this time record of these changes.”

Voyager 1 and 2, cruising along diverging paths, made history by crossing the heliopause in 2012 and 2018 , respectively ( SN: 9/12/13; SN: 12/10/18 ). At nearly 18 billion kilometers from the sun, that’s long been considered the outer extent of our star’s magnetic field and the solar wind, the boundary before interstellar space.

Since then, Dodd says, the science team has made some surprising findings ( SN: 11/4/19 ). For one, they’ve determined that the heliosphere, the huge bubble of space dominated by the solar wind, might not be spherical but have one or two tails, making it shaped like a comet or a croissant.

And thanks to Voyager, scientists now know that, despite expectations otherwise, the sun’s magnetic field and charged particles actually remain significant even beyond the heliopause, says David McComas, a Princeton University astrophysicist not involved in the mission.

Some theories predicted a serene environment in the distant oceans of interstellar space, but the Voyagers keep passing through waves of charged particles, indicating that the solar magnetic field still holds some sway there. What’s more, the probes’ data have shown how ripples in the field form bubbles at the edge of the solar system, which is more frothy and dynamic than expected.

Other missions have begun building on Voyager’s solar physics research. These include NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, and the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, or IMAP, which is set to launch next year. Earth-orbiting IBEX has been measuring high-energy particles to map the heliosphere for 15 years, whereas IMAP will orbit between the sun and Earth, giving it an uninterrupted view of the sun as it monitors the galactic cosmic rays that manage to filter through the heliosphere.

“There’s a huge synergy between the Voyagers and both IBEX and IMAP,” says McComas, principal investigator of the latter two missions. “We were all really scared when Voyager 1 stopped phoning home.”

It will be decades until another mission could accomplish what the Voyagers have done. NASA’s New Horizons soared by Pluto in 2015 and kept going ( SN:8/9/18 ). It’s heading toward the edge of the solar system, but it’s cruising slowly and will run out of power before it can collect data beyond the heliopause.

The Voyagers can fly forever, but power for their instruments is waning. Over the next few years, NASA will shut some down to conserve energy for the rest.

That means Voyager 1’s days of collecting science data are numbered. “It’s a very beloved mission,” Dodd says. “It’s humanity’s spacecraft, and we need to take care of it.”

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Inside NASA's 5-month fight to save the Voyager 1 mission in interstellar space

After working for five months to re-establish communication with the farthest-flung human-made object in existence, NASA announced this week that the Voyager 1 probe had finally phoned home.

For the engineers and scientists who work on NASA’s longest-operating mission in space, it was a moment of joy and intense relief.

“That Saturday morning, we all came in, we’re sitting around boxes of doughnuts and waiting for the data to come back from Voyager,” said Linda Spilker, the project scientist for the Voyager 1 mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “We knew exactly what time it was going to happen, and it got really quiet and everybody just sat there and they’re looking at the screen.”

When at long last the spacecraft returned the agency’s call, Spilker said the room erupted in celebration.

“There were cheers, people raising their hands,” she said. “And a sense of relief, too — that OK, after all this hard work and going from barely being able to have a signal coming from Voyager to being in communication again, that was a tremendous relief and a great feeling.”

The problem with Voyager 1 was first detected in November . At the time, NASA said it was still in contact with the spacecraft and could see that it was receiving signals from Earth. But what was being relayed back to mission controllers — including science data and information about the health of the probe and its various systems — was garbled and unreadable.

That kicked off a monthslong push to identify what had gone wrong and try to save the Voyager 1 mission.

Spilker said she and her colleagues stayed hopeful and optimistic, but the team faced enormous challenges. For one, engineers were trying to troubleshoot a spacecraft traveling in interstellar space , more than 15 billion miles away — the ultimate long-distance call.

“With Voyager 1, it takes 22 1/2 hours to get the signal up and 22 1/2 hours to get the signal back, so we’d get the commands ready, send them up, and then like two days later, you’d get the answer if it had worked or not,” Spilker said.

The team eventually determined that the issue stemmed from one of the spacecraft’s three onboard computers. Spilker said a hardware failure, perhaps as a result of age or because it was hit by radiation, likely messed up a small section of code in the memory of the computer. The glitch meant Voyager 1 was unable to send coherent updates about its health and science observations.

NASA engineers determined that they would not be able to repair the chip where the mangled software is stored. And the bad code was also too large for Voyager 1's computer to store both it and any newly uploaded instructions. Because the technology aboard Voyager 1 dates back to the 1960s and 1970s, the computer’s memory pales in comparison to any modern smartphone. Spilker said it’s roughly equivalent to the amount of memory in an electronic car key.

The team found a workaround, however: They could divide up the code into smaller parts and store them in different areas of the computer’s memory. Then, they could reprogram the section that needed fixing while ensuring that the entire system still worked cohesively.

That was a feat, because the longevity of the Voyager mission means there are no working test beds or simulators here on Earth to test the new bits of code before they are sent to the spacecraft.

“There were three different people looking through line by line of the patch of the code we were going to send up, looking for anything that they had missed,” Spilker said. “And so it was sort of an eyes-only check of the software that we sent up.”

The hard work paid off.

NASA reported the happy development Monday, writing in a post on X : “Sounding a little more like yourself, #Voyager1.” The spacecraft’s own social media account responded , saying, “Hi, it’s me.”

So far, the team has determined that Voyager 1 is healthy and operating normally. Spilker said the probe’s scientific instruments are on and appear to be working, but it will take some time for Voyager 1 to resume sending back science data.

Voyager 1 and its twin, the Voyager 2 probe, each launched in 1977 on missions to study the outer solar system. As it sped through the cosmos, Voyager 1 flew by Jupiter and Saturn, studying the planets’ moons up close and snapping images along the way.

Voyager 2, which is 12.6 billion miles away, had close encounters with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune and continues to operate as normal.

In 2012, Voyager 1 ventured beyond the solar system , becoming the first human-made object to enter interstellar space, or the space between stars. Voyager 2 followed suit in 2018.

Spilker, who first began working on the Voyager missions when she graduated college in 1977, said the missions could last into the 2030s. Eventually, though, the probes will run out of power or their components will simply be too old to continue operating.

Spilker said it will be tough to finally close out the missions someday, but Voyager 1 and 2 will live on as “our silent ambassadors.”

Both probes carry time capsules with them — messages on gold-plated copper disks that are collectively known as The Golden Record . The disks contain images and sounds that represent life on Earth and humanity’s culture, including snippets of music, animal sounds, laughter and recorded greetings in different languages. The idea is for the probes to carry the messages until they are possibly found by spacefarers in the distant future.

“Maybe in 40,000 years or so, they will be getting relatively close to another star,” Spilker said, “and they could be found at that point.”

Denise Chow is a reporter for NBC News Science focused on general science and climate change.