I love Voyager and have watched through the entire series many times over, aside from a handful of dreadful episodes. Usually I skip this one, but I decided to give it another spin. And I was reminded all too well at why I never dust this one off.
The Doctor's behavior is completely reprehensible. Impersonating officers, incapacitating crew members, SHOOTING TUVOK (Where's the "do no harm" protocol on that one?), and compromising EVERY SINGLE SYSTEM on the ship. And for all that, he receives no punishment. It's insultingly bad. I just can't fathom anyone defending this absolute trash of an episode.
The implications are just astronomically horrible. Are we to believe that Star Fleet has such a "heightened" sense of morals that they are beyond holding anyone accountable for their actions? It's actually barbaric and makes them look like they have no moral code at all. I hate it. I hate it with every fiber of my being. And I hate it all the more that any one would try to defend it out of some misplaced sense of loyalty to Robert Picardo. He is a brilliant actor, and deservedly one of my favorite people on the show. But he should've been fighting this tooth and nail to save his character some semblance of integrity. And his deathbed confession isn't remotely funny. It's beyond distasteful.
And not only the moral implications, but how about the practical consequences of the Doctor effectively stranding the crew in the Delta Quadrant with no warp core. He rationalizes the decision to do full on espionage on his own friends by suggesting that if he didn't do so, the captain would die. But without a warp core, they are completely vulnerable to any number of attacks. They encounter some hostile species on a daily basis in the DQ! It's so hypocritical and contradictory, it makes my head spin. I think I'm gonna be sick.
You get the sense they wanted to explore the full capability of the Doctor's hologram. But it's done in a mystifyingly horrible way that's chock full of moral qualms. A much better avenue to explore the inherent risk in giving the Doctor too much freedom would've been through a holodeck simulation, a la Worst Case Scenario from Season 3. Perhaps Tuvok wants to run a tactical program to go over procedures in case the Doctor's program is ever compromised, and he could illustrate to the Captain the faultiness in giving the Doctor free reign. There's a reason they have the chain of command on a star ship. The fact the Doctor could abuse it so freely is obnoxious and unpalatable. There's no fail safe protocol built into his program should he decide to just take over the ship?? YIKES!!
Another clear example of the mephitic writing for this episode is how every conceivable plot hole is just patched up with the convenience of the Doctor overriding every function on the ship off screen. When does he have time to do all these things? "Let's do this to stop him! Ope, the Doctor has blocked us out." Ghastly and horribly contrived.
They seriously should've been discussing de-programming him after this whole debacle. That's why it's a terrible episode, because it compromises such a wonderful, thoughtful character like the Doctor. They use him as a canvass for self aggrandizing in what really amounts to treason. And piggy-backing this episode on Author, Author which was only a few episodes before tarnishes the Doctor even further. He comes off as a loathsome, self-righteous blowhard. He's been given more freedom than even any human could ever dream of, but we're to believe he's still bitter over being treated like a computer when he was first activated. I hate to break it to you, Doc, but that's literally your function. The writers on this episode should've applied the "do no harm" principle to themselves, because they nearly did irreparable harm to the Doctor's character. I dearly wish someone had the guts to tell the architects of this final season to stop spoon feeding your audience this tripe about the Doctor fighting for equality. It's an abomination of a storyline and ground that was covered much more poetically and beautifully in Latent Image. Leave it alone. This episode makes it seem like they've learned nothing from their past mistakes. Just an endless stream of worthy criticisms. It never should've made it to air.
TL;DR: If you enjoy the Doctor's character at all, do not watch this episode.
The Doctor's behavior is completely reprehensible. Impersonating officers, incapacitating crew members, SHOOTING TUVOK (Where's the "do no harm" protocol on that one?), and compromising EVERY SINGLE SYSTEM on the ship. And for all that, he receives no punishment. It's insultingly bad. I just can't fathom anyone defending this absolute trash of an episode.
The implications are just astronomically horrible. Are we to believe that Star Fleet has such a "heightened" sense of morals that they are beyond holding anyone accountable for their actions? It's actually barbaric and makes them look like they have no moral code at all. I hate it. I hate it with every fiber of my being. And I hate it all the more that any one would try to defend it out of some misplaced sense of loyalty to Robert Picardo. He is a brilliant actor, and deservedly one of my favorite people on the show. But he should've been fighting this tooth and nail to save his character some semblance of integrity. And his deathbed confession isn't remotely funny. It's beyond distasteful.
And not only the moral implications, but how about the practical consequences of the Doctor effectively stranding the crew in the Delta Quadrant with no warp core. He rationalizes the decision to do full on espionage on his own friends by suggesting that if he didn't do so, the captain would die. But without a warp core, they are completely vulnerable to any number of attacks. They encounter some hostile species on a daily basis in the DQ! It's so hypocritical and contradictory, it makes my head spin. I think I'm gonna be sick.
You get the sense they wanted to explore the full capability of the Doctor's hologram. But it's done in a mystifyingly horrible way that's chock full of moral qualms. A much better avenue to explore the inherent risk in giving the Doctor too much freedom would've been through a holodeck simulation, a la Worst Case Scenario from Season 3. Perhaps Tuvok wants to run a tactical program to go over procedures in case the Doctor's program is ever compromised, and he could illustrate to the Captain the faultiness in giving the Doctor free reign. There's a reason they have the chain of command on a star ship. The fact the Doctor could abuse it so freely is obnoxious and unpalatable. There's no fail safe protocol built into his program should he decide to just take over the ship?? YIKES!!
Another clear example of the mephitic writing for this episode is how every conceivable plot hole is just patched up with the convenience of the Doctor overriding every function on the ship off screen. When does he have time to do all these things? "Let's do this to stop him! Ope, the Doctor has blocked us out." Ghastly and horribly contrived.
They seriously should've been discussing de-programming him after this whole debacle. That's why it's a terrible episode, because it compromises such a wonderful, thoughtful character like the Doctor. They use him as a canvass for self aggrandizing in what really amounts to treason. And piggy-backing this episode on Author, Author which was only a few episodes before tarnishes the Doctor even further. He comes off as a loathsome, self-righteous blowhard. He's been given more freedom than even any human could ever dream of, but we're to believe he's still bitter over being treated like a computer when he was first activated. I hate to break it to you, Doc, but that's literally your function. The writers on this episode should've applied the "do no harm" principle to themselves, because they nearly did irreparable harm to the Doctor's character. I dearly wish someone had the guts to tell the architects of this final season to stop spoon feeding your audience this tripe about the Doctor fighting for equality. It's an abomination of a storyline and ground that was covered much more poetically and beautifully in Latent Image. Leave it alone. This episode makes it seem like they've learned nothing from their past mistakes. Just an endless stream of worthy criticisms. It never should've made it to air.
TL;DR: If you enjoy the Doctor's character at all, do not watch this episode.