Body and Soul

DVD, Voyager S7 (Body and Soul)

The startling mimicry of Jeri Ryan as the Doctor takes over Seven's body is the draw of this episode. She really nails the mannerisms and speech patterns of the egotistical Doc, yet can also slip into her familiar persona equally well. An accomplished performance. Kim serves no real purpose except to whine a bit, Neelix has the one pointless scene (is it supposed to make us wonder if Tuvok will snap?), and Torres doesn't even appear! Chakotay gets about one line, and Janeway seems to throw regulations out of the window: whatever happened to non-interference in other cultures? One minute she's apologising for breaking the rules, the next she's shooting and running! And as for the important Pon Farr of Tuvok, that's treated like a C-story!

As you can tell I had a few problems with the episode, but there are enough humourous moments in Seven/the Doctor's plot, to keep it running along nicely. I suppose we should be grateful they acknowledged the Pon Farr at all, as the subject had already been addressed by Vorik and B'Elanna in Season Three. At the time it seemed quite a twist that they didn't do the obvious and make it a Tuvok episode, but it left the event unmentioned until now. Apart from his experiences in 'Blood Fever' Paris wasn't the best person to be given responsibility for the Vulcan's condition. Even though it's an intensely private affair he can't help but retain some of his sense of playfulness and fun about it, keeping a twinkle in his eye. I would have thought Janeway would have been Tuvok's choice to talk to, but their friendship isn't what it was (or portrayed to be at the start of the series).

I know he states the 'illness' is in the early stages, but a huge loss of power comes from the almost blase reaction to the situation. Tuvok says he can get through it, yet in other episodes it's been shown as the life and death struggle that means a Vulcan must mate, while losing control and confusing those around him. Tuvok has gone through it many times and is very experienced at controlling his emotions, but what might have been a tense time is too easily resolved. I'm sure it's been previously established that the Holodeck can't work as a substitute. Saying that, there was a Vulcan female shown as part of the Maquis a few episodes ago so as a last resport...

I quite liked the alien characters, with the Captain coming across as a slightly befuddled man, no wonder with all that happened! Megan Gallagher who played the female doctor had previously played two characters on 'DS9', and never has much makeup, perhaps because they don't want to hide her bone structure! One effort I appreciated was that they got the same actress back as Tuvok's wife T'Pel, last seen in Season Two's 'Persistence of Vision'. Attention to detail! I wonder if the photonic insurgence was tied up with the Hirogen story that was coming shortly after? In that case it's kind of Voyager's own fault they had all this trouble!

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