Projections

DVD, Voyager S2 (Projections)

The nature of reality (or unreality) is always a fascinating topic for an episode and whenever it crops up I've always enjoyed the creepiness that at any moment something completely wrong can happen. In a way this type of episode is a commentary on all fictional TV as a kind of reality that is actually unreality is built up to become a new reality... Which then has its own rules that can only be broken in certain circumstances. Such as a reality within a reality. Which in reality is in another reality. Confused yet?

The way it begins as the Holo-Doctor is activated to a seemingly deserted ship isn't immediately out of the ordinary, particularly at this stage of the series when he's not afforded the same informed update as everyone else and often doesn't know what's going on. Equally, when he discovers a Kazon attack is responsible it fits our expectations for a traditional story (and one that would be repeated for 'real' later in the season). The weirdness takes a surprisingly long time to set in, the first sign being the tricorders apparently not working - a throwaway line that when you think about it, especially with hindsight, should be a warning sign: Tricorders always work as they have their own power source.

The Doc's encounter with Neelix is one of the first overt signs that things aren't right - would the Talaxian really be able to keep a gun-toting Kazon at bay by flinging pots, pans and paraphernalia at him (then again with Neelix' cooking...). The way he shouts out "Missed me!" after ducking a phaser blast, his teeth jutting out in a grimace, also points to something different. As an aside: Neelix can look really rather scary when he's going weird - the way Ethan Phillips can scrunch up his face and turn the kindly, bumbling of the familiar alien into a vicious, animal-like crazy is quite disturbing, especially with the sharp teeth and the voice changing to release the pent up jealousy and malice that Neelix tends to keep toned down.

The episode has great novelty value for a number of things - being able to see the Doc in areas of the ship he can't normally go is quite something, long before such mobility became common. The Doctor has been described as a break-out character, and he gets to prove this physically at last. Another moment is seeing Kes as human with normal ears when she's supposedly his wife (he shows his fondness for her has expanded - and that he is capable of day-dreaming, in a way, as such constructs come from his own 'mind').

Seeing the Holodeck walls is another memorable first, but the most important event is having Reginald Barclay on the series. It was an ingenious way of bringing a familiar character onto the fledgeling series, and not only was it great to see him, we also discover quite a few details about his connection to the Doc. He was on the team that helped create the EMH under Lewis Zimmerman, presumably in a leave of absence from the Enterprise (I'm not sure if this means he was aboard when the D crashed, or not, though he's obviously one of the crew that transfers to the E). They slipped in a bit of an in-joke about Barclay's involvement with the Doc's creation - he was in charge of testing his social interaction. That explains the Doc's behaviour!

The best moment, aside from the 'you think you've woken up and then...' nightmare scene, is the brilliant recreation of the Doc's activation in 'Caretaker' and the other moment he and Barclay go to a part of that episode, but change things. It wouldn't be the last time that episode was revisited, but it was so well done and unexpected, almost convincing the Doc that Voyager's time in the Delta Quadrant was all part of the program. The only good experience for him is to give Paris a taste of his own medicine and delete him!

The simulation, the waking up simulation and the real waking up are all subtly different, so that at the end when the real world appears we feel comfortable that this is the real world by the music and the way eveyone is back to normal - in the fake real world when he thinks things are back to normal there's no music, the characters stand stock still and it's as if there's still some residual tension. Very good, though putting in a ship shot was a bit of a cheat. The idea to put holo-projectors throughout the ship was a good one, but I can't remember if they really did or not. It was part of the Doc's 'dream' so maybe it was just another example of wishful thinking along the lines of Kes being his wife and him being 'a real boy'.

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