Lifesigns

DVD, Voyager S2 (Lifesigns)

One episode that didn't quite work, but all the same had enough facets to keep your mind busy. It's one of the few that has an A-, B- and C-story, and the A-story is the least engaging. Jonas the spy, and Paris behaving badly are the minor threads running alongside the Doctor's dalliance with Danara, a Vidiian woman whom he is able to save from an early grave. The reason this is disappointing is because the only previous appearances by the fearsome Vidiians, a race that harvest the organs of others to survive a debilitating disease, have been all-out action shows, with serious consequences for anyone at the heart of them. So as soon as you hear the name, you develop expectations that are not met in the slightest, becoming a beauty and the beast tale, in which both roles are played by Danara. As consolation it's worth noting that the kind of episode that was expected from the Vidiians was to arrive a short time later.

Danara is quite different to the other representatives of her people. She's a doctor, someone the EMH is quick to have a rapport with, and she is a benevolent person, travelling to colonies to do what she can for her fellow afflicted, far from the grisly role of collecting specimens for a dependent as some of her race practice. She is sorry for the experience Torres was put through in 'Faces' in which she was split into human and Klingon halves (I still think it's great and so true that the warrior race's DNA is stronger than others and so can be used against the Phage!). Torres is enraged by the Doctor's demand for her brain tissue until Danara's quiet words turn aside her wrath and shame her into helping in whatever way possible.

There are some pleasant moments, not something you'd expect in a Vidiian episode, but this doesn't really fit into that category: it's a Doctor episode, with Tom Paris as second banana, and once again, as in Season 1's 'Heroes and Demons', the Doc has a romance, only this time she's only partially holographic, as the only way to save Danara was to put her neural activity into a simulated body. When she first sees her unblemished face she's quite struck, and although this is supposed to be a touching little romance it seemed more like a patient worshipping her medical saviour. As has been common with the last few episodes we get more references to other Treks, with Dr. McCoy being credited with a certain procedure the EMH uses, and a holographic reproduction of Mars, with Earth visible as a tiny dot.

Tom Paris' increasingly slovenly actions really look suspect here, as he continues to be late (dropping a reference to Wildman's impending birth by joking that he played mid-wife, as an excuse, neatly reminding us of yet another ongoing storyline), and refuses Chakotay's attempt at levelling with him. He even pushes the First Officer to the ground when he lays a restraining hand on his arm, and to the brig he goes! Because I know that it's all a ruse to flush out the spy, it does look transparent as these are the only two plots that keep cropping up, and so close together that they go from a scene where Paris behaves like an idiot again to one in which Jonas is trying to get in touch with Seska on the Kazon ship. If you're not anticipating the resolution of the story then perhaps it does seem like Paris has a bee under his bonnet as this is close to how he behaved in the early episodes. As much as Chakotay might like to dispense some Maquis command style justice on his face (as he did to a Maquis crewman in 'Learning Curve'), he has to operate by Starfleet rules. A shame he's not in the know - Janeway's appearances in this episode are deliberately kept low-key and uninvolved, shaking off the responsibility to her number one, when at any other time she'd be the first to deal with a troubled crewmember.

Though the Doc's romance is a bit unnecessary, it does give us a chance to see Sandrine's again, where he gets some advice from Tom, in one of his more relaxed moments away from baiting Chakotay. He also learns to dance by altering his program, something that he would later learn to have much more control over, the start of his real freedom to express himself, beyond just the important role he has on Voyager. Kes had previously awakened his sense of individuality and rights, and she's by his side again to take him through his misunderstandings - a two year old teaching the learned! Then again, if the Ocampa weren't such a quick study, their society wouldn't have lasted long, with an average lifespan of nine years! I love the way it ends, the Doc dancing out of frame, as we, the audience, need no further explanation or conclusion, since they have a short time together then Danara will leave for her return to her planet where she can help more people.

In those last scenes they do get in some thoughtful dialogue on the subject of living with disfigurement and the importance of life - Danara sees herself as nothing in her own disease-ravaged body, but the Doc wants her to live on, and not 'use up' her brain by staying in the false holographic body for a couple more days. There was obviously another person playing the Phage-infected version of Danara as they appear in the same scene, but I wonder if it was the actual actor who appears in makeup to dance with the Doc at the end, or whether it was the same one that had played the incapacitated role throughout the episode, as we don't hear her speak... There's also some fun with names as Pel names the EMH Shmullus after her uncle, another time the Doc had a name foisted on him, though he didn't seem to mind at the time, he didn't stick with it! And Paris is replaced for being late, by Mr. Grimes - sounds like someone out of Dickens!

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