Life Line (2)

 DVD, Voyager S6 (Life Line) (2)

The way I used to see these Alpha Quadrant episodes of the series was as the closest I was going to get to a continuation of 'DS9' simply for the fact that series inherited the playground of the Quadrant after 'TNG' expired, though in reality the death of a TV show was actually a Phoenix rising from the ashes immediately, transformed into a film series. This was something 'DS9' never got and I missed the most central part of the Trek I knew, as much fun as Delta Quadrant adventures were. Now I see it much more as a crossover with the 'TNG' films - how many characters from 'DS9' appeared on 'Voyager' after the former had ended? Zero. Yet we had two 'TNG' characters in this one, as we did in the previous instalment, 'Pathfinder.' The double-act of Troi and Barclay may not have been an obvious partnering to add into the 'Voyager' cake mix, but it was charming and this particular episode joined the two threads of previous episodes, namely Troi helping Barclay in 'Pathfinder' and Barclay being instrumental in assisting in the EMH's creation (way back in 'Projections'), as well as giving us the first proper appearance of Dr. Lewis Zimmerman on 'Voyager' after a holographic diagnostic program had been shown before ('The Swarm'). And we come full circle back to this being a continuation of 'DS9' by the fact the last and only time we saw Zimmerman in the flesh was in that series ('Doctor Bashir, I Presume'), how's that for connections! But as much as I would have liked it to tie more into 'DS9' than anything else, in truth the only tie is that Zimmerman went there, Leeta refusing to return to Jupiter Station with him and the lonely old man with only his holograms for company went back to his work on his own.

'Insurrection' had come out only fifteen months before and ended with the Enterprise-E going off on its next adventure so this episode was made during that last period of ongoing 'TNG,' continuing as it always had ('Nemesis' had much more finality due to the breaking up of the crew), and so it was easy to imagine the Enterprise going about its business. When Barclay calls in Counsellor Troi for her expertise to help in dealing with the impossible patient (Zimmerman and Stamets would have found a great mutual enmity, I have no doubt!), she mentions both the Enterprise being on a mission and having to ask Captain Picard for permission to go, the kind of reference they rarely included, especially in the time they were making the 'TNG' films. If her presence and references weren't enough to suggest this as a definitive 'TNG'/'Voyager' crossover we also have a direct link to 'Insurrection' when the Doctor takes on the form of a Tarlac woman, one of the Sona's indentured beauty slaves, to fool Zimmerman. And finally, as well as bringing back the best Starfleet uniforms ever created (the ribbed, grey shoulder variation introduced in 'First Contact' and then brought to 'DS9'), as they should considering the era in which this is set, we actually get Troi making a visit to Voyager herself! Okay, it's really only Barclay's holographic recreation where the Doctor runs to when he can't help his irritable patient, but it was a joy to see Troi in her 'TNG' film look in Voyager's Sickbay (it's not quite as unlikely as may seem since that same Sickbay set had been commandeered for the Enterprise-E!), and my only disappointment was that we didn't get to see her in other parts of the ship or interacting with holographic Voyager characters.

One last thing to cement the idea of a crossover is that they also had a third character who'd been in the 'TNG' films in Jack Shearer (already a veteran Trek guest star even before that), in his final appearance in Trek, bringing back Admiral Hayes of 'First Contact' - he'd already returned in 'Voyager' once, in the Season 4 finale, 'Hope and Fear.' That probably explains why I had a feeling of dread when he was talking about plans for Voyager: it wasn't that he reminded the characters and the audience that Starfleet still considered Chakotay and his crew to be Maquis, though that was a great suggestion for potential story issues in future had the ship got home before the end of the series, but because his instructions from Starfleet in the previous appearance were actually part of a ruse! This time it's genuine, but I couldn't shake that feeling of unease left from 'Hope and Fear,' even as he was giving promising news of deep space vessels moving to meet Voyager that would rendezvous in five or six years, which would have been a wonderful thing had it happened. Hopefully they were able to keep in touch with those ships or they'd be speeding towards where they believed Voyager to be only for it to actually no longer be in the Delta Quadrant at all, having used Borg Transwarp conduits to take a shortcut! I'm sure the same system of communication with Voyager could have been used to keep those deep space vessels in the loop, and it must have been a revolutionary development for all far-flung missions from this time on.

That kind of amazing technological progress was what Trek should have concentrated on instead of ridiculous fantasy like Discovery's spore drive and the 'mycelial network.' This sort of thing was much more real and grown-up in its storytelling and consequently means so much more in the gravity of its telling. While Starfleet still can't be in full and daily contact with its distant ship, they can at least communicate once a month and so occurs the Doctor's furthest travel: in Season 4 he'd been sent to the Alpha Quadrant in a one-off transfer ('Message In A Bottle'), mentioned here in passing as proof of concept, but now he's being sent practically to Earth's doorstep in the galactic scheme of things: Jupiter Station, a facility that had been mentioned a number of times across both 'DS9' and 'Voyager' and so had built up a sense of place that it was enjoyable to finally see. And it did look great, a combination of former Starfleet technology, the Argus Array, for example, and the mushroom style of the 'TOS' films, except sleeker so that the multiple segments look like Galaxy-class saucers placed on top of each other. Needless to say I loved the look! Internally it was more basic, as you'd expect from episodic television, but it neatly moulds Voyager's Holodeck style of metallic grid scaffolding with the latest in Starfleet decor, including transparent PADDs that show technology continues to advance in Voyager's absence.

The most momentous development is from the Voyager crew themselves and goes almost unspoken - the Doctor's program is so large, even with Seven (not B'Elanna? See how she takes even the Chief Engineer's role - I don't even recall Torres being in the episode for more than a few seconds in the Briefing Room, despite the fact she was always the one to deal with the Doc's program), cutting out unnecessary subroutines, pruning his various side interests that aren't going to be relevant to the mission. This means the crew will have to wait another month before they can send the letters and communications that Janeway had delightedly offered, so it was a big favour for the Doctor to ask. I'm sure they were understanding of what he was going through once Zimmerman's poor health became known, and the view their Doctor took of him being the closest thing he had to a Father, though it's just as possible they had their own families they needed to check in on for similar reasons. It was a big sacrifice for the crew and I would have liked to have seen that be a more prominent moment in the episode, though I did enjoy seeing the Doctor sway Janeway to his way of thinking. And it sets up the series for regular contact with home, a huge development.

The story becomes a personal coming together of one of our favourite characters with someone who views him as little more than an early variation of a technology that has progressed way beyond that - we learn so much about the EMH's history up to the present in this one episode. They're now up to the Mark IV (no mention of LMH, or Longterm Medical Hologram, something presumably nixed after the issues with Dr. Bashir - I do wish they could have found a way to include a line about that experience from Zimmerman, but we had a mention of 'DS9' in last week's episode and you can't have everything), with the 675 Mark I's reduced to menial labour scrubbing plasma manifolds on 'waste transport barges.' I thought when Zimmerman first mentioned this he was merely being hyperbolic, rubbing it in how lowly the Doc's program was considered now, but even later it comes up and sounds as if it was a reality, he wasn't being mean, which begs the question, 'what waste?' I presume some kind of industrial fall off because organic waste would all be recycled in the Replicator, and personal waste is dealt with in 'waste extraction,' according to 'DS9.' It's that bitterness for the treatment of those made in his own image that creates a bond between irascible patient and impatient doctor, brought to fruition by Troi and Barclay's devious method of putting the Doctor's program in danger of coming apart, which can only be saved by Zimmerman's intervention, in turn helping him realise Voyager's EMH is the last of its kind still doing what it was programmed for, and also that it, that he, has exceeded his parameters. It's brought home by the fact of Zimmerman's own situation of surrounding himself with holographic life because he feels more comfortable with that than humans.

Zimmerman, his problems, his genius, was very deftly written, he's more than merely a grumpy old man facing the end of life. He may go on about the advances of the program and be involved in other work as his role as the Father of modern holography (just as Dr. Noonien Soong was in the same position when it came to positronics - how I'd love to have seen those two meet!), winning the Daystrom prize, but he still wears the same bettered old lab coat we first saw his facsimile sporting in 'The Swarm,' which shows that he sticks with what he likes. It isn't all tragedy, he does care about holographic life - not in a sense of being some kind of champion for its sentience, but appreciating what it can do, and has done for him. Haley may just be his maidservant or housekeeper, but she's also someone he interacts with regularly and knows how to deal with him. Even Leonard (hmm, a reference to Nimoy or McCoy?), the holographic iguana with the disturbing ability to repeat human speech when the mood comes on him, he promises to leave to a good home. So he doesn't see these as only tools, but real beings. Tragedy is a strong part of the episode: for Zimmerman and his seemingly terminal illness; for the Doctor and his wish to be acknowledged as more than just another hologram. It's a coming together of these two minds, neither understanding at first the importance the other has in their mind - though he effects to despise the Doctor, Zimmerman realises he is a representation of the dream he had, what he originally wanted.

There is a lot of self-absorbed ego, but then Zimmerman is a genius and it appears even in Trek's supposedly developed humanity (since shown to be just the same as 21st Century us in modern Trek, not understanding the need to write futuristic people classically, something that came to me from Brannon Braga in the fascinating interview he did with The Shuttlepod Show podcast, and struck a chord), there can still be those outsiders that don't fit with the established vision of humans being more advanced - you only have to look at Barclay for another example, though he's merely the facilitator this time and is mostly in the background, story-wise. Thinking of being in the background reminds me of the great technical achievement of this episode, the latest in a long line of Trek's dating back to 'TOS' which featured multiple characters in scenes played by one actor. You can actually forget both the Doctor and Zimmerman are portrayed by Robert Picardo, they're so different and appear with each other so often. There is much less of that sitting the camera down equidistant from them, one on the left, one on the right, talking at each other, usually the hallmark of such scenes. They move the camera, they cleverly cut to over the shoulder shots, moving the camera there, too, so it was all edited together superbly. Most impressive to me was that when another character is present I couldn't tell if they'd filmed their scenes with Zimmerman or the Doctor so seamless was the choreography!

Sometimes the eye-lines didn't quite match up, and I was watching very closely, but there was so much movement from both actors (there I go again - I mean from both performances!), being so demonstrative, that it wasn't too noticeable as you get swept up in the scenes. Picardo is great as the Doctor, always was, but he excels himself in the role of the slovenly, snappy, bad-tempered Zimmerman, who has become even more bitter and dismissive since we saw him three years before in 'DS9,' his attributes no doubt exacerbated by the pain of his illness. That the Doctor is the only one who can provide a cure makes sense due to Voyager having so much to do with the Borg, and therefore more knowledge of nanoprobes. What I don't understand is how these were able to come with the Doctor, if indeed they did? I have to assume they couldn't since they were physical things and the Doc wasn't exactly being beamed, his program was being transferred (I can see why there might be no real difference, since in both examples it's something being converted to data, which is then transmitted, but the Doc was never solid in the first place so I'm not sure a solid object could be reduced to its data in a Transporter and then reconstructed into solidity?). Perhaps it was as simple as providing schematics from which Starfleet would be able to reproduce nanoprobes?

The story opened up the 'Voyager' universe to admit of the possibility for connecting with wider Trek of that time, not being trapped far away from all the 'serious' stuff. Not that there weren't always tricks to pull off cameos, guest appearances and such, but this was now  a regular connection with home, the next stage in that dream, and in a way, a third part of the trilogy after getting off a message to Starfleet in 'Hunters' that first alerted them to Voyager's survival, to 'Pathfinder' where we saw the fruits of Barclay's research, to now where they can get to a new level of contact. I don't remember how well this translated into adventures on the series going forward, there were only two episodes left for the season at this point, and while they certainly had more specific Starfleet orders late in Season 7, I don't recall it having a huge impact. Perhaps it would have been more satisfying to use these developments to reach the stage where they could actually bring the ship home before the end of the series, where we could have explored all those issues with Seven, the Doctor, the Maquis, but that would have been out of character for a series that didn't like to go too far outside its established premise. One thing I would have liked either way, would have been more from Dr. Zimmerman, but this was his last appearance (to date - nothing's off the table these days, one of the few positives about modern Trek!).

It's not that there needed to be more said between him and the Doctor, they have a nice moment at the end when Barclay takes a holo-image of the pair together for the Doc's collection, a beautiful shot to end the episode on, the Doc and his 'Dad,' but Zimmerman still says he hopes he won't be back next month to see that he's taking his medication! There's a grudging acceptance, but I feel it would have sprouted up from that seed, probably to the opposite end of the spectrum, that Zimmerman could make a trip to Voyager (perhaps through some holographic avatar), because he's been thinking about the Doctor and wants to share some improvements with him, in the process upsetting everyone onboard, including the Doctor, who doesn't know how to turn him down now that they're getting on so well, the episode ending with a scene, which I can see so clearly in my mind, of Janeway gently explaining to Zimmerman that his improvements aren't necessary, he should be proud that his 'son' has gone off and made something of himself - yeah, that would been great fun, but I can understand why they never did something like that. The Doctor was already getting a lot of exposure, Picardo didn't need to keep playing another character as well, as much as he'd have loved it, I'm sure! I'm just glad we got to have a meeting of creation with created, further cementing the Doctor's status as being in the same vein as Data. At least we never had an evil brother (though if the series had lasted a few more years...).

I haven't had a lot to say about Deanna and Barclay, but that's because though they were key characters in the story, the focus was most definitely not on them. They had their time in the sun last time in 'Pathfinder,' I'm happy they were brought back (and not for the last time). Troi even gets the classic line said about her by the Doc: "She's a counsellor, not an engineer," which was great fun to continue that tradition. Amazing to think that both she and the Doctor returned to Trek so many years later, and it's always a thrill when main characters meet, the main reason I consider this a crossover with 'TNG.' Maybe I don't thrill to this episode as I once did when it was so exciting just to see characters return long beyond the time they were current (even if the films had yet to run their course), but we have had a lot of that crossover potential in recent years (mainly in 'Picard' and 'Lower Decks'), which has been fun, but you still need the story to live up to it. This story does live up to it, but I tend to think there wasn't quite enough 'Voyager' interaction. As I said before, you can't have everything, and this is yet another classic for Season 6, a season I realise I have to accept as being a great one, even if it may have been let down by Season 7 not developing further. But there are still two more to go with this one, and hopefully I'll consider it a good ending.

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