Stardate 48892.1: The holographic doctor’s day is not off to a good start. Automatically brought online by a red alert, he finds that the ship has – according to the computer – been abandoned after a Kazon attack. But this turns out to be wrong when Torres shows up to enlist the doctor’s help in aiding the injured Janeway on the bridge. Thanks to a holographic projection system that can transfer the doctor to key parts of the ship other than sick bay, he visits the bridge for the first time, and is then off to the mess hall to help Neelix fend off a lone Kazon. At this point, however, the doctor’s grip on reality is loosened when he finds that not only can he bleed, but according to every available tricorder he is the only living thing on board Voyager. He begins to believe these incredible things when a holography engineer named Barclay appears and insists that the doctor is in fact Dr. Louis Zimmerman, a holo-programmer trapped in a holodeck emergency simulation in the Alpha Quadrant.
written by Brannon Braga
directed by Jonathan Frakes
music by David BellCast: Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Robert Beltran (Chakotay), Roxann Biggs-Dawson (B’Elanna Torres), Jennifer Lien (Kes), Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Garrett Wang (Ensign Harry Kim), Dwight Schultz (Barclay), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)
Notes: This episode marks the first of several appearances by Dwight Schultz; the former A-Team star’s Trek character originated on the Next Generation’s Enterprise in the third season episode Hollow Pursuits.
LogBook entry by Earl Green