MEDICAL LOGS

DEMON
Season 4 : Episode 92

 

DOCTOR'S LOG:

The Doctor likes to sing opera, specifically Puccini, while he works. Voyager is suffering an acute power shortage. It is first mentioned in  [#38 Innocence], which takes place in late 2372, that the warp core is designed to operate for up to three years before refuelling, which accounts for their dire need for fuel at this stage of their voyage. The ship is running on 'grey mode' with power cut to decks 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9; replicators, holodecks, and all other nonessentials are offline; and the remaining systems are left operating at only 20 per cent capacity. Many crew are required to share quarters in the effort to economise on power. The Doctor is irritated when Neelix brings himself and several other crew to sleep in Sickbay, and the Doctor's complaint to Chakotay is overruled. Neelix and these other crewmembers gladly vacate when a medical emergency occurs, namely the transport aboard of (duplicate) Paris and (duplicate) Kim.

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Chakotay decides that Neelix and several other crewmembers should have accommodation in Sickbay. The Doctor tells them: "Make yourselves at home."

MEDICAL REPORT:

Seven attempts to beam deuterium into a container on a transporter pad from beneath a Class-Y planet. (The classification is due to its toxic atmosphere filled with thermionic radiation - just entering a standard orbit would be considered suicide, and there is no known environment less hospitable to humanoid life. Class-Y's nickname is Demon-class, hence the episode title.) The attempt leads to an overload in the transporter pattern buffers and an explosion. Seven and the transporter duty officer Nozawa are injured, and have to be treated in Sickbay (the treatment is not seen on the television screen).

Duplicate versions of Paris and Kim are beamed to Voyager by the crew who do not suspect they are duplicates. When the pair begin suffocating, the Doctor isolates them within a level-7 forcefield around their biobeds (biobeds 1 and 2) and fills their area with an atmosphere whose composition identical to the planet's, thereby enabling them to survive.

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Doctor to the persons he assumes are Kim and Paris: "From what I can tell, you've been bioformed. Think of it as the opposite of terraforming. In the same way we adapt the environment of a planet to suit our needs, this planet has adapted you. This fluid somehow entered your bloodstream and began altering your physiology at the cellular level. I haven't had the time to analyse this substance but I hope to have some answers soon. Well, you'll be fine, as long as you keep breathing the planet's gases. I'm afraid it's worse than that. The atmosphere of this planet can't be replicated safely. Exactly. Either we find a way to treat your condition or you'll have to be left behind." His bioforming theory later proves to be incorrect.

The backup systems on the environmental suits are what allow the real Paris and real Kim to stay alive after a sustained period of time without oxygen on the planet. Although the planet's surface temperature is in excess of 500 Kelvins, the temperature of the metallic compound reads at only 12 degrees Celsius. The compound is a combination of deuterium, hydrogen sulfate, dichromates, and contains protein molecules indicating that it has organic properties. The fluid has mimetic properties, it samples the DNA of whatever it comes into contact with and duplicates it, creating a mimetic lifeform which appears to be an exact copy (that it is not an exact copy is seen in the sequel episode  [#112 Course Oblivion]). The duplicate Kim explains that the metallic compound is alive but it has never been conscious. When it entered the bodies of Paris and Kim, it copied their forms and experienced awareness for the first time. Now it craves more. The crew agree to donate samples of their DNA so that the compound can duplicate them, and it is presumably the Doctor who carries out the DNA extractions. Voyager is then allowed to depart, leaving behind a new race of aliens in the exact image of the Voyager crew, including the Doctor.

DOCTOR'S QUOTE:

Protesting to Chakotay about crewmembers sleeping in Sickbay: "But, I have a routine. I'm a night owl. What if one of them should snore while I'm listening to Puccini?"