MEDICAL LOGS

TINKER TENOR DOCTOR SPY
Season 6 : Episode 124

 

DOCTOR'S LOG:

The Doctor has been experimenting with "cognitive projections" to enable him to daydream. The algorithms malfunction due to Phlox's interference and branch into the Doctor's perceptual subroutines.

A Hierarchy aliens tap into the Doctor's daydreams, believing them to be reality	B

Roused from a daydream, the Doctor is disappointed to find he has been excluded from a planetary away mission. He files a formal complaint with Captain Janeway regarding poor treatment by the crew and proposes a new position for himself as Emergency Command Hologram (ECH) to function in place of the captain in the event of a catastrophic emergency. Janeway reviews his request, but declines to grant it. According to Janeway's research, there are no legal precedents for granting a command position to a hologram.

Janeway rejects the Doctor's ECH suggestion

Disappointed by the rejection, the Doctor escapes to his daydreams, where he is admired by the female crew members and later celebrated as the new ECH. See screenshots A and B above.

In the meantime, a Hierarchy surveillance team tries to access Voyager's internal sensors but are unable to get past its security encryption. As attacking unsuspecting vessels to steal their resources is the way that the Hierarchy operates, the Hierarchy relies on such surveillance reconnaisance, with performance failure by an individual likely to cost them their livelihood. Unable to obtain the information required, the Overlooker (commanding officer) assigns Voyager the classification of "unacceptable risk". However, the alien crewman named Phlox discovers the Doctor's cognitive projections (daydreams) and misconstrues them as real events on Voyager. Phlox's technique for obtaining the desired reconnaisance data causes the Hierarchy to order preparations to attack Voyager to proceed. Phlox witnesses the Doctor taking command as the ECH and saving Voyager from the Borg.

	in a daydream, the Doctor takes command of Voyager and destroys an attacking Borg sphere, thus saving the ship

The Doctor's program starts malfunctioning and as a result he confuses dreams with reality and randomly jumps from one daydream to the next. Torres, Kim and Seven route the Doctor's dreams through the holographic imager and watch the Doctor in several very personal dreams, including his taking command of Voyager and dealing with a Torres who is in love with him.

the crew are forced to prevent the Doctor getting at the warp core when he daydreams a catastrophe that he must prevent	in a daydream, the Doctor counsels a lovelorn Torres, whilst in reality others watch including the real Torres

Meanwhile, Phlox finally realises that he was only watching the Doctor's dream life and is afraid to inform the Overlooker, or even the ultimate superiors the Hierarchy, of the oversight because they do not tolerate mistakes. Because Phlox feels that he has come to know the Doctor, he transmits a simulation of himself into the Doctor's program and warns of the imminent alien attack. In return for the warning, Phlox asks the Doctor to pose as the captain in order to trick his commanders.

realising that the images he has tapped into are actually only the Doctor's daydreams	the Doctor talks to a projection of Phlox

The Doctor persuades Janeway that he has not been daydreaming again. When the Hierarchy vessel hails Voyager, the Doctor is in the captain's seat and pretends to be Voyager's captain while Janeway instructs the Doctor through a remote comlink. As the aliens have just upgraded their assault strategy which Phlox cannot help the Doctor with, the Doctor uses his initiative and orders Tuvok to activate Voyager's photonic cannon - a device the Doctor has only imagined in his daydreams. Phlox reminds the Overlooker of how the device easily destroyed the Borg. Fearful of the weapon, the Overlooker contacts the Hierarchy with the new information and receives orders to retreat.

the Doctor in the captain's chair on the Bridge....	....as he talks to the Overlooker, Phlox's superior
the Doctor orders Tuvok to activate the photonic cannon

As a result of his actions on the Bridge, Janeway gives the Doctor the Starfleet Medal of Commendation. She also reverses her earlier decision and now decides to study the possibility of realising the Doctor's ECH program. She will later give the project the go-ahead, with the ECH first being seen in  [#162 Workforce, Part 1].

the Doctor is formally honoured for saving the ship - his daydream come true

NOTES:

• This episode's title is wordplay on the title of John Le Carre's spy novel "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" although the book has no other connection with [Voyager].
• The name Phlox is not spoken in dialogue. The character's name should not be confused with that of Dr Phlox, resident doctor aboard Enterprise NX-01 in the Star Trek series [Enterprise], which series aired after [Voyager].

DOCTOR'S QUOTE:

In a daydream seen by Janeway: "All I've ever wanted was to live up to my full potential, to hone all my skills, expand my abilities, to help the people I love."

Janeway turns back as she starts hearing the Doctor's words