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SUMMARY: The Doctor visits the Alpha Quadrant in an attempt to save the life of his creator, Dr Lewis Zimmerman.
Dawkins approaches Jupiter Station |
Lieutenant Reg Barclay arrives at Jupiter Station on the Shuttlecraft Dawkins.... |
Zimmerman (left) and Barclay (right) in Zimmerman's lab |
....to visit his friend, the dying Dr Lewis Zimmerman. |
Barclay briefs the Doctor on Voyager about Zimmerman's condition, knowing that he would want to know as Zimmerman pioneered the Emergency Medical Holoprograms and indeed based the visual appearance of the Mark 1s on his own. The message forms part of Starfleet's first compressed datastream from its Project Pathfinder Project, transmitted using a cyclic pulsar to amplify signals from the MIDAS array. The cycle only peaks every 32 days so the Voyager crew can transmit only at monthly intervals. In the first message Starfleet sends tactical updates, letters from home, and news about the Alpha Quadrant, and Admiral Hayes says Starfleet has redirected two deep space vessels towards them to rendezvous with Voyager in five to six years.
Astrometrics Lab |
Briefing Room |
| the Starfleet datastream is received on Voyager and the fact of its arrival is discussed at a staff meeting |
When the Doctor learns from Zimmerman's medical files that he is suffering from acute subcellular degradation, he realises it is very similar to the early stages of the Vidiian phage, and is convinced that he arrest the cell damage using treatments he has mastered through medical dealings with the phage and Borg regeneration techniques. Since the Doctor alone fully understands these techniques, he persuades Janeway to delay sending the crew's letters home until the following month and instead send his program to the Alpha Quadrant in this month's data transmission. Because his program is too large for the datastream, Seven temporarily removes what she considers to be his non-essential subroutines such as his singing and painting abilities.
in his office, the Doctor looks at Zimmerman's
medical file |
the Doctor presents his request to Janeway |
But when the eager Doctor arrives in Zimmerman's lab, he is vexed by Zimmerman's hostile reception. The prickly-tempered Zimmerman says he has been examined by the EMH Mark 3 and 4 and the finest doctors in Starfleet but to no avail, so he sees no point in the visit of an obsolete EMH Mark 1. He informs the Doctor that the EMH Mark 1s in the Alpha Quadrant were retired from medical duties and now do menial duty scrubbing plasma conduits on waste transfer barges.
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| Zimmerman is not pleased to see the Doctor |
The Doctor tries to conduct medical scans of Zimmerman, but is exasperated by the the patient's distinct lack of co-operation. With the Doctor's character being based on that of Zimmerman, there is a clash of the titans, with the Doctor finally exclaiming to Barclay and Zimmerman's holographic assistant Haley: "The patient appears to be suffering from an acute case of arrogance! .... I can't treat a patient who won't let me near him. He's deranged! What he needs is a counsellor!"
Haley, Zimmerman's holographic assistant |
the Doctor expresses his frustration with Zimmerman to Haley and Barclay |
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| Zimmerman is furious to discover that the beautiful Elloran masseuse is in fact the Doctor in disguise trying to take medical scans, and a very heated argument ensues |
Barclay manages to persuade good friend Deanna Troi to ask for a leave of absence from her Ship's Counsellor duties aboard the USS Enterprise-E. But when she arrives, both Zimmerman and the Doctor exasperate her, causing her to exclaim: "I came here thinking that you were opposite sides of the same coin - identical but different. Now I see you're both exactly the same. You're both jerks!"
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| when Troi arrives, the Doctor and Zimmerman argue again |
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| Deanna Troi tries to get each of them to see the other's point of view |
However, the perceptive Troi works out what the real problem is: Zimmerman had designed the EMH Mark 1 to look like him because he had put so much of himself into its development. But the program failed to meet Starfleet's expectations. Zimmerman was devastated and locked himself in his laboratory for two years trying to repair the defects. People gave the EMH Mark 1s the nicknames "Emergency Medical Hotheads" and "Extremely Marginal Housecalls". Zimmerman's self-esteem plummeted further when they were retired from medical duties and reconfigured for menial tasks. Troi observes: "And now, after all this time, a Mark 1 shows up. It must be like staring in a mirror at a reflection you don't want to remember."
the Doctor's program fritzes |
The Doctor, having given up on his patient and waiting only for the rest of the month to pass so that he can be transmitted back to Voyager, spends time feeling more at home in Zimmerman's holodeck, in Barclay's re-creation of Voyager. When Troi visits him to invite him to a dinner at which he and Zimmerman can meet and try to get along with each other, as the Doctor firmly rejects the offer, his program suddenly fritzes. Barclay diagnoses that after travelling 30,000 light-years the Doctor's primary matrix is degrading and seems irrepairable. |
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Barclay, Troi and Haley talk to Zimmerman about the Doctor's program problem. At last Haley persuades Zimmerman to examine the Doctor's matrix, as Zimmerman is the only one who can possibly repair him. She tells Zimmerman: "He may not be perfect, but he's still one of your creations, and right now he needs his creator. Don't turn your back on him." |
Zimmerman re-activates the Doctor's program after working on it for 17 hours. The Doctor discovers that Zimmerman has altered his greeting from "Please state the nature of the medical emergency." to "Welcome to sickbay. How may I help you today?" Zimmerman informs him that he intends to reset the Doctor's parameters to encompass patience, compassion, empathy, decorum, and other changes to overcome what Zimmerman views as the inherent flaws in his personality subroutines. The Doctor argues: "I don't want any favours and I don't want your new subroutines. Why can't you accept me as I am?!"
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| in the lab, Zimmerman works on the Doctor's program |
When Zimmerman almost collapses due to his illness, the Doctor takes the opportunity to scan him.
Doctor: "I'm trying to do my job, and if you give me a chance you'll see that I'm pretty good at it. Frankly, I'd hoped that if we ever met, you'd be proud of me."
Zimmerman: "Well, I guess it is comforting to know that at least one of you is still doing what I designed you to do."
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| the Doctor and Zimmerman reach a truce and an understanding |
the Doctor exits Zimmerman's lab after spending over 32 hours in there, and is met by Barclay, Troi and Haley who have been waiting for news |
Following this truce, Zimmerman accepts the cell regeneration treatment. The Doctor reports to Barclay, Haley and Troi that Zimmerman should make a full recovery after completing several more treatments. |
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The Doctor also reports that Zimmerman carried out a diagnostic on his subtronic relays and discovered that he was the victim of a conspiracy because the fault in his primary matrix was deliberately caused by Barclay. Troi confesses as she tells the Doctor that traditional therapy was not working. |
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Before he leaves, Barclay takes a picture of both the Doctor and Zimmerman who have now become friends. |
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