VOY: “Message in a Bottle”

Date: November 22, 2020

Season 4, Episode 14

Musical Accompaniment: Day 2 of my 4-star playlist and also:

Interstellar News: Today was a roller coaster. It started wonderfully, went downhill pretty quickly, started to ramp back up, and then ended suddenly… sigh.

TL;DR: Seven finds a Starfleet vessel in communication range through a series of relays, but they can only send the Doctor through as everything else degrades. The Doctor is sent to the Prometheus, which is an experimental ship that was just taken over by Romulans so the only other Starfleet officer on board is the EMH-2. They work together, hysterically, to get the ship back in the hands of Starfleet. The Doctor relays the last four years of Voyager’s antics and makes it back, telling Janeway that he was successful in making contact.

Favorite Quote:

EMH: Stop breathing down my neck.

EMH-2: My breathing is merely a simulation.

EMH: So is my neck. Stop it anyway.

The EMH’s snarking at each other.

“I was saving Voyager from annihilation when you were only a gleam in your programmer’s eye.”: This was an absolutely fabulous episode. The EMH mark 2, played by Andy Dick, and our EMH, played by Robert Picardo, makes for the most wonderful “Robert and Andy Show” as they try to take the ship back over. First our doctor needs to convince EMH-2 that he’s real, they shouldn’t deactivate and hide, and they are both more than just a program. There have also been medical advances in the last four years, so it’s fun to see the EMH unsure of which instrument to hand EMH-2. On the other hand, EMH-2 has only been active for a month so it has no idea what it’s capable of and takes times to come to the rescue when the EMH is being interrogated by the Romulans. Neither of them know how to fly the ship, which is hysterical when they accidentally separate the ship and send the Romulans in retreat.

There are some “meh” parts that still held some humor, but not near as much as the two EMH’s. Paris gets tagged for temporary doctor duty, Kim tries to build another EMH, and Seven shocks a Hirogen who is trying to disconnect them. The absolute best part, though, is the look on Janeway’s face when the Doctor returns and tells her he’s been successful. I am so excited to know what happens next. Will they get letters from home? Will there be a fight with the Hirogen? Will there be heartbreak or joy or a bit of both? I also know that Andy Dick is far from what you would call a decent human, but as an actor he had fantastic chemistry with Picardo and I would watch this episode again and again for the payoff at the end. 10 guava wafers for getting in touch with the Alpha Quadrant.

TA Out!