VOY: “Nothing Human”

Date: December 14, 2020

Season 5, Episode 8

Musical Accompaniment: I am now on songs that begin with the letter ‘O’

Interstellar News: All gifts are now wrapped or en route, all cards are written out and stamped, and the kitchen is partly reorganized. What a day.

TL;DR: Voyager is hit with a massive energy wave and have a new download, which is a screechy alien noise they can’t decipher. They head to the point of origin and find a ship with an injured alien, so they beam it to sick bay. Unfortunately it latches on to Torres and the Doctor needs to figure out how to separate them. Kim works on creating a holographic expert in exobiology, based on a Cardassian named Crell Moset that the EMH picked out. Torres is not happy about having a holographic Cardassian work on her and a Bajoran engineer named Tabor is outright disgusted because Moset killed Bajorans to further his medical research. Janeway decides that Moset can help, anything to save Torres, and after leaves it to the EMH to decide what to do. Moset and the Doctor help separate Torres from the alien and they are able to beam the alien to a nearby ship when they came to his aid. The Doctor ultimately decides to delete Moset’s program and information from the database.

Favorite Quote:

EMH: I didn’t come here to debate the issue with you, Crell. I came here to inform you of my decision. It is my judgment that the Medical Consultant Program and all the algorithms contained therein shall be deleted from the database. In light of recent evidence I cannot in good conscience utilize research that was derived from such inhuman practices.

Moset: In good conscience? What about the well-being of your crew? You’re confronted by new forms of life every day, many of them dangerous. You need me. Delete my program and you violate the first oath you took as a physician. Do no harm.

EMH: Do no harm. You have no right to say those words. Computer.

Moset: You can erase my program, Doctor, but you can never change the fact that you’ve already used some of my research. Where was your conscience when B’Elanna was dying on that table? Ethics? Morality? Conscience? Funny how they all go out the airlock when we need something. Are you and I really so different?

EMH: Computer, delete Medical Consultant Program and all related files.

Moset and the Doctor arguing before the Doctor pulls the plug.

“I don’t care if he’s the nastiest man who ever lived, as long as he can help us save B’Elanna.”: In “The Big Goodbye” Picard has to learn a super complicated alien language in order to interact with some insect-like aliens. In “Sanctuary“, the universal translators take some time, but eventually figure out bits and pieces. In this episode, however, all we get is this terrible screeching noise that freaked out my dog and cats every time it played. I loved so much that the Doctor doesn’t give one iota of a fuck about if this dude was a Cardassian or a Nazi or what, until he does. It’s a totally normal reaction to have as a hologram, at first, until he realizes the depth of the depravity that Moset engaged in. What I disliked is that he used Moset’s help for Torres and then said “OK now I’m deleting you, so you can’t help anyone else”. I would have totally been okay with the Doctor saying “look, we’re lost in the DQ and I’ll take all of the help I can get along the way, but once we’re back in Federation territory I’m deleting you”. I would have also been okay with him saying “nope, I’ve got my holographic morals and I’ll help Torres as if you never existed”. I would also, also be okay with him CHOOSING ANOTHER EXOBIOLOGIST for crying out loud. There were so many other choices here and the one they went with was just as bad as keeping him on even though he was just a hologram. 4 warm, fuzzy socks for this episode.

TA Out!