VOY: “Life Line”

Date: April 20, 2021

Season 6, Episode 24

Music Video of the Day:

Interstellar News: Sunday was a wonderful and joyous day. Monday and Tuesday were just as wonderful and joyous, but for different reasons. Afternoon walks are truly good for the soul. Tonight our group finally finished our Star Wars marathon and I didn’t hate it… but wished they could have told the story they wanted to if Carrie Fisher hadn’t died. Love and miss you, Space Mom.

TL;DR: Voyager is able to get short bursts of information every 32 days and will also be able to respond. Barclay heads to Jupiter Station where he finds that Dr. Zimmerman is dying. The EMH wants to help and so his program is sent over the network, but Zimmerman wants nothing to do with the “inferior” Mark-1. Barclay calls Troi, who does some excellent counseling, and the two of them eventually get Zimmerman and the EMH to try the medical procedure. The EMH returns to Voyager as the only surviving Mark-1 to still be used for its original purpose.

Favorite Quote:

Seven of Nine: Your program’s too large for the data-stream. I have to extract all non-essential subroutines.

EMH: They’re essential to me. They’re part of who I am.

Seven of Nine: Are you planning on performing opera during your visit?

EMH: No.

Seven removes 12 megaquads of “extras” in order to send the EMH, including hoverball, holophotography, and sexual activity.

“I didn’t program you for sarcasm.”: This episode takes place after “Pathfinder” and in some ways I love it. Barclay and Troi work as a team, although it’s mostly done behind the scenes. Zimmerman has surrounded himself with holograms and we get to see what happened to him after his life’s work, based on him, was a “failure”. The best part of this episode is that Zimmerman finds out, with time and the right crew, the EMH Mark-1 could be everything he dreamed of an more. As much as I love Robert Picardo and the EMH character, it was a little much to have the EMH and Zimmerman bicker at each other all episode. The dialogue is snappy and it’s great to see some of the TNG crew, but I also hate how Janeway gives in and the EMH doesn’t take “no” for an answer. Troi does some fantastic counseling, Barclay does some fun engineering tricks, and the EMH takes a bit of a vacation. I didn’t hate this episode but I also didn’t love it. I think it earns itself 7 stuffed porkchops.

TA Out!