The Doctor is stolen and sold on to a colony where the sick are treated in order of their importance to society.

Now, ignoring the fact that this is surely rather an old idea for a story, it’s also a very good one. Although there’s a worry that the Doctor is going to sing early on, he thankfully does nothing of the sort and we get to see what Robert Picardo does best: act. And he is superb. Taking the audience on an emotional and ethical journey, he conveys just the right level of horror at what is going on and the scripting is such that you can actually see both sides of the story. The final scene the Doctor shares with Seven is particularly neat as he finds his ethical programming has remained intact throughout his actions. Harking back, possibly a little too heavily, to the whole Vulcan ‘needs of the many’ philosophy, it provides a nice contrast with the Doctor’s past experiences when his programming has been at fault.

Although there’s surely a point where the Prime Directive should come into play, the Doctor’s actions to right an injustice he feels has been committed are a constant surprise. Not knowing what he’s going to do next to make things right keeps things interesting, and his manipulation of the doctors is superb. It seems he’s really come on as a free-thinking individual and these kinds of episode really allow the hologram to stretch beyond his programming.

A thoughtful look at the dangers of elitism and lack of emotion, this is the kind of story Voyager should have been doing a lot more often.

****

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