The Doctor decides to write his own holo-novel, but his concept of fiction is a little too close to reality for the crew's liking.

The trailers for this story suggested it was a comedy episode, but it's not. Nor is it a particularly dramatic episode, as the comedy keeps creeping in. Starting off as another fun diversion in the life of the Doctor, we get to see the story of the starship Vortex and its crew of hologram-intolerant life forms. Seeing Paris with a comedy moustache and Chakotay with all manner of odd accoutrements is worth a giggle or two, and the story itself makes an important point: that the Doctor is still not recognized as the individual he is.

The problem is that this harks back a little too much to TNG's The Measure of a Man, especially when the story turns into a court case about holo-rights conducted back in the Alpha Quadrant. Now, firstly we've seen this all before, and done better, and secondly: if you had 11 minutes per day to communicate with a lost starship, wouldn't you consider it pertinent to discuss things other than whether or not your local hologram is a person or not?

The main problem, though is the plotting. Leaping from the bizarre to the deadly serious and attempting to make a serious point while plunging suddenly into the ridiculous (such as Paris' hilarious reworking of the Doctor's characters) simply doesn't work, with the comedy undercutting the dramatic potential of what's going on. While Robert Picardo gives another fine performance as the Doctor, and most of the cast are enjoying the chance to play their roles with a slight twist, it's too cock-eyed a premise to succeed. There's certainly some potential here, but there's no need to involve Starfleet, there are too many loose ends and pointless extra twists in the tale and it just doesn't hold together as a piece of coherent television.

***

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