Tom Paris is bad boy. A bad boy in a frat boy rebellious kind of way, where he is angry just to be angry and his arguments are juvenile and pointless. He shows up on the bridge late for duty. Again. Chakotay rides his ass about it, but he deflects. Just then they pick up a Vidiian distress signal, and find a small ship with a single female occupant, apparently in very poor health. They beam her to sickbay, where The Doctor finds an almost-dead horrible disgusting figure of a rotting woman. She's unconscious, and her brain is failing. But since she has a technobabble electronic brain implant, The Doctor is able to transfer her consciousness into a holographic representation of her body reconstructed from her DNA. Bam! We have a walking and talking Vidiian named Danara, who happens to be a knockout. She is also a physician, so her and The Doctor have a lot in common. Naturally she doesn't understand at first what is going on, but is thrilled to no end with her new body. When it's all explained to her, she looks over at her real body in disgust. Which....ya it's gross.
The Doctor's bedside manner still has much to be desired when it comes to approaching organ donors. He insists that Torres allow him to drill into her brain and extract some tissue, which of course she finds to be a terrifying prospect, especially since she was once kidnapped by the Vidiians and subjected to exactly that kind of treatment. But eventually, after changing his approach, she agrees and they begin using the strong Klingon brain matter to treat the ailing Vidiian.
So The Doctor takes to entertaining Danara, since she can't go explore the ship due to her holographicness. He does take her to Sandrines, so she can socialize with some of the crew. It feels like a date, and even ends in the normal social awkwardness. No doubt about it, The Doctor is in love. He doesn't understand and thinks there's something wrong with his program, until a chat with Kes clears things up. It's normal to feel preoccupied and a little obsessed when you're bit by the love bug. The feeling appears to be mutual, but he can't be sure until he talks to Danara. So while they're working on her brain, he just blurts out that he is romantically attracted to her and demands to know if she feels the same way. Due to the strange approach, she rejects him. The doctor then gets to feel the other side of things, as the rejection has him seriously down in the dumps. This time it's Paris that helps him to understand what he's going through.
Chakotay kindly approaches Paris to ask him if everything's okay, since he's been falling behind in his duties. Paris goes all Mr. Hyde on him and yells in front of everyone in the mess hall that it's Chakotay he has a problem with, and that he's not the only one that feels that way. It's wildly inappropriate and out of character. Two aspects make this exchange particularly cringe-worthy. One is that Paris's complaints have no merit. If you're going to create tension between characters, make it over something substantive. Paris whines that Chakotay didn't take his advice and fly through a cloud or something, boo hoo hoo. It's not an important enough issue to warrant Paris's outlandish behavior. If the intent was to make us turn on Paris for being an ass, it didn't work. Instead it just felt like lazy writing. Now some actual tension between characters would be great, but I think maybe they hesitate to do that because then they have to solve those issues down the line, whereas if they make Paris's insubordination the only issue, it's easier to fix. The second aspect that prevents this scene from working is Chakotay is again placed in the pacifist role. This former rebel Maquis captain who rejected the peace-seeking ways of Star Fleet to wage his own personal war against the Cardassians just sits there and doesn't say a word while someone under his command mocks him in front of everyone. Right.
Someone who does take note of the situation is a former Maquis and current Seska loyalist who is spying for the Kazon. The Kazon he's in touch with commends him for what he's doing, and then instructs him to sabotage the warp engines. He refuses unless he gets the order directly from Seska, which is arranged. Her real plan is to take over Voyager herself, and this Maquis dweeb seems happy to help to please her.
Meanwhile The Doctor and Danara warm back up to each other once the pressure is off. She admits her feelings for The Doctor, and they make out in a Chevy on Mars in the holodeck. Oh and she also injects her real body with chemicals that will kill her. The Doctor can't understand why her body is rejecting the Klingon implants, but then Danara admits to what she's been doing. She hates her body, and she doesn't want it back. She knows that she can't stay in her perfect holographic form forever, but she'll take even a few days of being healthy and making out with The Doctor over a lifetime of pain and misery as a walking rotting corpse that no one will ever love. The Doctor promises her that he will continue to love her regardless of what she looks like, which seems plausible given that he is not motivated by hormones and the instinct to choose a healthy mate with which to pass on his genetic material. But on the other hand, let's face it, if they save her they're dropping her ass off at the next stop and we'll never hear from her again. Regardless, he doesn't want her to die, and convinces her to stop poisoning herself. Later on when she's back in her own gross body, the two dance in the holodeck and share a special moment. She doesn't like that he has no name, so she asks if she can name him "Shmullus," after her uncle. Her uncle? That's not hot. Also that's a terrible name. Thank goodness it gets dropped as soon as she leaves.
This episode explores some large ideas. There's the concept of being uncomfortable with one's own body, and this topic could be expanded from just those who are legitimately disfigured to those who just don't feel like one of the beautiful people. What if you woke up tomorrow in a new body? All of a sudden you're a perfect 10. How would that change the way you feel about yourself? How would it change the way that others feel about you? Would you want to go back? It's a wonderful topic to consider, and I commend the show for bringing it up. Another idea touched on is euthanasia. Given the prospect of a life of suffering, Danara instinctively chooses death. Yet she is not allowed to make this choice, just as it is frowned on in our own society. We do everything we can for patients who have terminal illnesses, and spend untold amounts of money to extend their lives for even a few days, meanwhile pumping their bodies with poison and radiation that makes them feel even worse. Is this ethical? In the case of Danara, we already know that her people may harvest body parts from living people to prolong her life. They may kill someone just so that she can limp along in misery for awhile longer. Is The Doctor being ethical by sending her back into that world?
Some interesting things do happen in this episode, and most importantly they do not get resolved all neat and tidy by the end. Paris is still in the brig, and Seska is still plotting her takeover when the credits roll. This trend towards serialization is notable. I actually found myself ready to press the play button to immediately cue up the next episode to see what happens. Good job on that, Voyager. Also the character development of The Doctor continues to be a wonderful thing to watch. He falls in love, gets his heart broken, and then learns from it and goes back to get the girl. It's a familiar story, but it's new because of the unique nature of The Doctor.
Ultimately, "Lifesigns" is an Adequate episode of Trek. While the character development of The Doctor and the ethical and personal issues that the situation with Danara's body bring up are all fantastic material, the comical fall from grace of Tom Paris detracts much from the overall experience. If this B story had more grit and weight to it, it might work. But the way it plays out is just so poor that it drags the episode into the land of the mediocre. Also we're just not given enough here about Seska's plan to make it compelling. The situation doesn't seem dire enough to warrant getting worried about just yet. All we have is a spy that passes on to the Kazon information about a spat between officers, and a not-yet-formed and probably half-baked plan for a takeover. I'm just not concerned.
Published June 9, 2017
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