Trek Thursdays: Trekking Towards Sixty #3 — “Real Life” And “Latent Image”

On September 8th, 1966, an intrepid crew of explorers boldly went where no one had ever gone before on television. At that moment, Star Trek was born. A series that launched a franchise that has kept a firm grip on audiences for decades.

As the sixtieth anniversary approaches, we here at Comicon.com are ready to celebrate one of the greatest science fiction franchises. While Star Trek has graced the silver screen, most of its life has been on our television screens. So, that’s where our focus shall remain.

Every week through September 8th, we’ll be spotlighting two Star Trek episodes, from any and every iteration, that we feel are some of the greatest. At this point there are over 950 episodes of Trek, so it goes without saying some favorites won’t make the cut for this list of 60.

Lost in the far-flung Delta Quadrant, the adventures of the U.S.S. Voyager are legendary, as depicted in the series Star Trek: Voyager. As up and down as the series tended to be at times, it was one of my favorites growing up. That probably was down to the fact that it and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine were the shows airing during my formative years.

One of the best characters on the series was the Emergency Medical Hologram known only as the Doctor, played impressively by Robert Picardo (no relation). A program that exceeded the boundaries of his programming grew and became a full member of the crew with hobbies, loves, and losses like any other living being. Sassy, grumpy, but full of such joy and heart, he was one of the souls of the show with episodes that were must-watch from start to finish.

Eight hundred years in the future, the character is still delivering these moments on the currently airing Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Since one of the recent episodes gave a spotlight on the Doctor and tied to those Voyager years, now seemed like a good time to do our own spotlight on the character and his standout episodes.

-RED ALERT: SPOILERS FOLLOW-

“Real Life”
Star Trek: Voyager – Season 3, Episode #22 (04/23/1997)

Comedy was a natural space where Picardo as the Doctor easily excelled. Whether the character was doing it as more deadpan straight man style or was in on the joke by being too enthusiastic. It was the drama though where Picardo unleashed something even grander, often leaving jaws on the floor and eyes misty as his character struggled with the complexities of life and his photonic nature.

This particular episode has a pretty common almost forgettable B story featuring the rest of the ship and crew. Everything to do with the main story centered on the Doctor though is golden, with the final moment still standing with me today.

Synopsis: Desiring to experience family life and the difficulty that many patients had spoken of, the Doctor creates his own perfect holographic family. It’s the physician though that learns some hard life lessons when the perfect family and reality meet in devastating ways.

Imagine just ripping a family out of any of the old school “gee golly” style sitcoms where most problems are solved by a good fatherly advice lecture. Now put that family into the realm of Star Trek. That’s what we get with this issue, as the Doctor’s analytic computer mind works to create that ideal family. As most human beings know, the ideal or perfect family isn’t what life tends to provide.

Even the best families have their issues, squabbles, and concerns.

Having B’Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) of all people be the slap of reality to the Doctor’s program fits. She would know about how hard family can be with her mixed heritage and abandonment by her father.

Seeing Picardo struggle with the randomization factor in this family leads to a lot of good comedy moments as well as strife. We see a family stretched thin and fraying at the ends, the patriarch who thinks that he knows best is wearing it even thinner. Some of the best episodes see a character like the Doctor rocked and having to alter their views and thoughts on things they assumed they knew well.

All of that strife leads to tragedy when the Doctor’s young daughter Belle (Lindsey Haun) has suffered a fatal brain trauma injury. Stopping the program, the Doctor tries to flee and call an end to his so-called experiment. With a nudge from Kes (Jennifer Lien), though, he sees it through, and this is where the waterworks begin.

Family can bring joy, security, peace, anger, frustration, whimsy, humor, worry, pain and so much more. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s through the pain and suffering that any type of family can be brought together. As Belle dies before them, the Doctor and the rest of his family come together in their grief.

I still can’t watch this scene without getting misty eyed as Picardo’s portrayal of a father losing his child is intense.

“Latent Image”
Star Trek: Voyager  – Season 5, Episode #11 (01/20/1999)

Remember what I said above about the dramatic episodes being some of the best for Picardo as the Doctor? Well, here is one of those episodes and those moments.

If you haven’t watched this episode, that needs to change right now. It’s a pretty contained episode where one doesn’t need to know much more than about than the basics of the characters and show concept. Focused fully on the Doctor, his personal growth, and his autonomy.

Synopsis: When doing annual wellness checks on the crew, the Doctor ends up down a path with evidence that his memory files may have been tampered. It sets into motion a chain of events around the recollection of a death of a crew member, guilt, and whether the program or the person is important.

What starts off as a seemingly simple mystery or beat becomes a full blown emotional roller coaster in this one. Realizing that he did surgery on Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) at some point without memory, the Doctor finds out he had to make the choice to save Kim or the previously never seen Ensign Ahni Jetal (Nancy Bell) after an alien attack.

There is a whole situation where it could be outside influence messing with the Doctor’s memories of these events. Only for it turning out to be the crew itself stripping these memories from the Doctor. Claiming it for the best because these sent him on a spiral in the past. We see this play out in a breathtaking and terrifying moment as Picardo’s turn as the Doctor turns menacingly out of control in the Mess Hall.

Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) arguing the ends justifying the means isn’t anything new. Just ask poor old Tuvix (Tom Wright) — oh, oops you can’t! (Sorry, too soon?)

Here though it takes on a very personal stake. The Doctor is someone that the crew as well as the viewers know and love. Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) is the voice of reason here, demanding that the captain and others stop treating the Doctor as a piece of malfunctioning hardware. If they truly believe in people being able to achieve their own semblance of humanity, like Janeway does for Seven, they need to put their money where their mouth is.

I love the ending where Janeway relents to allow the Doctor the space to have room to reconcile his struggle. Honoring him with the autonomy that he deserves, like any other member of the crew dealing with emotional trauma. We see Janeway feeling it personally as she takes some of the longest shifts watching over the despondent Doctor in the holodeck.

As her exhaustion shows through from caring for a friend, that friend sees her pain and begins to become himself again. Their showing of care for one another reaffirming that Janeway made the right decision at last to allow the Doctor room to be a full person, leaving the episode to end with the Doctor reading a passage from her book La Vita Nuova that still resonates with me to this day.

“In that book which is my memory, on the first page of the chapter that is the day when I first met you, appear the words: Here begins a new life.”

Come back next week as we dive into two more of Star Trek’s greatest episodes.