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The Doctor might be a hologram, but his heart is still showing some “Lifesigns”. Star Trek: Voyager brings back the Vidiians in an episode designed to counter the previous episode’s cynical take on life and death. When a Vidiian is saved from her decaying prison of a body, the Doctor must mull over his own personal feelings about the right thing to do.
The Wikipedia plot summary for “Lifesigns”:
Paris arrives late to the bridge as a distress call is picked up. Voyager beams aboard the dying body of a Vidiian woman. The Doctor works to save her in Sickbay. Finding that she has a neural interface which can store her consciousness, he creates a holographic body of her to assist him; a hologram which looks and acts the way she would if she were healthy. Her name is Danara Pel and she is a physician, ready and able to help heal the disease-ravaged body on the bed. Voyager detects and sets course for a Vidiian colony where they can drop off Pel. The Doctor soon realizes he is falling in love with Dr. Pel, but has trouble sorting out his feelings toward the vibrant hologram and the real, dying patient. Kes and Paris assist The Doctor with these feelings and, with the help of one of Paris’ romantic holo-programs (a ’57 Chevy parked on a hill overlooking a Mars colony), Dr. Pel and The Doctor share their first kiss.
As part of The Doctors plans to treat her, he requests a small sample of B’Elanna Torres‘ brain tissue to use as a graft; Klingon DNA has been shown to be resistant to the Phage. Torres is initially outraged at the suggestion, still traumatized by her treatment by the Vidiians, but she soon relents upon meeting Dr. Pel’s hologram in Sickbay. The Doctor administers the graft but later discovers the body is rejecting it due to an improperly administered chemical. The Doctor first accuses Kes of making a mistake before starting to alert Lieutenant Tuvok of an attempted murder, but Pel stops him. She admits she injected the chemical in an attempt to kill her own diseased body, even knowing it will kill her holographic self as well, as she cannot bear to return to the way she used to be. The Doctor and Pel argue over whether or not to save her life, and the Doctor finally convinces her that he does not care what she looks like, and that they would have more time together than if she were to die.
Following the procedure, Pel meets the Doctor at Sandrine’s on the Holodeck, where he had taken her previously. Back in her grafted and scarred physical body, she approaches him apprehensively. The Doctor merely smiles and takes her in his arms, and the two dance.
In this episode of the podcast, Wes and Clay discuss “Lifesigns” and the intragalactic appeal of the ’57 Chevy. Plus! The guys chat about storage versus streaming, the powerful shoves of Tom Paris, and that guy on the ship who is still talking to the Kazon about… something.