153 – Body and Soul

Grade: B-

Summary

The Doctor, Seven and Kim are on the Delta Flyer, probably picking up supplies or something. I wasn’t quite sure. Anyway, they get attacked by some aliens who don’t like Photonic Life Forms. They threaten to destroy the Doctor and then they board the ship. To save his life, Seven takes some drastic measures.

Commentary

This one has some amusing elements, and it’s the best episode we’ve seen in a month, but it’s really not that great. We’ve often seen characters that are stuck within other characters (like when a jealous former Kirk love interest stole his body to be the Captain – or when Kirk allowed those disembodied aliens to take control of his body who had been inside those spheres, etc.). But this episode really didn’t do anything all that important or even interesting.

We have aliens who just seem stupid who are against Photonic beings for some unknown reason. It really isn’t clear why Photonic Life Forms are evil or why they would want to destroy the Doctor. We have the Doctor go inside Seven’s body so that they can hide him from the aliens, but by the time it ends, the only reason they don’t destroy the Doctor is because he proves he can heal people. Then everyone goes on their merry way. The end.

Dumb.

Jeri Ryan is the only person who saves this episode from being a total ruin. She acts more like the Doctor than even Robert Picardo usually does. Her impression of him inside her body could not have been any better. She gets the mannerisms, the voice inflection, the way he usually contorts his face, etc. If not for her performance, this would be the worst episode since Haunting of Deck Twelve. In contrast, Garrett Wang emails in his performance, and Robert Picardo doesn’t do much better. Watch this episode for Jeri Ryan’s performance, but skip all the scenes she isn’t in. So far, season 7 has been lifeless.