166 – Author, Author

Grade: B+

Summary

The Doctor has created a holo-novel of his own life on Voyager. Soon, the crew finds out about his story and many of them take a look at what he’s written. To their horror, he has made an exaggerated story based on these characters’ biggest flaws. Tom Paris takes matters into his own hands to write his own version of the story to help teach the Doctor a lesson.

Meanwhile, the crew all have a chance to communicate with Starfleet Command and with their families back home on Earth. The Doctor takes the opportunity to contact a publisher to see about getting his story created as a holo-novel.

Commentary

OK, so I’m going to say this here first. The Doctor just bothers me. If he really were an actual person, we’d say he is insufferable. Instead, we’re supposed to be amused by him. Robert Picardo is probably the best actor in this series, and one way we can tell that is because his character is so annoying most of the time, and yet many people like his character the most. Well, except for me. I really don’t like him very much.

That being said, this really is the strongest Voyager episode I’ve seen in a long time. It has some pretty good humor, drama, and character-defining scenes. It often gets compared to Next Generation’s Measure of a Man, but in some ways, I think Author, Author is actually better.

Both episodes end with a courtroom battle of sorts, and in this one, the argument really is about whether the Doctor has a right to protect the artwork he creates. But the direction Tuvok chooses to go is in proving that the Doctor is alive. That seems to be a much more difficult battle to win, if you’d ask me. By most definitions, the Doctor really isn’t alive, but we’ve all come to expect him to be.

Anyway, it’s good to see Voyager do something thought-provoking, rather than its usual mindlessness.

Of Note

In this episode, even Harry Kim’s parents join in on the joke: Why hasn’t he been promoted yet? There must be something wrong with the Voyager writers. Give him a promotion already! Sheesh.