Latent Image

Carol -- 20 Jan 1999, 8:40 PM

I imagine almost nothing less from Joe Menosky than a well written episode and, for me, he delivered again. Ken Biller may have better story ideas, but Menosky's stories always have some depth to them that I like (hey, I'm one of the few who readily admit to liking The Thaw :-). And he's the only writer on staff who I think has any clue how to write Janeway well (though I may put Michael Taylor in that company after Counterpoint, but I digress).

This seems to be the year for ethical debates aboard Voyager, between giving life to a 29th Century Borg in Drone, Whether or not to treat B'Elanna's condition in Nothing Human and now the Doctor's conflict in Latent Image. Like Nothing Human I thought this was quite a standout, I liked it even more than Nothing Human too. I'm not getting to much into the philosophical debate in this one right now, as I think the episode handled all the various points so well that none were left hanging and I know others will have better things to say on it. :-)

Cheers

Even though, through the spoilers, I knew that it was Janeway who had been deleting the Doc's memories, the set up to who the culprit was was well done and created a nice level of suspense.

Bob Picardo was dead on comparing the situation hear to the book (and movie) Sophie's Choice. The parallel was quite obvious (choose who is to live and who is to die). The Kobyashi Maru No-Win situation that Trek does so well putting its characters into. The Doc's conflict being between his original programming and the programming that's help him become more of a individual person over the years. From the preview, I was afraid I was going to get another Darkling performance from Picardo, but he more than delivered here.

All sides of the debate were very well presented too. At first, I thought Janeway comparing the Doc to a malfunctioning replicator was a little shallow on her part, but when they restored the Doc's memory I could understand how she could rationalize the decision to delete the memories that were conflicting him in order to make him better. And even she admitted that she was being biased later. It was a immediate and quick solution to his problem, even if it wasn't a fair one to the person the Doctor has become over the past five years.

And before anyone brings up her refusal to delete the Doctor's memories about the event with the AOTW during Retrospect, that situation was different than this one, as those memories didn't cause a destructive conflict within him as the one here did.

Did anyone but me see the (possible) set-up to the upcoming Dark Frontier during Janeway and Seven's little debate in Janeway's quarters with Seven's line about "Will you one day choose to abandon me as well?" Uh, yeah, but only for a sweeps two -parter. Pity they wont leave her though (Joke, ok? Joke. :-)

Hey, even expendable crew members get birthday parties. That's nice to know. :-)

The last act with Janeway and the Doc in the holodeck was the best part of the show for me, Janeway keeping a vigil with him. And I know Mosaic isn't exactly canon, but I thought Janeway might mention to the Doc that she had been in a rather similar situation as him and could understand what he was going through with it. But who knows if Braga is going to follow all the back stuff in Mosaic and Pathways. I guess he picks and chooses.

Best Line: "Et Tu, Tuvok?"

Jeers

Ensign Jetal's death supposedly happened 18 months ago, before Seven came aboard, according to the time the Doctor said his memories had first been altered. If so, then a lot of little things were wrong during the flashbacks to that time. Most notably, Janeway had the wrong hairstyle (it should have been in the power ponytail) and Paris was helping the Doc in sickbay. I guess Braga and Co. didn't want to call up Jen Lien and try and convince her to do a guest spot that would have been quite welcome, but only for about twenty seconds. :-) (I read from a spoiler source though that Kes was in the original script before they cut it out. You can cry now Eric :-). Oh well, at least they got Paris rank right for the time period. :-)

So the Doc's been a shutter bug for over a year and a half? Pity we've only seen his camera obsession pop up during the beginning of this season. :-)

I thought Janeway hadn't made her holoimage for the Doc? Yet, he's got one as its what tells him who deleted his program.

Man, Robert Beltran sure can't master proper facial expression for the right situation. I don't think a smile (even a tiny one) was the right expression to use when the Doc begins to accuse everyone of conspiracy. :-)

Anyway, season five is on a role story wise -- even though I think all the weighty issues this year need a rest for a bit. Next weeks comedic episode should be a nice change of pace. (No matter how many times I see that Bride of Chaotica promo, I still wind up ROTFL. But who's idea was it to give Kate that black wig to wear? Oh, my, God.... :-).

D'Alaire -- 20 Jan 1999, 9:19 PM

Methinks I need to watch this one again...and very soon. I liked--loved, really--the performances. Wonderful stuff especially on RP & KM's parts, and a nice (if not time-delayed) setup. And yes, that last scene was so quiet and subtle, but severely interesting somehow.

But I'd have liked to see more of Doc's degeneration somehow--and more proof of the repeat of it.

I would have liked to have seen more of how his "ethical" and "detached" subroutines were conflicting. They brought it up, but grazed over it. And, "We gave the Doctor a soul" vs. "I hardly call that a soul" (Season one comes a-callin' again--heh, Kes' topic to teach Janeway, too--ironic) was intermixed with the right to control one's individuality.

If they're going to do angst or philosophy, at least focus a little on one. That's not to say I wasn't interested in those topics. I just would've liked to have seen it fleshed out more. It bounced around and made me wonder exactly what they were getting at.

I liked that they finally let the Doctor sort it all out for himself in the end, thus allowing that soul, but it felt sort of disjointed too.

Or maybe I just need one more viewing, though I still feel like the last ten minutes got clipped away from the show.

Now on hairstyles-- Janeway, check. Got that one. But wouldn't it have been nice if they'd bothered to brush Tom's bangs to the side to make him look at least a little more late season three? Agh! I wanted to croak for that simple thing as getting the insignia right but not brushing the boy's hair. Even B'Elanna's hair seemed fluffed fuller, but Tom's silly bangs were ignored.

Now on KES! Agh! Not a mention, not a clue. I can understand her not being in sickbay at the time, but....aaarrruuugh! In combination with Tom's hair, little wonder I was distracted.

Terry -- 20 Jan 1999, 9:14 PM

Is that all there is? This episode had some interesting ideas but it never seemed to deliver on its promise. And frankly, I was shocked when the closing credits started to roll. "It's over? Nothing happened!"

Okay, complex problems don't get resolved in a couple of days. But there was nothing that indicated that the Doc wouldn't descend into insanity again. Or was the point that he never got that bad and should have been let to work it out in his mind eighteen months ago?

I dunno. This was a puzzling episode with many decent but zero really strong moments. With a unfinished plot and much more shallow examination of the philosophical and moral issues than could have been written. For instance, Janeway's discussion with Seven in the cargo bay. "Would you change things if you could?" "No." That's it? This script seemed unfinished to me.

Pool Count: Jules, Janeway took a sip of coffee!! And almost another! And then a second sip!!

Gripe:

WHERE THE HELL IS KES? 18 months ago, Tom Paris is shown as assisting the Doc during a medical emergency. But Kes was his assistant. We never saw Paris anywhere near Sickbay during time period except when hurt himself. To make matters worse, Voyager was under attack at the time. Tom should have been driving. Stupid. At least make a token attempt to explain Kes' absence. How about other less serious injuries elsewhere onboard? Or ship damage that prevented Kes from making her way to Sickbay in time?

Complaint:Seven gave many good points in her discussion with Janeway in the Captain's quarters, but she made one serious error. She flatly claimed that Janeway's decision was wrong without ever trying to learn the facts of the case. She should have at least searched the restricted files before coming to a decision. Who knew but the Doc agreed at the time to lobotomize himself? Or that Seven would have agreed with Kate's reasoning?

Hmm. Maybe I need to watch this ep again. I just don't get it.

Two thumbs up on the Bride of Chaotica trailer! Who would have thunk it? The UPN promo guys actually put together a slick and fun episode preview! That was a hoot! It really captured the campy feel of the Captain Proton and presented it like a "next week's preview" of an old-time serial.

D'Alaire -- 20 Jan 1999, 9:28 PM

Java, indeed! Somehow, I thought they'd taken direct cues from us about Janeway's javaless-ness. Something was just missing from Voyagerworld with coffee so near, yet so far away, this season.

And Mac's got it right--four whole, real sips, in two scenes, no doubt!

I'm reeling in shock. ; )

Carol -- 20 Jan 1999, 10:07 PM

I crack-up every time I see that preview. The first time I saw it Monday night I just *could not stop laughing.* And when they show a preview over the satellite feed, they show it more than once -- one for various reasons, like one that says "Next Wednesday" and then one that says "Tomorrow" and etc. The first time I saw it, I just went into stunned shock. Then, as it started playing again, I started laughing and couldn't stop. :-)

I give the UPN promo guys a hand on this one. Doing the preview in that style was inspired.

Whether the episode is funny or just silly though, we'll have to see next week. :-)

Mr. Mac. -- 20 Jan 1999, 9:18 PM

A 4-sip episode. Good episode that started out a bit choppy but ended with the kind of Voyager I like to see. This was a 4-sip Janeway episode. It was almost like seeing a Season 1 Janeway when she regarded the doctor with less humanity than we have seen of late.

Now Super Seven is Janeway's confident?

Hey ladies. What's with Tom's new hair? Is he a Beltran wannabe?

I heard that MikeD is already setting up 3 video machines to triple tape next week's episode with a totally vamp Janeway. He likes old movies. Now he can have Janeway in black and white.

Mike -- 20 Jan 1999, 10:37 PM

Hmmm...maybe I should cut back to using 3 VCRs next week ;^)

You know me well, Mac. Katie as the villainous in a grade-B B/W sci-fi, be still my beating heart.

Jules -- 21 Jan 1999, 3:36 PM

Why break the habit of a lifetime, Mike?

Go ahead. Knock yourself out. Use all 47 VCRs, just to be on the safe side. :-)

Eric -- 20 Jan 1999, 10:06 PM

Where was Kes's Image?
Grumble!

Ok, this happened back in the first half of Season Three right? Where the bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep was Kes?? Huh?? Why was Tom the nurse?? I didn't need to SEE her PTB, just a mention would have been nice!!

Other then that it was a nice show, but it was definitely filler.

The Nice :

Good performance by Picardo.

GREAT performance by Ryan. It is nice to see that Seven still doesn't buckle under to Janeway even though she has chosen to be human. I LOVE it when she rubs Janeway's face in it.

Foundation Imaging's work on the AOTW guns kicked major a..

**************Breaking News************************

Did you catch it?

Seven of Nine has just become Kes!!! Remember season one? Kes's big issue back then was making everyone realize HoloDoc was just as real as everyone else. (OK, thick-headed Janeway compares him to a toaster oven but the Ocampa Pixie tried her best, at least the rest of the crew got the message!) Also, Kes picked the HoloDoc for her first friend on Voyager. Sorry D'Alaire, Tom doesn't count, he was just horney :-)

Anyway, Seven of Nine in this episode was just another way of saying Kes!

*******We now join our Review already in progress*******************

And did you see the size of those implants this week??

The Bad :

Janeway is wrong....again. She is the MOST dangerous Captain to serve under isn't she? Whacking Tuvix, shooting Tom, letting B'Elanna get her brains sucked, blaming Seven for getting raped and now reprogramming HoloDoc. Sigh....at least she admitted she was wrong this time.

Well, it was good filler, but that's all it was.

Did you stay for the Bride of Chacotia teaser? WOW!! The UPN guys finally did a good teaser! Hell, it was GREAT! I was LOLing on the floor! Seven does EVERYTHING big doesn't she? I want her TV :-D

Mike -- 20 Jan 1999, 10:17 PM

'Latent Image' developed nicely... Another fine Voyager episode to add to the growing list this season. For me it was an all around wonderful yet poignant episode, it reminded me a little of the movie 'Sophie's Choice'. How does one come to terms with their self after having had to make the terrible choice of who should live and who should die between two people they care for (much more so in Sophie's case). If the choice is not made quickly both will die. As a result of his decision the Doc had the holographic equivalent of a nervous breakdown.

In all of the years I've watched Trek, since I was a boy in the sixties, a few episodes have moved me to the extent that they literally sent a chill through me. The first time I remember this chill was watching 'What are Little Girls Made of" when Kirk says near the end of the episode "Dr. Korby was never here". The next time I remember getting the chill was watching 'The Menagerie' when the mutilated hero Captain Pike returns to Talos IV; near the end Kirk sees Captain Pike's illusion that he is whole and fit again. The Talosians then tell Kirk something like "Captain Pike has his reality and you have yours...." Kirk smiles and I get the chill again from having seen another imaginative and thought-provoking episode. The next time I remember the chill was watching the TNG episode 'The Inner Light' near the end when Captain Picard opens the case found in the probe and finds the Ressikan flute he had learned to play in another lifetime. The chill has hit me a few other times since, once in the Voyager episode 'Life Signs' when the Doc dances with his phage-ravaged love Danara Pel. He cared nothing about her physical appearance and loved her for what she was inside, the chill hit me big time in that one. Tonight I felt that old chill once again watching 'Latent Image', it happened at the end when Captain Janeway refused to leave the Doc even after having stayed up with him for sixteen hours straight trying to help him resolve his programming conflict. We knew the Doc would be OK when he scolded Janeway for having fallen asleep while he was talking and then became concerned for her health. Doc reading the poetry book and thoughtfully considering the words was a nice touch.

Bravo, Voyager. Bravo, Robert Picardo.

Jason -- 20 Jan 1999, 10:19 PM

When bad composers happen to good episodes. Not that the last twenty times I've said this had any effect, but just for consistency's sake, I'll say it again, and this time slowly: Paul. Baillegeron. has. to. go.

Again, this was an episode that had some nicely written scenes that I had to struggle to watch thanks to his intrusive, mood inappropriate music. Any other Trek in house composer would have been a better choice for this episode, but especially McCarthy or Chattaway whose music is more effective at playing with emotions.

Alas, otherwise, the episode was pretty good, although the flashback scenes got me confused for plenty of reasons. I know they said it was before Seven came on board, but when we saw specific flashbacks with Janeway in her current hairdo and the absence of Kes I got confused. I thought maybe they were talking about mid or early last year when Seven was not yet in the fold but still aboard the ship.

Janeway's hair, Tom's hair, the absence of Kes were obvious flaws that should not have been overlooked. How do you explain Janeway's hair? Maybe before she adopted it permanently this season she just used it for special occasions? Who knows? Those scenes didn't make much sense. I also thought it was cute that everyone went out of their way for the most part to avoid mentioning Ensign Jetal by first name. I was surprised when she finally did get one. I mean, c'mon, they put HAPPY BIRTHDAY ENSIGN JETAL on her birthday cake? Who made it? Tuvok? How impersonal.

Speaking of impersonality, there was a nice scene which implied the opposite. I thought the small talk scene in which the crew was talking about wrestling, or something like that was nice. It gives us an idea of what the crew actually does while whiling away the time on the bridge.

Oh yeah. Hmmm. I haven't talked about the Doctor plot yet. Maybe because like "Darkling" I think that Picardo was more a hindrance than a help to the Doctor in this episode. I agree with Terry that it was not fully developed, but I think that this episode is purposely leaving that open. At least, I hope. It will ring false to see the Doctor in Sickbay next week if we do, (and I'm sure that we will), but hopefully Voyager's writers will surprise us by dealing with this regularly.

I think this episode was great for having personal interactions between the crew that we don't usually see. Janeway and the Doctor is a relationship that hasn't been explored, and whether the Doctor is a machine or a real 'person' is something I've been considering lately- without drawing a conclusion.

I think I'll have to watch it again before forming a concrete opinion on this episode, however.

Terry -- 21 Jan 1999, 12:39 AM

Anyone think that Doc's comment about unapproved surgery strange?

He asked Janeway how she would feel if he operated on her without her knowledge or her permission. Drawing the comparison between that hypothetical case and his own. But he recently did exactly what he was condemning here.

In Nothing Human, he operated on B'Elanna not only without her consent and her knowledge but against her stated opposition. Why? Because Janeway ruled that it was in the best interest of the ship and by her authority as captain. Exactly as she ruled in the Doc's situation.

D'Alaire -- 21 Jan 1999, 12:57 AM

Agh! I was thinking about that, too!

Oh, sooo, true. I was expecting it to come up in a couple different scenes -- maybe it should have.

I'm willing to bet on some earlier draft of the script it was there, too. It was just too close, and too recent, to ignore. Discussing it, though, might have solidified Janeway's previous decision and made the Doctor comply more easily (I stress "might," though). It definitely would have copied NH too closely. The rehashed "individuality" topic, then, would have been pretty much been squished if they'd brought up B'Elanna's experience.

Or would it? Waaah! I still need to rewatch this one. It's late. I'm confused. Ah well.

(Even so, I think it would have been interesting to hear B'Elanna's POV on the subject, considering her recent experiences and her beliefs on the nature of Doc's "soul")

Terry -- 21 Jan 1999, 1:07 AM

What I missed was a scene between Doc and Harry.

I liked the point that Doc's problem was based upon his choice to save Harry over Jetal. That he saved Harry because he was a friend. But that point was never developed any further. Like what place personal feelings should have in a physician's decisions.

I would have liked to see a scene near the end in which Harry talks about his own guilt in being chosen over Jetral. Perhaps the two could have explored the issue and commiserated. And come to some understanding of the complexity of real-world moral decisions.

I felt the ending as shot was dramatically messy. The Doc goes from ranting about free-will and a deterministic universe to what? What does reading a poem signify? A beginning. But of what? We'll never learn because next week he will be back to his usual self. He is even in the Captain Proton program playing.

BTW, I don't like the idea of Janeway adding ship's counselor to her already overcrowded resume. She won't even let Tuvok relieve her. And what was she doing to help Doc. Reading a book and falling asleep. And then left him alone anyway. If she gets tired, can't she just turn him off until she rests. He can't get any worse while off.

TKS -- 21 Jan 1999, 6:19 AM

I cried and cried...he saved Harry, why?!?! I can't stand it. All joking aside, I knew that he would save Harry, what else could he do since Garret Wang is a regular. Ensign "redshirt" had to go (although in her case it was gold.)

My one and only rant, where was Kes, after all 7 did say that she wasn't with the crew 18 months ago, during the flashbacks Kes should have been there. I realize that I am not being realistic.

In "Retrospect" the Doctor wanted to delete the algorithms, that allowed growth, but the Captain wouldn't let him. Saying in effect that he is too valuable to the crew the way he is, which is essentially her reasoning for deleting his memories of the event. He became overwhelmed with quilt to the point of not functioning correctly. So rather than let him suffer they deleted the memories, how convenient.

I did enjoy the dialogue between Janeway and 7, now this argument worked for me. I found myself agreeing with 7. I found it ironic that after this much time with the doctor, that Janeway considers him no more than a program that she can do with as she pleases. The other irony is that the Doctor seems far more human than the "human Borg". It is part of the doctor's duty to ease her into humanity.

I like the fact that Captain Janeway asked 7 the question, "would you go back to the Borg?", and 7's reply was "No." I know that I am paraphrasing the question and answer, so forgive me.

I liked the scene with the book at the end, reading a book from the fourteenth century. So it seems I have some homework.

I only viewed the episode once, and I was tired. I shall watch it again later on, and give you further comments.

The only thing I can say for certain is that I felt the Captain didn't have the right to delete his memories, because it could change him irrevocably, what kind of program (person) will he become. A lot of ethical questions.

Eric -- 21 Jan 1999, 11:28 AM

Voyager continuity has always sucked (RI)..

(RI = Rant inside)

...and it's harder to understand it when a great show like Buffy comes along. Ok, two shows, two characters who die :

On Buffy the Vampire Slayer a character called Jenny Calender dies in a very shocking murder. She was one of the teachers. The students miss her, her boyfriend misses her, and in a recent episode (because it IS a horror series after all!) has nightmares about her. See? Much like real life, she may be gone but NOT forgotten.

Meanwhile on Voyager, Kes evolves away (she's not even dead!) and from the next week on. NOTHING. It's as if she was never alive!! I'm not asking for a guest spot (it would be nice though) but just a mention!!

Neelix could maybe miss his girlfriend!

How about Tom remembering his almost love? Or maybe comforting Neelix??

In LI Holodoc doesn't remember his nurse and best friend??? ESPECIALLY in a episode that takes place when she was his nurse, NOT Tom?

This is a dreadful mistake in a otherwise high quality season. Other shows remember their past why can't Voyager?

Ginny -- 21 Jan 1999, 11:47 AM

Perhaps Jennifer Lien was unwilling or unable to be on the show.

And although it is a continuity gaff, I still think that there may have been some intent behind it. Tom standing there, growing more desperate, urging the Holodoc to take some action--Menosky may have intended to imply that Tom's affection for Harry influenced the Holodoc, however subtly, to chose to save Harry, instead of Jetal.

Eric -- 21 Jan 1999, 11:54 AM

Ginny, like I said, I only needed a line from someone...like a "Kes is busy in hydroponics with a sick plant" or something like that.

What I WANTED involved her leather Warlord suit, but that's for another post! :-)

Ruth -- 21 Jan 1999, 12:45 PM

When you want to know something, go to an expert. I'm trying to remember, Eric. Wasn't there one mention of Kes last season? I'm thinking it was near the end of the season, because someone commented that TPTB must have been listening to fan complaints.

Eric -- 21 Jan 1999, 3:14 PM

Only one Ruth... I'm at work so I don't remember the name of the episode. It was the one where Neelix was gathering supplies and was attracted to some ABOTW, he was nervous and asked someone (Tom or Harry I think) for advice since Kes was the only woman he was ever with.

It was the B-plot of the B'Elanna gets her brains sucked out episode...I think. I was all the impressed with the episode in any case.

But I'm pretty sure that's the only reference we've had.

Jules -- 21 Jan 1999, 3:44 PM

The conversation went as follows, just after Neelix depressed Tom by referring to him as a former ladies' man...

NEELIX: I just... I haven't been with anyone since Kes and I'm feeling a little rusty. I could use some advice.
TOM: The best advice I can give you is to just be yourself.
NEELIX: Right. Be myself.
TOM: Actually, that's the second best piece of advice.
NEELIX: What's the first?
TOM: Go a little easier on the musk.

Those two really don't go for each other's after shave...

Roxanne -- 22 Jan 1999, 1:15 PM

Mortal Coil...(not the name of the above mentioned episode.

Neelix mentions that he has a flower from Kes's garden when he goes on his vision quest.

Ginny -- 21 Jan 1999, 10:13 AM

A picture is worth a thousand words. Which is really handy in an hour-long drama.

I watched this episode, and I thought, "RDM has got to be the most adorable man on prime time television." Then I rewatched the episode, and I thought, "This episode is better than it first seems." Part of it was noticing and, this time, understanding the knowing and/or uneasy looks on the various characters faces when they were talking to the Holodoc. Harry, particularly, looked acutely uncomfortable when he was lying to the Holodoc about his surgery. I thought performances all-around were good. Beltran's limited number of lines probably contributed a great deal to that impression.

GRIPES

--I thought B'Elanna's line "We gave him a personality subroutine." was a telling and insightful line from her (and consistent with her previous dispassionate dealings with the Holodoc). However, I thought that observation was, overall, given much too short a shrift in the story. In Seven's debate with Kathryn, Kathryn takes an emotionally distant, pragmatic approach to the problem, and then, suddenly, without warning or real basis in the script, does a 180 and goes all quivering lips and expansive philosophy. Seven was right to an extent--the Holodoc is more than a useful machine (like the replicator). But B'Elanna is also right. He is a machine--with a personality subroutine and an adaptive program. On what basis do we go conclude that he is anything more than that? This actually dovetails with a recurring gripe of mine concerning both Voyager and DS9--that holodeck characters are, almost without exception, being written as entirely too self-aware and self-determinative for mere projections of light.

Bottom line--I kept thinking all through this show about MEASURE OF A MAN and how much more thought-provoking and moving that TNG episode was in dealing with similar issues.

GRATIFYING BITS

--Scarlett Pomers is the most delightful television child actor in a generation. She is so natural and unaffected as Naomi that I smile every time I see her. Someone get her acting coach to have a talk with Beltran. And fast.

--I, for one, was glad that the Holodoc chose to save Harry, because *I* like Harry and think he is consistently being written better this season. Nevertheless, in the short time she was on screen, the actress who played Ensign Jetal was charming and likable. It was a shame we never had a chance to know her better.

--I mentioned up above that I thought B'Elanna's comment to Kathryn about the Holodoc was consistent with her previous attitudes toward him. I want to note the same thing about Tom's interaction. Perhaps because of his close association with the Holodoc in sick bay and despite his tendency to throw off one-liners, Tom has always dealt very gently with the Holodoc in times of crisis. Remember that wonderful little speech that Tom gave in REAL LIFE and the utter genuineness of the softly spoken "I'm so sorry." when he learned of Belle's injury? I thought of that during the scene in sick bay with Tuvok and Seven. Tom speaks to the Holodoc in a gentle, conciliatory tone when he asks him about the current experiment, as though he has a real sympathy for the Holodoc's situation. And he has that same genuine tone to his voice when he tells the Holodoc that he did think that the changes in his program were necessary.

At the time, I suspected that one of the reasons that the Holodoc chose to save Harry was because Tom was standing right there, and the doctor would have been influenced by the fact, whether consciously or unconsciously, that Tom would desperately want Harry to live.

And did anyone notice that RDM placed a hand on Garrett's hip when they rolled him over on his side for the surgical procedure--almost an unconscious comforting gesture. Nice touch.

--RDM got rid of the hairpiece. Good for him.

--Five must have been the number of the hour:
5 recovered pictures
5 second intervals on the photo-imager
5th row seat at the sumo match
25 (5 squared) microliters of acetocoline (sp?)

--47's I noticed
None heard.
None seen, although I had a hard time reading the console screens.
Ones that only I would notice:
--One set of four blue lights and seven sets of seven blue lights on the bulkhead in Astrometrics
--58-658332 on the panel in the briefing room 58-(6+5)=47

Pegn -- 21 Jan 1999, 11:09 AM

A Hairpiece?.... I have noticed an all around shorter haircut for RDM, but didn't realize he'd been wearing a hairpiece.

And what poet was Katie a-reading that the Doc picked up at the end and started to read? (Someone called me during the last five minutes of the show--sheesh!)

Ginny -- 21 Jan 1999, 11:34 AM

Am I the only one who thought he's been wearing a hairpiece?

RDM's hair last night had a distinctly "comb-over" look that it hasn't had before. The amazing thing is that the style actually makes him look even younger. I'm telling ya, there's a picture of him in an attic somewhere...

Also, I forgot to say how much I, too, am looking forward to **insert reverb** BRIDE OF CHAOTICA.

Eric -- 21 Jan 1999, 11:50 AM

Ginny : RDM's hair, from his own mouth....

RDM said at the convention I was at last year that the make-up people use the same magic marker on his head that Jonathan Frakes uses. He seemed very comfortable saying it in front of everyone their, as he rubbed his hand through his (thinning) hair.

Jules -- 21 Jan 1999, 12:07 PM

He obviously knows the value of...getting in there first with the disparaging jokes, before anybody else gets the chance. Smart guy.

I can't really vouch for this episode, since the only evidence I have so far is one still from the preview, even if it is currently residing as wallpaper on my PC at home. But I confess that I've always thought that they'd just been leaving his hair cut inadvisably long. (Short is generally better in such circumstances, since otherwise people tend to jump to the conclusion that you're trying to hide more than is actually the case.)

Well, apart from "Thirty Days" that is, where by way of contrast it was inadvisably short. You'd have expected a little more growth back from the scalp job in the timespan allotted to the episode, wouldn't you? :-)

About the only thing I'm willing to state for certain is that he's part of the stick on pointy sideburn brigade. I still snigger every time I see the end of "Investigations" where they apparently grew back overnight, along with his uniform...

SuzyQ -- 21 Jan 1999, 1:09 PM

RDM's hair - a thread too juicy to stay away from even when it's nested in a topic area loaded with spoilers that I'm trying to avoid.

I always thought a great final ep outtake of Voyager would have RDM taking off his hairpiece before meeting his dad back on Earth, while Doc would simultaneously pull off his skin cap to reveal...Duncan McLeod-type hair. You know - dark, thick, and wavy. *smirk*

Well, it was a wonderfully unexpected move on the final ep of CHEERS, as I recall.

Shawnster -- 21 Jan 1999, 11:31 PM

If you choose not to decide, you have still made a choice. I seem to be in the middle ground on this one. On the one hand, I thought it was a very good story. "Sophie's Choice" through and through.

On the other hand, I agree with Terry. The episode seemed to not reach the end and concluded too abruptly. I agree that a major problem such as this wouldn't be solved overnight but I expected a better conclusion than this. The conclusion to B'Elanna's depression story was better than this one.

Still, great episode. I loved the moral dilemma and the ethical discussion about the Doctor. Makes you think TPTB lurk at this board and noticed the discussion D'Alaire and I had on the Holodoc and sentience. (Not like anyone else would have these discussions. This is the center of the Star Trek cyber-universe, isn't it?)

Favorites: Janeway's coffee. Yes, she stated it was coffee and took a drink. Now, what about the sips at the beginning of the show? Was it coffee?

Again with the CGI FX. The alien ship was cool, for the few brief seconds we saw it. I was impressed with the scene looking out the shuttle cockpit showing Voyager sweep over the shuttle and temporarily chase off the attacking ship.

Disappointment: Janeway's conversion to Seven's point of view. After one small discussion with Seven getting the final word, Janeway changes her viewpoint? Seemed really abrupt.

Next week: Bride of Chaotica! Welcome to the Saturday Morning Serials. I think they need to do Zombies of the Stratosphere.

Leonie -- 22 Jan 1999, 2:27 PM

My thoughts. Sorry couldn't come up with a better line to write my review under.

Overall I did like it. I was prepared for a lot more than it delivered and in the end I found that I was expecting a lot more from this episode than it actually delivered.

It was a passable story and it had potential that was never realized. The plot was good, but the execution in my opinion left a lot to be desired. Picardo as usual (Actually I shouldn't say so, Darkling was his worst performance) was great in the episode but there is only so much that you can do with non-spectacular writing.

I blame the writers for this mediocre episode. It could have been right up there with Nothing Human but it didn't get there. I did like the first half. From the time I saw Janeway exchange looks between Tuvok when the doctor left the room, I knew that she was the one who had been deleting his program.

I liked the set up of the dilemma. My eyes were full when I saw the choice that the doctor had to make. The first thing I thought was that he chose Harry, because as a bridge officer, he would be more missed than some no-named ensign, but later I realized that it was just me sitting in my chair, watching someone whom I had never seen before this week and Harry Kim being hurt. Of course I knew which would end up as toast. Maybe if it had been one of the Delaneys (nope they're still alive this season) or maybe if it has been Carey, I may have felt a little more. That was one of the things that I thought the writers slipped up on, it was an excellent time to kill off one of those extras which we've always seen and never heard. In this respect Jetrel was like One. I didn't know her well enough to feel for the doctor when making this decision and the anguish he suffered after making his decision.

I loved the fact that it was Seven who made Janeway stop to think and reconsider her decision and I absolutely loved the little discussion that the two of them had in her alcove. I liked the thin (red?) fine line which was drawn between would she (Seven) do it again (become human) or if she would undo it. That resonated with things that have happened to me in my life.

Ryan and Mulgrew were good in supporting Picardo in this role. That conversation showed how far they had come in their relationship (Seven and Janeway) and where Seven is on the road of accepting
her humanity....

That being said, here are my dislikes........

Boy when they get rid of a character, it's like they were never on board. They even get rid of the effect she had on other crewmember's lives. It's like Kes was never on board that ship

In the first season Kes made Janeway begin to think of the Doctor as a valuable crew member who was exceeding his programming and should be treated a bit more like a sentient being than a machine. Second and third season Janeway's decisions supports that of the doctor becoming more sentient. She lets him turn himself off. She encourages him to join recreational games. She supports his making friends of the crew, she does not let him erase the improvements he makes even when the results are less than perfect (Retrospect). She refuses to erase the additions that he has made to his programs as a result of his experiences even though they threaten his existence (Swarm). NOW she compares him to a REPLICATOR!!!. Talk about your self serving attitudes and rationalizations (Or more appropriately I should say lack in continuity).

Seven is wrong in her analogy and the way she saw her self in the doctor's position. Seven is a cyborg. She is part human and part machine. The doctor is all machine. Janeway's argument was sound with respect to the difference between Seven and the Doctor even though it was not with respect to the Doctor and the Replicator.

We are sure that Seven has a "soul" we are not sure if the doctor has one. Seven was human first. The existence of her soul from her very conception has never been in doubt. It is true that most of her body parts and functions had been taken away and replaced by machines but that did not mean that she stopped having a soul. The doctor never had one from the beginning. We are now struggling to figure out if being able to exceeds one's programming and even one's program which outlines how one is to learn, does that mean that the organism or machine becomes a person and stops being a thing.

I don't think that the issue here was individuality. Janeway has shown that individual or not, want it or not, she will make the decision for you, even if you are dead set against it. Just ask B'Elanna. The doctor is an individual. He thinks, acts, processes the consequences of his actions and learns by writing and putting new programs into action in his database. If Data is and individual (and this had been settled 10 years ago in the Measure of Man) then so is the doctor.

I think the issue here is one of person verses machine. Janeway saw the doctor as a glorified computer. And what do you do when you're CPU is stuck in a revolving loop and get out? You reboot the computer in order to delete the "file", if you will that is stuck, and giving you problems. She didn't see the doctor as a person who would have to keep going and going around in that loop until some resolution is found.

It would have been better if the argument that she gave Seven, was that she had just treated the doctor as if he was injured and she in effect performed "surgery" on him as it were without his consent.

I found myself thinking that it would have been better if she had just told him that she had to delete his files because he had been malfunctioning and his ethical subroutine were not able to handle a given situation up front after the incident had occurred. I'm sure the Doctor would have understood, because he was the first to want to be reset to his original programming when his pathways began to degrade (Swarm). It was the cloak and dagger stuff and the treating of the doctor as if he were indeed a replicator and had not taken the strides that he did in the past five years that made Janeway's decision (1.5 yrs ago) and the consequences of it seem so extreme.

And I agree the doctor had a right to know what happened to him, when it happened, maybe not in the details that Janeway did end up going into. But the forced subjecting him to deletion of memory as an order I think was very wrong on Janeway's part and also short sighted of her. Did she not consider that he may find himself in the same position later in the future.

This brings me to something else. How could Starfleet who have their top officers undergo the test in which there is no way to prevent the loss of life (I forget what's it's called) and leave such an obvious flaw in a medical holographic doctor's programming? That is something that I would think would come up in the short term and in the long-term EMH's life. (I had hoped that Microsoft would be obsolete by the 24th century. Maybe it is, but its bugs aren't.)

Anywhich way....

It definitely was a good character episode even though we don't get to see the complete resolution (I did find that even though it was YAATE, the ending did leave me thinking that the doctor would get through it). However it was no were as extensively explored as Nothing Human and not as well done as Extreme Risk.

Next week

Humor, YAY!!!!
Light, yesssss!!!
Black and white! WHO HOO!!!!
(I hate the color gray)
For the first time I'm looking forward to that silly holodeck program.

Sue_B -- 23 Jan 1999, 5:35 PM

Character Abuse. Again the writers abuse Janeway's character to create conflict. That 'replicator' business came out of left field. Even Torres was colder than expected.

Perhaps all this harshness from these characters (Doc in Thirty Days, Janeway in LI, etc...) is meant to keep the dialog snappy. Personally, it's irritating me. I use to like these characters. Now I try to keep wincing to a minimum.

Mrs. Mac -- 23 Jan 1999, 7:21 PM

Stone of Madness - "Latent Image."

Sorry it took so long for me to chime in on this episode but last Wednesday I was having a little trouble staying awake, which was no reflection on "Latent Image."

Back in college I minored in psychology, which means absolutely nothing today but some of those latent classroom images surface now and then. The phrase "Stone of Madness" was used in the Middle Ages when there was a desire to cut out the madness. Lobotomizing people is our modern day term for the same. While I was watching this episode the images of a lobotomy and shock therapy came to my mind because of the desire of the crew (specifically Janeway) to rewrite the doctor's program to remove the offensive behavior.

As much as I like Janeway, I had a real big problem with her decision to "rewrite" the doctor's program as a solution to his problems. First of all, "rewriting" is the wrong term here because it implies that you start from scratch. "Editing" or "debugging" his program would be the more appropriate terms because he retained his personality components and a considerable volume of memories. Secondly, Janeway's decision is akin to 19th century voodoo medicine. She gave the doctor a lobotomy.

The doctor had a conflict that he could not resolve so the Captain decided to remove his "stone of madness." However, what would she have done had this been Kes making the decision between the two patients? I think it's the writer's device but it is extremely shortsighted of Janeway to not consider what she would do with sentient individuals (since she didn't seem to think of the doc as one) in a similar situation. I think it was a writer's device to have Janeway and Seven in another conflict regarding individuality. Unfortunately, it is Seven who teaches Janeway a lesson in humanity. I say unfortunately because I think it somewhat weakens the captain as a character.

Freud? Where are you? Deanna Troi would have told Janeway that by building personality subroutines into the doctor you ultimately open the door for conflict among the three divisions of the psyche: The id, ego, and superego. What is the current day solution for resolving this conflict? Psychoanalysis. What was Janeway's solution? Rip out the memories. Lobotomy. Shock therapy. If the memories come back, rip them out again. Even the final solution to let the doctor talk himself out of his conflict was not the best and it's amazing the 24th century psychology has such archaic solutions to Freud's discoveries.

All in all I rather enjoyed this episode. I liked the Janeway and Seven conflict in her room at 2 a.m., and the doc was in fine form. I curse the writers and TPTB because it should have been B'Elanna and not Seven looking after the doc the entire episode. It's amazing what a little T&A will do to the complexion of an ensemble show. - Mrs. Mac

Mike -- 23 Jan 1999, 11:00 PM

Interesting comparison, Mrs. Mac...I never thought of Janeway's decision as performing a lobotomy or shock treatment. I was kind of "shocked" myself in this episode to see that Janeway thought of the doc as being like a replicator and not as a sentient being. Seems to me that in the past she had made statements about him being part of the crew and all that, what happened? I guess she did show he was expendable in 'Scorpion' when she was using him as a pawn in her chess game with the Borg.

I never got the impression watching this episode that anyone but Seven felt removing the bad memory was wrong. I even had the impression that Torres felt Janeway was making a mistake *not removing* the memory and instead letting the Doc work it out on his own.

I also made comparisons between this episode and 'Real Life'. In 'Real Life' Tom Paris (in one of my favorite RDM scenes) told the doc that he should go back and continue the family program to deal with Belle's death rather than hide from it by not seeing it through. In 'Latent Image' the crew tries to help Doc by having him *avoid* one of life's painful experiences instead of dealing with it. At first this seemed contradictory to me, but I guess they thought (in 'Latent Image') it was the only way to save their friend from insanity.

Vickie T. -- 24 Jan 1999, 11:22 AM

What can I say about Latent Image except, well, yech? The show did absolutely nothing for me. I can understand why Picardo liked it. It was a chance for him to show off a little, engage in dialog and actions much more substantive than he usually gets. And, I think he did a good job with what he had to work with. I also think the basic premise of the story was good. However...

I can't think of another nice thing to say about it. Geez, the performances (other than RP's) were flat, especially KM's. And, even though they started with an interesting premise, they went nowhere with it. Every time they got more than 2 sentences into a meaty discussion, the scene shifted to something else. The dialog was often flat and frequently did not ring true. Many characters involved said things that were inconsistent with previous behavior.

This episode is at the bottom of my Season 5 list so far.

I have some questions/comments about the nuts and bolts of the Doc's conflict, but I want to read everybody else's comments first - it is likely that you all have already debated those points. If not, I'll be back.

Roxanne -- 24 Jan 1999, 11:38 AM

Okay, here's my two cents worth - which is about as much as I give this show.

Objection #1: The doctor. I have always had trouble with this character. I have the somewhat the same problem with Data although he is a little different as he was given life and sentience. The doctor is a computer generated image.

Objection #2: Again the use of Seven. I didn't like her acting abilities in the episode where she has multiple personalities (Can't remember the name); I don't like her acting now. There is one good thing about her interaction with Janeway however. Every child goes through much the same thing when he/she realizes that her parental figure is not perfect.

Objection #3: Janeway's inconsistencies again. When are they going to write her without them.

Objection #4: Those of you who know computers well, correct me if I'm wrong, but can't you retrieve deleted files? If that's the case, they should have known that there would be the potential of this conflict again.

Leonie said it well. When your computer gets into a revolving loop, what do you have to do? Control, Alt, Delete and reboot. Only the revolving loop is lost, not the rest of the stuff.

Terry -- 25 Jan 1999, 7:50 AM

Further reflections on Latent Image. Upon reflecting on the story ideas and plot of Latent Image, I have come to these three conclusions.

1.The writers were even more gutless than I first supposed for ignoring Kes.
2.The Jetal conspiracy is laughably over-complex and insulting.
3.The attitudes on the morality of altering Doc's programming is inconsistent with those previously expressed by the characters.

1. At first, I just chided Menosky for failing to explain why Paris was helping the Doc instead of Kes during the Jetral/Harry emergency. But now, I realize that there are even greater reasons for Kes having been involved in the story.

Kes was the Doctor's closest confidant, his biggest booster, and his champion to the Captain and the crew. She fought to help him grow and fought the Captain for his rights. In that same third season, she was intimately involved in both of his programming crises: The Swarm and Darkling. She hectored the Captain to save him in the first and was the focus of his deepest emotions in the second.

It is ridiculous to believe that Kes wouldn't have been involved deeply in the aftermath of Jetal's death. And her opinion would have mattered greatly to the Doc and the Captain. Janeway could not have so easy about ordering the memory erasure with Kes' opposition. Or if she agreed, it would have helped convince the Doc of the correctness of the action.

Okay, incorporating Kes would have been hard. But Menoksy is a professional. He's paid to do it right, not easy. Writers shouldn't just be allowed to use or ignore established characters and events willy-nilly as makes their job a bit easier.

I know that Jetal's death was positioned by Menosky because they wanted Seven to have no knowledge of it. But would Seven necessarily have know later even when she was on board? But more importantly, (as many others have pointed out) a much simpler coverup was available.

2. Just erase Doc's memories after the AOTW attack until Jetal is dead. No one has to pretend her never existed. Her friends don't have to be ordered to never mention her again. The ship's log and medical records don't have to be forged (except a little bit). Best of all, no one has to know how Jetal really died except the senior crew. No one but they have to lie because they don't know the truth.

3. Janeway expressed contrary views on reprogramming the Doctor in Retrospect. She was emphatic about letting the Doc learn from his mistakes and grow as an individual. This conflicts with both Janeway's earlier attitude after Jetal's death and her later attitude when the Doc uncovers the conspiracy.

The Doctor himself has shown no moral objection to reprogramming himself in the past. He made major changes to his personality in Darkling. Okay, you could say that he learned better from his bad experience there. (He chose the road of personal experience in Real Life). But his discomfort was over the results, not the method.

Oops, ReviewBoy just published his review. Hope I didn't repeat something he said. Probably not. I would guess that he loved this ep.

Review Boy (JW) -- 25 Jan 1999, 11:20 AM

We agree more than you think...

Despite my enjoyment of the performances, the story just had too many problems for me to give it higher than three stars. The conspicuous (one could say MADDENING) absence of Kes bothered me a great deal.

I excised a much longer rant from the review about the omission of Kes--I mentioned it, but my original comments on leaving her out were a bit too strident. As it is, I'm getting mail from people "explaining" why she wasn't there. I don't care. She should have been there, or at least been mentioned; they could have made her present even if unshown. I agree completely; not only was she his medical assistant, she was his greatest defender.

I recall last year when "Year of Hell" was causing such a ruckus. Menosky seemed adamant that mentioning Kes would be a bad thing. I think the PTB simply want us to forget she ever existed. Whether it's their stated desire to not confuse folks with a character that all those millions of new Season 4 viewers (heh) wouldn't know about, or bad blood between Jen Lien and the studio, or just the writers' hope never to have to think about the character ever again because it saps their creativity, it's not my place to say. But as a viewer from way back and someone who liked the character (in general if not always in every episode) it irritates me that they've just blown Kes off like this. Particularly in "Latent Image" and "Year of Hell," they seem to be rubbing it in our faces.

Having a doc-centered episode set in the past and not even mentioning Kes is just plain mean. It's also lazy. (Flame off.)

I didn't have a great difficulty with Janeway's original decision to block his memories. Her "replicator" crack seemed needlessly callous, mainly to show her attitude changing after Seven of Nine lays a guilt trip on her. Janeway's always meddling in crew lives. She's done it with just about everyone this season. The original results were 18 months of relative sanity for Doc. Making him work through it the second time isn't necessarily wrong, but it's no more "right" than the first approach.

As to your third point, there's a huge difference between suppressing a few memories, and letting Doc remove ALL of his personality subroutines, as he suggested and Janeway denied in Retrospect. The latter would have eliminated his capacity for growth and turned him back into the Emergency Medical Hologram. Her effort in this episode was far less radical.

D'Alaire -- 25 Jan 1999, 12:36 PM

Yes. Yes. Yes. Though I really liked the performances, too, watching LI again only made the absence of the Voyager crewmember formerly known as Kes even more "conspicuous."

That and Tom's hair.

Janeway--I'm still out on that one. I've heard many good arguments on both sides on her position. But the inconsistencies and impossibilities (like the whole crew never speaking of Miss Redshirt--uh, I don't think so), also named by Terry, are hard to pass over. And Kes' total absence, in word, thought, deed, is simply aggravating, especially if this is indeed purposeful on TPTB's parts.

If Trekkers haven't forgotten Pike, I don't think we'll be forgetting Kes any time soon, either.

bern -- 25 Jan 1999, 1:23 PM

I don't forget Pike, in fact sometime I wonder what alternate universe Tasha Yar is up to.

however, I do think TPTB are in a no win situation. A story idea presents itself, a good one I might add, and they have to set things in the past...Now, do you waste time making excuses as to why Tom is an the sick bay and not Kes...Opening the "Kes" door lends itself to further explanation...is she sick? on an away mission?..and then they are forced to bring up her continuous lines of defense regarding the Doctor.

Not to say that leaving her out was not "wimpy" but, I for one feel that a lot of the events would not have transpired in the fashion that they did with her around. A drastic change to the story line. Points otherwise relevant might render the whole story moot...so what do you do... I guess making some devoted nitpickers angry was the lesser of 2 evils...Or was it?

In a review of mine(that didn't make it on because my comp. crashed before I hit send) I brought up-in jest, mind you- having a "body double" of Kes in the background during the party scene...That would have caused alot of flak too...

So I say, what do you do? spend a lot of time explaining a background that may or may not be germane to the storyline at hand, just to have it make sense in the larger story arc(which I know is important to most of us who crave continuity) or have a story, that may be slightly out of order with previous facts, yet compelling...I am sure that the Idea of a doctor whose program exceeds its normal functioning was an idea long before the departure of Ms. Lien, it is an idea that I'm sure they want to come back to from time to time and well...actors realities vs. characters are not perfect models as we all have come
to know...

I don't know, maybe I'll watch it again and get mad w/ the rest of you...

Review Boy (JW) -- 25 Jan 1999, 1:24 PM

D'Alaire said:
>Though I really liked the performances, too, watching LI again only made the absence of the Voyager crewmember formerly known as Kes even more "conspicuous."

Agreed.

>That and Tom's hair.

That slipped by me. I only pay attention to the women's' hair. :)

> the inconsistencies and impossibilities (like the whole crew never speaking of Miss Redshirt--uh, I don't think so), also named by Terry, are hard to pass over.

Yup. I mentioned that near the end of my review as well. I called it "I know what you did last season."

>And Kes' total absence, in word, thought, deed, is simply aggravating, especially if this is indeed purposeful on TPTB's parts.

Yep. If I'm a snarling partisan on anything, it's about the flagrant snubbing of Kes, particularly in episodes where any fan paying even moderate attention would expect SOMETHING.

>If Trekkers haven't forgotten Pike, I don't think we'll be forgetting Kes any time soon, either.

Amen to that.

D'Alaire -- 25 Jan 1999, 1:45 PM

I know what you did last season--SNORT!!!
Egad, I must have missed that one--LOL!
Another classic, Jim. : )

Jules -- 25 Jan 1999, 4:38 PM

Of course, I haven't seen it yet so maybe the memory engram deletion of Kes hasn't kicked in yet for me. If anybody else would like to have their memory of the Doc's Ocampan medical assistant jogged, I guess I can always find a holoimage or two of her to do the trick.

I confess, it does sound entirely crazy that TPTB apparently think that they can't find a way of writing in a reference to Kes in such a way as to [a] keep it succinct enough not to confuse new viewers, and [b] make sense to old viewers, without actually requiring them to hire the actress to do any scenes, which is presumably out of the question. Personally, I don't see why new viewers should be given quite so much consideration. Presumably they do know that the series is in its fifth season and can make mental allowances for the fact that they might have missed the odd thing by not watching from the start... They only have themselves to blame, after all.

And it's not as if we ask for much. Just a reference, an alibi for her being somewhere else. Have Tom dragged into sickbay because she's unavailable, lament his lack of training, and the absence of the only person other than the Doc who could have been talked through the procedure. It's a real shame that she didn't go off exploring with her alien boyfriend from "Darkling" after all... it would have given them a neat few weeks into which they could have slotted this, when she simply wasn't available for attending birthday parties, sickbay emergencies, or funerals.

On a slightly different tack... "La Vita Nuova", hmm? Assuming that this is a faithful transcription of what was said in the episode, I don't think much of their translation. My version (translated by Barbara Reynolds) has the following:

"In the book of my memory, after the first pages, which are almost blank, there is a section headed Incipit vita nova*"

*Here begins my new life

The "blank pages" bit seems rather more appropriate to the Doctor's situation. It's open to interpretation, but it's certainly a closer approximation than "that is the day when I first met you". And, in case anyone's interested, it isn't part of a poem; it's prose, and the opening line of the book. "La Vita Nuova" consists of a number of poems written by Dante, interspersed with a commentary and analysis of why and how he wrote them. It's as much an essay on writing poetry as it is a collection of poems to a lost love. Kind of appropriate, if Janeway is reading it while mulling over her decision to rewrite the Doctor's reactions to his own loss...

Mrs. Mac -- 26 Jan 1999, 12:46 PM

Like you Jules, I love digging into the minds of TPTB. Like the appropriate Mahler music, "La Vita Nuova" had a purpose. Isn't "La Vita Nuova" a sonnet?

Personally, I have no problem whatsoever that Kes didn't appear in the episode. Like Annie (I think) said, even Janeway didn't have her power ponytail. I agree with Jules in that why confuse the watchers by bringing in a character some may not be familiar with unless she is explained within the context of the story. It was easy to explain her absence had they wanted to but why bother?

Great comments all around! Mrs. Mac

Jules -- 26 Jan 1999, 2:46 PM

Of course, I did have one more evil and malicious thought.

Why not have made it the loss of Kes that caused the Doctor's program to crash? Lots of emotional involvement, which could have seriously compromised his programming... and they've got a ready made conspiracy of silence already. :-)

Of course, Seven was already aboard by that time. But she was mostly either unconscious on the Doctor's operating table or in the brig, so she might not have had much opportunity to be aware of Kes's existence before she was gone...

D'Alaire -- 26 Jan 1999, 3:12 PM

Oh, Jules, I LIKE it!!!

Why can't they think of things like that!? Brilliant!

They might have needed JL for that one, actually, but even past ep clips might have done the trick. Oh, how poignant that could have been! And to have had Janeway sitting with Doc in that last scene having him work it out, meanwhile stuck with her own memories and...Waaah!

I'm crying already!

Carol -- 25 Jan 1999, 10:06 PM

The situation in erasing the Doc's memory was different than it was here. In Retrospect, the Doc wanted his memories erased because he didn't want to live with the -- to him -- unpleasant memories of what happened.

In "Latent Image" Janeway erased his memories because the memories caused a unstable conflict within him, causing him being unable to function properly.

I know we all like to think of the Doc as human, but he *is* also a computer and here, he basically "crashed." (Much like my computer did this weekend). His conflict sort of reminded me of HAL 9000 in 2001 who was giving conflicting orders which caused him to malfunction. Janeway obviously felt the only way to "fix" the Doc was to get rid of the memory that was causing him to malfunction.

As for Kes -- well, Joe Menoskey is the person who (after the complaints about the lack of a Kes reference in "Year of Hell") said "Ignore Continuity! You'll be a happier person." :-)

Shawnster -- 27 Jan 1999, 12:11 PM

In defense of Latent Image. While your comments are on the mark and make perfect sense, there are other matters and complications to consider before making a blanket condemnation of the episode (I believe you described the writers as "Gutless," and plot points as "laughable").

1. The limited time frame for the shoot. Sure, the writers have about two months lead time writing an individual episode, but the single episode isn't the only concern of theirs during those two months. Several episodes are under consideration and in various stages of development. This time goes fast before the 10 days of the actual shoot arrive. It seems the writers don't have time to catch all these points we fans find and nitpick about. They have a bigger picture, or several pictures to see.

For the scenes to have been done right, Kes would have had to of been there. You are right, Kes was the chief supporter of the Doctor and his sentience. It would have been inconceivable for her not to show up in any of those scenes. Yet her appearance would have been impossible (I'm assuming considering the circumstances of Jennifer Lein's dismissal, what it would cost to pay her for a guest star spot, etc...) Kes just couldn't be filmed. Perhaps Menosky felt that just mentioning Kes in passing wouldn't be enough and wouldn't play right. He may have felt it best that if he couldn't do the Kes scenes right, not to do them at all.

2. Jetel had to be completely erased. Simply erasing the moments of the AOTW's attack to the death of Jetel wouldn't be enough. If the Doctor didn't know she was dead, he would think she's still alive. Being the chief medical officer, he would wonder why Jetel never shows up for her yearly physicals. In fact, she never visits sick bay at all. Being inquisitive, he would no doubt try to track her down. Oh, maybe not right away but definitely no later than two years.

The Doctors community consists of roughly 150 people (give or take). Counting friends, family and coworkers, I easily encounter more than that many people in one month. Voyager must be similar if not compounded. Surely everyone runs into everyone at least once a month. The Doctor would start noticing that he never sees Jetel anymore, yet she's still alive and listed as a member of Voyager's crew.

A possible solution would have been to fake computer records to show she died in the initial attack by the AOTW. That way the Doctor could retain his memories of her, the attack, saving Harry, etc...

3. You are right about the Doctor's programming. I can't disagree about your third point. The doctor has never been opposed to reprogramming himself in the past. Perhaps the way they went about it this time is what was different. It was done without his knowledge or permission.

As for turning to Seven instead of B'Elanna, well, again your right. Except, maybe the Doctor's relationship with B'Elanna has changed. The Doctor has found a new friend in Seven, someone to fill the void made by Kes. Since this new friend is more knowledgeable about computers than Kes was, perhaps it's only logical for the Doctor to turn to her now. Kinda like us. We may have asked a certain friend for help for years. Now we've made a new friend with the same type of knowldge as the old. Maybe we decide to give her a chance, thinking perhaps our old friend may be tired of helping us with this problem.

Another thought. Didn't the Doctor turn to B'Elanna first, only to be brushed off because she was too busy at the moment? I seem to recall thinking the Doctor was too impatient to find out what was wrong.

Just some random thoughts of mine.

Jules -- 5 Feb 1999, 7:02 AM

I just got my Latent Images back from the developers :-)

I've only seen this once so far, sandwiched between viewings of "Bride of Chaotica", so I haven't really got my thoughts straight about it. But on the whole, I thought it rated as interesting and thought provoking, good but fractionally too flawed to be great.

Things I particularly liked:

• The filming of the mystery saboteur in sickbay, all done by showing the reflection of the doors opening and closing in the monitor that was used to do the file deletion.
• The nifty build-them-from-the-inside-out effect of those full body scans, although I hope the Doc never does a slide show of them in the mess hall while anybody's eating...
• The fact that Janeway's reading (an actual honest to goodness real book!) while tired was a theme carried throughout the entire episode. She's obviously an insomniac, which goes hand-in-hand with being an obsessive compulsive.
• The fact that they actually identified someone as working in shuttle maintenance. :-)

Things I didn't like overmuch:

• The absence of even a teensy weensy little Kes reference. Would it really have hurt to have Paris and/or the Doc lament her absence on the trade mission to Planet Y (X belongs to Chaotica) when they were faced with the fact that Paris wasn't sufficiently trained for the Doc to be able to talk him through the procedure so that they could save both ensigns?
• It's a shame that they didn't put as much thought into hair continuity as they did Paris's extra pip.
• There's not a lot they could have done about RDM's hair length - short is short - but they ought to have tied Janeway's pony tail back on again. And I'm not sure that Chakotay was communing with the boot blacking to quite that extent back then either... But I'm just nitpicking here. It's not something that bugs me to the extent that the sickbay staffing situation does.

Random thoughts I had:

• Paris being in sickbay on that occasion wasn't really a problem in itself - apart from the fact that they felt it unnecessary to give Kes an alibi for not being there as well. There were about half a dozen crewmen, suddenly scrambled from nowhere due to the emergency, getting the injured onto biobeds. Paris, who presumably never stopped being a field medic just because he'd been let off the hook as general sickbay assistant when Kes took over that role, was just part of that general alert. Janeway probably sent him down the moment that they'd caught up with the shuttle. Okay, so it still doesn't explain why they don't have more medical assistants, but that's an old argument. Sigh.
• I don't have a particular problem with Janeway's attitude towards the Doctor as being more software than person. It was her original conception of him after all, and she might well have lapsed back into it without Kes being around to keep them all up to the mark by her staunch defence of him. And who's to say that a lot of the crew don't still think that way, deep down, even if for the sake of politeness they choose not to express it nowadays? It wasn't something that was explored much last year, but B'Elanna obviously had some of the same attitude towards him in "Real Life", "Darkling" and "The Swarm", even if that's just her engineering training getting in the way, in the same way as Janeway's science background does the same. Funnily enough, prior to the outsider Seven's accepting him on his own merits, the person other than Kes who seemed most genuinely able to treat him as a real person was Paris. Forget the jibes and the snarky comments, look at how he treats the Doctor when the subject of feelings and emotions comes up, as with Denara Pel and Belle. Of course, Paris's technical background is definitely a bit hit and miss, although there's nothing wrong with his imagination. But the Doctor is and always will be an outsider, even if they've chosen to draw him into the Starfleet family in the same way that they also did Kes, Neelix and Seven.

I'm still a little dubious about that translation of La Vita Nuova. All that "the day I first met you" stuff is a bit sappy and sentimental, and not what I think the original Italian says. Also, it's a little misleading to just refer to it as "poetry", since while it's true that the book does indeed contain poems, the vast majority of it is commentary and analysis of the poems, and the author's mindset at the time that he wrote them. It's an slightly older, more experienced Dante, looking back on the work of his youth and adding a little hindsight into the equation. As such, it's perhaps even more appropriate to the Doctor's situation than the superficial gloss of the usual English translation of the title "The New Life" alone would suggest. Also, listening to the Doctor reading out what is actually the prose opening of the book, in a very poetic way (kudos to Janeway/Mulgrew for opening the thing about three pages in, where you'd expect to find that passage after all the title and copyright stuff), I was given pause to wonder what language he - and Janeway - were "reading" it in. Perhaps the original Italian, doing the translation as they went along?

"La Vita Nuova" by Dante Alighieri was most likely put together in the mid 1290's, and is a collection of poems that Dante had written over the course of the previous decade, with the first of them having been written in 1283. There are 31 poems in it, most of which are sonnets, and mostly they deal with Dante's love for Beatrice, who he worshipped from afar (he was married to someone else, she probably barely knew he existed except as a social acquaintance, she died young, etc). It was a courtly love rather than a physical one. Beatrice was his inspiration and his muse, both here and in his later "La Divina Commedia".

The poems in "La Vita Nuova" are interspersed with Dante's prose commentary on them, on how they came about and what they mean, and it is from part of this prose commentary that the Doctor quotes. In fact, it's the opening sentence of the book. The original Italian reads as follows:

"In quella parte del libro de la mia memoria dinanzi a la quale poco si potrebbe leggere, si trova una rubrica la quale dice: Incipit vita nova."

My Italian is extremely rusty, as a result of not having used what little I ever had of it for 15 years or so, but I was curious about the mismatch between the Italian and the translation used in Voyager, so I dug out my English/Italian dictionary after seeing the episode and had a go at it myself. I make no claims for its accuracy, but this is the literal (as opposed to interpretative) translation that I came up with:

"In that part of the book of my memory before which little can be read, one finds a heading which says 'here begins a new life'."

Which, to my way of thinking at least, says volumes about all those memory purges they did on the Doctor. :-)

Jules
Dante fan... can't you tell?