Episode Review - Critical Care
Reviewed by Andy Taylor

Synopsis
An alien enters and incredibly overcrowded hospital ship and looks for the vessel’s administrator, Chellick. Once found, the alien, Gar, shows him a recent acquisition, to which Chellick is not enthused – he has not been particularly happy with some of Gar’s previous trades. However, a happy Gar activates the Doctor’s mobile emitter that he must have obtained somehow from Voyager. The Doctor is upset at being in an unfamiliar environment without warning, but as the Allocator (the main computer onboard the hospital ship) announces that a generator has exploded, and he witnesses the ensuing chaos around him, The Doctor offers aid, saying that as a doctor, he is programmed to help anyone who needs it. Chellick, Gar and another doctor, Voje are all pleased with how The Doctor handles the situation.

On Voyager, Tom and Harry are trying to think up excuses of how Harry became injured during one of their ice-hockey simulations – yet another ‘juvenile’ pastime that The Doctor would frown upon due to the injuries caused. However, when the two finally get round to talking to him, they notice something wrong. During a meeting with the rest of the senior staff, it is discovered that The ‘Doctor’s’ mobile emitter is a replicated fake. Tuvok tells a disgruntled Janeway that the lapses in security were his fault; she orders a search for Gar to begin by following his ion trail.

Neelix tries to shift the blame when he tells Janeway after the meeting that a meal with Talaxian spices in it was likely to be the thing that sent Gar (previously on Voyager to trade) to sickbay in the first place, and set up a likely situation where he could kidnap The Doctor. Janeway tells him that she is sure that Neelix will rectify the situation, should a chance to do so arise.

During all of this, The Doctor is on what is designated ‘Level Red’ on the hospital ship, and discovers a patient not receiving help. When he quizzes Voje on what is happening, another young patient, Tebbis gives him information. Pleased at hearing someone who knows what he is on about, the Doctor begins to analyse the boy, who even gives his own diagnosis on himself. However, The Doctor also discovers that the boy has a deadly infection and has not received the required treatment. Voje then tells The Doctor that he does not have a high enough ‘T.C,’ but as the Doctor asks what T.C. means, Chellick interrupts – he has purchased The Doctor from Gar, and his presence is needed on Level Blue. Voje tells The Doctor that he is better off on Blue – their T.C. is much higher and need the best treatment. As the Doctor arrives on Level Blue, however, he finds that the patients there do not need any real help. He finds that T.C. stands for ‘Treatment Coefficient,’ and is a rating judged by the Allocator, accessing how important the individual being treated is to society. The Doctor considers this process a way of being rid of the sick.

Meanwhile, the Voyager crew finds that they have been following a fake ion trail. Tuvok suggests that as Gar traded iridium with them, they should search within a radius of three light years due to the substance’s short half-life. They find a mining operation taking place on an asteroid, and find that Gar sold the crew there induction units, which came from a planet called Velos.

On the Hospital ship, The Doctor finds that the Allocator is allowing patients on Level Blue a lot of cytoglobin (the substance needed to help a lot of patients in Level Red). Another doctor, Dysek, tells The Doctor that these seemingly unnecessary injections increase the patients’ life expectances. The Doctor is outraged that this is happening, especially with such a close case as Tebbis’ to his heart.

The Doctor then sneaks back to Level Red and has Voje try and alter Tebbis’ T.C. This fails, so The Doctor returns to Level Blue and has a nurse access some cytoglobin from another patient, which he then smuggles back down to red to treat Tebbis with, and later he smuggles even more when he builds a ‘professional rapport’ with Dysek when the two find that if cytoglobin is not used as much as the month before, then the next month’s supplies will be of a lower amount.

Back on Voyager, which enters orbit of Velos, the crew find from an alien whose wife has run off with Gar whereabouts to find the thief. The crew then talks with Gar’s mistress, and in a moment of comedy, she confronts Janeway over ‘wanting’ him, with Janeway wryly responding that she already has a man in Tuvok. The woman then gives her Gar’s location, and they soon track him down and take him prisoner.

Tuvok tries to interrogate him to discover the location of the Doctor, and even threatens a ‘disturbing’ mind-meld, but it is left down to Neelix’s poisoned cooking (the cure of which is only administered by The Doctor) to force Gar into helping. Tuvok is appalled at Neelix’s method of gaining information through such a way, but Neelix retaliates with similar opinions about Tuvok’s threat of a mind-meld.

At the hospital ship, The Doctor finds that Tebbis was transferred to Level White, not a rehabilitation level as he first thinks, but a morgue. The Doctor confronts Chellick, whom then reveals his knowledge of the Doctor’s illegal smuggling. He programs the Allocator to only allow The Doctor a certain time on each patient, whilst the rest of the time he will be deactivated. The Doctor then has Voje smuggle himself onto Level Red – he has a plan.

When Chellick catches him on Red, The Doctor injects the same disease in him that Tebbis had. The Allocator then scans him as if he were Tebbis after a resequensing procedure performed by the Doctor, and allows him no medication. The Doctor will only help if Level Red patients are allowed the same treatment as Level Blue ones. Chellick begs the recently arrived Dysek, who denies his request, stating that he is only following the rules that Chellick himself created. The Doctor then proposes that Level Red patients – including Chellick – should be transferred to Level Blue for treatment, to which Chellick approves, as Chakotay and B’Elanna beam down to rescue the Doctor.

Back on Voyager, after The Doctor has checked her, he asks Seven to run a diagnosis on his program’s ethical subroutines. She finds no problems, and The Doctor is left disappointed after he was allowed to poison a man, without so much as a minor malfunction, despite it probably being for better reasons.

Summary
Star Trek is always at its best (well, nine times out of ten) when it deals with matters relating to today’s society, or those of an ethical nature. This episode took an interesting issue and explored it well – the better treatment of those who ‘deserve’ it (perhaps relating to those in real life who have more money, and therefore more medical options available to them) over giving others who really do deserve it more. And what made this episode even more of a pleasure to watch was the B-story, which added a little humour to the serious plot.

It’s hard to know what to say about this episode. The ethical debate seemed very real (I myself sighed out loud when I saw what Level Blue was really like, damn that Chellick! ) It was very interesting to follow for the three-quarters of an hour. Perhaps I’m a little lost as that was how I felt at the start of the episode – I thought I was tuning in to part two or something, what with the ER-like rush of patients and the alienation the Doctor felt at his kidnap (although I suppose that was how the writer wanted us to feel, so we could relate to The Doctor. Or I'm reading into it too deeply.)

Chellick was very ruthless in his role, and though the Doctor was troubled by what he did to him at the end (nicely reflected in the Tuvok/Neelix part of the B-story), he certainly deserved it, and at least it brought a positive outcome.

Moving more onto the B-story - this was an excellent appendix to the episode! From Tom and Harry’s increasingly odd holodeck fantasies (reflective of Bashir and O’Brien’s similarly odd frolics in DS9’s holosuites), to Janeway’s slightly odd pursuit of Gar (the part where she said that Tuvok was already ‘her man’ was great, along with the weepy ex of the malicious woman who challenged Janeway’s search for the clever thief.)

Neelix and Tuvok were a great pairing in the episode, both of whom trying to shift the blame around, and both of who conducted their own interrogation on Gar. As mentioned earlier, Neelix’s poisoning of Gar’s food was similar to The Doctor’s actions at the end, except with more comical outcomes in this case, and it was things like this metaphor and the aforementioned points that made this Voyager episode stick out as quality, if not all that exciting.

The Doctor was very good in this episode, portraying a torn doctor (a very professional doctor, either accounting for the end or not) who showed a lot of emotion over the whole issue of choosing who to treat and who not to. The boy, Tebbis had a lot of emotional value (using a youth with a bright future may be the oldest trick in the book, but it was pulled off very well.)

There weren’t many negative aspects of this episode – the fact that The Doctor was allowed to interfere so much in all of this was a little worrying (with the Prime Directive in mind), and perhaps the start (as mentioned earlier) was a little confusing (though once the episode was rolling, on reflection it wasn’t that bad.)

One very positive reflection was that Seven of Nine was not really used again – the most overused character of all time has not done much for the past three episodes now, which is a nice break. She has had one episode, and after all it would be nice to see more of the other characters for a change.

Final Opinion
A very nice Star Trek episode, starring Voyager’s best character – a bit dull possibly, but we can't have action week in, week out!

8.5/10