Episode Review - Body And Soul
Reviewed by Andy Taylor

Synopsis
The Doctor, Seven and Harry are on a mission to study preanimate biomatter from a comet. As the Doctor and Seven look at the ‘beginnings of life’ in one particular DNA strand, the Delta Flyer jolts. The Doctor complains to Harry, but when it jolts again a couple more times, Harry finds that they are under attack. Ranek, in charge of the attacking vessel says that the Flyer is carrying a ‘photonic insurgent’ through Lokirrim space, which is illegal. Harry explains that what they have discovered is simply their doctor, but the vessel locks the Flyer in a tractor beam and aims a disruption beam at the Doctor to decompile his matrix, leaving Seven having to find a way to hide his program.

The Lokirrim beam aboard with weapons and try to find The Doctor, only to find Seven claiming that they were too late and have murdered him. The boarding party explores the vessel and find no other ‘photonics,’ and Ranek finds the Doctor’s mobile emitter, which Seven then tells him is her ‘portable regeneration unit,’ which Ranek then discards regardless. He orders that the Delta Flyer then be secured in a docking bay on his ship, and puts Harry and Seven in a holding cell. It is here where Harry finds that Seven downloaded The Doctor’s program into her cybernetic implants, and that now The Doctor is in control of her body, meaning that he is now able to have sensory experiences, such as touch and smell.

Meanwhile, in The Doctor’s absence on Voyager, Tom is scanning Tuvok for a neurochemical imbalance, which happens to be his Pon Farr – the male mating instinct that affects Vulcans every seven years. Tom allows medical treatment that the Doctor devised for Tuvok in secret to be administered at Tuvok’s request, as well as promising that his condition will be kept secret.

Back on the Lokirrim ship, The Doctor in Seven’s body is enjoying the ability to taste food – he is particularly fond of the apparently disgusting prison rations, and eats a bewildered Harry’s portion. Ranek releases The Doctor/Seven and questions him/her further in the Delta Flyer about their replicator, convinced that it is a form of device used to construct bio-weapons. Doctor/Seven replicates some cheesecake to try and rid Ranek of his worries, and when tasting it he/she finds it an incredibly pleasant experience, which convinces Ranek of The Doctor/Seven’s claims. After a while, the two have devoured a wide array of different foods, as well as several glasses of wine. This does not deter The Doctor/Seven’s need of gaining back The Doctor’s holo-emitter, which Ranek then agrees to hand over in exchange for medical services, and then returns The Doctor/Seven to the holding cell.

In secret, Harry helps The Doctor/Seven inject the holo-emitter with Seven’s Borg tubules to restore the Doctor’s matrix. A drunken Seven is then appalled at the Doctor’s abuse of her body. The Doctor apologises, and thanks her for saving him earlier. The three then concoct a plan to contact Voyager, which will again involve a reluctant Seven to reinsert The Doctor back into her implants.

The ship’s tactical officer, Jaryn then takes The Doctor/Seven to the medical bay, where he/she develops a treatment to help patients suffering from injuries sustained from attacks from photonics. As he/she does this, he/she gets to know Jaryn and learns about her family’s photonic servant who was originally very close to them before the uprising. He/she says that Voyager’s photonic Doctor would have liked her.

Back on Voyager, Tuvok’s medication does not appear to be working. The only other expertise that Tom has is in holoprogramming, and offers to create a simulation for Tuvok to ‘relieve himself.’ Tuvok is completely opposed to this – he is a married man. However, what Tom has in mind is a replication of Tuvok’s wife, which he then hesitantly agrees to. When he actually participates in the replication, he is interrupted when another Lokirrim vessel approaches, leading to Janeway agreeing to shut down any photonic activity, including the holodeck that Tuvok is in.

As The Doctor/Seven works with Jaryn, Ranek calls for Seven to meet up with him on the bridge. He then redirects the ship so that the two can see a pulsar cluster called the ‘Window of Dreams,’ perhaps the most beautiful sight in the quadrant. In this romantic mood, Ranek kisses whom he believes is Seven, who (as The Doctor still) then storms off to tell Jaryn about his behaviour, only to learn of her own feelings for the captain. To complicate things further, the Doctor has developed a strong admiration for Jaryn, and makes an impassionate plea to find someone more like him/her, as he/she pulls a neck muscle, which Jaryn then massages. The Doctor/Seven then runs off nervously.

The Doctor/Seven is then called back to the holding cell to treat Harry, who was faking a seizure in the hope that it would bring the ‘two’ back to find out what they had learned. The Doctor separates himself from Seven, who then again is appalled at him kissing Ranek and then becoming physically aroused by Jaryn. The two argue about indulging or not, with The Doctor saying that Seven would make the perfect hologram with such restrictions normally imposed on herself. Harry then tries to find out what the two have learned – Seven now knows Ranek’s command codes, and needs to get to the Delta Flyer to transmit them to Voyager, which leads to The Doctor creating a plan.

The Doctor/Seven asks Ranek for a private meeting on the Flyer, and apologises for her harsh reaction with a request to ‘start over again.’ He/she offers champagne and begins to dance with him, and then hyposprays him with a tranquilliser, knocking him out. The Doctor/Seven sends a message to Voyager, informing them of their plight. Seven’s apparently odd actions inform the crew of The Doctor’s inhabitance ‘inside’ of Seven, showing how their situation was a greater problem than they originally thought, Janeway orders a phaser shot on the Lokirrim ship that is now escorting them through their territory and makes a clean getaway.

The Doctor/Seven takes Ranek to the medical bay, telling Jaryn that he had a low tolerance of synthehol. However, Jaryn then revives Ranek, who orders them back to detention and losing the trust that had been generated. Ranek then finds that Voyager is approaching, and takes The Doctor/Seven where he can keep an eye on him/her. Janeway opens a channel and demands the return of the prisoners, which fails and allows Chakotay to use Ranek’s command codes to disable their shields. However, he then ties the shields in with the ship’s warp matrix, and says that if Voyager fires, a warp core breach will form. Janeway then sends a message directly to Seven’s cortical node to ask for her help in disabling the ship.

The Doctor materialises himself back into his mobile emitter, shocking Ranek and Jaryn and allowing him to seize a weapon whilst Seven works at a console. Ranek fires at it, and when he goes near it explodes, injuring him. The Doctor offers help, which Jaryn does not trust. However, using his knowledge of her feelings for the captain, she allows help. Later, he and Jaryn both express their gratitude to The Doctor, even though their opinion towards photonics may not have changed.

Finally, back on Voyager, Seven offers to describe vicariously the sensations of eating indulgent foods, given that The Doctor is no longer able to sense anything.

Summary
Phew! (Long synopsis there, are you sure this wasn’t a two-parter?) Anyway, this was a great romp that was far more enjoyable than last week’s disappointing ‘Inside Man.’ And this episode needed no cameos, no established races and little technobabble to make it so enjoyable. In fact, it took only one Ms. Ryan to give perhaps her best acting performance on Voyager to date, and a brilliant script that added this to Voyager’s list of good comedy episodes, already including the hilarious ‘Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy,’ ‘Lifeline,’ and probably many others… Well, Voyager can tend to be a boob when it comes to comedy – any viewer of ‘Bride of Chaotica!’ or ‘Virtuoso’ will tell you that – which only reinforced the appeal of this episode further.

The Doctor is easily the best character on Voyager. But we barely needed his physical presence here showing the great acting of Jeri Ryan and the great script on show here. In fact, combine his chemistry with the probably-just-as-popular Seven of Nine, and what we had was scene after scene that frankly I could have watched all night. Anyway, enough of the chitchat.

Perhaps the episode’s biggest pitfall was the decision to show Tuvok experiencing his Pon Farr, an issue debated among Voyager fans since the show was created. The problem here was that the B-plot, as it was, was much too serious, and therefore actually dull in comparison to the main Seven/Doctor plot. There were also many issues that were not explored about the ritual. In fact, it was all dealt with so quickly that it seemed as if all the writers did were mention Pon farr for the sake of mentioning it and just to get past another milestone in Tuvok’s character. Though Tom was good as the interim doctor – his down-to-earth approach combined with his fondness for the holodeck was a nice combination. Shame that some of the niceness couldn’t rub off onto the tired subplot.

Aside from that, the episode was a delight. The Doctor as Seven rejecting a man yet yearning for a woman seemed a little odd in the context of him being in Seven’s body, and the scenes where he overindulges on whatever he decides to overindulge on in that particular scene were funny – the prison rations have never sounded so tasty! There was also an interesting subtext mixed into the plot that didn’t get a lot of mention – the Lokirrim’s battle with photonics. It was commented upon, but this was never really explored, which in the context of a comedy episode probably works out positively, as well as the fact that the ‘Doctor-saves-the-day’ heroics seen at the end didn’t change Ranek or Jaryn’s opinions – it added depth to their characters, which were also interesting to watch during the episode (though The Doctor’s comments on how Jaryn might have missed her calling when he finds she has a talent for healing seem a little tried – remember the ill-fated kid from ‘Critical Care?’ I was surprised he wasn’t resurrected here…)

Other than that, there isn’t much more to comment on – the episode was funny, and certainly didn’t need the Tuvok subplot. It certainly says something about The Doctor’s character if it can be present throughout the episode, can be enjoyed entirely yet not be physically present all the time. This was just great.

Final Opinion
An incredibly funny episode, ruined by Tuvok. Shame on you Tuvok!

8.5/10