#this is one snapshot they're usually nicer to each other

[sugaredparchment]

y'know I'm a writerblr maybe I should like. post a snippet or something but why would I everrrr oh what's that

"Is that not still a cage?” He counters, easy and rehearsed. Genuine interest lines the words, and she wishes she knew why. Astraea stalks forward to him. It is infuriating how much taller he is, how much more powerful. (Yet he meets her like she's an equal. The only reason he looks down his nose at her is because otherwise he would be kneeling, and his godly form can't handle that.) “Are we still talking about a bird?” Contrary to either of their jibes, Calixto shrugs elegantly. “Are we?” Oh, that's even more infuriating, enough Astraea wants to sling her fist through his perfect teeth.

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s6 ep24: Life Line

It's a miracle: A later season Doctor episode that I actually like!

I didn't remember that they did another Barclay episode so soon, but I'm always glad to see him and Deanna Troi as much as possible. This time, Barclay is visiting Dr. Zimmerman, the scientist who created the EMH program, at his lab on Jupiter Station, after having found a way to send letters back and forth to Voyager once a month. Barclay sends a letter to the Doctor, informing his that Zimmerman is dying, and Starfleet doctors have no cure. The Doctor wants to help cure the man he thinks of as his father, and asks Janeway to send his program instead of the crew's letters the next time they send data to Starfleet, which she agrees to.

Once there, the Doctor and Zimmerman clash, since they have basically the same personality. Zimmerman thinks of the Doctor as obsolete, having already created three more generations of EMHs for Starfleet since creating him. The Doctor has a cure he knows will work, based on his research in the Delta Quadrant with the Vidians and the Borg, but Zimmerman refuses to let such a primitive program treat him.

After the two of them bicker for a week, Barclay calls in Deanna Troi to try to help them work out their conflict, but even a professional psychologist can't seem to get the two to call a truce. Finally, when the Doctor's program starts to fritz, Zimmerman agrees to repair him. After lots of arguing and insults, they finally start to really talk to each other, and Zimmerman lets the Doctor treat him at last, curing him of his terminal illness.

For all I usually can't stand the Doctor, I actually enjoyed getting to see him interact with his creator, whose personality his was based on. It answers a lot questions I've asked myself, such as 'why is the Doctor like this??' - the answer, clearly, is: because Zimmerman is like this. In dealing with each other, it kind of forced them both to look in a mirror and deal with themselves, which is kind of poetic justice tbh. Honestly, they both deserve each other- they're both abrasive and arrogant and obnoxius, but somehow, when they're pitted against each other, they cancel each other out, because they're each the only person who really deserves to know what it feels like to be the target of the others ire.

The Doctor has quite a few lines that are classic 'teenager rebelling against parent' type of stuff, and it's rather funny coming from a middle aged hologram. The Doctor was actually much nicer here than he usually is on Voyager, which makes you kind of wonder why he treats the Voyager crew so badly all the time, but it helped to keep the double dose of Robert Picardo playing both roles from being too annoying. The visual effects putting them together in scenes looked very good, and he did manage to make both characters sympathetic, ultimately. The Doctor shows genuine concern while trying to save the man he sees as a father, and we see Zimmerman's sense of defeat as he takes stock of his life, where all his friends are holograms he created, except for Barclay, and what he thought would be his greatest accomplishment turned out to be his greatest source of shame, after Starfleet reassigned all of his Mark I EMHs to scrub plasma conduits. It's actually very touching to see him finally come around and realize that the Doctor still being on Voyager, doing the job he was programmed to do, means Zimmerman's work wasn't a failure after all. It's very sweet to see him finally take a little family snapshot with the Doctor before he goes back to Voyager, and it was nice to get a glimpse of life back home- or at least, near home (Jupiter is practically next door to Earth by 24th century standards.)

My only quibble with this ep is that they totally brushed aside the huge deal that is regular contact with home- I'd have loved an ep about all of the characters dealing with being able to talk to their families again, but most of the crew wasn't even in this one for more than a few seconds. I think an episode about that, and then this one after it, would have been the better choice. But as it is, it's still an entertaining episode, and that's certainly not something to sniff at.

Tl;dr: An interesting backstory episode for the Doctor, which managed to make him more sympathetic than usual. It gave us a chance to catch up with recurring characters, while adding the important development of Voyager finally having regular contact with home. A very well done episode.