Episode no. Season 2
Episode 19 Written by Kenneth Biller Production code 136 | Directed by Cliff Bole Featured music Paul Baillargeon | |
Original air date February 26, 1996 (1996-02-26) | ||
"Lifesigns" is the 35th episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the 19th episode of the second season. It has an average fan rating of 4.2/5 on the official Star Trek website as of September, 2009.
Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Federation starship Voyager during its journey home to Earth, having been stranded tens of thousands of light-years away. The episode centers around a Vidiian woman which the Doctor works to save.
This episode was previously known as "Untitled Doctor" and "Magnetism". The finally adopted title has a dual meaning: the lifesigns the doctor finds in the body of Denara, the Vidiian woman, and his own growing self-awareness as a sentient life form through the experience of romance.
Plot
Paris arrives late to the bridge as a distress call is picked up. Voyager beams aboard the dying body of a Vidiian woman. The Doctor works to save her in Sickbay. He creates a holographic body of her to assist him; a hologram which looks and acts the way she would if she were healthy. Her name is Denara Pel and she is a physician, ready and able to help heal the disease-ravaged body on the bed. The Doctor soon realizes he is falling in love with Dr. Pel, but has trouble sorting out his feelings toward the vibrant hologram and the real, dying patient.
Torres' past mistreatment at the hands of the Vidiians causes her to be reluctant to help Dr. Pel—Klingon DNA has been shown to be resistant to the Phage, the disease afflicting the Vidiians— but she soon relents.
Sandrine's bar makes a reappearance, a long-standing holo-location that many members of the crew enjoy.