4.14 message in a bottle

An abandoned series of alien signal relay stations allows Seven to send a message to a Starfleet ship at the far edge of the Alpha Quadrant. But a normal signal won’t work; a holo-signal must be sent, meaning the doctor. He arrives safely on the ship to discover that the crew is dead and the ship has been taken over by rogue Romulans. He accesses the local EMH, a test program that, after some convincing, agrees to help the doctor try to take over the ship. Despite lack of knowledge, they are able to invoke the ‘multi-vector attack program’ at the last second and fight off an alien attack. In the meantime, the Hirogen, who own the signal relay stations, have cut off the signal, which has taken away the doctor’s ability to return. When negotiation breaks down, Seven sends a feedback loop to zap the Hirogen and knock him out. The doctor returns with the information that Voyager has been assumed lost for 12 months. He brings a pledge from Starfleet to continue attempts to get them back and with a message from the Alpha Quadrant to Voyager: "You are not alone."

Sub-plots are also light-heartened, dealing with Seven’s rudeness and Paris’ desire to be rescued from sick bay

A very funny episode.

Great dialogue#1:
"doctor: I’ve even had sexual relations.
emh2: How is that possible? We’re not equipped--
doctor: Let’s just say I made an – addition – to my program."

Great dialogue#2:
"doctor: Stop breathing down my neck!
emh2: My breath isn’t real, it’s just a simulation.
doctor: So’s my neck, but stop it anyway!"

Nit#1: This flippant attitude toward Seven’s lack of protocol and inability to follow orders is a tremendous turnaround for Janeway and Chakotay. Torres has to lecture Chakotay on how to maintain the chain of command? Seven sends a shockwave and knocks out a Hirogen without being ordered to do so? It could have caused the outbreak of war, and all Janeway can do is tilt her head sideways as if to say, "Borg. You can’t live with ‘em, you can’t live without ‘em!"

Nit#2: Undeniably it makes for humorous story lines, but is anyone wondering why Starfleet can still only seem to manufacture obnoxious EMH programs? Granted, it makes some sense that Doc Zimmerman created his hologram in his own image, but by now wouldn’t there be some kind of QC to fix the personality of this new mach 2 model?