6.13 virtuoso

Voyager accidentally damages the ship of a technologically superior – and obnoxious – alien race called the Komar. When the doctor starts singing in sick bay, they are amazed and enthralled, having never heard music before. But it’s not music in general that captivates them, it is the doctor in particular. He performs in a couple of concerts and becomes flooded with fan mail and fans. He even begins to act like a diva – when he calls Captain Janeway ‘Katherine’ she realizes he is going too far. He enjoys his celebrity so much that when the Komar ask him to stay (and the female who asks him seems to be attracted to him) he decides to leave Voyager. There is a heated discussion about this with the doctor and Janeway in a great scene, and, in another scene, Seven is noticeably hurt that the doctor would leave. But the woman who invited him to stay views him as a sophisticated program – nothing more – and she uses her technical abilities to create a similar-looking hologram that has superior singing abilities. The doctor changes his mind about leaving, much to the delight and amusement of Janeway, and, in the final scene, Seven presents a final piece of fan mail to the doctor – written by her.

This is a humorous and entertaining episode, but for some reason it wasn’t compelling or involving enough to distract me from guessing at which way the plot would turn. It seemed obvious that the Komar would try to steal the doctor (which they did not). It seemed obvious that the Komar female’s big surprise would be a clone of the doctor (which it was).

Great line from the doctor to a fan: "Please accept this complimentary 8 by 10 by 4 singing holographic image of me."

The Big Nit: Somehow, the Komar have never experienced any kind of music before. An interesting concept, but how possible is this? Because they have a closed society. Okay, fair enough. But wait: listen to the way the Komar speak. Listen to the changes in pitch, the sing-song quality of their speech. The concept of this episode starts by assuming that a thick line exists between ‘speaking’ and ‘singing’. It does not. It is a short jump, a jump that would happen naturally.