In theory the idea of having the Doctor alter his program in a way that makes him dangerous is really interesting. Unfortunately instead of going the subtle route they decided to make him a mustache twirling villain. I am actually stoked they decided to keep the breakup with Neelix that Kes went through in Warlord even though she broke things off while being possessed by an evil warlord guy. Also it is totally unclear why the ship is stopped for so long in this one place. I guess they are unloading medical supplies? How many spare supplies do they have? I realize they stay just long enough for Kes to fall in love, but it felt kinda forced.
We open with some random alien trying to impress Janeway with his tales of adventure but he gets shut down by Zahir who shows up with Kes. He is a pilot she has been working with to unload supplies and she is clearly really into him. On the holodeck the Doctor is talking to Neelix about his experiments with historical figures to try and learn to build a more complete personality for himself. Kes shows up he dismisses her love as something she should handle with a cold bath. Later with Torres he is very hands on in a super creepy way and he admits to her he has been adding personality subroutines from his historical figures to his own program and she tells him he needs to stop as it is both weird and also probably dangerous. The Doctor shuts himself down and we cut to the planet where Kes is walking on a moonlit path with Zahir. They kiss as a hooded figure watches from the shadows.
After she returns to Voyager people keep pointing out to Kes that she is late or behind on stuff and she arranges a meeting with the captain to discuss leaving Voyager to live with Zahir. On the planet Zahir is meeting with Tuvok to discuss their passage forward through dangerous space. Later that night while alone Zahir is attacked by the hooded figure. He returns to the bar and attacks the bar tender demanding passage off the planet. Finally we see the hooded figure is the Doctor. On the ship and apparently back to normal the Doctor sends Kes down to treat Zahir. Torres shows up to work on the Doctors program but he shimmers a bit and knocks her out off camera. Tuvok shows up and finds her unconscious and alone so he activates the Doctor who explains she must have had an allergic reaction while working on his program. After Tuvok leaves he loads up a bunch of hypos and goes back to Torres.
He tries torturing Torres but it doesn't work so he leaves for the holodeck. Tuvok investigates the attack on Zahir and suspects the bartender. When he goes to the scene of the crime though he finds traces of a holo signal. Kes meanwhile finds the Doctor in the holodeck with a bunch of broken programs. He takes her hostage and beams down to the planet with her. The ship he tried to book isn't available for some reason though and he ends up fleeing onto a cliff face with Kes. They are confronted by Chakotay and Tuvok but he decides to jump instead and they are only saved by a quick beam out. The Doctor is returned to normal and Kes decides to dump Zahir and stay with ship.
Review: An interesting idea that didn't get treated with the subtlty it really needed. Still not a terrible episode. The scene with the beam out while falling seems like something they maybe paid attention to in the reboots.
5 out of 10
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