This is a rather ham-handed take on whether we should use what the nazis learned from experiments on Jews to help save lives today. Rather than going for something as subtle and complicated as the real issue though they instead have the Doctor recreate the actual Cardassian who committed the atrocities and then expect people familiar with his victims to allow themselves to be operated on by him. I get that they are trying to say that the Doctor doesn't understand our humanoid prejudices and that is why he thought this was remotely a good idea, but it is a little too in your face. Also it seems like maybe he could have just deleted the personality and image of the Cardassian, presumably anybody could figure out to cut the thing open and then shock it until it lets go.
We open with the Doctor conducting a presentation of humorous things that happened to him so far and it is exactly as awful as you think. So much so that Janeway has ordered Chakotay to signal yellow alert 30 minutes in to get them all out of there, but he had to sit through 2 hours the week before and ignores the order. Janeway is heated when she gets out but before she can tell Chakotay just what she thought of his prank the ship is rocked by an energy wave. After the wave passes they track down the ship that made the wake and it is in bad shape. There is only one creature on board and it is beamed to sickbay. It is so strange the Doctor can't figure out what is going on with it, but before he can do much it leaps through a forcefield and clamps on the Torres and starts stealing her blood and other fluids. The Doctor for some reason doesn't know much about non-humanoid physiology so he decides to create an assistant, the leading expert on exobiology in fact. Unfortunately that man turns out to be a creepy Cardassian.
The Doctor starts working with the Cardassian who is named Crell Moset. Crell is excited by getting to examine such a strange creature and the Doctor is totally in awe. But he does find it odd that the Cardassian doesn't want to use any modern tools instead preferring a large scalpel. He cuts open a simulated version of the alien and finds signs of intelligence, and quickly comes up with a plan to fry the nerve center to get it to release from Torres. Meanwhile Janeway and Seven work to figure out the distress call the alien sent before they found it and eventually decide to just transmit the same signal but much more strongly. In sickbay Crell encounters one of the Bajoran crew who freaks out since Crell killed several of his family members in medical experiments. Torres also refuses to let the recreation of Crell work on her.
Time is getting short for B'Elanna so they have a meeting and Janeway decides to let the Doctor and Crell perform the procedure to remove the alien. As they begin another of the alien ships shows up but they are totally unable to communicate. In surgery Crell decides he knows best and starts increasing the power of shocks he is delivering to the aliens brain. The Doctor steps in and manages to get it to release and then save its life. Just in time Harry beams the creature to the ship that is now attacking Voyager and they disengage the attack. Janeway gives the Doctor the choice of whether to delete Crell or not and he decides he has to. Torres is of course pissed off but Janeway tells her it was the captains decision to make.
Review: Not terrible, but a little more direct at the point that most episodes. So much so that it was hard to separate what Crell did from that nazis in a way that really didn't help the story much.
4 out of 10
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