This isn't how I expected to feel, but Barclay was pretty much totally unnecessary to this episode. Honestly it should have been about just the Doctor and Zimmerman and maybe Troi since she is the one who actually figured out the problem. It did seem like maybe a bad idea to leave Voyager without a doctor for a month, but I do understand the Doctors desire to save his creator. Clearly the writers were starting to run short of ideas for things to happen in the Delta quadrant as they start to have more episode with part taking place on earth. I suspect they had decided by this point that at the end of the next season they would get home.
We begin with Barclay showing up at Jupiter station to meet with the irascible Dr. Zimmerman, creator of the EMH program. Zimmerman is especially irritable since it seems he is dying of an incurable disease. Barclay next sends a message to Voyager telling them that every 29 days they will be able to send brief messages back and forth and includes a bunch of messages to the crew. One of them is to the Doctor with the news that Zimmerman is dying. The Doctor starts looking at the information and decides that he can cure him using some of the techniques he learned from the Borg. Janeway is resistant to his plan to send himself back but he talks her into it. Back on Jupiter Station Barclay returnst to Zimmerman's quarters excited and brings the Doctor online, but Zimmerman is unimpressed and refuses to be treated by a primitive program like that. Zimmerman eventually agrees to be scanned but messes with the tricorder which really upsets the Doctor and the two refuse to work with each other.
Barclay's big contribution to the episode is that he calls Troi who makes special arrangements (not clear how, but whatever, episode) and makes it to Jupiter station soon after. She doesn't have much luck at first but finally figures out that his assistant is a hologram too and comes up with a plan. The Doctor starts to malfunction and Zimmerman rushes to action to fix him. We learn as the two talk that he is very upset that the Mark I EMH's are now scrubbing plasma manifolds with his face on them and this is why he is so hostile to the Doctor. He finally agrees to be treated. It seems to be working and he agrees to more treatments but it is time for the Doctor to return to Voyager.
Review: A fun episode with some odd choices, but overall pretty good. Actually looking forward to how the wrap all this up.
6 out of 10
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