Star Trek: Voyager: Message In A Bottle

UPN airs the 81st episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Andy Dick (NewsRadio) and Judson Scott (The Phoenix, Star Trek II) guest star.

Stardate not given: Seven of Nine uses an alien communications relay to locate a Federation starship in the Alpha Quadrant. Janeway decides to send the Doctor through the relay as a data stream with orders to tell Starfleet of Voyager’s misadventures. When the Doctor arrives aboard the U.S.S. Prometheus, however, he discovers that the experimental warship has been hijacked by Romulans, and the Starfleet crew are all dead. He can’t return to Voyager without drawing attention to himself, so he passes himself off as the ship’s holographic doctor when he is discovered. But he discovers that the Prometheus has its own EMH program – supposedly an improvement on the original Zimmerman model – who is hiding from the Romulans. The Doctor must put his years of unprecedented experience to work to thwart the Romulans single-handedly, while trying to prove to the next generation of the holographic doctor that there’s more to life than waiting to be activated in sick bay. Meanwhile, a lone alien tries to warn Voyager away from the communications array, and Seven tires of attempts at diplomacy and kills him, unwittingly alerting the rest of his race that Voyager is there.

teleplay by Lisa Klink
story by Rick Williams
directed by Nancy Malone
music by Paul Baillargeon

Cast: Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Robert Beltran (Chakotay), Roxann Biggs-Dawson (B’Elanna Torres), Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Garrett Wang (Ensign Harry Kim), Andy Dick (EMH-2), Judson Scott (Romulan Commander), Valerie Wildman (Romulan Officer), Tony Sears (Starfleet Officer), Tiny Ron (Hirogen), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

Notes: Judson Scott appeared in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan as Khan’s right-hand man, Joachim, as well as with Trek II co-star Merritt Butrick in the early Next Generation episode Symbiosis.

LogBook entry by Earl Green