“Life Line” is episode twenty-four of season six of Star Trek: Voyager.
Lieutenant Barclay arrives at Jupiter Station where he heads to see Dr Zimmerman, the man who created Voyager‘s EMH. Zimmerman says it’s nice for Barclay to finally stop by. Barclay has been extremely busy; the Pathfinder project. Zimmerman hasn’t been paying much attention to the search for Voyager, but Barclay says they’re on the verge of a breakthrough. He also asks if there’s any word from Starfleet Medical. They still can’t say what’s wrong. Zimmerman is dying and there’s nothing anyone can do.
Seven of Nine is in astrometrics when a transmission comes in. She contacts the bridge and tells the captain they are getting a transmission from Starfleet. A compressed data stream, badly degraded. The captain will need to come to astrometrics.
Captain Janeway briefs the senior staff. Starfleet are using a cyclic pulsar to amplify the signals from the Midas array. They can send a transmission every 32 days. Voyager has 17 hours to send a response. Everyone will be given a chance to send something back. Barclay and Pathfinder didn’t give up.
Neelix arrives in sickbay. The Doctor has a letter, which surprises him. It’s from Barclay, who says that Zimmerman is seriously ill. Doctors can’t find the cause, even less a treatment; Barclay has included the medical files. He only has a few months to life.
The Doctor is working on Zimmerman’s medical files when Seven arrives with information he requested. The Doctor is going to send Starfleet a second opinion; he’s hoping Borg regeneration techniques might help develop a treatment. Seven comments on the resemblance between the Doctor and Zimmerman, and winds up sighing at the Doctor’s response.
The Doctor sees the captain in her ready room; Zimmerman’s symptoms are similar to the early stages of the Phage. He thinks he can develop a treatment for Zimmerman and wants to be sent back to Starfleet. No-one there is familiar with his data, and it would take them months to get up to speed, months Zimmerman doesn’t have. It’s been done before. The captain points out that used alien technology. Seven thinks the Doctor’s program can be compressed. The Doctor is willing to take the risk. Janeway is uncertain, but eventually the Doctor convinces her to allow it.
The Doctor is working in sickbay when he loses the ability to sing. Seven is removing non-essential subroutines and storing them until the Doctor can return. Eventually, he gets the point.
Barclay arrives at Zimmerman’s lab and tells Zimmerman’s assistant, Haley, that this is important. He’s brought something to show Zimmerman and activates the Doctor. Zimmerman isn’t in the mood for nostalgia. Nor is he impressed to see an EMH Mark I, even the one from Voyager who’s travelled 30,000 lightyears to help him. The Doctor’s EMH is obsolete and later models gave also failed. Though Zimmerman does comment that he never programmed the EMH for sarcasm, at one of the Doctor’s responses. You can see where the Doctor got his personality from.
The Doctor attempts to scan Zimmerman, but the latter just transfers the Doctor to the living quarters. Barclay asks how it went. After some days, the Doctor wants to leave. He still hasn’t been able to scan Zimmerman, who reprogrammed the Doctor’s tricorder. The Doctor is told that Zimmerman only teases people he likes. The Doctor thinks Zimmerman needs a counsellor, not a doctor. So, Barclay contacts Troi. He wants to speak to her in person. He needs the best to help.
The Doctor has to deal with one of the most annoying patients he’s ever dealt with. The man from whom his own personality was developed; essentially, the Doctor is treating himself. Turns out that Zimmerman has a few issues regarding the EMH Mark I; his own personality was probably not the best model to base theirs on.