“Renaissance Man” is episode twenty-four of season seven of Star Trek: Voyager.
The Doctor is singing along to opera in the Delta Flyer when the captain enters the cockpit. 15 minutes of sleep is all she really needs. Shouldn’t he concentrate on flying? Holograms can multitask. There was a time when the Doctor would have given anything to be flesh and blood, but being a hologram is far superior. No offence. But he enjoys the company of organics and found spending time with the captain a pleasure and would enjoy doing more. Then the Flyer shakes from subspace eddies.
B’Elanna is working in engineering when Tom contacts her to look at a shuttle. She’s busy, but agrees. However, Tom isn’t in uniform and has a lunch for them. For a romantic meal under the glow of a red giant. B’Elanna says that’s sweet, but she’s too busy. Tom says this may be their last chance to be alone for 18 years. She’s still too busy.
Systems on the bridge are flickering and Harry is told it’s from a pulse directed at their transceiver array from the Delta Flyer. There’s no response to hails from the Flyer and Harry thinks the pulse might be an encoded comm signal. Put on the screen and it’s the captain. The Flyer‘s comm system is damaged and she wants to meet with Chakotay in her ready room as soon as she arrives.
The captain tells Chakotay they were attacked by a species, the R’Kaal, decades ahead of them in technology. They could destroy Voyager before they even knew they were there. They control thousands of parsecs to the edge of the quadrant and are eco extremists who believe ordinary warp engines damage space. They’ve been travelling through R’Kaal territory for weeks and as punishment R’Kaal law demands that Voyager be dismantled. The captain has bargained them down to surrendering the warp core and settling on a Class M planet, so that they aren’t destroyed by the R’Kaal’s cloaked fleet. Chakotay wants to try something else but the captain doesn’t and she wants to keep it quiet.
The captain then goes to see B’Elanna and asks if it can be ejected and towed safely at warp. In theory, yes. Then modify the Flyer to do that. B’Elanna contacts Chakotay afterwards.
Chakotay enters the bridge and speaks quietly to the captain. She seems to be concentrating on something else, someone only she can hear. Then says she has a headache and is going to her quarters. Chakotay heads to sickbay, which is empty, and asks the Doctor to report to sickbay immediately. The Doctor beams in. Chakotay did say immediately. Chakotay is worried about the captain. The Doctor says he was put offline when the aliens boarded the Flyer and was reactivated after the interrogation. Chakotay wants him to do a more thorough exam of the captain.
In astrometrics, Chakotay asks Seven if she could detefct6 a fleet of cloaked ships. In theory, yes. Then the bridge contacts Chakotay; the R’Kaal are hailing them. Chakotay asks it be put through; the Supreme Archon demands they eject their warp core as agreed in 18 hours or the ship will be destroyed.
The Doctor has given the captain a clean bill of health and Chakotay heads to the captain’s quarters. There’s no answer and she strides down the corridor. Inside her quarters, the captain tells Chakotay she’s told him all she can. He mentions an incident from her past. Turns out he fabricated it on the spot. This isn’t the captain. She’s erected a dampening field stopping him from contacting Tuvok and tranquilises him, then sticks him in the morgue.
The captain heads to sickbay and says she can’t do her job with the two of them talking in her head. Then tinkers with the Doctor’s mobile emitter, which she’s wearing. Because it is the Doctor. The Doctor wants to speak to the captain, who is being held by two Overlookers. The R’Kaal don’t exist. One of them wants some of Voyager‘s bioneural gel packs. Then Tuvok contacts Chakotay. The Doctor pretends to be him, then changes into him.
It seems the Overlookers took Captain Janeway hostage so that the Doctor would work for them and they’re monitoring him. The captain tries to convince the Overlookers that the Doctor will outsmart them. In “Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy”, the Overlookers contacted the Hierarchy before making any decision. These do not, because they stole the ship. The Doctor is having to take on the roles of more and more crew as it’s being discovered something is not right. He’s trying to save the captain, but she doesn’t want the warp core exchanged for her.