“Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy” is episode four of season six of Star Trek: Voyager.
The Doctor is in the mess hall, singing opera to the assembled crew. They seem to be enjoying it. Then Tuvok starts crying, which is uncommon to say the least. Then laughing, then he collapses and, when Tom checks on him, turns violent. The Doctor, working it into his song, says that Tuvok is undergoing pon farr and how they are going to deal with him. Tom gets a hypospray and tosses it to the Doctor, who sedates Tuvok. Everyone cheers and throws flowers.
The Doctor is actually in sickbay and B’Elanna is trying to get his attention. She suggests running a diagnostic on his hearing subroutines. The Doctor’s n hearing is fine; he was letting his mind wander. B’Elanna hands him a PADD and says if he isn’t working on something, he should deactivate himself and save them energy. The Doctor thought he was going on the away team. The planet looks safe on long-range sensors, and if there are any problems, they will use the transporter. Check to see if there’s anything they missed. The Doctor really wanted to go. Maybe next time. If he likes, B’Elanna can snap a few images for him. Don’t bother. He will just use his imagination.
Chakotay arrives on the bridge and asks where the nebula came from. It apparently only showed up a few minutes ago. Chakotay has a letter from the Doctor. A formal grievance. The Doctor is suffering from a failure to acknowledge his sentience, wants the ability for personal advancement and doesn’t like people being rude to him. The captain looks at Tom. The Doctor even wants to be made captain in the event of a catastrophic emergency. He wants a formal response. Tuvok states that either he or Chakotay can deal with this, but the captain says no, she will do it personally.
Within the nebula they are passing is a ship. It’s scanning Voyager. The ship’s commander asks why that is being down; Voyager has already been determined to be an unacceptable risk and it appears in no database and initial attempts to scan the interior failed. Why are resources being wasted. The crewman, Phlox, thinks it can be done. The commander thinks the risk is unacceptable. Phlox has already transmitted his proposal to the Hierarchy. They determine the risk acceptable.
The senior staff is being briefed in the conference room on the planet. Only, B’Elanna is playing footsie with the Doctor, Seven is asking him for dinner by message and the captain wants the Doctor to rub a tender part.
The Doctor is in the conference room, and the captain is there, but they are talking about his demands. He wants to be allowed to advance like any other member of the crew. He’s a program, so multitasking is in his nature and he can do other things as well. Plus, he wants to be the Emergency Command Hologram. Janeway thinks it’s an interesting idea, but would take months of work. She will recommend Starfleet assign a team of engineers to look into the proposal. When they return to the Alpha Quadrant.
The Doctor leaves and arrives int eh cargo bay. Where a celebration for him becoming the ECH is being held. On the alien ship, Phlox states he couldn’t’ get past the emergency sensors, but has tapped into a holographic crewman. They can see everything he does. Only what the Doctor is seeing isn’t real.
Phlox explains the Doctor to his commander. They have learned a lot about the ship. The reason it isn’t in the database because they are not from this quadrant. Lost and alone. Which means they have no backup and no-one to call for help. In a few more hours, they will know everything they need to know. The Doctor is remarkable; he can access the entire ship and the captain even made him an emergency commander. Though the link drops out intermittently.
The Delta Flyer is heading down to the planet when they report they’ve been hit. Tuvok picks up a Borg vessel, a sphere, then Borg technology starts appearing on him. Everyone starts becoming drones. Phlox watches as the Doctor takes command, saves the crew and blasts the sphere into pieces. The aliens are shocked.
The Doctor’s distractions are becoming noticeable. Worse, he’s not entirely sure what’s real and what’s not, now. He explains what he did. He decided to reprogram himself to allow daydreams. They are now happening whether he wants them to or not. The Doctor has been tinkering with his program. Again. Things have gone wrong. Again.
The aliens seem almost laughable, with their behaviour and their need to refer every slightly unusual action to their Hierarchy, if it weren’t for the fact they also have access to technology advanced enough to make them very dangerous.