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Phage (episode)edit

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Real World article
(written from a Production point of view)
"Phage"
VOY, Episode 1x05
Production number: 105
First aired: 6 February 1995
← 4th of 168 produced in VOY →
← 4th of 168 released in VOY →
  {{{nNthReleasedInSeries_Remastered}}}th of 168 released in VOY Remastered  
← 347th of 727 released in all →
Teleplay By
Skye Dent and Brannon Braga

Story By
Timothy DeHaas

Directed By
Winrich Kolbe
48532.4 (2371)
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Neelix's lungs are removed by a race that suffers from a deadly phage that is slowly destroying their population.

Contents

[edit] Summary

[edit] Teaser

After identifying a rogue planetoid that Neelix says has dilithium available for mining, Voyager is en route as Captain Janeway and Chakotay are discussing rations and what they had for breakfast. Janeway has not yet had anything, and is on her way to her private mess hall where she finds that Neelix has converted it to a galley, and is preparing meals for the crew. She tells him that he did not have permission to do so but realizes that given their current replicator and energy issues, she might not have much of a choice.

Chakotay interrupts their conversation as they near the planetoid and calls for her. Neelix goes with her, leaving the duties to Ensign Parsons who is rather distraught at the mess left for him.

Janeway arrives on the bridge, and Harry Kim confirms that there are dilithium readings available, while B'Elanna Torres shows subterranean caves with an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere. Chakotay confirms the readings, showing it as a Class M planet. Precise readings are difficult at best, but Torres estimates about 500 to 1,000 metric tons of raw ore down on the planet. Janeway then sends Chakotay down to the planet's caves with an away team, and advises Torres that she'd better get her refinery on line to prepare for all the ore they are about to bring up. Kim, Chakotay and Neelix (after begging to go) beam down and begin searching for the dilithium.

After beaming down to the caverns, Chakotay discovers several large pockets in the vicinity. They split up and start taking geological scans, and are advised to keep their comm channels open at all times, while staying within fifty meters of their split-off point.

Neelix, while following his tricorder's readings, sweeps the direction in which he's chosen to search. As he's walking along, a wall disperses behind him to reveal a corridor protected by a holographic image and force field, while the occupant is seen leaving his hiding place to go after Neelix.

[edit] Act One

Chakotay contacts Kim and explains that according to his tricorder readings he should be seeing the dilithium, but that he in fact cannot see anything. Kim, meanwhile, is running a geostratal analysis of the rock, coming to pretty much the same conclusion: no dilithium. Neelix then contacts Chakotay saying that he's found something: a large cavern about twenty meters from his position. Reading a huge dilithium formation, even against Chakotay's warning, he proceeds anyway. Upon entering the cavern, Neelix finds, just like the others, realizes that there is nothing. Exasperated, and scanning about with his tricorder and his arm-mounted flashlight, Chakotay voices his assumption and says that he's had enough. He then calls for Kim and Neelix to head back to the entry point so that they can return to the ship.

Neelix interrupts Chakotay, saying that he has found some unusual readings from a rock face. Traces of organic energy are present, and seemingly about two meters into the rock. Chakotay is urgent in his warning, telling Neelix to get back to where he and Kim are. Ignoring them, Neelix turns away from the rock face as the field disperses and shows a figure standing with a device pointed at Neelix. Unaware of the newcomer, Neelix spins to face the newly-opened hallway, in shock that there's no longer a rock wall. The figure had ducked away into the shadows and lurks close by. As Neelix walks toward the entry to the corridor, the figure once again raises the device behind him. As Neelix spins around to see him, he fires at Neelix, removing his lungs.

Chakotay rushes off toward Neelix's location, calling for Kim to follow. They find Neelix on the ground, flailing about, obviously in some kind of shock and unable to breathe. Beaming directly to sickbay, The Doctor orders a blood-gas infuser. Ordering Kim to hold Neelix still, he injects Neelix as he starts slipping into a coma. The Doctor states to Chakotay that Neelix does not have much time.

Janeway takes an away team down to the planetoid to investigate. It does not take long until Janeway discovers and breaks through the highly-sophisticated force field masked as a rock.

On board Voyager, The Doctor creates holographic lungs for Neelix, but Neelix won't be able to move even the slightest because the computer cannot compensate for any body movements whatsoever.

[edit] Act Two

Back on the planetoid, the away team discovers an organ storage facility. They find a door leading out of the facility where Janeway's tricorder picks up life signs twenty meters ahead. The aliens they meet are Vidiian. This Vidiian manages to escape by erecting a force field that the away team cannot disrupt. Janeway picks up some kind of device the Vidiian dropped. The Vidiian manages to leave the planet and Voyager lays in a course for pursuit.

[edit] Act Three

The Viidians try to escape in a hollowed out asteroid with Voyager in pursuit. Janeway orders Tom Paris to enter the asteroid, but once inside, discovers numerous reflections of the Vidiian ship and Voyager. Unable to tell which one of the ships is the real one, Tuvok devises a plan to use Voyager's phasers on low power like a search light to find the hostile ship.

[edit] Act Four

Once found, the Vidiians surrender and come aboard Voyager. They explain that their civilization has been plagued for centuries by a terrible disease, the "phage," and that as a result they often use body parts of other species to replenish and/or replace their own degraded ones. The Vidiian pair in custody state they have already transformed Neelix's lung for transplantation into one of them and thus are unable to retransplant Neelix's lungs back into him. Janeway is outraged at what the Vidiians have done, but she is not willing to kill the Vidiian to save her crew-member, therefore, she decides to spare their lives. She, however, warns them that next time, even the slightest transgression against the Voyager and its crew will be met with the deadliest force. Grateful at the Captain's generosity, the Vidiians offer their extensive medical knowledge to help try and save Neelix. They realize that every one of the senior staff that has been scanned is capable of donating a lung, but it is Kes who steps in as the donor. The operation is a success and Captain Janeway releases the two Vidiians.

[edit] Log entries

  • "Captain's log, stardate 48532.4. We’re on our way to a rogue planetoid which Mr. Neelix tells us is an extremely rich source of raw dilithium. If he’s right, this could go a long way toward easing our power shortage."
  • "Captain's log, supplemental. We are pursuing the alien ship from the moon. They are not responding to hails, and it appears that our two ships are evenly matched for speed."
  • "Captain's log, supplemental. The aliens have successfully transplanted one of Kes's lungs into Neelix. The dampening field has been deactivated, and I have allowed them to beam back to their vessel. We are resuming a course home."

[edit] Memorable quotes

"We don't know how it happened... but someone has surgically removed his lungs."

- Janeway, to Kes, about Neelix's condition


"They may have found a way to ignore the moral implications of what you are doing, but I have no such luxury. I don't have the freedom to kill you to save another. My culture finds that to be a reprehensible and entirely unacceptable act. If we were closer to home I would lock you up, I'd turn you over to my authorities for trial. But I don't even have that ability here, and I am not prepared to carry you forever in our brig. So I see no other alternative, but to let you go."

- Kathryn Janeway, yelling at Dereth and Motura


"If I ever encounter your kind again, I will do whatever is necessary to protect my people from this harvesting of yours. Any aggressive actions against this ship and its crew will be met by the deadliest force. Is that clear?"

- Kathryn Janeway, telling Dereth and Motura to take a message to their people


"The man drives a 700,000-ton starship, so someone thinks he'd make a good medic."

- The Doctor, on Tom Paris


"First they tell me there's no doctor, so I have to be on call 24 hours a day and then they tell me there's no nurses, so I have no one to assist me."
"I thought Tom Paris was assigned to you."
"Like I said, no one to assist me."

- The Doctor and Kes


"Indefinitely? You mean I... could be in here the rest of my life?"
"Yes."
"But we're trying to find the aliens that did this to you. The captain is doing everything she can."
"Well... hrm, if I'm going be in here a while, now is as good a time as any to tell you. Your ceiling is hideous."
"I didn't design the room, I just work here."
"Something with a bit of color would help, maybe a nice tapestry or a painting. Could you dim the lights a little?"
"I'm a doctor, mister Neelix, not a decorator."

- Neelix, The Doctor, and Kes


"According to my scans, you are not here."
"Believe me, I wish I weren't."

- Dereth and The Doctor


"He's just one big hormone walking around the ship."

- Neelix, warning Kes about Tom Paris


"Don't worry, I'm not going to kiss you. I'm only adjusting the restraint."
"I'll try to contain my disappointment."

- Neelix's sarcastic response to The Doctor

[edit] Background Information

  • The exterior of the asteroid the Vidiians used for cover is a reuse of the asteroid shown in TNG: "The Pegasus".
  • This episode marks the first appearance of Neelix's galley. He creates the galley by converting Janeway's private dining room, doing so without permission.
  • This episode marks the first appearance of Vidiians. Both cast and crew believed that they were the first villains to be truly successful. In the words of Brannon Braga, "that was a great concept for an alien species. Very rarely do you stumble on something that has real resonance. The Vidiians started off with "What if the Black Plague had never gone away? How would humanity have been changed if the entire world had to live with the Black Plague? How would culture have changed? How would we be?" And that led to these people who were highly advanced, enlightened people who just had a horrible disease. And then it led to great-looking aliens, really creepy. That was a great Star Trek villain, because they're creepy and frightening and have a unique, scary M.O. but they also have a deeper philosophical underpinning to them. That's what makes for a good old-fashioned Star Trek villain." The name originally scripted for the Vidiians was "Vaphorans." Dereth clearly mouths the word "Vaphoran" in Voyager's transporter room, but "Vidiian" was subsequently looped over it. Broadcast closed captions uses "Vaphoran". (Star Trek: Voyager Companion)
  • It is during this episode that Neelix loses both his lungs, only to have one donated to him by Kes. Keeping with continuity, the fact that Neelix has only one lung is never forgotten throughout the entire seven-year run.

[edit] Video and DVD releases

[edit] Links and references

[edit] Starring

[edit] Also starring

[edit] Guest stars

[edit] Co-star

[edit] Uncredited co-stars

[edit] References

47; asparagus; biobed; bio-probe; bio-scanner; blood-gas infuser; captain's private dining room; class 3 organism; counselor; cytoplasmic stimulator; dampening field; darvot fritter; dilithium; dilithium matrix; educator; egg; eggs Benedict; electromagnetic interference; explorer; holographic emitter; honatta; hydroponics; identification matrix; immunotechnology; impulse reactor; Intrepid-class; ion trail; isotropic restraint; KLS stabilizer; liver; magnetic containment field; mess hall; neural resonator; neutronium; oatmeal; Ocampa; phage; phase modulation; phaser; physiology; pulmonary scanner; quantum imaging scanner; ration pack 5; Rectilian vulture; respiratory system; sculptor; spinal column; strawberry; Talaxian; tomato; transporter; tricorder operations manual; type 3 phaser; Vidiian; Vidiian Sodality; Vidiian starship (2371); Yallitian


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