Recap / Star Trek Voyager S 1 E 4 "Phage"

The one where Neelix ends up in an iron lung.

Voyager is en route to a rogue planetoid to harvest some dilithium crystals. When Janeway arrives at her personal dining room, she discovers that Neelix has converted it into a kitchen. Before Janeway can order him to get his shit outta her dining room, the ship arrives at the planetoid. Neelix begs to join the away mission, and Janeway lets him go. But within the caverns of the planetoid, no one can find any dilithium in spite of their sensor readings showing it all around them. Neelix goes off alone and gets ambushed by a strange alien, leaving him convulsing. The away team beam him directly to sick bay, where the Doctor discovers that his lungs have been removed.

With Neelix in stasis, the Doctor discards a number of treatment options before hatching an idea to produce holographic lungs for him, but he would need to remain absolutely still and not leave the sick bay's holographic emitter range. With Kes at Neelix's bedside and Paris helping, the Doctor goes through with his plan, and Neelix begins breathing. Neelix takes the prospect of being permanently immobilized in sick bay as well as possible. After a bout of jealousy over Paris's supposed interest in Kes, Neelix urges her to leave him and live her life, but she won't hear of it.

Meanwhile, Janeway leads an away team to investigate the scene of the crime, where they discover a hidden organ harvesting lab. Inside, the alien drops its organ-stealing device and sets off on a ship, so Janeway and crew beam back and give chase. The alien ship flees inside a hollowed-out asteroid. Against Tuvok's warnings, Janeway orders Voyager to follow. Inside, the ship is hiding among numerous reflections of itself, but a sweep of the ship's phasers on low power reveals the true ship. Janeway has its two occupants beamed aboard.

The aliens are Vidiians, who all suffer from a disease called the phage that requires them to constantly replace their organs. The lungs they stole from Neelix have been modified and cannot be repurposed back to Neelix without killing their intended recipient. Janeway is unwilling to kill the Vidiian to save Neelix and can't inflict any punishment that seems right, so she simply tells them to warn their people to stay away from them from now on. In thanks for her mercy, the Vidiians offer to share their medical knowledge to help Neelix. Working together, they discover a way to transplant a crewmember's lung into Neelix, and Kes volunteers. Neelix is saved, and Kes replaces Paris as the Doctor's new assistant.

---

This episode has the following tropes:

• Abandoned Mine: Or so they think. The planetoid is all mined out, and the dilithium they're detecting is being used to power the hidden Vidiian lab.
• Amusing Alien: Neelix, until his lungs get ripped out. He tries hard to maintain a sense of Gallows Humor re his predicament, but it doesn't last.
• And I Must Scream: The only way for Neelix to survive is to remain immobilized in a biobed for the rest of his life.
• Badass Boast: Janeway in full Tranquil Fury Mama Bear mode.
  Janeway: 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 or its crew will be met by the deadliest force. Is that clear?
• The Bait: The dilithium traces were planted their to lure victims and steal their organs.
• Bizarre Alien Biology:
  • Yallitaians apparently have three spinal columns.
  • Talaxians apparently have unusually complicated lungs, to the point that the Doctor cannot replicate them organically.
• The Casanova: Neelix fears Tom will put the moves on Kes now that he's immobilized, describing him as "One big hormone walking the ship!"
• Cloaking Device: The Vidiian Mad Scientist Laboratory is hidden from the rest of the cave system via cloaks and forcefields.
• Cloning Body Parts: Discussed. Neelix cannot have his lungs replicated, as they're too complicated. This forces the Doctor to develop holographic lungs as a temporary measure until the crew can either track down his stolen organs or find a compatible donor.
• Continuity Nod: One of the organs in the organ repository is the liver of a Kazon, the aliens from "Caretaker".
• Closest Thing We Got: The Doctor complains about being stuck with Tom Paris as The Medic, but later vents to Kes over his frustration that he has to fulfill the roles of Chief Medical Officer, Nurse and Ship's Counselor, despite only being programmed for short-term emergency medical use.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Neelix is forced to lay in a sick bay biobed, enclosed by the emitters that create holographic lungs for him. It's clearly a stand in for the early 20th century iron lung medical device.
• Everything Sensor: More of a Do Everything Sensor — the Vidiian device can not only do a detailed medical scan, it can instantly beam someone's internal organs out of their body.
• Face Palm: Janeway when she finds Neelix has turned her private dining room into a kitchen.
• Foreshadowing: Neelix states he knows "a few Yallitaian engineers who'd give all three of their spinal columns to know where this planet is!" It turns out, visitors to this planet really do end up giving away their body parts!
• Forgotten Phlebotinum: The Vidiian scanner that the crew recover is never mentioned again, despite being far more sophisticated than any tricorder. Althhough since Dereth uses it find a compatible donor for Neelix, presumably he takes it back with him at the end of the episode.
• Fresh Clue: When the away team is investigating the Vidiians' hideout Janeway's tricorder detects a heat signature indicating there was a humanoid life form in that room in the last few minutes.
• From Bad to Worse: Janeway jokes with Chakotay about the meal she'd like to have, then gripes about having to settle for Starfleet emergency rations. Then she enters her private dining room to find Neelix has turned it into a kitchen and is cooking up an alien lunch.
• Gadgeteer Genius: B'Elanna is working on a ship-based dilithium refinery. The Doctor comes up with the idea of Hard Light holographic lungs.
• Hall of Mirrors: The Vidiian ship hides inside a hollow asteroid lined with reflective surfaces.
• The Heart (or The Lung, as it happens): Kes reassures Neelix and gives a Rousing Speech to the Doctor. Later she donates one of her lungs to cure Neelix.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: The Vidiians were cultured and peaceful before the Phage ravaged their species.
• I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: "I'm a Doctor, Mr Neelix, not a decorator."
• Inconvenient Itch: Especially since Neelix can't move any part of his body below his chin more than two microns.
• Infinite Supplies: Averted; the Away Team is searching the mine for dilithium, and plans are being made to set up a make-shift refinery on board Voyager. Neelix has scrounged parts for a kitchen as everyone is tired of eating replicator rations. Still...
• Intangible Man: Humorously demonstrated by the Doctor when he suddenly slaps Tom Paris, then invites him to take a swing. Tom eagerly does so, only for his hand to pass through the Doctor's body. This is how the Hard Light lungs work, as they need to keep out fluids yet let in oxygen.
• Lab Coat Of Science And Medicine: The long grey coats of the Vidiians.
• Lethal Chef: Neelix's kitchen is in a perpetual state of catastrophe, though we don't learn whether the food actually tastes good.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: The Away Team searching for dilithium.
• Mercy Kill: Motura would consider a death sentence to be this.
• Milking the Giant Cow: The actors playing the two Vidiians. "It is the ooonly way we have to fight the Phaaaage." Presumably given their extensive facial makeup, the actors figure they have to use more emphatic gestures.
• No Time to Explain: The Doctor says this to Kes, who insists on hearing what risky procedure he's trying. The Doctor replies with his usual Brutal Honesty, making Kes clearly wish she hadn't asked.
• Organ Theft: Neelix has his lungs stolen via Teleport Gun, forcing the Doctor to create temporary Hard Light substitutes. The Vidiians actively engaged in this as it was the only way for them to survive the Phage that afflicted their entire race, though they do say they try to limit such theft to taking organs from corpses.
• Pet the Dog: After Janeway agrees to spare the Vidiians, despite their villainy in attacking Neelix and robbing him of organs he needs to survive, Motura shows empathy by pushing Dereth into saving Neelix's life. The latter had claimed there was no point in examining Neelix, but Motura counters that because their medical technology is so advanced, they may find a solution — and after what Dereth did, it's the least they could do.
• The Plague: The Phage. It is described as a disease that not only attacks every organ and system in the Vidiians' bodies, it even goes after their genetic structure. And because it is adaptable, every attempt they have made to halt or cure it has failed. As a result, thousands die every day, and they've suffered from it for millennia.
• Proud Scholar Race: Before the Phage, the Vidiians were known for their high levels of education, artistry, and interest in exploration. Now, in their desperation to survive, all such scholarly acumen has been reduced simply to medical technology futilely working to stay ahead of the disease, undermining their morality and any pride in the process.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: When Neelix starts to panic over his confinement. "I want...to be...released!"
• Quick Draw: Tuvok when Dereth points his Teleport Gun at him. Dereth informs him it's set for scan only.
• Reaction Shot: On the pretty blonde transporter chief, just before we're shown the Vidiians for the first time.
• Recycled Premise: Instead of "Spock's Brain," it's "Neelix's Lungs"!
• Robbing the Dead: The Vidiians say they prefer to do this, unfortunately there isn't always a fresh cadaver around.
• The Scrounger: Neelix didn't get prior approval for turning the Captain's private dining room into a kitchen, he just scrounged the materials from various parts of the ship and went ahead. Janeway is not pleased.
• Simple Solution Won't Work: After the Doctor stabilizes Neelix temporarily, another character suggests installing cybernetic lungs to replace the ones the Vidiians took, but the Doctor replies with a handwave that Talaxian lungs are too complex to replicate properly with the equipment on hand.
• The Snark Knight: The Doctor spends the episode in full snark mode, much of it aimed at Tom Paris.

  EMH: (re Paris being his nurse) The man drives a 700,000 tonne starship, so somebody thinks he'd make a good medic.

  EMH: First they tell me there's no doctor, so I have to be on call twenty four hours a day. And then they tell me there are no nurses so I have no one to assist me.

  Kes: I thought Tom Paris was assigned to you.

  EMH: Like I said, no one to assist me.

  • And when he adjusts the settings on Neelix's bio-bed.
    EMH: Don't worry, I'm not going to kiss you, I'm only adjusting the restraint.
    Neelix: I'll try to contain my disappointment.
  • Dereth scans the crew for compatible donors for Neelix, but frowns when he reaches the Doctor.
    Dereth: Strange. According to my readings, you are not here.
    EMH: Believe me, I wish I weren't.
• Species of Hats: Played for horror. The Phage has plagued the Vidiians for two millennia, so it's hardly surprising their entire society is affected by it, and not in a good way.
• Spikes of Villainy: The Vidiian medical scanner has a pair of sinister looking prongs. Lampshaded in everyone's reaction when Dereth scans them at the end.
• Strapped to an Operating Table: Neelix is immobilised on the biobed because if his holographic lungs are more than a couple of microns out of alignment with the rest of his body they won't work.
• Take a Third Option: Janeway tells the Vidiians that if they were in the Alpha Quadrant, she'd arrest them and turn them over to Starfleet for trial, but she can't do that here. Likewise, tossing them in the brig is a non-starter because Voyager doesn't have the resources to support prisoners longterm. In the end, she decides to let them go...after warning them that if they ever come after Voyager again, she'll shoot first and ask questions never.
• Tempting Fate: Janeway is looking forward to enjoying a meal while griping that she's stuck with emergency rations, only to find Neelix has turned her private dining room into a kitchen. At the end of the episode Janeway tells Neelix they'll keep the kitchen, at least until they can get the replicators back on-line. This is the start of a Running Gag involving Neelix as a Cordon Bleugh Chef, and despite this his kitchen becomes a permanent fixture on board Voyager.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: For once, this has a good effect. Motura convinces Dereth that in exchange for Janeway not throwing them out the airlock, they should help the man whose lungs they stole. Dereth is able to use their superior medical technology to adapt a lung donated by Kes.
• When He Smiles: The Doctor maintains his Dr. Jerk persona, except for when he wakes up Kes from the transplant operation with a genuine smile.
• Wicked Cultured: Motura is a sculptor, while Dereth talks with an upper class accent and snobbish tone.
• The World's Expert (on Getting Killed): Neelix is the one who foolishly lets himself get separated and ambushed. You'd think that as the local guide, salvager, and small-time criminal, he'd be the one to be cautious.

---