The episode opens with a narration by The Doctor as an image of himself appears in an empty holodeck and sits at an antique writer's desk.
With a satisfied smile, The Doctor continues on to Chapter One...
As for the rest of the ship, the senior staff is waiting with anticipation for the results of "Operation Watson", a joint effort between Voyager and Starfleet Command to establish a brief, but stable two-way communications link between them. The plan goes perfectly, with Janeway receiving heartfelt congratulations from Lieutenant Barclay and Admiral Paris live on the viewscreen.
The quantum singularity facilitating the link only works for 11 minutes each day, so the crew draws lots to decide who gets to call home first. Kim is excited at the prospect of greeting his mother for her upcoming birthday until he draws a number and finds himself near the end of the line. Paris takes pity on him and trades his #6 spot.
Lucky #1 turns out to be The Doctor, who uses his time to contact Ardon Broht, a publisher, about the holonovel glimpsed during the prologue. Broht says he absolutely loves it, so much that he only grudgingly agrees to delay publication while The Doctor makes his final revisions.
Paris is the first of the crew to learn of this new opus, Photons Be Free. The Doctor takes very little convincing to let him critique it. After skipping the excruciatingly long opening monologue, Paris finds himself thrust into an unexpected fiction: a Mirror Universe-esque retelling of The Doctor's own life aboard Voyager with only superficial changes to the crew's identities.
Gossip of the holonovel and its unflattering doppelgangers spreads quickly through the ship. Several more of the crew decide to take their turn as this fictional EMH, being abused by outlandishly evil and bigoted caricatures of themselves. The story closes with another monologue by The Doctor explaining that the moral of the story (as if it wasn't obvious) is a hologram's struggle for equality in a galaxy dominated by organics.
No one is pleased by this narrative, which eventually finds its way to the Captain. They confront The Doctor, but he genuinely doesn't understand why they are upset. Sure, he may have used his own experiences as a starting point, as any author must, but the story isn't about them. The ship isn't Voyager, it's Vortex. The Captain isn't "Janeway", she's "Jenkins". The Doctor assures his crewmates that the story doesn't reflect his own feelings towards them, but towards the treatment of his fellow EMH Mk. I's back in the Alpha Quadrant, who he has learned have been made obsolete and repurposed as dilithium miners. His friends, in turn, assure him that they don't object to his message, only their portrayal. Because while his characters' actions may be far removed from reality, their names and appearances are not, and it is inevitable that at least some readers will suspect the novel is Based on a True Story.
The Doctor ignores them, convinced as he is that he has written a masterpiece, so Paris arranges an object lesson to drive their point home. When The Doctor returns to his holonovel, he finds it substituted with an inverted Satire of his own work, in which he must watch helplessly as an ersatz facsimile of himself commits about a dozen blatant ethical violations within the span of a few minutes. Though he is outraged at first, the message eventually sinks in.
Paris: Don't be ridiculous, that character is not you. For one thing, he has much more hair. But what if some people ran that program and thought that it was based on you? That would bother you, wouldn't it?
The Doctor, despite his bruised ego, agrees to rewrite his novel's cast to make them more distinct from the crew. Everyone is grateful for his change of heart. Crisis averted, right?
Wrong. Janeway receives an urgent message at the next comm window from Admiral Paris, who tells them Photons Be Free is being distributed and is quickly gaining popularity. His reaction to its content justifies all of the crew's fears over how the public will perceive it. The Doctor makes an angry call to Mr. Broht, who unabashedly admits no fault on his part. The Doctor is a hologram and therefore has no right to contest the publication of his novel about holographic rights without his consent.
The crew's daily calls are put on hold so that a hearing can be conducted over subspace. Tuvok, acting as The Doctor's counsel, says that Broht is unfortunately correct that The Doctor is not legally a person. They could easily use this as grounds to invalidate the original contract, but that would also reinforce the existing precedent. Therefore, the crew makes the case that The Doctor should be considered a person. They take turns illustrating his growth over the past 7 years, humanizing him with personal stories of his friendship, independence, and even (or especially) his faults.
Judge: That's hardly commendable behavior.
Janeway: No, it wasn't... but it was human.
When all is said and done, the judge makes his decision. Unlike Data's trial a few years past, he is not willing to go so far as to grant The Doctor full personhood, but he does amend the legal definition of an artist to include him, returning creative control of Photons Be Free to him and ordering Broht to comply with the recall. It's not quite the victory the crew were hoping for, but it's a step in the right direction.
The judge also adds that the question of holographic rights "isn't going to go away". Prophetic words, as several months later, we see that Photons Be Free has reached its most important audience: the Mk. I holograms toiling in a Federation dilithium mine.
This episode provides examples of:
- Alternate Species Counterpart: Used in the Doctor's holonovel, where the counterparts of the non-human crew members, the half-Klingon B'Elanna Torres and the Vulcan Tuvok, are human. On the other hand, the counterpart of Chakotay is Bajoran, and the counterpart of Harry Kim is Trill.
- Adaptational Dye-Job: In the holo-novel, Three of Eight is a redhead whereas Jenkins has dark hair.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Momma Kim wants to send Janeway a letter so that Harry will get that long-overdue promotion. Harry begs her not to.
- Anvilicious: In-Universe — The Doctor writes the novel to incite the other EMH Mark One's to stand up for their rights. Tom says that the Doctor's holonovel is "about as subtle as a Ferengi mating dance".
- Armor-Piercing Question: Tom Paris gets one in when explaining to the Doctor why he's so bothered by his expy.Paris: Look...I don't care if the entire Alpha Quadrant mistakes me for Lt. Marseilles. What bothers me is that you think that's what I'm like.
Doctor: Obviously you're nothing like Marseilles! He's self-indulgent, immature—
Paris: And how would you describe me?
Doctor: (Beat) Well, you're a married man...with a child on the way...a lot of responsibilities.
Paris: I'm surprised you noticed. - Author Tract (In-Universe)
- Beard of Evil: The evil version of Tuvok has a goatee, similar to the Mirror Universe Spock.
- Blatant Lies: The Doctor's claim that, physical templates aside, any resemblances between the Vortex and Voyager crews are entirely coincidental. Nobody buys it.
- Blessed with Suck: The holonovel EMH's 'mobile emitter' is presented as a heavy backpack they must wear every time they leave Sickbay, a symbol of the burden the Doctor feels being dependent on technology. Janeway points out that the Doctor's mobile emitter actually frees him, allowing him to go anywhere he wants. While a fair point, it's still true that she, like the rest of the crew, doesn't have to live her life knowing that a single, fragile, irreplaceable artifact is all that tethers her to the world.
- Both Sides Have a Point: The Doctor did hurt the feelings of his crew, as well as harming their reputations and he should have been more considerate. On the other hand, his holonovel also allowed him to express his frustrations with being treated as Just a Machine, without any rights.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: When playing the EMH, Tom uses his "Please state the nature of the medical emergency" line.
- Call-Back:
- To "Life Line", where the Doctor finds out that his Mark I EMH copies have all been reprogrammed for menial labor.
- While defending the Doctor's sentience, the crew (and Barclay) discuss the Doctor's social lessons with Seven, his attempt to save Zimmerman as though he was a son seeking a father's approval, the creation of the Emergency Command Hologram showing a desire to grow, and his defiance of Janeway's orders beyond what a simple hologram designed to obey orders should be capable of.
- Seven of Nine's expy standing up for the protagonist of the Doctor's holonovel is a call-back to Seven doing the same for the Doctor in "Latent Image" when Janeway keeps tampering with his memories.
- Harry Kim's expy being a Trill humanoid is one to his being bio-formed into a Taresian in "Favorite Son".
- Janeway's expy shooting a critical patient in triage is a call back to the Doctor witnessing a Hirogen officer doing the same in "The Killing Game", or Janeway's execution of Tuvix in the episode of that name.
- B'Elanna's expy is fully human, like B'Elanna herself back in "Faces."
- Broht also publishes the Dixon Hill program, played by Captain Picard in ST:TNG.
- Broht compares the Doctor to K'Ratak, the author of The Dream of the Fire. Worf gave Data a copy as a gift back in "The Measure of a Man".
- Janeway once suggested that Seven might have non-assimilated family on Earth. Hello, Aunt Irene!
- The Doctor wears his smoking jacket from "Virtuoso".
- Of course the evil Tuvok Expy has a beard.
- Tom's expy is named after the city that hosts his favorite haunt, Chez Sandrine.
- "Torrey" threatens to forcible reprogram the Doctor. In fact, Torres had done that very thing to him earlier in the season. While he'd ostensibly forgiven her, it seems that he might still hold some hard feelings.
- Captain Ersatz: The holodeck characters are this for Voyager crew members.
- Content Warnings (In-Universe): "Persons with vascular disorders should consult a physician before running this programme."
- Corpsing: In-universe. When B'elanna sees her husband's Expy with a bushy mustache, she has to struggle hard to not burst out laughing.
- Courtroom Episode: Near the end.
- Disappeared Dad: B'Elanna gets in touch with her estranged father, who was last seen in "Lineage".
- Disproportionate Retribution: The evil Captain Jenkins decompiles the Doctor because he's set aside memory for his personal development.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": In most cases, Seven of Nine reacts negatively to anyone calling her Annika. Here, when her aunt calls her by that name, Seven is notably silent.
- Downer Ending: In-Universe. Photons Be Free ends with the Doctor being decompiled by Captain Jenkins, despite a Patrick Stewart Speech by Three. Thankfully, the episode itself has a more hopeful ending, for the Doctor and for all the Federation's holograms.
- Dude, Not Funny!: The Doctor's In-Universe reaction to Tom Paris altering his program. He's especially outraged that Tom would show him molesting a patient, showing it with an epic Face Palm.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: In the Paris version, the Doctor's bald head has a comb-over.Paris: Don't be ridiculous. That character is not you. For one thing, he has much more hair.
- Fantastic Racism: The holodeck expies of the Voyager crew behave like this towards the holographic doctor.
- Flanderisation: In the Doctor's thinly-veiled holonovel about his shipmates, Chakotay is defined entirely by his religion (with comically huge facial tattoos and Bajoran earrings), "Torrey" is angry all the time, "Tom Marseilles" is a Handsome Lech, "Three of Eight" is overly feminized (with her Borg implants shaped like jewelry), and "Captain Jenkins" is a cruel viper with a itchy trigger finger. Tom gets revenge by reprogramming the sim, depicting the Doctor as an insufferable ass who spends far too much time on his recreational subroutines.
- Friendship Moment: The Doctor is initially hurt by the crew's reaction to Photons Be Free. He thought they would be happy for him, not upset about how his characters might affect their reputations. But when Broht unilaterally publishes the novel's draft without permission, it becomes clear that the crew is more concerned for the Doctor than for themselves. The moment Tuvok suggests that they use the argument that the Doctor has no legal rights to say that he had no right to sell the novel in the first place, Paris observes that this argument would be the equivalent of admitting that the Doctor isn't a real person, and Janeway immediately resolved to fight this case by affirming that the Doctor should have the same rights as the rest of the crew.
- Get Out!: When Neelix visits the Doctor, who's in a funk over his holonovel.Neelix: Doctor, I need your help.
Doctor: Unless you're experiencing acute symptoms, go away. - Halfway Plot Switch: From griping about the holo-novel to defending the Doctor's rights as a person and an artist.
- Hemisphere Bias: The live shot of Earth mainly shows North America.
- Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": With the Doctor as
Sympathetic Sue. - Holograms Are People Too: The point the Doctor is trying to make, in his own Anvilicious way.
- Hypochondria: A condition of Ensign Kim's expy.
- Identical Twin Mistake: In Tom Paris' version of Photons Be Free:
- Idiot Ball: So the Doctor writes a holo-novel that takes place on an Intrepid-class starship with a name that starts with a "V" that's lost thousands of light-years from home, with a crew that's clearly based (physically and personality-wise) on the crew of Voyager and featuring an EMH with a portable holo-emitter who's the only qualified doctor on board, and he's surprised at the idea that people will think it's based on Voyager?
- Ignored Aesop: Broht loves The Doctor's holonovel about holographic rights. He loves it so much that he publishes it without The Doctor's consent because, as a hologram, he has no right to object.
- In Which a Trope Is Described: The Doctor's unironic use of this type of chapter heading in Photons Be Free (which isn't even a written medium) contributes to its amateurish feel.
- Ironic Echo: The Doctor says he's using a Voyager-expy because he's writing what he knows, like all good authors. When the Doctor shouts at Tom for replacing his holonovel with a "hackneyed narrative", Tom quips that he's just writing what he knows.
- It's All About Me: As Tom puts it; "Chapter One: It's the Doctor's world, you're just living in it..." The Doctor however argues that it's not about his ego, but helping the other EMH's in the Alpha Quadrant.
- Jerkass Has a Point: From the crews' point-of-view, the Doctor's complaints are exaggerated and his attitude is ungrateful. After all don't they treat him as one of their own, with the freedom to pursue his own interests? The fact that the Doctor and the other holograms like him might have the innate right to respect and freedom, as opposed to being something that's granted on a whim, has not occurred to them.
- Just a Machine: Photons Be Free is... not subtle about this.Lieutenant "Torrey": Let's get one thing straight. You're not one of my shipmates! You're a tool - like this hyperspanner. And tools can be replaced. So why don't you go back to your Sick Bay before I start to do a little reprogramming?!
- Ludicrous Precision: Dr. Jerk getting up Paris for being 24 seconds late.
- Milking the Giant Cow: The Doctor's introduction to Photons Be Free.
- Muse Abuse: So much in the point of the Doctor's use of the Voyager crew for his holo-novel that he had to make revisions and forestall its release.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The Doctor, when he realizes how much his program has offended his crewmates.
- Never Trust a Trailer: "Has Voyager entered a parallel universe?" No, no it hasn't—just an In-Universe fanfic.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: An In-Universe example with The Doctor's thinly-disguised holonovel cast. The Voyager crew are understandably worried that they will be harmed by association with such lurid characters, but it quickly becomes a distant concern after Broht blatantly violates The Doctor's rights by releasing the unfinished draft.
- Office Golf: Tom riffs on the Doctor's obsession with his personal hobbies.Jerk-EMH: When I tell you your shift begins at oh eight hundred that doesn't mean you can stroll in here at oh eight hundred and twenty four seconds. Do you understand me, Ensign!EMH: This is outrageous!Jerk-EMH: What's outrageous is that I'm going to miss my tee time.
- Oh, Crap, There Are Fanfics of Us!: The crew's reaction. Neelix is the only one who likes it, most perhaps because it doesn't feature an expy of him..... that we see, anyway; we aren't shown chapters 2, 3 or 4. It's possible Neelix had an insulting expy, but wasn't offended because as morale officer, he's a thick-skinned individual (his early-season
pre-beard behavior notwithstanding). - Operation: [Blank]: Operation Watson, the first real-time visual comlink between Voyager and Starfleet Command.
- Other Me Annoys Me: Everyone who tries out the program. Except Neelix, who apparently doesn't seem to have an expy in it.
- Parallel Porn Titles: Tom Paris introduces the Starship Voyeur, starring a sleazy doctor who makes out with his hot blonde buxom patient. Makes you wonder exactly how extensive was Tom's study of 20th century movies.
- Porn Stache: Tom Marseilles. Tom Paris comments that it looks nice, and B'Elanna Torres stifles a giggle when she sees it.
- Power at a Price: The Doctor's mobile emitter is seen as this.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: For the Doctor, as the judge declared him legally an artist, but was not quite prepared to definitively rule that he is a person. However, besides achieving the goal of getting Photons Be Free recalled, it was a noteworthy step forward for holograms, and the coda does show that the novel has made an impression among the Mark Ones that are stuck in the dilithium mines on Earth.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Expy Seven gives Expy Janeway one for her decision to decompile the Doctor's program. It doesn't change anything.
- Revealing Cover Up: At one point, Tuvok suggests having the published holonovel recalled on the basis that it contains classified information. Paris shoots this idea down fast. It would only convince people that the story must have some basis in truth, which is exactly what they don't want.
- Robo Sexual:Captain Jenkins: An inventory of your holo-matrix. Fifty gigaquads of memory devoted to music. Forty two for daydreams. Another ten to expand your sexuality.Neelix: I had no idea holograms could do that!
- Running Gag: Daddy Kim asks Harry when he's getting a promotion. Clearly not as long as he remains on Voyager, as the grimace on his face makes plain.
- Shout-Out: The Doctor does a Masterpiece Theatre introduction wearing a Noël Coward smoking jacket.
- Stylistic Suck: Photons Be Free plays with this trope. The story, which is meant to make a serious point, is devoid of subtlety almost to the point of Self-Parody, with lots of superfluous narration that tells instead of showing. Despite this, the only people who don't like it are the crew, and that's mostly because of their portrayal. Neelix loves it, the publisher loves it, and the published draft is popular enough that Barclay gets wind of it almost immediately.
- Subspace Ansible: Voyager finally establishes the first trans-galactic communications link with the Alpha Quadrant.
- Sympathetic Sue: An In-Universe version, with Seven of Nine's expy being the only crew member in the story that helps and stands up for the protagonist.
- Take a Third Option: Neelix's suggestion to The Doctor concerning his holonovel, which leads to his request for a recall of the original version.Neelix: There's an old Talaxian expression. When the road before you splits in two, take the third path.
- A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Paris creates his own holonovel exaggerating the Doctor's worst qualities (and adding a few more) - with the excuse that he doesn't looks like the Doctor ("For one thing, he has much more hair.") - to get the Doctor to understand how the crew feels about his holonovel.
- There's No Place Like Home: Captain Janeway and her senior staff struggle with their emotions on being shown a live image of Earth sent across the Subspace Ansible.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Seven is placed in charge of the communications with Earth. She abruptly cuts the Doctor off while he's talking to his publisher and also shows no sympathy when Harry's transmission is cut off with more than a full minute remaining. Later, she gives Torres a thirty-second warning when she's talking to her dad and lets her call continue over the allotted time so they can finish their conversation and offers to give Kim her spot in the queue so that he can wish his mother happy birthday.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Young Annika's favorite food was apparently strawberries. Seven is currently fond of strawberries, and is surprised to learn that this fondness has been present her whole life.
- Tranquil Fury: Immediately after Janeway tries the program for herself, she very politely orders the Doctor to her ready room. Now.
- Triage Tyrant: The Janeway and Chakotay expies want the Doctor to give priority to treating Marseilles' concussion even though there's a dying Red Shirt right there. Expy Janeway settles the debate by shooting the poor guy.
- True Companions:
- Yes, the crew was pretty ticked off at their Expys. But when things go From Bad to Worse and the Doctor's rights are called into question, the bridge crew immediately put all that behind them to defend their comrade and make it known that they cherish all his Character Development over the years.
- Could apply to the entire crew, when taking into account that the rest of the crew would have had to agree to postpone their own chance to speak with their families so that the senior staff can defend the Doctor's rights.
- Walk and Talk: The Paris/Doctor argument, observed by startled crewmembers whenever they start Suddenly Shouting.
- Wall of Weapons: Captain Jenkins has one, and brandishes one of her guns while chewing out Neelix.
- The War on Straw: The Doctor's opus, Photons Be Free. As usual, the EMH's heart is in the right place, but his ego undercuts it. He thought he could write a holonovel showing all of his coworkers in an unflattering light, publish it in the Alpha Quadrant, and that everyone onboard would be pretty much OK with that. During the tedious 10-minute prologue to the story he drones on in a Noël Coward dressing gown (despite this being his only novel). The Doctor takes some creative license with his life on Voyager: His mobile emitter is a giant backpack that weighs him down like a ton of bricks, everyone onboard treats him like pocket lint, and Captain "Jenkins" murders patients in sickbay to bump her people she wants treated higher up the priority list. Naturally the only person to escape this farce unscathed is Seven of Nine. In revenge, Tom Paris pens a holonovel depicting life under an obnoxious EMH: He’s got an appalling comb-over, barely bothers to diagnose his patients and groans lustfully as he gives "Two of Three" a massage (after injecting her with a roofie).
- We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: just as in "Life Line", the EMH Mark One's are reconfigured for manual labor in the mines. This, when they have devices capable of disassembling matter to the subatomic level (including industrial ones, as mentioned on Deep Space Nine), not to mention a race of friendly living ore processors (the Horta). But no, they consign outdated humanoid holograms with glorified shovels and picks to mining. It's both cruel and inefficient to an absurd degree, and used just to paint the Federation as a strawman.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The theme of the episode, from the Doctor's point of view at first, and then discussed at length in a court case.
- Write What You Know: In-universe, it's the Doctor's defense behind writing his holonovel.
- Write Who You Know (In-Universe): The characters of Photons Be Free bear no resemblance to any member of Starfleet living or dead. Or so the Doctor would have us believe.
- You Talk Too Much!
- Seven cuts off the Doctor in mid-transmission when he keeps fishing for compliments from Broht."I believe your ego has received enough stroking for one day."
- Tom jumps to Chapter One rather than face the Doctor's nine-minute dedication.
- Seven cuts off the Doctor in mid-transmission when he keeps fishing for compliments from Broht.
