Star Trek: Voyager, "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy"

Star Trek: Voyager, "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy." #224, 12 Oct. 1999.

In her brief annotation in Cincefantastique 33.5,[1] Anna L. Kaplan summarizes, "As the Doctor indulges in daydreams — something over which he has less and less control, and which include such grandiose imagery as the EMH painting Seven" of Nine "in the nude and assuming command during a Borg attack — the ship comes under the surveillance of wonderfully hippo-like aliens who have targeted" Voyager "for a technology raid." Significant for alien hippo-forms raiding for technology, and the daydreams of an EMH: an Emergency Medical Hologram Mark I.[2]

The producer, Brannon Brana, said that they "wanted to do [James Thurber's short story] THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY"[3] with another character, Neelix, but thought "it would probably be a better show for the Doctor. A hologram having daydreams, particularly a" — restrained, we'll say — "character like the Doctor, might be a whole lot more fun."

The episode title is ultimately from a children's rhyme[4] and more directly from the highly regarded novel by John le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974) and the TV series (1979)[5] and theatrical film (2011)[6] based on the novel.

RDE, finishing, 6Jul22