When Harry Kim, Seven of Nine, and the Doctor are captured by aliens with a prejudice against holograms, the Doctor must hide somewhere to avoid being erased. That "somewhere" ends up being Seven of Nine's body, where his invading consciousness pushes her own to the side. Meanwhile, aboard Voyager, Tuvok undergoes his pon farr -- and with the Doctor away, he has only Tom Paris to turn to for medical help.
There's a reason "body swap" (even in this case, where the "swap" isn't actually reciprocal) is such a popular story idea. When a show runs long enough, everyone comes to understand at a very deep level how all of the characters would react in most situations. So it's just plain fun to watch another actor take over that character for an episode. It's a very knowing wink to the audience. It's watching someone do an impersonation right in front of the person being impersonated.
It's especially fitting that this kind of story would also be directed by one of the main cast members; this is actor Robert Duncan McNeill's last turn in the director's chair for Star Trek: Voyager, and he guides the action well. According to episode writer Mike Sussman, Robert Picardo videotaped himself performing all the scenes of the episode to give a reference on how he thought the Doctor would behave.
We can't know how much that reference was really followed, but it's clear from the results that Jeri Ryan really learned to give an excellent Robert Picardo impersonation. Her comedy with the cheesecake is delightful. The many knowing lines she delivers to the audience all land perfectly. The scene in which the Doctor must distract the alien captain has a classic comedic tone, like a scene from Some Like It Hot.
It's good that Ryan does all this so well, generating so much fun for the episode. Because there's also a lot about the episode that's really quite uncomfortable. The fact that the Doctor has expressed romantic interest in Seven before makes this situation quite skeezy. The character becoming drunk (and aroused) in Seven's body really is a horrible violation as Seven of Nine says it is (even though her declaration is played as a laugh line). Some of the comedy hits the gender switch element here in a way that feels a little transphobic.
But there's still more to distract from all that: the Tuvok subplot is pretty fun too. You get the expected jokes about Vulcans' peculiar relationship with their sex drives.... but they're well-tempered with more sensitivity from Paris than one would expect, and understanding from Janeway as well. (Neelix, predictably, is clueless.) This B plot even connects well with the A plot, as Paris' holodeck solution must be put on hold when Voyager must interact with the hologram-hating aliens.
Indeed, the whole tone of the episode is so light that the turn at the end doesn't quite work. The Doctor winds up saving the alien captain's life, and this one moment of kindness seems to be enough to unravel a lifetime of racism for at least the aliens on this ship. Yes, it's true that what often seems to change a bigot's mind is when the "face-eating leopards come to eat their face," but it still feels like the change here comes too easily. Yet that's the easy tone of this episode overall, and that must be honored.
Other observations:
- The opening scene of the episode sets up friction between Seven and the Doctor for the sake of the story to come. Still, it feels weird for Seven, the Doctor's closest friend, to be joking about disabling his vocal processor because he talks too much.
- I wonder what Tuvok's wife would think about all this when Tuvok returns home? (I suppose simply that he did the logical thing -- so maybe there's no real story potential there after all.)
Jeri Ryan makes this episode what it is. But the creepy undertones of the Doctor's behavior keep it from being "great." I give "Body and Soul" a B.
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