Lifesigns ( episode ) The Doctor falls in love with a Vidiian patient whose life he saved . Meanwhile , Tom Paris ' s insubordination starts to go out of control . Summary . Teaser . Lieutenant Tom Paris arrives late to his duty shift on the bridge and provides several obviously false excuses . Commander Chakotay is irritated by Paris ' tardiness and doesn ' t believe any of his excuses , informally reprimanding him for being late for the third time in a week . Before anything more can happen , Lieutenant Tuvok announces that the has received a subspace distress call from a small , unarmed spacecraft . The weak lifesigns aboard the vessel indicate a Vidiian female . Captain Kathryn Janeway orders Ensign Harry Kim to respond to the hail but the distressed ship does not respond . Because there are no other Vidiian ships in the sector , Janeway overrules Paris ' suggestion that they may be falling into a trap and decides to have the woman beam ed directly into sickbay . In sickbay , Kes and The Doctor find an extremely complex bio - neural implant in the Vidiian ' s parietal lobe . The Doctor ' s scans find that the device is storing her synaptic pattern s and processing her neuroelectric impulses : essentially , she has a cortical stimulator built into her body . While the device appears to be functioning normally , the nerve cell s to which it connects are dying , severely reducing its function . To avoid losing their patient , The Doctor decides to transfer the synaptic patterns stored in the device into the holobuffer . He then creates , piece by piece , a holographic body for her . Act One . Chakotay reports that the ship ' s navigational logs indicate that the patient was en route to a remote Vidiian colony about ten light year s from " Voyager " s present location which will take around three weeks to reach . Janeway agrees that , as long as she is sure they ' re safe from any possible Vidiian attack , they should return her to her people . Chakotay then turns the conversation to the behavior of Paris . Although crew discipline is his responsibility as first officer , he wishes to discuss the problem with Janeway before taking action . While she shares his concerns , Janeway leaves Chakotay in charge of disciplining Paris . As the patient ' s synaptic patterns stabilize , The Doctor prepares to transfer her mind into the holographic body he has created for her while her physical body is in stasis . When she wakes up , The Doctor explains the procedure and gives her a mirror so she can see her healthy - looking self . The patient starts crying for joy , overwhelmed at the idea of seeing herself healthy once more . She reveals that she was first diagnosed with the Phage at seven years old and started receiving replacement tissue and organ s shortly afterward . She is also fascinated by the fact that The Doctor is a hologram himself . She introduces herself as Danara Pel , a hematologist who had been helping treat an outbreak of the Phage on Fina Prime and was on the way back to her home colony when her disease worsened . They both begin working on healing Pel ' s body , as her mind cannot survive in the computer for more than a week . Pel sees her physical body on the biobed and becomes briefly distracted before helping The Doctor . Act Two . The Doctor discusses with B ' Elanna Torres his plans to extract a segment of her parietal lobe to transplant into Pel . Because her Klingon DNA is highly resistant to the Phage and compatible with Vidiian DNA , she is a perfect donor . However , Torres has reservations about the procedure after what the Vidiians had done to her previously . He begs her to reconsider and while they are arguing , Pel enters The Doctor ' s office , expressing her sympathy for Torres and what she went through . She asks for Torres ' understanding , explaining that her species has been dying of the Phage for centuries and that in their quest to find a cure , their scientists and politicians have forgotten to have compassion for the people they seek help from . However , she is willing to accept her fate should Torres choose not to undergo the procedure . Taken aback , Torres chooses to help Pel . After they perform the surgery , The Doctor realizes that now all they have to do is wait a few days to see whether the procedure was successful . He suggests shutting Pel ' s program down temporarily , as that would slow the degradation of her neural pathways in " Voyager " s computer . Pel , however , is too energetic to want to be shut down : she wants to tour the ship . Since that is not an option , The Doctor takes her to Chez Sandrine on the holodeck instead . There , they engage in conversation and at some point , The Doctor manages to make her laugh about his greatest medical feat : curing Neelix from an acute case of hiccup s . Pel tells him how much she appreciates his sense of humor , especially because she hasn ' t had anything to laugh about in a very long time . She then chooses to name The Doctor " Shmullus " after her uncle , who also used to make her laugh . The pair return to sickbay and experience a few awkward moments of silence , before The Doctor wishes her good night and reluctantly deactivates her program . Act Three . In the mess hall , Chakotay approaches Paris and asks if anything is bothering him , pointing out his tardiness and general lack of enthusiasm on the job lately . Paris laughs mockingly at Chakotay ' s sudden concern for his feelings , saying that his problem is in fact Chakotay himself . He expresses his frustration over Chakotay ' s unwillingness to let him take initiative and be creative once in a while . He states that as a matter of fact he is not the only one who has a problem with how Chakotay runs things and sardonically asks loudly to be excused . As he leaves , everyone in the mess hall – including Michael Jonas – watches him . Lorrum , Jonas ' Kazon - Nistrim contact onboard Culluh ' s ship , is very interested to hear of the unrest among the " Voyager " crew . He praises Jonas and then orders him to sabotage " Voyager " s warp coil s . However , Jonas refuses to damage " Voyager " in any way and tells Lorrum that Seska would need to contact him if Culluh has a problem with that . He terminates the transmission . In sickbay , The Doctor is busy running a level 2 self - diagnostic on himself to assess his situation since Pel came aboard . While he thinks there is a malfunction in his tactile acuity subroutine , Kes suggests that perhaps he might be attracted to Pel and that he in fact should not try to fix anything . The Doctor thinks this is impossible , as he isn ' t programmed to handle romance , but Kes points out that since his programming is adaptive , everything – including romantic feelings – is possible . Nervous about what is happening to him , The Doctor describes what he feels and experiences around Pel and says that he doesn ' t want his program to adapt in that manner right now . He finds his thoughts consumed by her in her absence and unsettled in her presence : quite disconcerting feelings for one so used to being in total control . After a few moments of deliberation , he asks Kes how to go about exploring a romantic relationship . Kes recommends forthrightness and simply telling Pel how he feels . While performing maintenance surgery on Pel ' s body , The Doctor decides to take Kes ' advice to heart and blurts out to Pel , quite matter - of - factly , of his attraction to her and his desire to enter a romantic relationship . Pel and Kes are both dumbstruck at The Doctor ' s approach . Pel is speechless and tells him that she ' d prefer to keep their relationship professional . In Sandrine ' s , a very depressed Doctor runs into Paris and decides to ask him for advice on how to recover from romantic rejection , citing doctor - patient confidentiality when Paris pries for details . Paris recalls a particularly bad breakup he endured from a woman named Susie Crabtree in his first year at Starfleet Academy – which almost cost him his grade in stellar cartography . But , he reassures The Doctor that while the first love is always the hardest to get over , things tend to get better over time . However , much to The Doctor ' s horror , Paris reveals that you actually never completely get over someone you loved and that even years later the most trivial things can remind you of that person and make you feel just as bad and torn up inside as the day they said they never wanted to see you again . Noticing the distressed look on The Doctor ' s face , Paris finally realizes that The Doctor is speaking about himself and decides to give him concrete advice . After finding out a little more about the situation , Paris tells The Doctor that his approach probably scared Pel off altogether and suggests that he take her someplace special . The Doctor expresses reservations about what to do but Paris has an idea . Meanwhile , in sickbay , Pel is sitting on a biobed nervously waiting for The Doctor . While waiting , she speaks with Kes about her feelings for The Doctor and reveals that the awkwardness and bluntness with which The Doctor confessed his feelings for her was the reason she did not admit to her feelings for him . Act Four . The Doctor waits for Pel in a holographic 1957 Chevrolet convertible on an equally holographic Mars . After a few awkward moments and explanations , he gives her a bouquet of red rose s , a box of chocolate s and a teddy bear and turns on the car ' s radio . He offers to try dancing , as he ' s just downloaded the subroutine that would allow him to do so , but she prefers just sitting for a while and stargazing . The Doctor points out Earth and several other astronomical highlights in the sky . They kiss and embrace facing the stars . On the bridge , Paris is late again . Chakotay says it ' s all right , as they don ' t need him . He tells him that Grimes will take Paris ' place at conn for the shift and every shift thereafter until Paris starts taking his job more seriously . Captain Janeway supports the decision all the way but stays quiet . As Chakotay starts guiding him off the bridge , Paris shoves him roughly to the floor and Janeway has Lieutenant Tuvok take Paris to the brig . Seska contacts Jonas in his quarters to give him advice on how to implement his sabotage of the warp coils . Because she doesn ' t want to raise her child with the Kazon , she fully intends to take " Voyager " and that means having Jonas sabotage it . She begins to detail the plan , saying that they will meet " Voyager " at a planet called Hemikek IV . Meanwhile , The Doctor is feeling much more comfortable around Pel and hopes their relationship will continue after they perform the synaptic transfer . However , before the procedure begins , they discover that Pel ' s brain is rejecting the tissue graft and that they cannot continue the transfer . Act Five . The Doctor finds elevated levels of nytoxinol in Pel ' s body . When he finds the hypospray with which Pel was injected to contain cervaline as it was supposed to , he concludes that somebody must have deliberately poisoned Pel . Before he can call for Tuvok however , Pel reveals that she herself administered the nytoxinol , knowing it would be fatal . She states that she does not wish to be in that body again . She tells him that she would prefer to live a few healthy days with The Doctor , knowing they would be her last , than to spend the rest of her natural life in her Phage - infected body . She is sick of prolonging people ' s suffering , which is all she can do and all she feels The Doctor is doing for her by making her go through with the transfer . She says in her adult life before " Voyager " , she was " just a disease " but has become more than that thanks to him . She fears that he will stop loving her when she is sick again . But The Doctor argues that he would love her , no matter what her condition was . Pel seems convinced and at peace and they meet in Sandrine ' s . As she emerges from the shadows , she reveals herself back in her real , non - holographic body , and she and The Doctor embrace for a final waltz before she leaves for her home . Memorable quotes . " " I never thought I ' d see myself again . " " " " You ' re a computer simulation ? " " " " An extremely sophisticated computer simulation . " " " " The procedure is quite simple – I ' ll drill an opening into your skull precisely two millimeters in diameter . . " " " " It doesn ' t sound simple to me – I still have nightmares about what those people did to me ! And now , you want to crack open my head , cut out a piece of my " brain " , and give it to " her ? ! " " " " Sometimes I think my people are so focused on trying to save lives , we don ' t know how to live anymore . " " " " Romance is not a malfunction . " " " " Where are we exactly ? " " " " On a planet called Mars inside a primitive , land - based vehicle . It ' s called a ' 57 Chevy . Mr . Paris is quite an automobile aficionado ; this is his program . " " " " What is it that we ' re supposed to be doing ? " " " " I believe it ' s called . . . parking . " " " " By the way , Denara , I ' ve been meaning to tell you . . . " " " " Yes ? " " " " I ' m romantically attracted to you and wanted to know if you felt the same way . " " " " This exact procedure was developed by Dr . Leonard McCoy in the year 2253 . I ' m equipped with the collective medical knowledge of more than 3000 cultures . " " " " If you ' ve got a problem , I ' d like to know what it is . " " " " Yeah , I ' ve got a problem , my problem is " you " . " " " " Mr . Paris , I assume you ' ve had a great deal of experience being rejected by women . " " " " Oh , thanks a lot , Doc . " " " " Get your hands off me ! " " " " I have no intention of raising my child on a Kazon ship ! One way or another , I am going to take " Voyager " , so you can either help me or suffer along with Janeway and the others ! " " " " Denara , please . . . don ' t die . " " Links and references . References . 1957 ; 2253 ; analgesic ; appendectomy ; automobile ; axonal pathway ; basal ganglia ; bio - neural circuitry ; bio - neural implant ; brain ; brig ; cardiovascular system ; cerebellum ; cerebral cortex ; cervaline ; Chevy ; chromosome ; clinical study ; constellation ; compound fracture ; ; Culluh ; Cygnus ; dancing subroutine ; delta band frequency ; dizziness ; DNA ; Doctor Alpha ; doctor - patient confidentiality ; Earth ; EMH ; emission nebula ; endocrinology ; epidermal layer ; Federation ; Fina Prime ; ; gigaquad ; Greek ; Greek mythology ; hematology ( hematologist ) ; Hemikek IV ; Hercules ; Hercules ( constellation ) ; hiccup ; Hippocrates ; hives ; holobuffer ; holodeck ; holoemitter ; hologram ; humor ; inaprovaline ; internal organ ; " I Only Have Eyes for You " ; Klingon ; lectrazine ; level 2 self diagnostic ; Kazon - Nistrim ; magnetic constrictor ; Maje ; ; Mars ; Martian colonies ; ; medicine ; medical practitioner ; millimeter ; motor neuron ; musculature ; " My Prayer " ; nanofiber ; nucleus cuneatus ; neural tissue ; neuralyte probe ; neuro - cortical stimulator ; nightmare ; nytoxinol ; organ s ; parietal lobe ; Pel ' s mother ; phage ; ; Pleiades Cluster ; parking ; rejection ; rose ; Shmullus ; skeletal structure ; Starfleet Academy ; Stellar Cartography ; suicide ; synaptic pattern ; submicron suture ; tactile acuity subroutine ; teddy bear ; terahertz ; tetrahertz ; Utopia Planitia ; verterium cortenide ; Vidiian ; Vidiian children ; Vidiian program Alpha ; waltz ; warp coil ; ;