Voyager Re-Watch: Message In A Bottle

This is a pretty big deal episode, wrapped up in the comics page. It's very rompy and of course I love it because it's all Doctor and romps and flailing.

Catch you up: Seven gets a signal (by bouncing some things through relay stations) from a Federation ship in the Alpha Quadrant) and, though they can't seem to get a message through, they can send the Doctor. It's a pretty big deal away mission and he's totally cut off from Voyager but he's determined to go a good job--even when the ship he finds himself on is currently inhabited by a bunch of jerk Romulans. Eventually he enlists the help of the new EMH (played by Andy Dick) and hijinks ensue.

This one is about as broad as Star Trek gets--which is to say that it isn't really very broad at all. Andy Dick actually had a hard time adjusting to the difference in tone between Trek and the sitcom world he'd been working in. Still, Message In A Bottle is packed with physical humor (Andy Dick can't figure out how to get into the jeffries tube) and snappy quips (The Doctor makes an allusion to making himself fully functional) as the under-experienced EMHes sabotage the Romulans' efforts to takeover Starfleet's latest toy.

The end, though, is where it's really at. After they succeed and our Doctor comes home, he reveals that he got through to Starfleet. That their families will soon know they're still out there, still alive, and still trying like hell to get home. It's a hopeful end and a bright beginning as well--now that Voyager's finally made contact.