Author, Author (Voyager episode)
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| Star Trek: VOY episode | |
| "Author, Author" | |
 The Doctor reviews his holonovel. |
|
| Episode no. | Season 7, Episode 20 |
|---|---|
| Prod. code | 266 |
| Airdate | April 18, 2001 |
| Writer(s) | Phyllis Strong Mike Sussman Brannon Braga |
| Director | David Livingston |
| Year | {{{year}}} |
| Episode chronology | |
| Previous | "Q2" |
| Next | "Friendship One" |
Author, Author was an episode broadcast of the seventh season of the TV series Star Trek: Voyager, first airing in the winter of 2001.
[edit] Plot summary
In the holodeck, the Doctor satisfiedly reviews edits to his holonovel Photons Be Free and saves the file.
Tom Paris asks the Doctor to let him preview Photons Be Free, set on the fictional USS Vortex, a Starfleet ship lost in the Delta Quadrant. All the characters bear some physical resemblance to USS Voyager's senior officers, but the Doctor insists his work is fictional.
After Paris creates a parody in which the Doctor takes advantage of a patient, the Doctor is convinced to edit his work so it's more fictionalized. The issue seems to become moot when Admiral Paris from Earth lets Captain Kathryn Janeway know that Photons Be Free is already being distributed in the Alpha Quadrant and people are wondering how fictional it really is.
An arbitration hearing is conducted by long distance. The arbiter rules that the Doctor is not a person under Federation law but is an artist and therefore has the right to control his work.
Flash-forward to a few months later, to an asteroid where several EMH Mark 1s perform menial labor. One of them suggests to another that at the diagnostic station they play Photons Be Free.
[edit] Notes
Some fans have noted the similarity of this episode to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Measure of a Man", in which the android crew member Data calls a trial to establish that he is a person in order to avoid being reassigned and disassembled. That episode's ruling concludes that Data has the right to self-determination, while this episode's ruling does not grant that same right to the Doctor, but does grant him the right to control his work.
[edit] Guest stars
- Joseph Campanella as Arbitrator
- Juan Garcia as John Torres
- Barry Gordon as Broht
- Richard Herd as Admiral Paris
- Robert Ito as John Kim
- Dwight Schultz as Reginald Barclay
- Irene Tsu as Mary Kim
- Lorinne Vozoff as Irene Hansen
