When it becomes possible for crew members to have brief conversations with people in the Alpha Quadrant The Doctor uses his time to contact a publisher; it turns out he has written a holographic novel about the life of an Emergency Medical Hologram aboard a ship stranded in the Delta Quadrant. When Voyager's crew see what happens on The Doctor's fictional USS Vortex they are not impressed, all of the characters are clearly based on them with a few minor changes to names and appearance but their behaviour is very different, the captain's alter ego kills a wounded crewman because The Doctor wants to treat him ahead of a less seriously injured crewman and with the exception of Seven's character all the people on the Vortex treat their Doctor with contempt, thinking of him as a mere tool. The Doctor believes that nobody will think that his book is based on Voyager and the crew are being over-sensitive. When Tom tweaks the novel the Doctor is given a taste of his on medicine when he finds himself on the USS Voyeur where the EMH drugs patients to take advantage of them. He agrees to rewrite his work but his publisher releases the work anyway claiming that as a Hologram the Doctor has no rights so can't protect his work. This leads to a tribunal to determine just what his status is.
I rather enjoyed this episode, finding USS Vortex to be an amusing parody of life on Voyager and I loved Tom's revenge with USS Voyeur. While a similar episode had appeared in "The Next Generation" that had less comic elements and was made many years earlier so I think it was okay to reuse the idea of exploring the idea of rights for artificial life forms.
I rather enjoyed this episode, finding USS Vortex to be an amusing parody of life on Voyager and I loved Tom's revenge with USS Voyeur. While a similar episode had appeared in "The Next Generation" that had less comic elements and was made many years earlier so I think it was okay to reuse the idea of exploring the idea of rights for artificial life forms.