Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series)

Critical Care (2000)

Robert Picardo: The Doctor

Photos 

Quotes 

• [Chellick explains the treatment coefficient - TC for short - of the patients in the hospital] 

  Chellick : An agricultural engineer is obviously more important than a waste processor.

  The Doctor : Important to whom?

  Chellick : Society. When your resources are limited, you have to prioritize.

  The Doctor : So you base treatment on whether patients have particular abilities.

  Chellick : It's much more complicated than that. The Allocator assesses the entire individual.

  The Doctor : And reduces his life to a number.

• [last lines] 

  [the Doctor has asked Seven to give his program a checkup] 

  The Doctor : While I was aboard that ship, I poisoned a man.

  Seven of Nine : Deliberately?

  The Doctor : Yes. I was trying to force him to let me treat patients who were dying.

  Seven of Nine : You were prepared to sacrifice an individual to benefit a collective.

  The Doctor : No offense, Seven, but I don't exactly aspire to Borg ideals.

  Seven of Nine : You were hoping your behavior was the result of a malfunction.

  [the Doctor nods] 

  Seven of Nine : I'm sorry, Doctor, but I must give you a clean bill of health.

• The Doctor : Level Blue is your critical care area, I presume.

  Chellick : Level Blue is the area where it's most critical that we provide excellent care.

• [the Doctor complains about the lack of proper treatment for Tebbis] 

  Dr. Dysek : If he becomes more valuable to society, his TC will rise and then he'll receive better treatment.

  The Doctor : He may not be around long enough.

  Dr. Dysek : I'm sorry he's sick, but our society is much better off since we began following the Allocator's protocols.

  The Doctor : [under his breath]  SOME of you are.

• Voje : Twelve patients on Level Red are being sent home because of you.

  The Doctor : That's why we have to hurry. We may still be able to save them.

  Voje : You've already endangered my patients, and now you're asking me to risk my career? Why should I help you?

  The Doctor : Because I have a plan to heal those patients. That's what doctors do - we heal. So choose: what kind of doctor are you going to be?

• The Doctor : That feeling you get from healing someone - infectious, isn't it?

• The Doctor : Don't you have any ethical standards?

  Chellick : You are hardly in a position to speak to me of ethics. Lying, stealing... Any other crimes you wish to confess?

  The Doctor : I was trying to save lives.

  Chellick : And I am trying to save a society.

• Chellick : You're only making things worse for yourself.

  The Doctor : As a matter of fact, I'm making things worse for you: I'm going to make you a patient in your own hospital.

• [an away team has arrived to take the Doctor back to Voyager] 

  The Doctor : I'll be with you in a moment. I'm with a... patient.

• The Doctor : You know, Doctor, one way to increase your allocation of resources on Level Blue would be to increase the number of patients. I know at least a dozen people who should be treated for... arterial aging. Saving their lives would be just a side effect.

  Dr. Dysek : Hmm... Perhaps we should have them transfered to Level Blue.

  The Doctor : If you're looking for a second opinion, I concur.

  Dr. Dysek : Well... Chellick, what do you think?

  Chellick : It's absurd!

  Dr. Dysek : We'd have to transfer you to Level Blue as well. You'd get your cytoglobin.

• Tebbis : I've never met a doctor like you.

  The Doctor : Well, it's not hard to stand out when the general level of competence is so low.

• Tebbis : [the Doctor has "reallocated" restricted medications, and is trying to get a resistant Voje to help him distribute them]  I'll help you.

  Voje : You should be in bed.

  The Doctor : Actually, now that he's improving, a little activity will do him good. You can go back to doing... whatever you were doing.

• Tebbis : I hope to be a doctor someday.

  The Doctor : Really? Well I hope your working conditions are better than these.

  Tebbis : It wouldn't be so bad if they'd let us listen to music.

  The Doctor : It would certainly improve my mood.

  Tebbis : It's not just that, but music has great healing power.

  The Doctor : I couldn't agree with you more.

• Dr. Dysek : Who do you think you are - prescribing unnecessary medications for my patients?

  The Doctor : It wasn't unnecessary.

  Dr. Dysek : If you believe that, you're incompetent - or perhaps malfunctioning.

  The Doctor : I was simply trying to increase our allocation of resources.

  Dr. Dysek : What're you talking about?

  The Doctor : I did some checking. Last month, Level Blue's total medication requests were down by 6%.

  Dr. Dysek : Because our cure rate was higher.

  The Doctor : Exactly. Because you performed so efficiently last month, the Allocator will determine you're able to do with less next month. If we don't order more medication now, we may not get it when we need it.