Phage
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 6 February 1995
- ON
- UPN
- STARDATE
- 48532.4
- DIRECTED BY
- Winrich Kolbe
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 105
WRITTEN BYTeleplay by Skye Dent and Brannon Braga; story by Timothy DeHaas
While searching a planetoid for dilithium, Neelix is attacked by an unseen alien, and the crew race to track down what was taken from him before time runs out.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
An away team searching a planetoid for dilithium is ambushed, and Neelix is left near death: his lungs have been surgically removed. The Doctor keeps him alive with holographic lungs, but Neelix must lie completely still, with Kes at his side. Tracking the attackers to a hidden facility, the crew capture two Vidiians, a people ravaged by the Phage, an incurable disease that destroys their bodies and forces them to harvest organs from other species to survive. Neelix's lungs have already been transplanted into one of them. Janeway refuses to take a life to recover them and lets the pair go. In return, the Vidiians use their medical expertise to make a transplant possible from a donor the Doctor had thought incompatible. Kes gives Neelix one of her own lungs, and he is able to breathe again on his own.
- 01The first appearance of the Vidiians, who return as recurring adversaries in the early seasons.
- 02The story combined Timothy DeHaas's pitch about Paris receiving a holographic heart with a writers' room idea about aliens who harvest organs.
- 03The Vidiians were originally called “Vaphorans”, but the name was changed because actors could not pronounce it consistently.