The Doctor is activated to find no one on board the ship

Why is The Doctor so scared? Can anything even hurt him?

B’Elanna shows up and says no one appeared on sensors because of damage.

The Doctor can transfer to the bridge because apparently the crew has been working on holo-emitters around the ship

Part of the reason the beginning of this episode is so cool is because we get the sense things are really serious….Then the EMH goes to check on Neelix and he’s taunting a Kazon and throwing food at him. He ends up taking him out with a frying pan

The EMH is injured?

He has brain waves and everything! Did the Doctor turn into a real boy?

Barclay! I always had mixed feelings about him when he was on TNG but for some reason I’m really excited to see him!

Barclay tries to explain that the Doctor is really a man named Zimmerman who was testing the EMH program. And there’s radiation.

If this whole thing has been a test created by an engineer, he went to some extravagant detail on some things that aren’t relevant to their test, like all the plot lines that haven’t involved The Doctor

Barclay resets the “program” and we get to see the events of Caretaker again. That’s cool

Check out these gangsters

His head starts hurting with pain! Holograms don’t feel pain!

Chakotay shows up and says everything Barclay’s been saying is wrong. What’s really happened is The Doctor was taking a break and playing a holo-novel and some radiation happened. Yeah, cause while the Doctor was on break he would play a holo-novel about a Kazon attack where he has to save everyone. So it’s like his job that he’s taking a break from except even more stressful

Kes shows up too. She says she’s his wife

The Doctor has to choose who to believe. It’s hard because each story has holes. It actually becomes tiresome hearing the EMH ask for explanations to some of these problems and receiving some technical problem as an answer each time.

The Doctor wakes up back in sickbay. I’m glad the episode is over now. It was an interesting idea, but it’s run its course.

…But then Kes is getting a little touchy. She still thinks she’s his wife?

Then things get even crazier.

Then the EMH wakes up again. They drop the convoluted explanations. It was all just a dream basically