”Physician Smoke” sounds extra like a gamer tag, or possibly the contact in your telephone that you just name earlier than a significant Voyager binge session. How, then, did somebody as dignified because the Physician virtually find yourself with that title, a minimum of within the eyes of Kes?
All of it begins with an early draft of “Parallax” that concerned Tom Paris partaking in his favourite pastime of being annoying to others–on this case, the Physician, whom he provides a lot of unflattering nicknames.
In that Voyager draft, one of many names that Paris makes use of is “photon face,” which is admittedly fairly lazy even by the requirements of schoolyard bullying. He tries on one other nickname which is a minimum of a tad extra intelligent: “Physician Smoke and Mirrors,” a transparent reference to the Physician’s holographic nature.
Kes overhears Paris calling the Physician by this title earlier than she will get right into a dialog about sexuality with the officer that leaves Paris confused about whether or not she likes him or not.