prosthetic as giving him a "raw, wounded face, which made [him] feel very vulnerable as a person", and viewed it as an acting challenge. Following an extensive casting process, American actress Susan Diol was selected to play Danara Pel. Diol had previously appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Silicon Avatar" as engineer Carmen Davila. Robert Picardo praised her performance, noting that she "miraculously side-stepped all of the pitfalls of that role, which were abject pity". Taylor developed Danara Pel as a way to explore the morality behind treating terminally ill individuals, while Picardo approached the character as a meditation on the role of physical appearance in romantic relationships. He explained his interpretation of the Doctor's romance with Pel: Response Cast and crew response The Vidiians' debut in "Phage" received primarily positive responses from Voyager's cast and crew. Kate Mulgrew praised the moment in which Janeway had to choose between "sacrificing Neelix's lungs or allowing another species to continue to survive". She viewed Janeway's initial difficulty with approaching the Vidiians about the subject of ethics as showcasing a level of "poignancy". While discussing the alien species introduced in the early seasons of Voyager, Westmore said that he found the Vidiians to have the most compelling design. He described them as "the most interesting ones that we've run into as far as a new concept and look, and something totally different", highlighting their use of horror conventions. Taylor praised Westmore's work representing the Vidiians as "truly grisly-looking people" without turning them into flat or static characters. Skye Dent had a more critical opinion of the episode, saying that alterations made to her first draft of the script weakened the effectiveness of the alien species as antagonists. She felt that they "just seemed very wimpy to me, even though they were saying the same dialogue I had written". The series' producers and writers also commented on the inclusion of the Vidiians in the episode "Faces". Piller, Braga, and Taylor praised executive producer Rick Berman's decision to reformat the Torres' storyline with the inclusion of the Vidiians. Dent was impressed by the episode's representation of the alien species, and felt it was an improvement over her initial concepts. While discussing the representation of the Vidiians, Biller highlighted the scene in which Vidiian scientist Sulan transplants the face of Lieutenant Peter Durst (also played by Markinson) onto his own, and referred to