The Doctor
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.
- "In the beginning, there is darkness – the emptiness of a matrix waiting for the light. Then a single photon flares into existence. Then another. Soon, thousands more. Optronic pathways connect, subroutines emerge from the chaos, and a holographic consciousness is born."
- - The Doctor (VOY: "Author, Author")
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| Gender: | Male |
| Species: | N.A. (Hologram) |
| Status: | Active (2378) |
| Born: | 2371 (First Activated) |
| Father: | Dr. Lewis Zimmerman (creator) |
| Children: | Jason Tebreeze |
| Played by: | Robert Picardo |
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"The Doctor" was the name given by the crew of the Federation starship USS Voyager to their Emergency Medical Hologram, or EMH.
The EMH Mk I was a computer program, with a holographic interface in the form of a Human male doctor. As its name suggests, it was designed to function in emergency situations only. However, on the USS Voyager, The Doctor was forced to become a full-time medic for the crew when the medical staff were killed in the starship's journey into the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker. This caused his program to be somewhat different from the standard EMH.
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[edit] Origins
The EMH Mark I, properly known as the Emergency Medical Holographic Program AK-1 Diagnostic and Surgical Subroutine Omega 323, was developed by a team of engineers to be an emergency supplement to the medical team on starships. Only meant to run for a maximum of 1,500 hours, it had little personality, with the apparent objective of getting into a situation and getting the job done as efficiently as possible. It was capable of treating any known injury or disease, programmed with medical knowledge of every member world in the Federation (at least, as of 2371), had the knowledge of five million surgical treatments and had the ability to adapt and create new medical treatments. It also had a database of spiritual medical treatments practiced by Native Americans. (VOY: "Cathexis", "Ex Post Facto") It was created by Lewis Zimmerman (on whom the hologram's appearance and voice are based) on Jupiter Station. Lieutenant Reginald Barclay also worked on the project, testing the EMH's interpersonal skills. (VOY: "Projections")
According to The Doctor, his original program was not configured to cry, bleed, feel pain, feel hunger, sing, or dance. Neither was he programmed with reproductive organs, as he would have no need for them. (VOY: "Projections", "Threshold", "Body and Soul", "Phage", "Message in a Bottle")
- Dr. Zimmerman claimed to not have programmed the EMH Mark 1 with sarcasm, but early episodes of Voyager indicate otherwise. (VOY: "Life Line") However, as a team of engineers were involved in addition to Dr. Zimmerman, another programmer may have added the "sarcasm" subroutines.
Early episodes of the series suggest the doctor had a personality expressed through anger and knowledge of humor way before given permission to do so.
[edit] Aboard Voyager
[edit] 2371
On stardate 48308.2, The Doctor was activated by Ensign Harry Kim to help treat crewmembers injured in the ship's transit into the Delta Quadrant. He quickly established that the Voyager crew would be stuck with him for a while, and he would be the sole provider of medical care aboard the ship. (VOY: "Caretaker")
The Doctor's first weeks as full-time medic on the Voyager weren't easy. He had no control over his activation subroutines, so anyone could switch him on or off at will, and he could not turn himself off. Most of the crew considered him merely a computer program, and he in turn was curt and rude to the crew. His thoughts on his duties were less than great, thinking he was used for anything, even small tasks that didn't require him. He was also upset at being the last to find out about more and less important events, such as the Maquis crew joining Voyager, and Neelix and Kes having come aboard. (VOY: "Time and Again"). He once noted when he created a chroniton-based remedy for Chakotay when his body fell into temporal flux: "Anywhere else, that cure would have won me a prestigious award. Here, it's just another day in the life of an under-appreciated EMH." (VOY: "Parallax", "Shattered")
When Voyager was caught in a quantum singularity, The Doctor's imaging processor began to malfunction causing him to shrink. This malfunction was eventually repaired. (VOY: "Parallax")
One of his first major achievements on board Voyager was the holographic lung treatment for Neelix. When Neelix's lungs were removed by a Vidiian, The Doctor devised a plan to use holographic lungs to allow him to remain alive. The Doctor's idea worked, but Neelix was confined to an isotropic restraint. The Doctor was later able to transplant one of Kes' lungs into Neelix with help from the Vidiians who stole Neelix's lungs. (VOY: "Phage")
It was not until Kes volunteered to work with The Doctor as a medical student that The Doctor's attitude and the crew's attitude started to change toward each other. Kes was one of the first people to really see The Doctor as a person. She encouraged him to think of himself as another member of the crew, helped him realize the better parts of himself, and began tutoring him on social graces – a skill he later taught to Seven of Nine. His relationship with the crew became much improved later. Kes was also shocked at the crew's attitude toward The Doctor. She asked Janeway if The Doctor could be treated the same as any crewmember. Janeway agreed and also gave The Doctor control over his deactivation sequence. (VOY: "Eye of the Needle")
The Doctor was sent on his first away mission by Janeway to rescue Kim, Tuvok and Chakotay from a Beowulf holoprogram that had been invaded by an energy creature, the reasoning being that he alone could not be snatched from the holodeck. He did, however, lose an arm in upon his first encounter with the being, which had manifested itself as the monster Grendel. Samples of photonic energy had been beamed aboard Voyager, and this energy was part of the alien. Once returned to the alien, the crew was released. (VOY: "Heroes and Demons")
When the mind energy of Chakotay and the Komar were forcing the Voyager crew to do actions against their will, The Doctor was the only crewmember who could not be controlled; if the entity could take over computers, it would have done so already. As he was the only crewmember who could be trusted, Janeway transferred her command codes so he could countermand orders if he thought it was so required. However, his program's initialization routine was later deactivated until the incident with the Komar ended. (VOY: "Cathexis")
An accident aboard Voyager caused The Doctor to confuse illusion with reality. A hallucination of Lieutenant Reginald Barclay, who developed his program's people skills, told The Doctor that he was real – indeed, that he was his own creator, Lewis Zimmerman, and married to a very Human Kes – and that he was caught in a hologram of Voyager, with radiation killing him after an accident. He was convinced the only way to escape was to fire a phaser into Voyager's warp core and destroy the simulation. At the last possible second, Chakotay convinced The Doctor that he was about to destroy his own matrix – simultaneously telling him that he was their friend regardless of whether he was a hologram or flesh and blood – and the problem was solved, although The Doctor was left intrigued as to why he hallucinated about the nature of his existence rather than simply have his program defenses activated. (VOY: "Projections")
He diagnosed that Kes' mating cycle – known to Ocampa as the elogium – had been activated by a swarm of space aliens. During this period, he acted in the role of Kes' father for a foot massage that served as the precursor to the mating ritual, but Kes subsequently decided not to have a child at that point, and in any case her elogium was subsequently ended when they left the aliens' territory. It was subsequently assumed that the elogium was triggered by the aliens, and Kes would still be able to conceive when the normal time came. (VOY: "Elogium")
[edit] 2372
In 2372, The Doctor didn't consider himself a member of the Voyager crew for quite a while. Upon activating, The Doctor opened communications channels all over the ship for a short period, until Janeway told him not to snoop. (VOY: "Parturition")
In response to criticisms that he was unsympathetic to crewmembers' feeling the effects of 'common' illnesses, he programmed himself with Levodian flu, a twenty-nine hour illness, as an exercise in how a little illness shouldn't be a cause of whining or moaning. Thirty-one hours into the illness, The Doctor was almost fearful, not knowing what was happening or why, and not liking the feeling of not being himself. Kes soon after admitted she modified the program to teach The Doctor a lesson, as it was hardly a real illness if he knew when it was going to end. (VOY: "Tattoo")
When a Vidiian scientist, Dr. Denara Pel, was beamed aboard Voyager, The Doctor attempted to cure her of the Phage. He transmitted her synaptic pathways into a hologram of her body without the disease, and put her real body in stasis until he could find a cure or a way to extend her life. He grafted a piece of Torres' brain tissue onto Dr. Pel's brain, as Klingon DNA had been found to be resistant to the disease. He also became attracted to Pel, even going so far as to add dancing to his program so he could share the experience with her, and he later implied, when talking to a Mark II EMH on the USS Prometheus, (VOY: "Message in a Bottle") that the two of them had sex before she departed the ship. (VOY: "Lifesigns")
- The above information regarding The Doctor and Denara having sex is purely speculative, but since The Doctor said that he engaged in sexual relations at some point prior to "Message in a Bottle", and Denara was the only woman he had been romantically involved with at this point, the evidence suggests that she was the woman in question.
While trying to evade the Vidiians, Voyager entered a plasma cloud which caused the ship and its crew to be duplicated. The Doctor on one of the ships delivered Ensign Wildman's baby, which died shortly after birth. After the other ship was invaded by Vidiians, The Doctor on that ship saved that Ensign Wildman's baby, keeping it hidden from the Vidiians until that Kim and the baby could board the "first" Voyager, which they did just before their ship self-destructed, killing the Vidiians and saving the "first" Voyager, whose Kim and baby had both been killed. (VOY: "Deadlock")
The Doctor found a way to separate and restore Tuvok and Neelix after a transporter accident combined them into one creature named Tuvix. However he refused to perform the procedure as he would have to kill Tuvix. Janeway eventually performed the procedure. (VOY: "Tuvix")
The Doctor played an essential part in the defeat of the Kazon led by Seska and Culluh. After the crew was captured and stranded on a primitive planet, The Doctor (who escaped deletion by claiming that he was totally neutral as a hologram, and thus didn't mind whether Kazon or Starfleet were in charge of Voyager) along with Lon Suder helped sabotage the backup phaser couplings. This allowed Tom Paris (who had escaped in a shuttlecraft) and his Talaxian allies to retake the ship and save the crew, after Paris disabled the main phaser couplings and Voyager was damaged when the Kazon attempted to use the backups. The Doctor was briefly disabled when Seska locked out Starfleet voice commands after turning him off, preventing Suder from reactivating him, but The Doctor left a message for Suder, assuring the former killer that The Doctor was confident he would succeed in retaking the ship, and complimenting him on his courage and dedication to the crew. (VOY: "Basics, Part I", "Basics, Part II")
[edit] 2373
In 2373, The Doctor reached the limit of his memory capacity and started suffering from massive amnesia. When an alien attack injured Paris, The Doctor was unable to operate due to forgetting his medical skills. It soon became clear that his program would disintegrate completely. Another hologram, Diagnostic Program Alpha-11, was used to find the source of the problem. The only option was to overlay The Doctor's memory onto the Diagnostic Program's. This procedure restored The Doctor, but led to massive memory loss including his recollection of the crew's identities and most events of the previous two years. Although some memories seemed to survive intact, it was clear that The Doctor would struggle to regain his hard-won personal skills. (VOY: "The Swarm")
He assisted in stopping Henry Starling's plan to steal a timeship which accidentally traveled into the past, simultaneously acquiring a mobile emitter that permitted him movement beyond the limit of Voyager's holoemitters. He rescues Chakotay and Torres from some Freedom Fighters (they try to shoot him but being a hologram it has no effect on him and he easily stuns them) and returns to Voyager and enjoys his new found freedom from Sickbay. He also helped Janeway to rid Voyager of an attacking macrovirus when she returned from an away mission and the rest of the crew had been infected. (VOY: "Future's End", "Future's End, Part II", "Macrocosm")
In an attempt to improve himself, The Doctor created EMH program 4C, adding personality subroutines to his holomatrix copied from many historical figures, including Lord Byron, Mahatma Gandhi, Socrates, Marie Curie, and T'Pau. Unfortunately, The Doctor didn't realize that even great historical figures had character flaws and a dark side to their personality. Taking on a "Jekyll and Hyde"-type split personality, he attacked Zahir, an alien whom Kes had befriended. As the subroutines degraded, the 'Dark Doctor' kidnapped Kes and tried to arrange passage to another planet. During this time, he still apparently cared for Kes, albeit in a twisted fashion compared to his normal personality. He attempted to kill Zahir, wanting Kes to remain with him, claiming that she needed his help due to her naiveté. After being beamed aboard Voyager, the added subroutines finally collapsed, and The Doctor returned to normal. (VOY: "Darkling")
The Doctor once created a holodeck family in order to experience Human family values, assuming the name of "Kenneth." Initially, the program was idyllic, but when Torres reprogrammed it to be more "realistic", The Doctor found it harder to cope, even contemplating deactivating it permanently after his 'daughter' was fatally wounded in an accident. Paris helped The Doctor learn to cope with the negatives as well as the positives in having a family, and The Doctor returned to the program to mourn the loss of his daughter with his wife and son. (VOY: "Real Life")
The Doctor proved instrumental in assisting the crew's escape when Nyrians took over Voyager and transported them into an artificial environment. Chakotay, as the last crew-member on board, transferred The Doctor's program into the mobile emitter before he could be deleted. Torres subsequently modified The Doctor's optical sensors, allowing him to "see" portals between artificial environments, and, with the aid of another prisoner named Jarleth, the crew reached the Nyrians' spaceship and retook Voyager. (VOY: "Displaced")
[edit] 2374
In 2374, when the Borg and Species 8472 were engaged in a war, Voyager became involved. Janeway made a pact with the Borg that in exchange for technology that could defeat Species 8472, they would give Voyager free passage through their space. Kim was injured in an attack by Species 8472. His cells were being destroyed, but The Doctor used nanoprobes to cure him, resulting in Voyager being able to develop a weapon that could be used against Species 8472, giving them a bargaining chip to negotiate a temporary alliance with the Borg. (VOY: "Scorpion, Part II")
He removed most of Seven of Nine's Borg implants after she came aboard Voyager and was severed from the Borg Collective. He restored her back to her human form, although she was left with a need to regenerate. Like the rest of the crew, he mourned Kes' departure from the ship due to her enhanced abilities, her having easily become his closest friend on Voyager. (VOY: "The Gift")
He and Torres answered a distress call and found a hologram named Dejaren alone on a ship. Initially, The Doctor tried to befriend the hologram, who was eager to learn about The Doctor's freedom on Voyager; Dejaren's own crew never treated him as anything other than equipment and kept him constantly confined in one part of the ship. Eventually, The Doctor and Torres discovered that Dejaren had killed the organic crew on the ship, having been driven mad by constantly being treated as a tool. After failing to convince The Doctor that holograms were the higher form of life, Dejaren tried to kill Torres and deactivate The Doctor by stealing his mobile emitter. Fortunately, Torres was able to successfully deactivate Dejaren by destabilizing his holomatrix, leaving the crew with a greater appreciation of The Doctor's personality, no matter how annoying he could be. (VOY: "Revulsion")
During his first mission to the Alpha Quadrant, The Doctor was instrumental in establishing contact with Starfleet. When Voyager discovered a Hirogen communications network leading into the edge of the quadrant, the crew attempted to send a message through to a Starfleet vessel within range of the furthest relay. When the message failed to reach the Alpha Quadrant, it was decided to send a hologram, as it was less likely to decompile before reaching its destination, and The Doctor was the only program large enough to have a chance of making it through intact; they lacked the time to write a holographic message before the Prometheus moved out of range.
When The Doctor reached the Starfleet vessel USS Prometheus, he soon discovered that the ship had been taken over by Romulans, once again claiming holographic neutrality to escape deletion. The Doctor had to activate the experimental EMH Mark II on board and, despite the initial conflict between the two (the Mark II thought that The Doctor was defective and obsolete, while The Doctor regarded the Mark II as an arrogant new upstart), the holograms retook control of the vessel, combining The Doctor's own personal experience with the Mark II's detailed knowledge of the ship. Having defeated the Romulan warbirds, Starfleet officers boarded the ship, and The Doctor was subsequently able to speak directly with Starfleet Headquarters and set the record straight about Voyager's disappearance. When The Doctor returned to Voyager, it was with the welcome news that the ship no longer was alone. (VOY: "Message in a Bottle")
Later, in 2374, The Doctor and Harry Kim played an important role in helping to retake the ship from the Hirogen, who were using the crew as prey in holoprograms; the two of them had been left free so that The Doctor could heal the crew and Kim could work on expanding the holodecks. When forced to treat Seven of Nine, The Doctor secretly restored her memories, starting the chain of events that would bring Voyager back under the control of the crew. During a Nazi program, he and Neelix persuaded the Klingons in one program to attack the Hirogen and Nazi soldiers. (VOY: "The Killing Game", "The Killing Game, Part II")
[edit] 2375
In an attempt to save Torres who had an cytoplasmic lifeform attached to her, he called up a holoprogram of a Cardassian named Dr. Crell Moset who was one of the foremost exobiologists in the Alpha Quadrant. Ensign Tabor informed Janeway and The Doctor that Moset was accused of war crimes during the occupation of Bajor. Moset wished to kill the creature to remove it, but The Doctor overruled him and removed the creature after a neural shock. After B'Elanna regained consciousness, The Doctor deleted the Moset program from all files. (VOY: "Nothing Human")
The Doctor undertook the role of the President of Earth in the holoprogram The Adventures of Captain Proton and interacted with a photonic lifeform to convince them to help Captain Proton stop Doctor Chaotica; he even joked that he might run for office when they got back to Earth. (VOY: "Bride of Chaotica!")
While doing medical exams on the crew, he found that he had performed surgery on Kim that he did not remember. Janeway and the crew hid the truth from him, until he discovered that during an away mission, Kim and Ensign Ahni Jetal had been seriously injured in an alien attack. Even with Paris helping, The Doctor could only save one of the injured crew, and, since he knew the ensign better, it was Kim he saved, basically allowing Jetal to die. After this, The Doctor started to have a mental breakdown, his program unable to cope with the ethical side-effects of his choice, constantly trying to understand why he "decided to kill her," and the crew were forced to wipe his memory of the incident. Janeway debated if she should wipe The Doctor's memory once again, but after Seven pointed out that they were essentially treating The Doctor like a piece of equipment rather than a person, Janeway helped him accept his decision, realizing that they couldn't give The Doctor the means to work with the crew as an equal only to treat him like a machine when things became difficult. (VOY: "Latent Image")
The Doctor tried to teach Seven of Nine social graces, including teaching her how to be pleasant with her fellow crewmates, and how to act on a date. He also discovered her singing voice, and they sang several duets together. The Doctor became attracted to her during their sessions, but refused to admit it to her. When Seven told The Doctor that she no longer needed the lessons in romance because there were no suitable mates aboard, The Doctor was crushed, and returned to the holodeck for a lonely rendition of Someone to Watch Over Me. (VOY: "Someone to Watch Over Me")
An artificial intelligence was found on a planet and it was discovered that it was a weapon sent on a mission of destruction. The machine interfaced with The Doctor's matrix and took it over. It threatened Voyager to take it to its target, until it was convinced that its mission had been an accident; its systems had been triggered by a computer error and a target had merely been selected at random. Transferring its intelligence out of The Doctor, it was beamed off Voyager and destroyed other war machines on the same obsolete mission. (VOY: "Warhead")
At the end of the year, The Doctor was disabled while investigating the USS Equinox by that ship's EMH, who stole his mobile emitter and returned to Voyager posing as him. Later, when he was reactivated by Captain Ransom, his ethical subroutines were deactivated to coerce him into extracting information from Seven of Nine. After being restored to himself and escaping to Voyager, Seven offered to add security measures to his program to prevent further tampering, assuring him that she bore him no ill-will (she even 'teasingly' informed him that he was off-key when he sang to her as he tapped into her implants). He also deleted the Equinox EMH upon returning to Voyager, although the Equinox EMH tried unsuccessfully to threaten him with holographic bombs. (VOY: "Equinox", "Equinox, Part II")
[edit] 2376
In 2376, Captain Janeway awarded The Doctor the Starfleet Medal of Commendation for his part in repelling raiders who wanted to strip Voyager of essential components. This predicament was both incited and resolved successfully thanks to The Doctor's experimentation with introducing daydreaming to his program; the aliens hacked in to The Doctor's program, but due to his daydreams, they were given an exaggerated image of Voyager's defenses and were tricked into retreating. In light of his accomplishments, Captain Janeway gave permission for research into the creation of an Emergency Command Hologram, to take command of the ship if the senior staff were ever immobilized. However, he was also left more than slightly embarrassed due to the fact that several of his daydreams featured Janeway, Seven and Torres competing for his affections (as well as one where he painted Seven in the nude), although Janeway assured him that it was only Human to fantasize. (VOY: "Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy")
The Doctor played the part of the village priest in the Fair Haven program. When he tried to free Kim and Paris from the townfolk who believed they were evil spirits, he himself was captured and hypnotized. Pressed to reveal his true name, he admitted that he "had not decided on one yet." (VOY: "Fair Haven", "Spirit Folk")
When Voyager encountered con artists posing as Janeway, Tuvok and Chakotay in an attempt to make money, The Doctor proved instrumental in the recovery of the stolen property. After tricking Dala, one of the con artists, into boarding the Delta Flyer, The Doctor and Tom Paris knocked her out. The Doctor subsequently altered his holographic matrix so that he resembled Dala, allowing him to confront the other two con artists and learn where they had concealed their stolen property before turning them over to the local authorities. (VOY: "Live Fast and Prosper")
While encountering the Qomar, he began singing, which awed the aliens, as they had no concept of music. He gave a recital on the planet. They asked him to stay and he considered resigning. However, on another visit to the planet, he discovered that the Qomar had made what they considered a superior holoprogram (in that it could sing notes outside the human vocal range) and that he was not wanted. He returned to Voyager. (VOY: "Virtuoso")
The second mission to the Alpha Quadrant occurred when Lewis Zimmerman was dying and The Doctor requested to be transmitted back to the Alpha Quadrant to help treat him. While he was at Jupiter Station, Lewis Zimmerman fought The Doctor and his treatment, regarding The Doctor's presence as an unpleasant reminder of his failure with the Mark I as a whole. This caused Reginald Barclay to contact Deanna Troi to help out with the situation. Neither the counselor nor Barclay could make either doctor reach any sort of agreement, as both of them were too stubborn to back down. It wasn't until The Doctor began to decompile that Lewis Zimmerman corrected the error and the two reached a mutual understanding that bordered on a father/son relationship. This was mainly reflected in a conversation where The Doctor admitted that he'd hoped Zimmerman would be proud of his accomplishments if they ever met, and Zimmerman confessing that he was grateful that at least one EMH Mark I was still doing what he had designed them for. The treatment worked, and, shortly before The Doctor left for Voyager, Zimmerman told The Doctor that he could call him next time Voyager was given a chance to communicate with Earth. (VOY: "Life Line")
[edit] 2377-78
During the last year of Voyager's journey home, The Doctor's program was stolen and sold to a Dr. Chellick, who was in charge of a medical hospital on the planet Dinaali. He was appalled at the medical malpractice that was taking place. Only the rich or useful were accorded the best medical care, while others were left to die or denied medicine because of their social standing. He, along with a few medical personnel, helped change the situation, although The Doctor suffered an ethical crisis afterwards; in order to convince the staff to change procedure, The Doctor had deliberately infected a member of the hospital staff with a potentially fatal virus, the member of staff then being classified as a lower grade patient, and forced to change his normal procedure to save his own life. (VOY: "Critical Care")"
Seven of Nine and The Doctor became one when, in order to hide his matrix from aliens who hunted and destroyed holograms, he was downloaded into her cybernetic implants. He experienced Human feelings of taste and touch for the first time, although Seven was angered at his 'abuse' of her body while he was in charge; The Doctor felt Seven showed excessive restraint and did not allow for superfluous pleasure, a thing that The Doctor felt was an important part of life. After they returned to Voyager, however, Seven seemed to better understand his point of view, bringing a meal to sickbay and describing the sensations of eating it to The Doctor to allow him to continue to experience it. (VOY: "Body and Soul")
An away team became trapped on a planet with a toxic atmosphere and a rescue was launched. The Doctor not only went on the rescue mission but almost single-handedly rescued the entire team when he, dressed as a native infiltrated the natives caves. He tossed Tuvok a phaser and then stunned everyone holding a gun surprising Neelix and Paris. He explained that since he was a hologram, the radiation had no effect on him and he was able to effectively disguise himself as part of the plan. Later, on Voyager, he treated a baby infected with radiation poisoning and cured him and a native with the help of Seven of Nine. (VOY: "Friendship One")
Shortly after this, The Doctor discovered that B'Elanna Torres was pregnant with Paris' child. At first, Torres initially tried to reprogram The Doctor to alter the child's DNA and remove the Klingon traits, fearing a repeat of her own upbringing, when her father left because he couldn't handle two Klingon women. After talking with her, Tom Paris eventually convinced Torres that he would love their children no matter what they were like, and he hoped that every one of them would be just like her. After apologizing to The Doctor for her reprogramming of him, Torres asked him to be the child's godfather, and he willingly accepted. (VOY: "Lineage")
When Voyager responded to a Hirogen distress call, the crew found that the holograms created as victims for Hirogen training had turned against the hunters. A group of these holograms had escaped to a ship. These holograms later kidnapped The Doctor. He discovered the holograms were just trying to find somewhere where they could live in peace. Eventually agreeing to help them, he escaped with them, taking Torres to help the holograms set up a civilization of their own.
However, the holograms, led by Iden, took extraordinary measures to achieve their freedom, even going along with Iden's plan to attack and eventually destroy a mining vessel to obtain and "liberate" fellow holograms. The Doctor's suspicions were confirmed about Iden when he admitted he wished to start a new religion, with him as the "man of light" having freed numerous holograms in various, and often violent, fashion. Eventually, The Doctor had to destroy Iden to protect everyone else. Ashamed by his actions, he volunteered to turn in his mobile emitter, but Janeway assured him that nobody blamed him for doing the human thing and making a mistake in judgment. (VOY: "Flesh and Blood").
When Voyager was abandoned due to tetryon radiation flooding, Captain Janeway activated the ECH for the first time, allowing The Doctor to repair damage to the ship while the crew waited in the escape pods for Voyager to be declared safe once again. The Doctor managed to defend the ship against scavengers and had begun enacting repairs by the time Chakotay and Kim, who had been on an away mission, returned to the ship. The Doctor further demonstrated his command abilities by utilizing a photonic shockwave to disable two Quarren ships. While repairing the ship along with Ensign Kim, they frequently conflicted regarding the impromptu chain of command – while Kim was actually a commissioned officer, The Doctor was programmed with the experiences of renowned commanders throughout history. After it was Harry's strategy that saved the ship from attack when the two of them were the sole crew members, The Doctor was later forced to admit he lacked the valuable practical operational experience of other officers, and made peace with Harry before returning to his normal role as the Chief Medical Officer. (VOY: "Workforce", "Workforce, Part II").
When the crew was forced to transport alien prisoners to a distant planet, where they would be executed for their crimes, The Doctor was appalled at the death penalty rule enforced by the planet. He also discovered that Iko, one of the patients, had actually been born with a brain defect that left him prone to violence. Using Seven's nanoprobes, The Doctor managed to cure Iko of this defect, effectively restoring Iko's conscience and making him a new person. Tragically, Iko's appeal was rejected, but The Doctor and Seven were able to take some small measure of comfort in knowing they had helped him. (VOY: "Repentance")
The Doctor activated his command subroutines again in 2378, in an attempt to rescue Captain Janeway from aliens who had kidnapped her. His holographic matrix altered to allow him to pose as various members of the crew, such as Janeway, Torres and Chakotay, The Doctor was eventually able to evacuate engineering and subsequently active the ECH program. As the Emergency Command Hologram, The Doctor had the authorization to eject Voyager's warp core; he then tried to free the captain by exchanging the core as ransom. He was able to rescue Janeway and recover the core, but when the excess subroutines inserted by the aliens nearly caused his program to collapse, he made several embarrassing "deathbed" confessions, including his love for Seven. Having recovered, he subsequently spent a whole week in sickbay out of sheer embarrassment, but was eventually convinced by Janeway to rejoin life on the ship. (VOY: "Renaissance Man")
He returned to Earth when Admiral Janeway changed the timeline by going back in the past and helping Voyager return to Earth quicker than the fifteen years it originally took. The Doctor's last action on the ship was to help deliver his goddaughter, Miral Paris while in the Borg transwarp hub. As the crew were contacted by Starfleet ships, The Doctor then alerted Miral's father that "There's someone here who'd like to say 'Hello'." (VOY: "Endgame")
[edit] Personal Life
[edit] Kes
Kes and the Doctor bonded considerably. Their friendship began early in the first year after Kes displayed great interest in medicine. This interest led The Doctor to commence training with her which brought them close as colleagues. (VOY: "Phage") Kes was able to quickly study the works given by the Doctor, which greatly intrigued him. Although the Doctor's personality wasn't pleasing to the rest of the crew, he reacted in a kinder manner to Kes, treating her as a colleague and friend. (VOY: "Eye of the Needle") Early in the second year of their journey, the Doctor once commented that he found Kes beautiful, and, when his program began to degrade, prompting holographic hallucinations that he was his own creator Lewis Zimmerman, he became convinced that he was married to a Human version of Kes. (VOY: "Projections")
However, there was never any romance in their relationship; the Doctor and Kes quickly settling into an almost father/daughter role, with The Doctor teaching Kes as a medical assistant. Kes also trusted the Doctor enough to perform the role of her father in the rolissisin, a foot massage that was a precursor to the mating ritual, commonly marking the change in relationship between father and child as the child became a parent herself. (VOY: "Elogium")
It was Kes who persuaded Janeway to give The Doctor control over his own deactivation code, a significant step towards the Doctor being regarded as a full member of the crew rather than a piece of equipment. She helped him become part of the crew and interact with them, as well as helping to restore The Doctor's program when it began to degrade from being online for so long. (VOY: "The Swarm") She was also the person who encouraged The Doctor to tell Denara Pel about his feelings for her, and subsequently worked with Tom Paris to set the Doctor and Denara up on a date in the holodeck. (VOY: "Lifesigns")
The next year Kes helped save The Doctor's matrix when, due to his program having been active for far longer than it was designed for, he began to lose his memories and skills as a doctor. After Torres activated a hologram of Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, he explained that the Doctor had been online too long and was deteriorating. Kes persuaded Dr. Zimmerman to graft his matrix onto the Doctor, restoring his mental capabilities. (VOY: "The Swarm") When the Doctor's program developed a secondary, evil personality, the 'Dark Doctor' still appeared to care for Kes, albeit in a more twisted fashion than the normal Doctor. Not only did he try to kill Zahir, the alien who Kes had developed feelings for, because he wanted Kes to remain on the ship, but he also claimed, during his capture of her, that she needed his help due to her naivete. (VOY: "Darkling")
[edit] Tom Paris
After Kes' departure from the ship, Paris was chosen as The Doctor's new medical assistant, serving as Voyager's CMO when the Doctor was unavailable. Although he was initially reluctant, he proved to be highly capable at the job. Over time, it became clear that, although he complained about the role, preferring to pilot the ship, he still wanted The Doctor's respect as a person. This was the main reason Paris resented The Doctor's holonovel about abused holograms, Photons Be Free; he worried that 'his' character, a womanizer called Lieutenant Marseilles who cheated on his wife, reflected how The Doctor saw him. Despite this, when the crew arranged a trial to determine the Doctor's legal rights, it was Paris who objected to Tuvok's suggestion that they claim that the Doctor had no right to sell the holonovel in the first place, as they would basically have been admitting that the Doctor was not a real person. (VOY: "Author, Author")
[edit] Kathryn Janeway
As the crew's journey unfolded, Janeway soon found herself even becoming friends with The Doctor, despite initially regarding him as just another hologram. The Doctor also initially disliked Janeway, making several notes on what he regarded as her more 'questionable' command decisions before he fully came to regard himself as part of the crew. As the journey unfolded, however, the two of them became closer, particularly when Janeway and The Doctor were the only two crewmembers standing between Voyager and the macrovirus that was attacking the ship. (VOY: "Macrocosm")
As the journey went on, the two of them also began to develop an almost mother/son relationship, with The Doctor often coming to Janeway when he needed personal advice or information about how his program was developing, as well as consolation about any wrong decisions he had made in recent times (much like the relationship Lieutenant Commander Data developed with Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation). It was Janeway who stopped The Doctor from deleting the additional subroutines that made him unique when he felt responsible for a death, (VOY: "Retrospect") Janeway who assured The Doctor that none of the crew thought any less of him when he was embarrassed about the fantasies created by his daydream program, (VOY: "Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy") and Janeway who told The Doctor that none of the crew blamed him for betraying them to try and help a crew of holograms. (VOY: "Flesh and Blood") As well as that, when Janeway faced death after being captured by an alien species, The Doctor risked everything to save her, like any son trying to protect the mother who had given him life and nurtured him when he needed it most. (VOY: "Renaissance Man")
[edit] Relationships
[edit] Freya
Early in his activated existence, The Doctor, under Kes' advice, began a search for a name. His first idea was Schweitzer, before his first away mission on the holodeck to investigate disappearing crewmembers. During the mission, he attracted the attentions of a holographic character, Freya. Before going to sleep she kissed the Doctor and invited him to join her, saying "You know where I sleep." On the following holodeck mission, she was stabbed protecting him and died with his name on her lips. As a consequence, The Doctor found it painful to use that name anymore, and began his search anew. (VOY: "Heroes and Demons")
[edit] Denara Pel
In 2372, the Doctor encountered the Vidiian doctor Denara Pel and developed romantic feelings for her; indeed, it was implied later on that the two of them had sex. She gave him the name Shmullus, after her uncle who always made her smile. When they met again later that year, Denara again called the Doctor Shmullus, although he never used the name again despite his fondness for it; presumably, like with "Schweitzer," he found the memories attached to the name too painful. (VOY: "Lifesigns", "Resolutions")
[edit] Holo-Family
The Doctor decided to create a holographic family, Doctor's Family Program Beta-Rho, in Voyager's holodeck in 2373, using the name Kenneth for himself. At first, it was blissfully perfect, until B'Elanna Torres, after a visit, suggested adding randomness and "realism". As a result, his teenage son Jeffrey became rebellious and began to hang out with some unsavory Klingon youths. In addition, the Doctor had arguments with his wife Charlene and lost the formerly close bond he had possessed with his daughter Belle. The family bonded together better shortly after, as a result of his daughter's death; after a conversation with Paris, the Doctor was persuaded not to delete the program after this incident, but to work through the death with his remaining family. (VOY: "Real Life")
[edit] Mareeza
Later that year, Voyager became trapped in orbit around a planet where time advanced at a much faster rate than normal. The Doctor determined that the transition in to this accelerated timeframe could be fatal to a humanoid, and so volunteered to transport to the surface himself. It was intended that he would only spend three seconds on the planet, which equated to around three days on the surface, but attempts to transport him back to Voyager failed. Chakotay guessed that the Doctor would spend his time in the city's cultural center and he was located a short time after being transported down. However, this meant that to him, he had spent three years on the surface. He met a woman named Mareeza, whom he later described as his "roommate", and had a son named Jason Tebreeze. (VOY: "Blink of an Eye")
- It is not clear how The Doctor, a hologram, could have fathered a child. The easiest explanation is that Jason was adopted; he may or may not have been Mareeza's biological son. According to the short story "Eighteen Minutes" in the book Distant Shores, The Doctor met her while she was pregnant, and being the only one to take care of her, was named the father.
[edit] Seven of Nine
The Doctor was responsible for the removal of Seven's implants, and also conducted her weekly maintenance sessions. He also took it upon himself to teach Seven social behavior, using the same interpersonal relationship exercises Kes once practiced with him. (VOY: "Prey") Later, he created a holodeck simulation of Voyager for her to become more comfortable with large social gatherings. (VOY: "One")
The Doctor encouraged Seven to explore romantic relationships in 2375, coaching her in the basics of dating and grooming. He also discovered her singing voice, and the two sang a duet of You Are My Sunshine. He was partially motivated by a wager made with Ensign Paris, who believed that Seven would not be able to bring a date to a reception planned aboard Voyager without making a scene. Although Seven's date with Lieutenant Chapman ended up in disaster, she attended the reception with the Doctor, and charmed the guests with a toast to individuality. However, she was hurt to discover that The Doctor's help was due to the bet. At this point, the Doctor found himself falling in love with Seven, but refused to admit it to her. He tried to apologize to her, but she came to him first and said she no longer needed the lessons in romance because there were no suitable mates aboard. The Doctor was very disappointed that Seven did not reciprocate his feelings. (VOY: "Someone to Watch Over Me")
In 2376, The Doctor was stranded aboard the USS Equinox along with Seven, and the crew disengaged his ethical subroutines to extract activation codes for their warp drive from Seven's cranial implants, which would leave her mentally disabled. The Doctor almost went through with the procedure, but Captain Rudolph Ransom stopped him. He apologized to Seven for the incident, and she held no ill-will towards him. (VOY: "Equinox, Part II")
The Doctor created a subroutine for daydreaming in early 2376. Seven featured prominently in several fantasies, either serving as a damsel in distress or competing with other female Voyager crewmembers for The Doctor's affections. He even fantasized about painting her in the nude. When the fantasies began to overrun his program, his mental activity was tied into the holodeck, allowing Seven to see what he had been daydreaming. She did not take offense, but after she kissed him following Captain Janeway's announcement that the Emergency Command Hologram subroutines would be developed, she made it clear that it was simply a platonic gesture. (VOY: "Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy")
While Ensign Kim, Seven, and The Doctor conducted a routine survey onboard the Delta Flyer in 2377, they were captured by a race known as the Lokirrim. The Lokirrim had waged war against holographic lifeforms who rebelled against Lokirrim rule, and as a result, banned all holographic activity within their borders. Seven transferred the Doctor's program to her cortical implant in order to hide him from the Lokirrim and prevent him from being decompiled. In the process, the Doctor took control of Seven's motor abilities, and was essentially trapped in her body. The Doctor tried to engineer an escape by cultivating a relationship with a Lokirrim official, Ranek, but the new sensations of taste and emotion were too tempting for the Doctor. He ended up overindulging in several foods and causing pain to Seven. Ranek later called Seven to the ship's bridge with the intention of setting up a romantic liaison. Although the Doctor was able to see his command codes, Ranek attempted to kiss him in Seven's body, which was not reciprocated. Shortly afterward, he went to complain about the incident to Jaryn, a crewmember the Doctor had been working with to treat injured Lokirrim crew. The Doctor became sexually aroused when Jaryn gave Seven a neck massage. Both incidents greatly irritated Seven, and once the Doctor had been returned to the mobile emitter they got into an argument about the values of indulgence. The Doctor felt Seven showed excessive restraint and did not allow for superfluous pleasure, which the Doctor believed was an important part of life. Kim managed to return the subject to escape, and the Doctor and Seven worked together once again to transmit a distress signal to Voyager. The Doctor was downloaded back into Seven's implants, and is able to convince Ranek to join her on a "second date." They knocked him out at the first available opportunity, and transmitted a message to Voyager including the ship's command codes. Their plan was discovered by Jaryn, and Seven is taken captive. After Voyager arrived, Seven returned the Doctor's program to the mobile emitter and they escaped. Upon their return to the ship, Seven decided that the Doctor had a point about her restraint concerning pleasures such as food. She brought a meal to sickbay and described the sensations of eating it to the Doctor, allowing him to experience it vicariously. (VOY: "Body and Soul")
When The Doctor's rights as an individual came into question, Seven testified at the hearing conducted with Starfleet Command. She spoke highly of the Doctor, appreciative of his efforts to develop her individuality. (VOY: "Author, Author")
In 2378 when The Doctor believed he was about to die, he finally admitted his feelings for her, and was embarrassed when he survived. (VOY: "Renaissance Man") The Doctor was also crestfallen when he learned Seven had begun to date Chakotay. (VOY: "Endgame")
[edit] Lana
- In an alternate timeline when it took Voyager twenty-three years to get home, The Doctor got married in 2404 to a woman named Lana. He had also finally given himself a name, Joe, after Lana's grandfather. He had also become a significant figure at Starfleet Medical, and remained close friends with Reginald Barclay. Remaining fiercely loyal to his former captain, he didn't hesitate to obtain some chronexaline for Admiral Kathryn Janeway, despite not knowing why. When he found out from Reg, he informed Captain Harry Kim, they decided to keep it in the 'family' (the Voyager crew) and Kim moved to apprehend her without telling Starfleet or his crew the true reason why, although in the end Kim allowed the Admiral to proceed with her mission to change history. (VOY: "Endgame")
[edit] The Mobile Emitter
In 2373, Voyager encountered the Aeon, under command of Captain Braxton. Due to a temporal paradox, Voyager was transported to Earth in 1996. During this mission, The Doctor obtained a piece of 29th century technology from Henry Starling, originating from the Aeon, called a mobile emitter. This device, though only a few centimeters long, was able to contain the entire EMH program and project The Doctor autonomously. After the timeline was restored and Voyager returned to the Delta Quadrant, The Doctor kept the emitter. It was quickly established that the transfer of The Doctor's program to and from the emitter would be quite easy; practically all The Doctor had to do was issue a voice command and attach the emitter to his left shoulder.
This device proved to be of vital importance, and saved the crew of Voyager on numerous occasions. One of the most notable times when the emitter proved useful was shortly after The Doctor had acquired it, when he helped Captain Janeway fight off a swarm of macroviruses that had infected the ship; since Janeway had been away at the time, and The Doctor (As a hologram) was naturally immune to the virus, they were forced to stand alone to save the crew. (VOY: "Macrocosm") It also allowed The Doctor to help crewmembers all over the ship, which was especially useful after Kes left the ship a short time later. (VOY: "The Gift")
The mobile emitter helped The Doctor to watch over the ship while the crew was in stasis during a trip through a radioactive mutara class nebula. While proving to be helpful in allowing The Doctor to help Seven of Nine during this situation, the nebula affected the mobile emitter damaging its