To say that “Star Trek: Voyager“‘s Emergency Medical Hologram evolved beyond his programming would be an understatement.
He was developed as part of a job lot (the Enterprise-E had its own identical EMH in “First Contact”), and only came online because the USS Voyager’s original doctor was killed en route to the Delta Quadrant. And yet this photonic physician quickly established himself in the waiting room of “Trek”‘s greatest doctors — in fact, there’s little more than a laser scalpel between him and the similarly irascible Dr McCoy.
Of course, his exceptional medical expertise — pre-programmed by his creator, Dr Lewis Zimmerman, to whom he bears an uncanny resemblance — is rather less noteworthy than his unique bedside manner. From the moment of his first activation, he was effortlessly (if not always intentionally) funny, a welcome distraction from the serious business of his crew’s epic voyage home. “I’m a doctor, not a peeping tom/battery/dragonslayer [and many more; delete as appropriate],” became a familiar, McCoy-homaging refrain.
It was also clear from the off that the EMH is descended from the same lineage as Spock, Data, and Odo, outsiders who see humanity from a different perspective, and subsequently grow over the course of their respective series.
Ironically, actor Robert Picardo had initially been sceptical about the role before he set foot in Voyager’s Sickbay. “I turned down the audition for the Doctor, because it just didn’t sound interesting,” he told StarTrek.com. “It sounded like an automaton. I asked to read for [Talaxian chef/morale officer] Neelix instead.”
That part ultimately went to Ethan Phillips, but Picardo was invited back to audition for the Emergency Medical Hologram, beating a reported 900 other wannabe holographic doctors to the role. And despite those initial reservations, Picardo came to realize he had arguably the best role in “Voyager”.
“I got the part without understanding that the character would be the Spock-like character,” he said. “The character who initially inherited that was Data, who had no emotion and longed to be a real boy in the same way as Pinocchio. I thought that, because Tuvok was a Vulcan character, he would deal with those issues. Once I realized that I had gotten the plum role, it was a delightful surprise. I went from thinking I had the dullest role in the show to believing I may have the best role in the show.”
Few characters in “Star Trek” history have had a more satisfying story arc than the Doctor did across seven seasons of “Voyager”. He developed a passion for opera (something that’s continued in “Starfleet Academy”), and wrote a hit polemical holo-novel called “Photons be Free”.
He became so popular with the “Trek” fanbase that the writers crowbarred in a futuristic holo-emitter from the 29th century — effectively Arnold Rimmer’s hard light drive from “Red Dwarf” — that allowed the Doc to set foot outside the confines of Sickbay and go on away missions. He was also given agency to deactivate himself when not required, and the opportunity to give himself a name. After a few early efforts failed to stick, he eventually settled on “Joe”.
But the Doctor wasn’t just pretending to be “a real boy”. On Voyager, he lived the whole human experience, to the extent he seemed totally qualified to act as a mentor to Seven of Nine while she rediscovered her own humanity following her de-assimilation from the Borg. Indeed, being a teacher came to feel like his most natural calling, when he got a job instructing cadets in both “Star Trek: Prodigy” and now the distant future of “Starfleet Academy”.
But the eight centuries that have passed since Voyager made it home have left a mark on the Doctor. The wrinkles on his face may be artificial — he introduced an ageing subroutine to his holomatrix to make his peers feel more comfortable — but the trauma of watching generations of friends live and die is very real.
“That’s 800 years of digital memory, where the memory of a beloved colleague from 793 years ago is as fresh and clear as someone you saw yesterday,” Picardo told SFX magazine. “Only science fiction can give an actor a challenge like that to try to wrap your mind around! For a human actor who is certainly as concerned with the issues of mortality as anyone else my age, it’s a funny leap of faith to try to put those personal concerns aside and imagine what this must be like to have generations of organic colleagues grow old and die around you. It’s got to influence your interest in developing interpersonal relationships in future.”
In “Starfleet Academy”‘s latest episode, “The Life of the Stars”, we see how being immortal has prompted the EMH to build emotional barriers around himself. While entire centuries have passed, the pain of watching his child die in a holographic simulation (“Voyager” episode “Real Life”) is still too much to bear — even with holographic cadet SAM’s (Kerrice Brooks) life in the balance (prompting a mission back to her photonic homeworld of Kasq to save her) he finds it impossible to open up. He’s been doing everything he can to prevent her seeing him as a mentor, and now — as she’s lying on her deathbed — he can’t even bring himself to hold her hand.
“The only thing that allows me to bear my infinity is not having to love anyone,” he admits to Captain Nahla Ake, a long-lived Lanthanite character who also has some experience of losing the people she loves most.
But even when you’re nearly as old as Yoda, it’s possible to surprise yourself — and the viewing public.
The unconventional configuration of spacetime in Kasq’s neck of the woods offers a unique opportunity. In an echo of the Doctor’s experiences on Gotana in “Voyager” episode “Blink of an Eye” — during which he watched centuries of development on an alien world — three days on Earth is equivalent to five years on the holographic homeworld. This time dilation gives the Doctor the chance to spend 17 years (or just over a week, depending on your point of view) giving SAM a childhood. This ready-made father figure is exactly what she needs to anchor her glitching holomatrix.
And so, some 30 years after the Doctor first asked us to state the nature of the medical emergency in Voyager”, a character who started out as comic relief thousands of light years from home has well and truly grown up.
Some sci-fi icons are immovable constants, and we often love them for it. But the Doctor’s ability to evolve — and exceed that original programming — makes him truly timeless.
New episodes of “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” debut on Paramount+ on Thursdays.
