Trevor, don't you know: Starfleet computers run under Microsoft Touch (Panel/Screen) 2364.
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By Corey Hines on Wednesday, January 13, 1999 - 9:37 pm:
Actually, why haven't we seen holograms in other professions, such as engineer, helm or ops. All those positions don't really require any major artificial intelligence. Just tell it what to do and it'll do it.
One other point. I don't like the way that made the Holo-Doc the Data of problem solving. If something effects the crew the only person unaffected is the Doc (or 7o9 in recent episodes), similar to the way Data fixed everything. Which brings back the point of other types of holograms.
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By Omer on Thursday, January 14, 1999 - 12:15 pm:
I wonder why theHolo Doc looks Human. I mean I love Picardo's acting, and the idea of having a holo doc on board is nothing Short of brilliant, but if I were to program a edical hologram I'd use something with many long arms so it can do lots of stuff and treat several people simultaniously
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By Jethro on Thursday, January 14, 1999 - 12:16 pm:
For some reason, when they programed Touch (Pnael/Screen) 2364, Microsoft forgor to include the COPY command. This means they can only make one of every program.
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By Mike Konczewski on Tuesday, January 19, 1999 - 12:46 pm:
I think there is only one Holo-doc simply because it was never meant to run for a long period of time. The EMH's function was to fill if the human doctor was temporarily unavailable. No one in Star Fleet ever assumed the EMH would be the primary caregiver for 75 years!
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By Omer on Tuesday, January 19, 1999 - 1:36 pm:
Still - in an emerency - wouldn't you want more then ONE doctor? like in 'Deadlock'when they clearly needed a few
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By Mike Konczewski on Wednesday, January 20, 1999 - 7:01 am:
It then becomes a question of how best to utilize resources. A starship has to have a finite amount of computer memory. Do you have multiple EMHs for an emergency, or just one and allocate the balance towards, say, navigation?
That's the basis of risk management--how likely is an event to occur times the cost of it occurring should equal the amount your willing to spend to prepare for it. Voyager's situation is unique. Ordinarily a ship would at least be near a starbase or another starship and could ask for help. I'm sure Starfleet doesn't design ships assuming that they may be decades away from assitance.
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By Omer on Wednesday, January 20, 1999 - 9:47 am:
ok, so y spending time and resorces on personality and physical appearences for the doctor? what's that good for?
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By Mike Konczewski on Wednesday, January 20, 1999 - 11:54 am:
That's probably to make the patient feel more comfortable. Even in the advanced 24th century, I would assume that people would feel more comfortable have their health care needs provided by something that looks like them, instead of, say, Robbie the Robot. And since the surgical information downloaded into Holodoc is meant to be used by someone with hands and opposable digits, why not make him look human?
Of course, you have to ask why the Holodoc doesn't look Vulcan or Andorrian. That would be pretty easy to do; just overlay the features. I guess, again, if you were a patient, you'd like your doctor to look familiar, not change every time you need him/her. I know I don't like to switch doctors every visit; why should the crew of a starship?
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By Omer on Thursday, January 21, 1999 - 8:10 am:
OK, but then I wouldn't spend the energy on making a Doctor look like a human being... I'd give him hands, and that's it. the rest of the energy ( or computer memory, regardless to the way you'd like to call it) would go to creat more 'hands'so that in an emergency I could treat as many people as possible
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By Catherine on Friday, January 29, 1999 - 6:44 pm:
Would you let hands with no body operate on you? I wouldn't.
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By Omer on Monday, February 01, 1999 - 8:59 am:
I would in an EMERGENCY. Either that or death
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By Richie Vest on Tuesday, February 02, 1999 - 6:35 am:
Gee I liked him in the Wonder Years.
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By Mike Konczewski on Tuesday, February 02, 1999 - 10:50 am:
He was pretty good in a small role in "Innerspace", with Dennis Quaid and Martin Short. He played a Russian spy called Cowboy; he was called that cos he loved everything Western. "Pliz to be moseying along, little dogey."
------------------------------------------------------------------------By Mike Konczewski on Tuesday, February 02, 1999 - 10:54 am:
Omer--remember the episode when the Doc created a Cardassian consultant to operate on B'Lanna? She was ready to die rather than let a "Cardy" touch her. And Picard insisted on going to a starbase for his heart replacement, rather than get operated onboard the Enterprise and run the risk of the crew finding out.
People get pretty weird when it comes to medical treatment.
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By Aaron Dotter on Tuesday, February 02, 1999 - 4:44 pm:
I thought he was OK as a butcher in Home Improvement.
By Tony Trimboli on Tuesday, February 02, 1999 - 5:03 pm:
Regarding the doc's appearance, wasn't there an episode where they showed the actual engineer that created the EMH program? Wasn't he patterned after him, the same way Data was patterned after Dr. Soong?
That would explain the human appearance. Also, as far as appearance goes, that is really just the user interface portion. The real processing power would be in the various decision making algorithms as well as the information retrieval.
If software is written correctly the user interface portion is typically handled by the platform. For instance on a Windows, Mac, or X platform, the application will make a request to present a dialog box, but the platform will actually use its own code to accomplish the task. This code is often used by many applications. The developer of an application does not have to worry about the intricacies of keyboard, voice or mouse handling.
Probably the holo emitters already have 'human' objects built into the system, and you just pass the various characteristics to it (bald, dark hair, 2 meters tall, etc).
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By ScottN on Tuesday, February 02, 1999 - 5:21 pm:
Yes. Zimmerman appeared in the ep where Barclay also appeared (title escapes me), and also in DS9 "Dr. Bashir, I Presume".
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By Chris Thomas on Wednesday, February 03, 1999 - 9:09 am:
Is the EMH programmed to go balder as the years go by? You wouldn't think so given he was only designed for emergencies, so how do they explain ever increasing receding hairline? The same could be said for Holly the computer (male version) in Red Dwarf - note the difference between season 2 and season 7.
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By ScottN on Wednesday, February 03, 1999 - 10:12 am:
Well, they have been playing with his program, so maybe they did it to make him more "human"?
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By Omer on Wednesday, February 03, 1999 - 10:12 am:
So what's the big deal having three/ four docs?
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By Mike Konczewski on Wednesday, February 03, 1999 - 2:06 pm:
Same problem mentioned before, Omer, a limited number of resources. It's all well and good to say the computer has terraquads of storage, but that's still a finite amount of space. It would be nice to have a huge number of holodocs and holonurses in place for a catastrophic event that wipes out the medical staff and leaves the ship unable to quickly reach a starbase, but that's a remote possibility (one, admittedly, that happened to Voyager).
Think of the settlers in the old American West. They had to travel what was, to them, incredibly long distances to reach their destination. They would have loved to take everything that they could have possibly needed, but they only had so much space. That's when they scaled back.
Voyager has a lot more luxuries and capabilities, but it has limitations, too.
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By Omer on Thursday, February 04, 1999 - 8:44 am:
Great, but that's what Tony said to be NOT true:
If software is written correctly the user interface portion is typically handled by the platform. For instance on a Windows, Mac, or X platform, the application will make a request to present a dialog box, but the platform will actually use its own code to accomplish the task. This code is often used by many applications. The developer of an application does not have to worry about the intricacies of keyboard, voice or mouse handling.
right?
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By Mike Konczewski on Thursday, February 04, 1999 - 3:54 pm:
You just went way over my head. I may use a computer, but I'm not a computer expert. I bow to your superior knowledge.
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By Alexander Shearer on Thursday, February 04, 1999 - 4:13 pm:
He also plays the manager of a rather outre' mortuary in the ensemble comedy film "Amazon Women on the Moon." Don't be put off by the title; It's incredibly funny. Portions of the film are inappropriate for kids (it's rated R, BTW) but it's a good movie.
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By Chris Ashley on Thursday, February 04, 1999 - 8:17 pm:
I saw a chunk of that thing. Quite possibly the weirdest stuff I've ever seen, and this is coming from a devoted Pythonite.
Picardo is, IMHO, quite possibly the best actor currently doing Trek on TV (Stewart wins if we include the movies, natch). He's professional and intelligent, and has a sense of humor to boot. (Anybody who can make me consider taking "Darkling" seriously is pulling off a major acting trick.)
By Omer on Friday, February 05, 1999 - 10:33 am:
Mike - I just quoted Tony from a few lines over...
He seems to make my point, I think...
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By Tony Trimboli on Friday, February 05, 1999 - 12:09 pm:
Wow, I've been quoted for the first time. I feel honored, thanks Omer
Actually they could duplicate multiple instances of the doctor without requiring lots of permanent storage, but there would be a reduction in processing. Of course they could shut down another system until the emergency is over.
Of course I would expect to see an episode with multiple doctors sometime in the future, ala 'A Fistful of Datas'. I'm sure there will be a malfunction somewhere that creates an evil doctor, a wimpy doctor, etc.
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By Nyla on Friday, February 05, 1999 - 1:04 pm:
Picardo did a great job in China Beach. I wish I coulda seen it the first time
around. AND WHAT THE HECK DOES 'NATCH' MEAN?!?! Sorry for shouting, but
everyone keeps writing that while little ole me is lost. <Insert Annoyed!Marge
sound here>
------------------------------------------------------------------------By Nyla on Friday, February 05, 1999 - 1:09 pm:
I got it, being a poor, humble, girl who would love to be a hacker if she could find
THE STUPID COMPILER!!!!, but, in the meantime, is satisfied with attempting to
understand the basic principles. <insert> :-D
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By ScottN on Friday, February 05, 1999 - 2:44 pm:
Natch = right/correct/yougotit.
Your youth is showing again...
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By Hans Thielman on Friday, February 05, 1999 - 2:55 pm:
Wasn't Robert Picardo the voice of the cab driver in "Total Recall?"
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By Richie Vest on Friday, February 05, 1999 - 6:58 pm:
Hans Yes He was
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By Chris Thomas on Friday, February 05, 1999 - 11:45 pm:
I thought "natch" was just the shortform for "naturally"
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By Mike Konczewski on Monday, February 08, 1999 - 6:48 am:
Chris--it is.
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By Catherine on Friday, February 12, 1999 - 5:17 pm:
Aaron- The first time I saw that Home Improvement episode I was still into TNG more than VGR. But I said to myself where the heck have I seen that guy?? It was a good episode.
BTW- Did Robert Picardo have a cameo in Small Soldiers?
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By Dr_Who on Tuesday, February 23, 1999 - 9:48 pm:
Resources shouldn't be a problem on Voyager, if it did take up more 'memory' to create more doctors (or more backup modules for the doctor, wasn't one lost in one episode where he went on to become medical chancellor of some colony?)
anyways, if it did take up more resources, they could just replicate up some more memory modules for the computer core!
And speaking of his mobile emittor, they really squander it's abilities (like they did with data, back on TNG), the doctor could be disabling any bad guy (or borg) at any time! In case of the borg, he could just holographically project some speeding bullets into them!
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By Chris Thomas on Wednesday, February 24, 1999 - 3:00 am:
Well if you want to replicate something, you need plenty of raw material - note Janeway telling Chakotay to recycle the watch for her on birthday in the Year Of Hell because it could mean another meal - and remember the staff are on repicator rations... so it isn't as easy as magically creating more memory modules if the source material is limited.
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By Mike Konczewski on Wednesday, February 24, 1999 - 7:07 am:
Doctor--the EMH has stated on a number of occasions that he is unable to take a life. I assume that means a Borg life, too. Therefore, he would be unable to shoot them.
As Chris pointed out, replication is limited by raw materials. The replicator turns energy into matter, so the amount of items replicated would be limited by the amount of energy available. This is why everyone eats Neelix's cooking the majority of the time, rather than hit the replicator.
The prime goal is to get back to the Alpha Quadrant, so I don't believe that the crew would replicate extra memory modules for possible extra Doctors just in case of a medical emergency.
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By Dr_Who on Wednesday, February 24, 1999 - 9:27 pm:
There hasn't been a dilithium getting episode recently, Were they ever successful in any of the shown episodes in getting more fuel?
Anyways, The Delta Quadrant is a virtual treasure trove of fuel and supplies. I don't see why they have to be on rations (they practically beam themselves to where they want to go, rather than walking
) The doctors' program (or programs of the other newly created holographical characters) can always be altered, to include sacrificing others' lifes to save crewmembers...
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By 7Lover on Wednesday, February 24, 1999 - 9:56 pm:
Just saw LIP; Why is the Doc trying to FORCE medical treament on Harry Kim. Just last year he asked the captain for permission to operate on 7!!
Maybe the should have recompiled him ;~)
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By Christopher Q on Sunday, February 28, 1999 - 3:42 pm:
I wonder...
If the Doctor is nothing more than a computer program, then why does he have the ask the computer for anything? Assuming that the Dr isn't running on his mobile emitter, then I believe that he is being run by the ship computer. The computer should know what it's program wants w/o the program asking. EXAMPLE: The Doc may request the computer to locate Paris. But he shouldn't need to say anything. He could just 'mentally' access the computer & know where Paris is. He would also use his 'will' to make holo-equipment & holo-tools appear.
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By Omer on Monday, March 01, 1999 - 2:14 pm:
the only way to get past that is to assume that people would be more comfortable with a doctor who acts like a real doctor
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By Richie Vest on Monday, March 01, 1999 - 6:48 pm:
Or to be more percise Like a normal humanoid
By Hans Thielman on Friday, March 05, 1999 - 12:10 pm:
Why doesn't the EMH have a holographic nurse or medical technician to assist him in sickbay? What happens when the EMH is swamped with patients and Tom Paris is on the bridge, in the brig, or otherwise unavailable?
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By Aaron Dotter on Friday, March 05, 1999 - 2:53 pm:
Good point! Wouldn't it be pretty easy to program one? I suppose though that the memory needed would be prohibitive, or that some other problems could arise (hey, that could be a good episode, I think). Also, pardon my ignorance, but when has Paris been in the brig? Or should I not take that literally?
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By ScottN on Friday, March 05, 1999 - 3:10 pm:
Thirty Days. (or Down Deep)
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By Trevor burgess on Friday, March 05, 1999 - 3:25 pm:
i would think that since he is a HOLO doctor, he could project as many of himself as necessary for a given task. you would think that those fancy shmancy 24th century computers could handle a little multitasking
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By Scott McClenny on Monday, March 22, 1999 - 10:32 am:
Got a nice mass produced thank you for supporting
Voyager card from Robert Picardo's people with
picture of him as Holodoc after writing a fan letter.
His most recent nonVoyager appearance was as
himelf on Amrica's Greatest Pets where he showed off his pet parrot. Great show..if you haven't seen AGP try it it is on Fridays at 8:00 on UPN.
Picardo also has a pet tortoise!!!!
Maybe Holodoc should get a holopet!
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Monday, March 22, 1999 - 1:49 pm:
Perhaps a giga-pet?
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By Gordon Lawyer on Thursday, April 08, 1999 - 7:01 am:
Out of curiousity, was the Doctor in anyway based on Arnold Rimmer?
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By Richie Vest on Thursday, April 08, 1999 - 7:15 am:
Who is Arnold Rimmer?
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By Gordon Lawyer on Thursday, April 08, 1999 - 7:43 am:
He's a character on Red Dwarf. He's a hologram of Lister's dead bunkmate and, like the Doctor, is a complete smeghead that everyone on the ship hates.
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Thursday, April 08, 1999 - 1:21 pm:
In the doctor's defense, he isn't mean, he's just badly programed. Not to mention the fact that he had bad rolemodels-Dr. Zimmerman and Lt. Barclay.
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By Mike Konczewski on Thursday, April 08, 1999 - 3:55 pm:
Sounds like Jessica Rabbit's line from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" ("I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way.")
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By Gordon Lawyer on Friday, April 09, 1999 - 7:53 am:
Charles, you could say the same thing about Rimmer. After all, if the method your father used to get you to meet the minimum height requirements for the Space Corps was to regularly put you on a rack, your personality might be a bit warped too.
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Friday, April 09, 1999 - 10:40 am:
Allow me to claify my above statement. The Doctor wasn't designed to be around people very long. A few hours a month at most. So, the programmers aren't going to worry about his personality to much. On the other hand, Rimmers parents were comitting child abuse.
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By Christopher Q on Tuesday, April 13, 1999 - 4:02 pm:
Along w/ the Doctor, there are only three other homograms from other shows that I know of. Arnold Rimmer from Red Dwarf; Al Calavicci from Quantum Leap; and Selma(?) from Time Tracks.
Trek probably got the idea from QL. I've always suspected they've stolen ideas from QL, such as holographic crew mate; taking over someone elses life (The Inner Light); & walking through stuff (The Next Phase).
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By ScottN on Tuesday, April 13, 1999 - 5:01 pm:
Funny, you must be using a different language, Christopher Q. "Arnold Rimmer", "Al Calavicci", and "Selma" are not all spelled the same, so they cannot be homograms. On the other hand, they *COULD* be holograms [grin].
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By Richie Vest on Tuesday, April 13, 1999 - 7:52 pm:
Well Al is a Hologram to Sam but he is not a hologram like the Doctor is.
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By Ed Jefferson (Ejefferson) on Wednesday, April 14, 1999 - 12:43 pm:
The Doctor is not actually hated- people are nice to him for reasons other than saving their lives- unlike Rimmer.
Also, I think the idea was nicked off RD rather than QL- more similarity. Also walking through walls could be nicked from RD (from Rimmer again). Not to mention "Clues" and "Thanks for the Memory", which are extremely similar.
Oh yes, and what about the 'original' idea of having Voyager 3 million years from home? Oh no, sorry it was 70 years. No similarity at all then.
Didn't Star Wars have holographic communicators?
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Wednesday, April 14, 1999 - 3:39 pm:
Yes they did. They were used throughout the trilogy.
Charles Cabe
Moderator of Star Wars, Power Rangers, The Computer Holy Wars, The Phantom Returns, The Barney page, The Retirement Home pages, WWF page, The Sesame Street page, and The Hollywood Squares page.
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By Scott McClenny on Thursday, July 01, 1999 - 10:29 am:
First Al only appeared to Sam in the form of a
hologram,also Sam and Sam's surrounding appeared
to Al as holograms since he was in the QL projection room.
Unlike Rimmer(who's back to being alive if you've
seen Red Dwarf VIII lately),the EMH and Selma
who are or were all artificial.
Second the question is does Dr.Zimmerman have a
BIG ego or what?Every EMH that we've seen(I'm
of course excluding the LMH that we saw on the
Prometheus)looks and acts EXACTLY like Doc
Zimmerman.
Third watch his one scene in FIRST CONTACT movie.
It makes it very clear that the EMH is not programed to fight.
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By SomeDude on Monday, December 20, 1999 - 4:58 pm:
The 'LMH' On The Prometheus Is An EMH Mark 2 Or In Simpler Computer Words... EMH version 2.0...
LMH Was That DS9 Ep, "Doctor Bashir, I Presume"... I Think...
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By Scott McClenny on Thursday, December 23, 1999 - 4:21 pm:
The basic difference between the LMH and the
EMH is that the LMH is designed to actually
have some basic social skills.STAR TREK THE
MAGAZINE #7 has a briefing on holotechnology
including an article on the entire EMH/LMH
project.
BTW:Saw TATTOO again yesterday and loved the
way Kes sneaked in the extra couple of hours
in the Doctor's flu program.Actually if she had
been a bit more devious she would have added an
extra day or two.
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By Mandy on Wednesday, December 29, 1999 - 6:35 pm:
I've never understood why they don't just keep a backup copy of this guy (I know, they did in that one episode, but like many Trek breakthroughs it's never used again). I can't remember how many times they've "almost lost his program." And as for the multidoctor discussion, if the ship can store several dozen spare shuttlecraft in memory (either that or they have a *huge* cargo bay), then why not a couple of spare doctors?
And since Tom hates doctoring so much, why aren't they training someone else to take his place?
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By Robbinson on Thursday, February 24, 2000 - 7:48 pm:
If you remember the episode were B'elanna is attacked by the large bug, the only reason that they didn't keep the Crel Mosset program is that they hate Cardassians. There was no discussion of memory storage.
They were afraid of a hologram that looked like a mass murderer, even though he didn't have any knowlage of the murders, or anything else that his template soposedly did befor he (the hologram) was even compiled.
Which brings up the fact that if they had just changed his file name to Doc Sam and made him look like Paris, or the Doctor, or Janeway for that mater, no one would have cared. (A.K.A. racism directed towards Cardassians.)
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By Jwb52z on Saturday, February 24, 2001 - 5:04 pm:
Robbinson, go read the other thread about this topic that you bring up that is elsewhere in the boards.
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By Vicky on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 1:43 pm:
I just want to ask people's opinions on this. Is the Doctor a lifeform or a piece of technology. It has come up time and time again in numerous episodes (wasn't there also a TNG episode about whether Data was alive?). I'd be interested to know what you think.
Also, have you noticed how Janeway says "he's only a piece of technology" one minute, and "he's alive" the next? It's very annoying.
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By Merat on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 3:16 pm:
My Opinion: Is he a life form? No. Is he sentient? Yes.
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By William Berry on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 5:06 pm:
I'd agree with Merat. My argument isn't based on the Doctor at all. If we (humans, etc.) can make life, aren't we gods (small "g"). I don't even want to go there. (Reasoning based on personal preference, I admit, but if we weve on a jury no one could change my vote.)
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By Apollo on Wednesday, January 16, 2002 - 6:31 am:
Then welcome to the god world, William, because humans make life all the time... they're called children.
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By Jwb52z on Wednesday, January 16, 2002 - 7:36 am:
Merat, how can the Doctor NOT be a life form and be sentient at the same time?
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By An Anonymous Devils Advocate on Wednesday, January 16, 2002 - 10:34 am:
Not to inflate the Doctor's ego...
But God is sentient.
Yet he isn't a life form.
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By William Berry on Wednesday, January 16, 2002 - 3:27 pm:
Apollo,
Sorry, but I've had 36 years to get used to the idea of children.
Devil's advocate,
So is God some kinda zombie? Or maybe he/He/she/She/it/It/they/They/we/We/I/(not you) is/are/am a hologram!!
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By KAM on Thursday, January 17, 2002 - 2:23 am:
Jwb, life form & sentient are not synonyms.
As far as we know Humans are the only Lifeform that is Sentient. There are (IIRC) millions of lifeforms that are not Sentient (or at least not considered to be sentient.)
Computers are not Lifeforms. If someone builds a Sentient computer, it will still be a computer & not a Lifeform.
The Doctor, while not a computer, is dependent on a computer to run his program and project his image. While his program may be written to give him Sentience (& sidestepping that whole argument) that would not, in any way, make him a Lifeform, because he is not alive.
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By Jwb52z (Jwb52z) on Friday, January 18, 2002 - 9:41 pm:
::Not to inflate the Doctor's ego...
But God is sentient.
Yet he isn't a life form.:: An Anonymous Devil's Advocate
I know this isn't a religion board, but God, being alive, would have to make Him a life form.
::Jwb, life form & sentient are not synonyms.:: KAM
Yes, even though you don't have to be sentient to be a life form, I would say that you do have to be a life form to be sentient. I do not believe that something can be non living and sentient. You have a limited idea of what life is, ya know.
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By KAM on Sunday, January 20, 2002 - 5:54 am:
Yeah, how dare I limit the definition of life to that which is living.
Of coure, you are just as limited in your definition of sentience.
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By William Berry on Sunday, January 20, 2002 - 8:46 am:
Is Data or the Holodoc a life form? Let's try an experiment. Take Mr. Crusher, Harry Kim, Data, and the Holodoc and set them on fire (the holodoc's emitter is engulfed by the flames) until they are all "dead". Wait a hundred years. Given enough technology all four are brought back to "life". I would argue it is Data and the Holodoc, but it is not Harry and Wesley. Of course, the origional Harry and Wesley died the first time they used a transporter and those are just copies, but...
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By P. H. Donner on Sunday, January 20, 2002 - 8:52 am:
At the current moment this is the accepted definition of "alive":
note you must conform to all the parameters to be considered alive
Growth (physical)
Excrete (waste products)
Respiration
Movement
Reproduce
Respond to Stimuli
Nutrition (intake Nutrition)