Editing The Doctor (Star Trek: Voyager) (section)

==Depiction==
The Doctor begins his service on the [[USS Voyager (NCC-74656)|USS ''Voyager'']] as the standard Emergency Medical [[Hologram]] (EMH) built into almost every newer [[Starfleet]] ship's [[sickbay]]. The EMH is to be used should the ship's doctor be incapacitated or require emergency assistance.<ref name="Grech-2020">{{cite journal |last1=Grech |first1=Victor |title=Doctors in Star Trek: The emergency medical hologram in Star Trek: Voyager |journal=Early Human Development |date=May 2020 |volume=144 |pages=104993 |doi=10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2020.104993 |pmid=32098692 |s2cid=211525128 }}{{Expression of Concern|doi=10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2021.105328|http://retractionwatch.com/2021/03/31/beam-us-up-elsevier-pulls-26-covid-19-papers-by- researcher-with-a-penchant-for-star-trek/ ''Retraction Watch''|http://retractionwatch.com/2020/12/10/elsevier-looking-into-very-serious-concerns-after- student-calls-out-journal-for-fleet-of-star-trek-articles-other-issues/ ''Retraction Watch''}}</ref> In the series' first episode, ''Voyager''{{'}}s chief medical officer, along with his nurse, are killed, necessitating extended use of the EMH. The EMH eventually develops his own personality, although he generally maintains his acerbic wit and irritating "version one" bedside manner. As he was originally intended as a temporary medical backup system, not as a [[digital life form]], ''Voyager''{{'}}s journey strains his programming to some limits. He gives himself a name during episode S1E12 Heroes and Demons, "Schweitzer". (This name did not carry throughout the entire series.) The Doctor becomes the chief medical officer, with [[Kes (Star Trek)|Kes]] and [[Tom Paris]] at various times acting as nurses. 

Attempting to develop a realistic personality, the Doctor not only manufactures a holographic family ("[[Real Life (Star Trek: Voyager)|Real Life]]"), he also has an increasing number of other "human" experiences. This results in the Doctor's program evolving to become more lifelike, with emotions and ambitions. He develops meaningful and complex [[Interpersonal relationship|relationships]] with many members of the ship's crew. The Doctor also develops talents as a [[playwright]], artist, and photographer, and even becomes a [[connoisseur]] of [[opera]]. He has multiple other experiences with "family", including having a son with a "roommate" while trapped on a planet for three years. During the episode "[[Blink of an Eye (Star Trek: Voyager)|Blink of an Eye]]", he asks an associate to inquire further about his progeny.

A recurring theme are the ethical aspects of an artificial, yet apparently sentient, being. In the episode "[[Latent Image (Star Trek: Voyager)|Latent Image]]", treating two patients with an equal chance of survival, with only enough time to treat one, The Doctor chooses Harry Kim, a friend. The other patient, Ensign Jetal, dies. The Doctor is overwhelmed with guilt, believing that his friendship influenced his choice. When the stress nearly leads to his program breaking down, Captain Janeway has his memories of these events deleted. When The Doctor later discovers clues as to what had happened, Captain Janeway is convinced by him and others that he has a right to learn to come to grips with the guilt in the manner of any other sentient being rather than be treated merely as a defective piece of equipment.

The Doctor submits a holonovel titled ''Photons Be Free'' to a publisher on Earth, detailing the manner in which holograms are sometimes treated by Starfleet. His characters are closely based on ''Voyager''{{'}}s crew, but exaggerated to appear more intense and vicious, creating fears among the crew their reputations would be ruined. [[Tom Paris]] convinces The Doctor to make adjustments without sacrificing his theme. The Doctor lacks legal rights as [[United Federation of Planets|Federation]] law does not classify him as a "sentient being". Thus he is forbidden to make any subsequent changes to the holonovel. [[Kathryn Janeway|Captain Janeway]]'s efforts result in The Doctor being accorded the status of "artist", although not a "person". This permits him to rewrite the novel. Four months later, it is known throughout the [[Alpha Quadrant]] as a very thought-provoking piece of work. Several other EMHs, now relegated to mining duty, experience the novel.

{{listen
| filename = Please State the Nature of the Medical Emergency.ogg
| title = Please state the nature…
| description = 2012 Picardo performance of the line
| image = [[File:Delta-shield.png|50px]]
}}
The Doctor's standard greeting is "Please state the nature of the medical emergency" when activated, though later modified to say whatever he chooses. In "[[Jetrel]]", it is revealed that he was given the ability to activate and deactivate himself.

The Doctor later acquires a mobile holographic emitter from the 29th century ("[[Future's End]]"). Although he has previously been confined to [[Sickbay]] or the [[Holodeck]], the mobile emitter allows The Doctor to move about freely, making him ideal for missions where the environment would be harmful or otherwise fatal to the crew. In one notable incident, when an away team is trapped on a radioactive planet, The Doctor is able to infiltrate the people and almost single-handedly rescue the team because, as he points out, being a hologram renders him immune to the radiation, stating that "being a hologram does have its advantages."

In a 2020 interview, Picardo recalled his initial reticence to the concept of a mobile emitter:

{{quote|I remember I was in [Voyager producer] Brannon Braga's office when he told me. He said, "Your character is so popular, we need to be able to put you in more scripts, in more situations and settings. What do you think?" I said, "I think it's a bad idea." This was one time when I was clearly wrong and the producers were absolutely, a hundred percent right. I conveyed to him exactly what I described to you earlier, that the character's differences define him and make him interesting to the audience. If I'm not limited to the sickbay or the holodeck, then I'll just be like anybody else. I'm glad they did it, as it gave me many more stories. But because the character had been kind of a break-out character{{nbsp}}... whenever somebody plans to mess with a winning formula, I think anyone's reaction would be, "Are we sure we want to do that?"<ref name="Interview" />
}}

The Doctor's programming evolves from his first romance, Dr. Denara Pel, to the point where he falls in love with [[Seven of Nine]], though she is unable to reciprocate. In an alternate future episode, "[[Endgame (Star Trek: Voyager)|Endgame]]", The Doctor finally adopts a name (see below) and marries a human female named Lana.

In the final episode of ''Star Trek: Voyager'', a future version of Janeway also informs him of his later invention of a device known as a "synaptic transceiver", something that fascinates The Doctor; he is cut off by the "present" Janeway, who is abiding by the Temporal Prime Directive, before he can learn more.

=== Emergency Command Hologram ===
The "Emergency Command Hologram", aka "ECH", is first coined by The Doctor in the episode "[[Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy]]", in which he creates a program which allows him to daydream, such as adding routines which allow him to take command of ''Voyager'' – including a command uniform – in the event of the command crew being incapacitated. At the end of the episode, [[Kathryn Janeway|Captain Janeway]] promises to consider the idea. In the following season episode "[[Workforce (Star Trek: Voyager)|Workforce]]", the idea is realized when the crew is forced to abandon ship, and The Doctor takes over command functions.

===Backup copies===
The Doctor's program requires a custom-built photonic processor, and Starfleet outfitted ''Voyager'' with only two. This hardware itself also cannot be replicated, hence the Doctor cannot be easily backed up, restored, or copied.

''Voyager'''s computers cannot help run his photonic program, and cannot contain a usable backup of its image. The Doctor's entire program uses 50 million gigaquads ("[[Lifesigns (Star Trek: Voyager)|Lifesigns]]" and "[[The Swarm (Star Trek: Voyager)|The Swarm]]" mention these limitations). The episode "[[Living Witness]]" depicts a future Delta Quadrant civilization building a museum around ''Voyager'' artifacts, including its redundant EMH photonic processor.

===Name===
A recurring theme in the Doctor's life is his lack of a proper name. Starfleet did not assign a name to him, and initially, the Doctor claims that he does not want one,  until the episode "[[Eye of the Needle (Star Trek: Voyager)|Eye of the Needle]]", when he asks Kes to give him a name. He later adopts  such names as "Schweitzer" (after [[Albert Schweitzer]]); "Shmullus" (in "[[Lifesigns (Star Trek: Voyager)|Lifesigns]]" by [[Vidiian]] patient Dr. Denara Pel); "Van Gogh"; "Kenneth"; "Jones"; and several others. His friends suggest the famous historical Earth doctors "[[Galen]]" and "[[Benjamin Spock|Spock]]". The captioned dialog of early episodes, and early promotional material for the series premiere, refer to him as "Dr. Zimmerman", after his creator, Lewis Zimmerman. The Doctor is ultimately referred to as simply "The Doctor" and addressed as "Doctor" or "Doc", which he answers to without concern, and the issue of the Doctor's name virtually disappears over the course of the series. However, in the [[Endgame (Star Trek: Voyager)|series finale]], in an alternate future timeline the Doctor has finally chosen the name "Joe" after his new wife's grandfather (and Picardo's [[Robert_Picardo#Early_life|own father]]). Tom Paris remarks about this choice: "it took you ''33 years'' to come up with '''Joe''{{'}}?".