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sshbpodcast · 3 months ago

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Character Spotlight: Emergency Medical Hologram

By Ames

Please state the nature of the medical emergency. For a hologram who was never constructed to be left on indefinitely, the Emergency Medical Hologram sure does get a lot of development. He starts off Voyager as an insufferable computer program, grows to learn to fight for his own agency, and ends Voyager as an insufferable computer program of an entirely new ilk! What an arc!

Your hosts here at A Star to Steer Her By are quick to cringe at some of the Doctor’s squickier moments (that are interestingly heavily weighted toward the final seasons of the series), but there’s a lot to champion him for as well! The EMH makes us view artificial lifeforms like him as people, in the same way that Data did on TNG. So make sure your mobile emitter is firmly attached as we dive into the Best and Worst Moments of Voyager’s chief medical hologram below and on this week’s podcast episode (activate at timestamp 1:05:06). Hey, I’m a blogpost writer, not a doctor.

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

Inside you there are two Beowulfs For the first chunk of the show, the Doctor is confined to sickbay for the most part due to his holographic nature, so when he gets to do a hologram-appropriate mission in “Heroes and Demons,” it’s an adventure unto itself! He romances the bonny lass Freya. He solves the mystery of the disappearing crewman. He literally lives out an epic tale and it’s so engaging!

Before I met you, I was just a disease If you liked the Doctor’s relationship with Freya, you’re going to love his relationship with Danara Pel in “Lifesigns.” It’s probably the most genuine we’ve seen the Doc so far, as it’s clear he wants to do what’s best for the diseased Vidiian woman who hates her own body. But he urges her to keep fighting and keep healing because he loves her, the real her.

A physician must do no harm Boy, do we love it when our chief medical officers get righteous about their patients. We saw it with McCoy, we saw it with Crusher, and we saw it with Bashir. And now the EMH ends up being the only person on the Voyager to not silently condone splitting Tuvix in half in “Tuvix.” Sure, he doesn’t do anything to stop it either, but he makes it clear that what Janeway is doing is wrong.

You’re too sick to get better We’ve given B’Elanna and Tom some credit for helping the Doctor experience what it’s like to have a family in “Real Life,” but the actual growth we see is all his own. Deciding (with some encouragement from his friends) to be with his holo-daughter Belle as she dies is heart-breaking, but also encouraging for the Doc to treat the situation so realistically.

Two holograms, alone. Romulans on one side, Starfleet on the other. Alarms beeping everywhere. We see time and again the EMH use cleverness to resolve a situation, even when he’s severely out of his depth as he was in “Message in a Bottle.” But that’s where two EMHs are better than one! He and the EMH Mark 2 are able to take control of the Prometheus back from Romulans, keep the ship from exploding, and even reconnect with Starfleet in the Alpha Quadrant!

History is written by the victors Hands down, one of the best episodes of Voyager is “Living Witness,” and the EMH (or his backup program, who is essentially the same guy) really gets to shine throughout. Awoken 700 years in his future, he saves the reputation of the Voyager that the Kyrians and Vaskans have misrepresented, empowers Quarren to think critically, and keeps the two species from civil war.

Luke, I am your father We still can’t get over the fact that, when the Doctor went down to the planet in “Blink of an Eye” to perform some reconnaissance, he comes back claiming that he somehow had progeny. We never learn in what capacity and by what method, but it definitely blows up our skirts to know that the EMH somehow had a son whom he sadly had to disappear on.

You have the audacity to turn a house of worship into a prison? Jake just loves this little moment from “Spirit Folk” to death. It’s just the line delivery of the EMH as Father Mulligan in the Fair Haven holoprogram storming into the church and shouting “Sinners!” at all the Irish townsfolk who’ve taken Harry and Tom prisoner. He does get captured too and his mobile emitter gets swiped, but what a great line delivery from Robert Picardo.

Extremely Marginal Housecalls When the EMH’s creator, Dr. Zimmerman, is terminally ill in “Life Line,” our hero packs his bags for a trip to the Alpha Quadrant to cure him. And it takes a lot of coaxing and even some covert subterfuge to get to two egomaniacs to see eye to eye, even if all of those eyes belong to the same actor. But the Doctor succeeds! Turns out you can teach a Mark One new tricks.

My Treatment Coefficient is one When he’s kidnapped and forced to work on the Dinaali hospital ship in “Critical Care,” the Doctor is quick to observe the unethical medical practices, classism, and hypocrisy in their systems. And not only that, but he finds a clever way to work around their tight regulations to force the medical administration to care for all of its patients, not just the elite.

Hoshi, eat your heart out Though not the linguist that Ensign Sato is on Enterprise, the EMH is able to create a language that Fantome’s people can use to communicate in “The Void.” It’s no surprise that it’s derived from music which both the Doctor and Fantome share an affinity for, but it’s also a great moment of empathy when Doc and Seven determine these alien pests are more than they appear.

The holoprograms have nothing to lose but their chains We’ll go off in our next section about how the EMH is kind of a twat when he writes his holonovel, Photons Be Free in “Author, Author.” But on the flipside, his words also prove to be empowering to other sentient holo-people like the obsolete EMH Mark Ones out there. His depiction of subservient life as a holo-person may just start opening minds to their human rights.

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Worst moments

The Strange Case of Dr. Doctor and Mr. Doctor Whoever gave the EMH the power to tinker with his own programming was just asking for trouble. One of the first things he does in “Darkling” is turn himself into a Mr. Hyde who is even more appropriate to the Robert Louis Stevenson novel than Kirk in “The Enemy Within.” And he somehow becomes even grosser around Kes than usual, which is saying something.

You are out. Auf wiedersehen. Fascinatingly, almost all of our Worst Moments take place after Seven of Nine has joined the crew. Maybe it’s because the Doctor starts getting more to do, and that includes more BAD things to do. Maybe it’s because he spends way too much time sexualizing Seven, as he does in “The Gift” by designing for her the ugliest, cringiest, most uncomfortable catsuit we’ve ever seen. Maybe it's something else. Let’s explore this trend…

Now you will cluck like a chicken And we already have a really awful example in “Retrospect” when the EMH peddles really problematic pseudoscience on Seven instead of impartially investigating the circumstances. He’s not even a little bit unbiased when he surveys the Entharan lab for evidence. But what we can’t forgive the Doc for is literally hypnotizing Seven – some mystical claptrap with no science behind it!

Rise and shine! The EMH has always been a bit of a prick, but usually he knows how to compromise for the good of the crew. So it’s actually a big negative to see how selfish and rude he is to Neelix and the other displaced crewmembers in “Demon” when the whole ship is bunking up to save energy. Dude, everyone is being inconvenienced here. The least you can do is let them sleep.

By George, I think she’s got it! Here’s another example of the Doctor treating Seven of Nine like a sex object instead of a peer! We’ve already given Tom grief for this one, but in “Someone to Watch Over Me,” the EMH recasts himself in the role of Henry Higgins to Seven’s Eliza Doolittle, and it’s just upsetting! Why can’t these men let Seven have her own agency without making it all about themselves?

Yep, here’s your problem: someone set this thing to evil It really shouldn’t take just turning off the EMH’s ethical subroutines for him to turn into a psychotic torturer like he does in “Equinox.” Does he not have common sense or the Hippocratic Oath or even anything better to do than torture Seven just because he’s told to? Just because he now CAN do unethical things apparently means he can ONLY do unethical things.

The dream dreams the dreamer… in bed I admit, I can’t judge someone for their private thoughts since no one other than telepaths would even know what they are. But the sheer concentration of the Doctor’s perverse daydreams all through “Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy” is a little much. When you can tell that he’s painting Seven in the nude just to titillate the audience, that might be bad writing, Berman.

Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, DOLT There’s something about seasons six and seven that turns the Doctor’s insufferableness up to eleven. When the Qomar inexplicably fawn all over him for his singing ability in “Virtuoso,” the ol’ doc really lets it all go to his head and is ruder to the crew than ever before. He’s even prepared to stay with the tone-deaf aliens because they unconditionally treat him like a celebrity.

This one takes the [cheese]cake Everything from “Body and Soul” paints the Doctor in a really ugly light and, especially in the final season of the show, it makes it hard to come back from the impression of him as unsympathetic, self-centered, and abrasive. So when Seven expresses that he has violated her body while he was possessing her and his response is to blame her, that is starkly unforgivable.

Anything you can do I can do better – I can do anything better than you This is the same as one of the extremely out-of-character moments from Harry Kim’s Worst Moments list from last week, but it warrants repeating. What the hell was the deal with the dick-measuring contest between the ECH and Kim in “Workforce”? For that matter, what is the Doc even doing as the ECH right now? Chakotay is back and in command! Step down already!

Once upon a Seven of Nine We gave the Doctor credit for speaking for holo-people in getting Photons Be Free published in “Author, Author,” but the way he workshopped it left much to be desired. How freakin’ hard would it have been to make the characters in his story more randomized and NOT just exaggerated, cynical versions of the crew? It would’ve been so easy to save face, my dude!

One Po-turd-o, Two Po-turdo-o, Three Po-turd-o, Four! I may be alone in my hatred of the turd people in “Renaissance Man,” but I maintain that the EMH shouldn’t have so eagerly (and boringly!) helped them. But what we can all agree on is that his confession to Seven when he thinks he’s dying is disgusting and a terrible impression for his character to basically go out on:

“You have no idea how difficult it's been, hiding my true feelings all these years, averting my eyes during your regular maintenance exams.”

VOMIT!!!

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Computer, deactivate Emergency Medical Hologram. That’s all from the EMH, until we maybe revisit him when we get around to character spotlights for Prodigy which you are surely watching because it is stunning. For now, we’ve got some more Voyager characters to spotlight here and some more Enterprise to watch for the podcast over on SoundCloud or wherever you listen. You can also give us your medical prognosis over on Facebook and Twitter, and maybe tone down the “I’m a doctor, not a”s a little bit.

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sshbpodcast · 3 months ago

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Character Spotlight: Harry Kim

By Ames

This week’s character spotlight shines on the Voyager’s favorite forever-ensign, Harry Kim, who lord knows has done enough throughout the show to warrant enough promotions to rival Janeway and yet who wallows away with his single pip for the entirety. But your hosts here at A Star to Steer Her By know enough to appreciate all that the little clarinet dork does for us.

Harry’s another consistently solid character, like Chakotay, who really only gets a couple episodes to stand out in, but we love him anyway. He suffers nearly as much as O’Brien, he gets shot down fewer times than only Worf, and he’s lousy with women in ways La Forge could understand. So grab some good seats for this Harry Kim and the Kimtones concert as you scroll on below and/or listen in on this week’s podcast episode (toot over to 1:13:23). Your promotion time will surely come.

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

We’ve got to go back, Tommy! Back to the Voyager! Harry’s got the strange opportunity in “Non Sequitur” to stay in a parallel universe in which he’s not trapped in the Delta Quadrant fighting for his life every week, but he opts to correct the timeline and go back, allowing Tom to get his chance at redemption and getting his friend Danny Byrd into the correct life. Or maybe he just wanted to get away from Libby that badly.

Weird is part of the job As Chris wrote about in his Harry Kim fanfic, the ensign also has the unusual distinction of being the only character (other than baby Naomi) to technically be from a different timeline. When his Voyager is under attack by those damn Vidiians again in “Deadlock,” Kim saves the infant from imminent danger, and gets to have an identity crisis about it for the rest of his life.

There’s nothing to fear except clowns themselves Some-freaking-how, Ensign Kim is able to keep his [remote] cool throughout “The Thaw” while that psychotic clown is torturing him and trying to literally frighten him to death. Harry spends much of the episode standing up courageously against an exemplary performance from Michael McKean and his band of Cirque du Soleil performers until he’s finally rescued.

This man is my friend. Nobody touches him! We gave some great props to Paris for how much he worked with Kim to escape from the prison ship in “The Chute,” but the real hero of the episode is Kim. When Paris has been incapacitated by a nasty stab wound, Harry fends off tons of prisoners who are vying for Paris’s belongings, and he keeps his friend alive even while being driven mad by the clamp.

Go ahead, make the call Somehow, most of these moments have been “Harry stands up to the powerful figure of the week who has captured him,” and it’s no different in “The Killing Game” when he’s covertly working against his Hirogen guards without them noticing. Right in front of them, no less. Maybe we just like when quiet, unassuming Harry proves that he’s got that Voyager chutzpah.

Somebody has got to knuckle down and change history, and that somebody is you There’s something about brooding Harry in “Timeless.” Not only is it some great acting work from Garrett Wang, but we also get to see what happens when Harry pushes himself too far. Wracked by years of guilt, he finally seizes the opportunity to save the Voyager from a past mistake and break the Temporal Prime Directive – although no more than Janeway on a given Tuesday.

Hook, line, and sinker Much of Voyager is steeped in technobabble from all of the science-conscious characters, and occasionally we get to see Harry pull some scientific knowhow out of his ass. In “Dark Frontier,” the episode opens with Harry beaming a bomb onto a Borg vessel like a badass and blowing them to smithereens before they could even say “You will be assimilated.”

Infected with a disease called love We gave Janeway some flak for treating Harry like a little baby for getting busy with an alien in “The Disease,” but ya know what: we really liked him and Derran Tal together! The whole episode long, we’re led to surmise that something shady is going down with her and the Varro, but it turns out Harry is just willing to make a go of it with someone he fancies, and that’s nice.

When taken captive by a hostile force, seek out any opportunity to engage the assailant Kirk may be the king at talking machines into killing themselves, but Kim does it with such panache in “Warhead.” He’s so willing to empathize with and communicate with the homicidal warhead that I still contend this should have been a Chakotay episode. But since it’s Harry that does it, you’ve got to give him credit for convincing the missile not to kill its enemy after all.

How do you feel about going for a little walk? When Harry eludes capture by Borg in “Collective,” he uses some smarts and strategy to communicate with the Voyager from the Delta Flyer and devise a plan. Particularly cute is his use of playing cards to mark his trail through the labyrinthine Borg vessel. Sure, Mezoti finds him out and captures him, but that’s just because Mezoti is the best.

Own the day We’ll go on in the next section about some lousy relationships Kim finds himself in, but we’ve got to hand it to him: he and Lyndsay Ballard were super sweet together in “Ashes to Ashes.” Ballard is going through a pretty substantial identity crisis after returning from the dead (something Harry knows a lot about!) and Harry is there to be supportive without pressuring her.

Big Willy Energy We really couldn’t help but include this one. We also learn in “Ashes to Ashes” that Harry has moved on from the clarinet to the saxophone. Ya know, to emulate the vibes of a certain saxophone-playing president. We get a glimpse of him practicing in “Lineage” and we’ve got to admit: Harry Kim is just so cool. He should have gotten promoted for this alone!

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Worst moments

Didn’t they warn you about Ferengi at the Academy? It’d be too obvious to say that Harry Kim nearly got swindled by Quark during his very first scene in “Caretaker,” but the way he does it is the most Harry Kim moment of the whole show. Our sweet summer child, fresh from the Academy, first tries to avoid getting swindled but offends Quark in doing so, and basically swindles himself until Paris swoops in and rights the situation.

Something about it reminds me of being in the womb This is just an offhand remark from Harry, but it’s so strange that it’s sat with us all this time. Harry claims in “The Cloud” that he remembers being in the womb, and wearing his mask to bed at night reminds him of this. Not a womblike allegory, mind you. The literal memory of his existence pre-birth. You’re a weird guy, Harry. Good luck ever living this down.

This is my only chance to get home The leap of logic when Harry decides to get himself killed in “Emanations” and get resurrected right away on the Voyager is one only the most desperate man would take. There is so little reason for him to think this literally suicidal plan will work except that he’s got to hope for the best. In doing so, Harry becomes the first (but not the last) crewmember to die and come back.

I want to eliminate emotions, like Vulcans do So it’s not the worst moment for Harry to fall in love with a hologram in “Alter Ego.” Everyone else does it all the time. It’s that he’s managed to sink into the delusion so far that he determines to purge himself of emotions with Tuvok’s help. Overreact much, Harry? To him, Morena’s just a hologram girl, and he’s even more obsessed with her than Janeway is of Michael Sullivan!

I still say you should have kept some of those spots Even after the rest of the show unfolded, I’m left unsure what to make of “Favorite Son.” It’s yet another example of how Harry seems to have no clue what to do with himself when around pretty girls (more on that in a moment). The Taresians trick him so easily into joining their cultish society just by promising lots of sex with pretty ladies, and that’s all it takes. You poor naive thing.

Imagine having Tom for a father-in-law I’ve been outvoted by the other SSHB hosts who think it’s squicky for Harry from “Before and After” to marry Kes’s and Tom’s daughter Linnis (who seems like a catch!). I guess it can be considered some kind of uncomfortable grooming because he would have basically watched her grow up since she’s part Ocampan, but can we really put that on sweet, innocent Harry?

Then you wish to copulate? The other really hormonal behavior we get out of Harry is any time he’s in Seven’s company. In “Revulsion,” it’s downright uncomfortable to watch their interactions because he doesn’t know how to act around his crush, and then the writers have to sexually charge the B-plot by having Seven offer to bang him, merely to titillate the viewers and for no other good reason. Ugh.

They trusted me, and I killed them! While we do like Harry in “Timeless,” and the episode itself is a clever use of time travel, you’ve got to put some blame on Harry for causing the catastrophe he goes back to fix in the first place. And what’s worse, he does it again and still can’t save the Voyager from the slipstream accident even after years of trying to get the equation solved!

If we succeed, those charges will never have existed in the first place One more moment from the “Timeless” since it’s probably got the most Harry action in all of Voyager (and we just love his tortured-soul look). But frankly, sacrificing a whole timeline full of people going about their lives just to save your friends is selfish. And on this show, the only person who gets to do that is Janeway! Captain Braxton was right all along!

You’re looking at your new co-pilot Okay so this moment is mostly an excuse to show off the Delta Flyer uniforms from “Drive” that we love so much. But also, it’s another example of Harry being led around by his boner again! This man is so blinded whenever there’s a sexy lady in the room, and he jumps at the chance to join Irina’s race team even when it nearly gets him killed in a terrorist attack.

I believe you’re the one who’s been relieved Boy, does this episode do Harry dirty. If you were ever upset that Harry never gets promoted during the course of the show, “Nightingale” shows you why. This poor guy just doesn’t know how to lead. The moment he takes command of the Nightingale, he turns into a micromanaging asshole and the whole crew mutinies immediately. No wonder Kim is a Forever Ensign.

Maybe all those command subroutines are compromising your medical abilities Both Harry Kim and the Emergency Medical Hologram – excuse me, Emergency Command Hologram – are out of character throughout all of “Workforce.” The ECH is so desperate to show off his command skills and Harry is just as desperate to one-up him every time that their whole subplot becomes a dick-measuring contest that no one’s going to win. Ew.

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And that’s it for our saxophone solo this week. Harry’s just so cool, guys. And we’ve got more cool guys to talk about in the coming weeks, so make sure you’re following along here, keeping up with our watchthrough of Enterprise over on SoundCloud or wherever you podcast, practice some scales over on Facebook and Twitter, and never think about the fact that you’re actually from a parallel universe. Oh the identity crisis of it all!

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