Talk:Emergency Medical Holographic program

EMH online?

Message in Bottle stated how many hours the EMH mark I was intended to b online. Could someone look in to it? -- Redge | Talk 16:57, 16 Aug 2004 (CEST)

According to The Star Trek Encyclopedia: "The holographic doctor was ... not to be used for more than 1500 hours." This was stated in "The Swarm". I'll edit the page to reflect this info. -- Mjwilco 17:11, 16 Aug 2004 (CEST)

Is that the same amount mentioned in Message in a Bottle? I'll take a look myself, if I have the episode somewhere. -- Redge | Talk 17:18, 16 Aug 2004 (CEST)

EMH of Enterprise

Was he a Mark I? Or where they already relegated to plasma scraping duties by the time of the movie? If so, then he could be a later version. -- Harry 12:34, 12 Jan 2005 (CET)

Commander Beverly Crusher in Star Trek: First Contact activates Enterprise-E's EMH Mark I and gives it the command to to anticipate incoming Borg en route to Sickbay, and to provide a distraction so that she and other medical personnel can escape. This is the source of the "I'm a doctor, not a doorstop!" quote.

Incidently, should the quotes listed here be attributable only to all versions of the EMH, or should they be moved to ones known to be attributed to the Voyager EMH Mark I The Doctor, etc.? -- Deathlok007 16:32, 17 Feb 2005 (EST)

The Enterprise-E EMH was undoubtedly a mark one because that was the only version that resembled Zimmerman.

It should be pointed out that the EMH of Enterprise-E was not counted among the several Mark I's that avoided the fate of the 675 reprogrammed holograms in this page's main article. -- anonymous 18:50, 3 Dec 2007 (EST)

What makes you think that? We know that the EMH Mark Is were reprogrammed by 2376, we saw it on the Ent-E in 2373. We don't know what happened after that. As it is. the Mark II was brand new in 2374, a year after we saw that on the Ent-E, so I doubt they had retired all the Mark Is yet. --OuroborosCobra ^talk 01:07, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

EMH of Equinox

The Equinox's EMH was not aboard the Equinox when it was destroyed but had transferred to Voyager at this point. Voyager's EMH deleted the Equinox doctor but it's far more likely his program was stored in some 24th century equivalent of a "recycle bin", which meant he could later be recovered.

It says in the main article that Voyager was the first ship to have an EMH, yet as is shown in "Equinox" Parts I and II, the Equinox has an EMH. Since it is clear that the Nova class predates the Intrepid class (by the date of launch and the fact that the Nova doesn't use bio-neural gel packs), this part of the main article would appear to be incorrect.

The Equinox could have received the EMH as an upgrade after Voyager got theirs. "Relativity" states that Voyager was the first to receive one. --OuroborosCobra ^talk 02:56, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

This explanation doesn't work. Voyager's first mission was to the Badlands to pursue the Maquis. The Equinox had already been transported away by the Caretaker array prior to the events in that episode. If Voyager was the first ship to have an EMH then how could the Equinox have an EMH prior to Voyager's maiden mission? --<unsigned>

Yeah, it's messed up, unless there were two caretakers kidnapping ships like that (I joke, I know there weren't). It could be that Voyager had a long construction period or something, and that it still was the first to have one installed, early in construction. Then Equinox had one fitted, but before Voyager launched. It is a stretch, but the fact it that the canon statement from "Relativity" is that Voyager had the first EMH fitted to a starship. --OuroborosCobra ^talk 03:38, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps this conflict should be noted on the main page? It seems that one reference in a single episode shouldn't completely trump all of the other evidence that this statement is inaccurate.

Slaves?

Given the sophistication of the EMH programming & their involuntary assignment to menial tasks, can it be said the Fed endorses slavery? Trekphiler 10:42, 15 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Good question. It is silly to have th EMHs programmed to do that. Why couldn't the minners just program more simple minning holograms to do the dirty work, and have all the EMHs upgraded to Mark II the same way we would upgrade a software system on our computer. It just doesn't make sense what-so-ever in my opinion! They could have even deleted all of the old EMHs if upgrading them isn't possible. (But there were many changes and additions to The Doctors program so it seems possible). It makes no sense to use medical holograms to do physical labor, especially when proper holograms can be programmed easily. The EMHs seemed sad doing their new job, why would you assign holograms which were self aware and knowledge to do a job of a "slave"? This is a place where mindless, robotic, or simplistic holograms would be appropriate.

In defense... I will say it is an error on the part of the writers. Once you think about it, the whole idea seems completely stupid.--Benjrh 22:28, 17 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Well, I know I'm going out on a limb here, but perhaps the Mark I's status as a lifeform was in question (like the Robocomps). If so, no activated EMH could be "murdered," so they had to be assigned to another task. --trkly

I think that was exocomp you were looking for, not robocomp. Yeah, the EMH writing on a whole does seem to be missing something though. (StarkeRealm 13:31, 23 July 2007 (UTC))

Separate pages

Does anyone else feel that the EMH from the Equinox and the Enterprise should get their own pages? Jaf 04:34, 14 April 2006 (UTC)Jaf

Sure, I'm all for pages for the individual EMHs, as long as they get linked to this one. The Enterprise-E EMH, Prometheus's EMH Mark II, and the Equinox's EMH all had adventures and probably also had "I'm a Doctor, not a ..." quotes of their own, and each page should reflect their individual exploits and a listing of their specific canon quotes. I think Prometheus EMH Mark II had a "I'm a Doctor, not a commando!" quote. --vorik111 06:56, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

EMH Program AK-1 Diagnostic and Surgical Subroutine Omega-323

I have heard this before, but I am unsure of the episode. Is this specifically the title of any Mark I, or is it specifically The Doctor's full "name." The Omega-323 makes me think that it is just the Doctor's (and others would be Omega-321 or Alpha-528 or so) and not all EMH Mark I (or all EMH's).

If anyone can find the quote that would be appreciated to clarify the situation.--Tim Thomason 18:37, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Sure, Tim, here's the quote:

Doctor: "Not on file?! The program's running right now! Display schematics for all Sickbay holographic systems."

Computer: "No holographic systems exist in Sickbay."

Doctor: "EMH Program AK-11 Diagnostic and Surgical Subroutine Omega-323. Check the database and you'll find it!"

Computer: "Specified program does not exist."

Doctor: "Well then, who is the Chief Medical Officer aboard this ship?!"

This suggests to me that The Doctor considered EMH Program AK-1... as the Chief Medical Officer (hence his sarcastic "well then who?" question later). And since he was the CMO (not just any EMH), then his "name" is EMH Program AK-1... Hope that helps.--Tim Thomason 05:19, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks alot, Tim. Hmmm... much to ponder here.--Tim Thomason 05:19, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

EMH vs Commander Data

It seems to me that the EMH and Commander Data should be similar, but are fundamentally different. The positronic brain that was Data's brain could not have been replicated by Starfleet, and so there was no artifical intelligence, but the EMH was easily created even with emotions. Are there any reasons for this apparent contradiction: the initial difficulty to create artificial intelligent beings, and then their quite easy creation. -- 74.112.53.20 22:48, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Just because Data's positronic brain could not be replicated by Starfleet doesn't mean it isn't artificial intelligence. It was still created by Dr. Noonien Soong. That means it is artificial intelligence. Alternatively, if you mean that the EMH was not artificial intelligence, that also is flawed. For one thing, I believe they refer to his artificial intelligence subroutines, for another, what is this made up rule that there is only one solution to artificial intelligence, positronics? We have seen other non-positronic artificial intelligence, like the multitronic M-5. --OuroborosCobra ^talk 22:58, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

It's possible that 24th century Starfleet can't shrink an artificial intelligence to the size of a human head, like Dr. Soong was able to achieve, but could only encompass that processing power into a device like the main computer core. 29th century Starfleet could store an entire AI with forcefield manipulation abilities into a cigarette-lighter-sized package (Mobile emitter). --vorik111 08:23, 16 June 2007 (UTC) ^talk

Mark II based on a character?

Mark I and the longterm EMH are both physically modelled after characters: Zimmerman and Bashir. What about Mark II? Is there any known character in whose image it was made? 68.123.28.88 22:07, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

Andy Dick. :D Seriously, though, it was never explained who the Mark II was modeled after. --From Andoria with Love 23:01, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

I was under the impression that Bashir was dropped as a canidate for the LMH's template, because of the whole genetic engineering debacle. And yes, Andy Dick is a character. :p (StarkeRealm 13:33, 23 July 2007 (UTC))

EMH: Why not copy the program?

I am not a Trekkie or a Star Trek guru, but if my understanding of the EMH is right, he is a program. Why then is it when he goes down to a planet, or when he was "modemed" back to Earth to treat Zimmerman his is always in danger of being lost. Why not back up the program. Then if he "dies" you just pull out the back up. I realize that he is a dynamic self aware program and that is memory would only go as far as his last backup, but it beats the alternative. I base my theory that he is a program on the fact that they are always tweaking his programs subroutines. Or that he added character subroutines to his program.

So what gives. I must be missing something. I don't see how this could have been missed by everyone else. There must be a reason why this is not possible.

Thank you. -69.1.59.67ID 2007-08-26 Note the following IP address is spoofed:

Well, copying his program would be like cloning a person. If he was alright, then you would end up with two identical individuals, both sentient. There is not technical problem, but I believe that the problem here is the moral issue of making a copy of a sentient being. The new program would be, in all senses, a clone. --Nmajmani 00:13, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

There was at least one duplicate of Voyager's Doctor, as evidenced in VOY: "Living Witness". Considering the fact, however that it was always repeated there was one copy of the doctor, and that he was too complex to have more than one of, this situation is either a plot hole of epic proportions or a writers "cheat" for a storyline. This was always something that bothered me in the series was the fact the Doctor [i]was[/i] a computer program, but there was only enough memory to have one of him? Additonally there was great effort to point out that the Jupiter Station Diagnostic Program was of similar complexity to the Doctor, and once his program was overlaid with the doctor, he would no longer exist. This seems to create room for the doctor to be duplicated, OR the doctors program doubled in size. Also, in VOY: "Future's End", Starling downloads 20% of the Voyager computer core, including the doctor. There seems to be a discrepancy considering how much information Starling was able to aquire, and the fact that downloads (in the traditional sense) do not move data, just transfer a copy of it. If Starling had taken 20% of Voyager's database (not simply download, but actually took) it is highly likely there would be significant system impact to the missing data. (Imagine losing 1/5th of your computers data.) -- Kooky 23:47, 21 January 2008 (UTC)