I know that they slowly made the EMH an actual member of the crew and grew the character, but if it came down to it could he have formally relieved Janeway of duty? Since he wasn't a ranking officer would he have been able to make it work officially? For example, if he thought that Janeway was unfit for duty due to having a severe concussion and he said she was relieved would she be bound by that order or is it a suggestion from what is passing as chief medical officer?
Not after Equinox she couldn't. The CMO outranks the Captain in medical decisions. It would be a mutiny for everyone else to side with the Captain over the Doct... Isn't that a definitive answer to the Tuvix Question? The Doctor said "No" and Janeway proved that she was above the law?
It all depends on those pesky little regulations. We know that the CMO out ranks the Captain in medical matters, the question is did they up date the regulations to account for the loss of the entire medical staff and having the EMH as the ranking medical officer. If the regulations hadn't been changed then under the spirit of the law I would say yes, under the letter thats a little more grey. But one con almost imagine something like this. EMH: "Captain I relive.." Janeway (interrpupting): "Computer End Program"
Given how the program is used back in the Federation, all those holodocs shoveling coal or whatever, my guess is the EMH won't be able to do anything to the captain as he isn't an officer of Starfleet, he's a computer program. She might get admonished for ignoring or overruling the program, but that would be about it.
I'd rather she said "delete" in between computer and programme, but that's just me Technically as CMO he has the authority to relieve anyone of their duties on medical grounds, however given his galaxy-wide ego you'd have to wonder of his ethics, especially after he had the [shudder] ECH extension pack. Doctor: Captain I relieve you of duty, effective immediately. Computer initiate ECH subroutine. [laughs maniacally]
Voyager's EMH deleted Equinox's EMH. It's almost like the wrong phrase out of context could have accidentally deleted an EMH at any point anywhere.
You'd think they'd have kept the Equinox EMH. If it's that easy to turn him from good to evil with a single command, you'd think the reverse is true. Two doctors would be useful to say the least.
^ Those two would have been constantly arguing with each other as to who got to wear the mobile emitter that day.
For the Doctor to relieve the Captain of duty, in practice, I think he would have needed Chakotay and Tuvok to back him up. And it would have led to one of those tense authority battles. Chakotay "Captain, you're clearly in no medical condition to make command decisions right now. Lieutenant, escort Captain Janeway to her quarters!" Janeway "Your orders are to escort Commander Chakotay to the brig, and disable the Doctor's program." Lieutenant (Thinking) "FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK"
The EMH can try, but I doubt Janeway would follow his order. The Chief Medical Officer needs the backing of Starfleet for any real power.
Well that's Janeways god complex not allowing any quid pro quo for you. Without the backing of Starfleet, she's just a bossy know it all rambling with few friends.
This answers your question. If the doctor wanted to relieve her, she would've just superseded his order.
When the Doctor tried to relieve her in Year of Hell there was 7 crew left on the ship and Voyager was falling apart and the bad guys were winning. It was just a bad time to worry about her mental health. In a normal non-life-and-death situation, the Doctor could order Security to drag her to the holodeck for a holiday.