I was reading The Eternal Tide (no spoilers in this thread) and at one point the Doctor and some dude have a 2 hour walk ahead of them through a desert. The Doctor is saying they might not make it in time because HE can keep up a pace and not tire but the dude according to the Doctor's scans is not at peak physical shape and will be slowing them down before they are halfway there. Why couldn't the Doctor just program his photons into a horse.. or a dune buggy and take the frail human for a very fast ride to their destination?
Perfectly reasonable question, or just carry him as is. I'd guess that carrying the guy would use up power faster than would allow them to make the journey. But there really should be no problem with changing shape, number of arms or what have you. The limit is the desire of the plot. All those times on Voyager complaining of needing help, there's no reason the holocomputer system (which really is the doctor) couldn't project another hologram.
I've been through the desert on a horse with no name It felt good to be out of the rain In the desert you can remember your name 'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain La, la ...
Can you imagine if someone suggested to the Doctor during some arduous hike, "Why don't you just reprogram yourself into a horse and that way I can ride you?" His head would explode with indignation. "I'm a doctor not a donkey!"
Oh yeah that's much more McCoy! The Doctor was a bit more alliterative (maybe that's my imagination, LOL)
If he was walking around with his mobile emitter, would he be able to access the controls to transform his appearance like that?
Could Janeway or Chakotay be a horse? Just how far can cosmetic surgery go in the future? They have injections that totally reshape a patient's skull...
(and yes, since the EMH is basically AI, his form should be as changable as a ringtone.) (...although I can't see him ever letting Dr. Cambrige ride him.)
It just cracks me up imagining Cambridge pointing out that it would be logical for the EMH to let him ride him
AFAIK, no. The one time they did that ("Blink of an Eye"), he had to have B'Elanna do it for him, i.e. change his appearance so he could pose as an alien.
BrokeBack Mountain, Voyager style part 2? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR3O3ZuWIvY [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR3O3ZuWIvY[/yt]
A horse? Of course. (Someone had to do it.) Actually he'd probably become a centaur so he could continue to "nag" you all the way to your destination.
Centaurs are creepy! But now I need a photoshop of the Doctor, bare chested, as a centaur with his best supercilious expression.