I'm sorry, but I fail to see how that doesn't mean it can't have affected him in the long term? We've seen how he reacts to death that he knows he could have prevented under different circumstances (Latent Image comes to mind), so his reaction to Belle's death makes sense for his character. And Real Life is a heart stabber of an episode, in my honest opinion.
Spoilers Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1x08 – “The Life of the Stars”
She didn't even have a unique character model, the computer used the same it did for one of the children in Janeway's gothic holonovels.
It would have worked so much better if they had just left it a generic "I've outlived nearly all of my friends and family" since the only one of those who should still be alive at this point is Zero.
Do recall, the Doctor choose to let Belle "die" as part of his experiment.
He could have just as easily said "Computer, restore Belle" and she would have been right as rain.
As he should have.
But, he chose pain and so pays the price because of guilt Paris inflicted on him.
Whether you think it is real, is irrelevant. It was real to the Doctor and it should have been treated with more respect by the Voyager writers. SFA just a fixed a problem that they caused.
It was B'Elanna who rewrote his holo-family program not Tom, because she said it was too unrealistic that they were constantly praising him, obeying him unquestioningly, and being perfectly perfect.
From what I could interpret of the episode, he didn't have creative control over the program after he agreed to let B'Elanna rewrite it. And he literally chose to abandon the family entirely when initially faced with Bell's death because he felt guilty over not being able to fix it as a surgeon and afraid of having to confront the death in general. Latent Image really dives into that guilt of being unable to do his job of saving people, to the point where he essentially breaks and becomes useless as a doctor, all because he simply made a choice to save Harry's life instead of someone else's. I've watched Voyager dozens upon dozens of times since I was 13, it's my favorite of all the shows, I can and will go toe to toe on this (respectfully).
Also, and I do apologize if I'm coming off as flippant or aggressive, I think they only really referenced Real Life because it specifically tied into the surrogate father B-plot he was in in the SFA episode. I do agree that they should have referenced his other relationships to build a better foundation for his struggles in the episode, namely how he has outlived literally every single person who may have ever mattered to him in any capacity (namely his relationship with Seven of Nine and how neither of them were 'quite human enough' in the eyes of Starfleet for a very very long time). I do think that's what they were going for, they just didn't reference anyone or anything else, and that bothers me.
ALSO also, I wanna point out that the specific scene they chose to reference Real Life in was during his little monologue while sitting next to what was essentially SAM's corpse. He was, for all intents and purposes, reliving a heavy moment of his past and having to sit with it all over again, and I think the guilt was absolutely amplified by the fact that he had been shunning SAM over and over again and, for all he knew in the moment, he had only realized his mistake once it was too late.
ALSO also, I wanna point out that the specific scene they chose to reference Real Life in was during his little monologue while sitting next to what was essentially SAM's corpse. He was, for all intents and purposes, reliving a heavy moment of his past and having to sit with it all over again, and I think the guilt was absolutely amplified by the fact that he had been shunning SAM over and over again and, for all he knew in the moment, he had only realized his mistake once it was too late.
Seriously. I mean, even folks who know nothing about theatre can follow a lot of it.Let's just say I've seen evidence to the contrary!
Seriously? It used to be one of the things that you just were supposed to know. Even if it was just "that dumb thing we had to learn in school that took FOREVER."
It was kind of in the "To Kill a Mockingbird" bucket.
The big difference is that every single other person was someone he knew he would outlive. It's not that he won't/didn't mourn them, we have seen that he does during the course of Voyager, but he would also be aware of the inevitability.
A holographic child had the potential to be eternal like he is. Which is why SAM's presence is a trigger; here's another holographic child, essentially, with eternity ahead of her, a type of connection none of us can relate to, and he's afraid to develop it again because of the risk.
I can see why "LATENT IMAGE" gets compared to "REAL LIFE" as an extension of his feeling guilty at not being able to save everyone, but that wasn't the problem The Doctor was having.
In "LATENT IMAGE", what drove his program over the edge was not simply losing a patient, because he has already lost multiple people before that point, including Naomi (remember that this crew is from the severely damaged Voyager from "DEADLOCK", except for Kim and Naomi). It was him choosing to save his friend instead of being objective. If his professional objectivity was lost or compromised, he felt everything else about himself could fundamentally be compromised. Which makes sense, since besides being a doctor is his job, it's an absolute core identity.
Last edited:
Partial to "geezers," myself.I believe the proper term is "oldsters"
Also as a verb, properly pronounced "geezin.'"
Oh definitely. Doesn't mean that I agree with the approach though. YMMV.Seriously. I mean, even folks who know nothing about theatre can follow a lot of it.
Last edited:
Surely that's the correct term to use on a ST BBS!Elder Grups?
To quote Jeff Goldblum 'That is one big pile of shit'.
Did you go around to different theatres and ask the 'theatre workers' to fill in a survey or something?
I'm Australian and even I was aware it was a play taught in American high schools, i just didn't know the plot. The 'theatre workers' you spoke to are either incredibly stupid or incredibly made up.
As someone who went to American high school and American collage, it very much was not.To quote Jeff Goldblum 'That is one big pile of shit'.
Did you go around to different theatres and ask the 'theatre workers' to fill in a survey or something?
I'm Australian and even I was aware it was a play taught in American high schools, i just didn't know the plot. The 'theatre workers' you spoke to are either incredibly stupid or incredibly made up.
Is American Collage near Decoupage University?
I went to school in the UK system and there are plenty of plays and novels that I would likely consider should be general knowledge, but many wouldn't be aware of.
It's the kind of thing that's going to vary wildly on school, and this argument about how much it is or isn't part of the cultural gestalt of America is getting absurd. I never heard of it before this show; clearly, others did.
*SQUEEE!* Welsh people talking!
Similar threads
- Poll
- Poll
- Poll
- Poll
