So what is it then?
Excessive Criticism of "STAR TREK VOYAGER"
- Thread starter LJones41
- Start date
So what is it then?
The whole "The EMH can't be backed up!" thing. THAT is what immediately the audience thought about. Not the plot, not the twists, not the acting or the overall message. The EMH Backup.
They let that one point totally overshadow everything else.
That's weird! Besides, where do they get the idea that the EMH can't be backed up. I've watched the whole series several times. I don't remember someone saying that.
In Message in a Bottle when the Doctor is away they mention not having a backuo for him, Harry and Tom even try to make one real quick. I think it could bee reasonable to think that after that they took more time and made a backup of some kind.
In one of the novels, which I know is not canon, they talk about making backups. It would "save" the emh program at whatever point they were at and they had a few versions. So lets say they activated a backup it would be a copy from that point. Anything the doctor had experienced after the "save" point wasn't there.
In one of the novels, which I know is not canon, they talk about making backups. It would "save" the emh program at whatever point they were at and they had a few versions. So lets say they activated a backup it would be a copy from that point. Anything the doctor had experienced after the "save" point wasn't there.
I don't believe it's flat out said they don't have a backup it's just heavily implied
Either the Dominion War was Sisko's fault or Odo went back to his people early, placating them and putting an end to that problem. The Klingon situation was explained in the episode, the Federation turned control of DS9 over to the Klingons.
What else?
Very heavily implied after all in "Message in a Bottle" they are trying to create a new EMH program. if they could simple backup the existing one there would be no need to create a new EMH. So it's not an unreasonable conclusion that the EMH can't be backed up.
But I think there were other episodes which implied that no backup of the EMH existed. "Virtuoso" for example when the EMH wanted to leave, he mentions they'll be in comms range for another month. Why would that matter of they had a backup they could simple load up that ine and let the other one leave.
But I think there were other episodes which implied that no backup of the EMH existed. "Virtuoso" for example when the EMH wanted to leave, he mentions they'll be in comms range for another month. Why would that matter of they had a backup they could simple load up that ine and let the other one leave.
There's a difference between "Don't have a backup" and "Can't have a backup" and just as I thought the latter was neither said nor implied.
Eye the Needle, episode nineish from season one.
The crew wanted to escape to Romulan Space, the Doctor had to be left behind because his program was integrated to the physical components (the walls) in sick bay, and Janeway couldn't be bothered taking a 1/2 ton of walls with her.
It was cute that he thought that he might be floating in space alone forever.
Legally Voyager had to be scuttled.
The mobile emitter, and understanding the software inside the mobile emitter changed all that, but it's more fun to thrash around like a drunk-crazy person.
Or it could be that they were pressed for time and couldn't make a backup just right there. Or the procedure to make a backup was complex and it took some time to figure it out.
As Trip would say: "The possibilities are endless!"
Or maybe back then she thought it was useless to take the EMH with them as they would get a new one in the Alpha Quadrant. Remember that back then the doctor was considered little more than a tool. Even in Season 4 Janeway thought nothing of resetting his program, if not for Kes' insistence, it's probably what they would have done.
Well at that point so early on the Doctor was just the EMH to them. They didn't see him as sentient, an official crew member, or their friend. So they most likely didn't really think about taking him with them.
I basically said the same thing.
One could almost say that Kes is the one that made him a person.
Well i think the issue could be that by then he was respected, considered sentient, and was considered a friend. They didn't see him as a program. A backup would be a different EMH. He wouldn't be THE DOCTOR
Depeds when the backup was created, if you create a backup of a computer file, in the case of "Message in a Bottle" if they EMH was lost in transit or couldn't be send back, and they used a backup created just before they send him would anything have changed much. Besides they were trying to create a new program in case the EMH was lost, which would you rather have a new EMH or a copy of yor friend who might just have a few memories missing?
Besides if you can just create a backup, then you have a whole army of disposable holograms. By not being able to back it up due to the more complex nature of his programming you make him more unique.
Of course he is basically just a complex computer program so it should be easy to backup, i think the real issue lies in the original concpet of the EMH being integrated into the sickbay systems. Which limited what they could do with the character. Perhaps what they should have done is have holo-emitters in other parts of the ship such as Engineering, the Bridge and a few other key areas.
She first brought his feelings
They did. Voyager was a test bed for the EMH so it was limited. In Message in a Bottle the EMH 2 can go all over the ship
It could be argued that using the transporter you can duplicate people as well. And it really happened (Riker).
