How Did The Doctor Turn Himself On?

[hux]

Feel free to make aggressively inappropriate comments about onanism.

So you're in the void; the dark, cold, bleak unforgiving void. Immersed in oblivion... consumed by nothingness... pushing that nihilism boulder up the absurdism hill. Squeezed by the tight grip of existentialist horror.

Anyway, you're the doctor and you're trapped in the nothingness. So how do you turn yourself on?

Is the doctor conscious when he's off? Is he like general Zod from Superman II in that weird glass prison? Screaming and thrashing about? Maybe when he comes online, the memories of his horrific incarceration instantly vanish so he has no fear of going back there.

If he isn't conscious then again, how does he turn himself on? I see no evidence of a timer.

But we know he doesn't experience time when he's off (see Living Witness, Timeless) so does that mean his experience of the seven year trip was actually closer to... I dunno... two or three years? (I'd appreciate it if someone could watch the show from the very start and work this out... Thanks in advance).

Well?

 

[Paradise City]

Timer I assume. He shouldn't have to verbalise anything. He should be connected to the 'puter by thought. One twitch of the nose, gone. Maybe to some kennel like place that Moriarty wound up getting.

 

[Finn]

Perhaps a part of his program is always active. B'elanna or Harry may have put something in his program that would remain active and would activate the rest of the program as he wants.

 

[Catarina]

I'm not sure why but to my ear I find 'existentialism' to be a mellifluous word.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

The title of this thread had me thinking of something else...

 

[hux]

Four replies and still no jokes about rubbing himself on a lampshade. Sometimes, it feels like you people aren't even trying.

Timer I assume. He shouldn't have to verbalise anything. He should be connected to the 'puter by thought. One twitch of the nose, gone. Maybe to some kennel like place that Moriarty wound up getting.

But how does he get back?

There are episodes where he re-appears after the baddies have buggered off which would suggest either continued consciousness within the void or the ships computer made the decision (which would suggest to me, some level of consciousness on the ships part).

Perhaps a part of his program is always active. B'elanna or Harry may have put something in his program that would remain active and would activate the rest of the program as he wants.

So to some degree... conscious, even when off.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

Btw, my answer would have been "Thinking about Seven Of Nine."

What Finn said makes the most sense.

 

[Catarina]

I'm sorry I didn't take the bait by participating, Hux. But I knew where you were going. Is that enough? Is it not enough we indulged your toilet post longer than it needed to be? We can't always get what we want. My Chakotay theme is not going as exciting as I hoped. I laughed maybe three times. Ouch. I will forgive for the more creative entries.

 

[Terok Nor]

He watches Vidiian porn.

 

[Catarina]

He watches Vidiian porn.

Could we please assume this was after the Think Tank cure?

 

[Lynsioux]

In the beginning he was dependent on someone activating him. At one point they did some techno thing so he could control it himself and from that point on, I think, he was never "off".

 

[Triskelion]

A Tijuana Brass record and a mirror.

 

[Lynx]

Perhaps a part of his program is always active. B'elanna or Harry may have put something in his program that would remain active and would activate the rest of the program as he wants.

I think you hit the nail on the head here. I guess that he was on standby or something like that.

The title of this thread had me thinking of something else...

Hmm....language is a tricky thing.

I remember when I watched Voyager on VHS tape the first time. That was before they started to air the show where I live so I watched the show by borrowing VHS tapes from a store which had the episodes.

So I watched Voyager with Swedish sub-text and there we had the episode "Lifesigns" when The Doctor explains to Kes that he feels lonely and confused when Denara Pel (or more correctly, her hologram) isn't activated.

Kes then suggests: "So why don't you activate her?"

The point is that in the sub-text, the word "activate" is translated into something which means "switch her on". However, there is a Swedish slang "switch on" which means.......well, you know what I mean.

So what Kes did suggest to The Doctor, according to this sub-text was that he should........well, you know what I mean.

 

[Captain Rob]

As someone who once apon a time did computer code. Obviously the main computer had an activation subroutine made up of a few If-Then statements:
line 1: IF somebody voice requests the EMH THEN activate EMH
line 2: IF someone requests the EMH by terminal input THEN activate EMH
line 3: IF somebody authorized to remotely request activation of EMH THEN activate EMH

The Doctor has since added additional lines to the subroutine. i.e.:
line 10: IF someone other than the Captain touches my stuff in Sickbay THEN activate EMH

Alternate prurient answer to OP's question: He binge watches old 20th Century adverts for "The Hair Club for Men".
Or goes to the Cargo Bay while Seven is regenerating and sniffs her hair. And sighs longingly.

 

[hux]

The Doctor has since added additional lines to the subroutine. i.e.:
line 10: IF someone other than the Captain touches my stuff in Sickbay THEN activate EMH.

The issue here (as with any timer answer) is how do you determine how long to wait? So Janeway comes in and starts fiddling with the doctors stuff but the doc doesn't want to re-materialise until after she's gone. So how does he accomplish that if there is just some generic... switch me back on programme?

In "Latent Image" he gives the computer specifics... EMH: "Now, I'm going offline. If my programme is altered without my authorisation, reactivate me and restore the duplicate memory files."... which would suggest he doesn't have the ability to do any of this himself from within the void.

 

[Terok Nor]

Could we please assume this was after the Think Tank cure?

I wish it was, but....

 

[Tim Thomason]

I wish it was, but....

By the time of Think Tank, he had already moved away from his Vidiian fetish, and onto his Seven of Nine stalker obsession.

 

[Captain Rob]

The issue here (as with any timer answer) is how do you determine how long to wait? So Janeway comes in and starts fiddling with the doctors stuff but the doc doesn't want to re-materialise until after she's gone. So how does he accomplish that if there is just some generic... switch me back on programme?

In "Latent Image" he gives the computer specifics... EMH: "Now, I'm going offline. If my programme is altered without my authorisation, reactivate me and restore the duplicate memory files."... which would suggest he doesn't have the ability to do any of this himself from within the void.

I first learned how to code way back in 1982 on the old Apple II computer in Apple Basic (AppleSoft).
A timer is a simple looping subroutine. When the subroutine is run, the program execution will not continue until the conditions to end the loop are met. It's a IF-THEN-ELSE statement.
For example:
You first define the timer variable
10 SET T=0
20 IF T=100 THEN GOTO 50 ELSE T=T+1
30 GOTO 20
50 RUN EMH.EXE
The subroutine will loop until T=100. With each loop incrementing T by 1. When T=100 it will jump to line 50 and activate the EMH.
Apparently the LCARS system can self code subroutine and programs from verbal English language input.
However the syntax in the above line is incorrect. The Doctor should have said "If my program is altered (modified) without my authorization while I'm offline. Then restore my duplicate memory files and reactivate me. Now, I'm going offline."
A additional condition of activation could be made by inserting the line "Wait until Sickbay is vacant."
And to be prudent "Save a backup copy of the security camera record of the user doing the altering, and for the duration while I was inactivated."

 

[hux]

By the time he's finished saying all that, Janeway will be standing in the doorway with holo-whip.

I'm still curious about how the doctor experiences the passage of time. If he retains some level of consciousness when offline then it's irrelevant but if he doesn't (and evidence suggests this) then his trip through the Delta quadrant would have been much shorter than everyone elses.

He's on a pleasure cruise.

 

[Drone]

On a basic level, why should he even be concerned about the passage of time, as most likely he's gong to be around forever. Unless that sleazy Ardon Broht figures someway to deep six him. Smarmy bastard!!!