Was the Mobile Emitter a Bad Idea?

[Python Trek]

Well said, Gotham Central. Torpedoes, shuttles, giant chunks of the ship, crew members...everything was easily replaced, even though they were a gazillion light-years from a UFP port. How exciting could this show have been, if...say it with me, everyone!...IT HAD JUST FOLLOWED ITS OWN PREMISE.

Then along came ENT, which did the same goddamned thing. <sigh!!>

 

[The Dominion]

Well said, Gotham Central. Torpedoes, shuttles, giant chunks of the ship, crew members...everything was easily replaced, even though they were a gazillion light-years from a UFP port. How exciting could this show have been, if...say it with me, everyone!...IT HAD JUST FOLLOWED ITS OWN PREMISE.

Then along came ENT, which did the same goddamned thing. <sigh!!>

Basically this.

 

[Deks]

Well said, Gotham Central. Torpedoes, shuttles, giant chunks of the ship, crew members...everything was easily replaced, even though they were a gazillion light-years from a UFP port. How exciting could this show have been, if...say it with me, everyone!...IT HAD JUST FOLLOWED ITS OWN PREMISE.

Then along came ENT, which did the same goddamned thing. <sigh!!>

you do realize that 24th century technology allows any SF ship to be self-sustaining, right?
Heck, even 23rd century technology as explained in TOS allowed for that.

In the 24th century they can use any matter and turn it into energy of some sort which can later be used to replicate something else, or just store it for later use.
In essence, all Voyager had to do was make 'pit stops' in uninhabited solar systems with some kind of raw matter (say asteroids) or just stars... use their transporters to turn them into energy and shunt it directly into the ship's systems, or gather Solar energy directly from the Star.
Or they could set up camp for a few days (or a week - depending on how long it would take them), modify the tractor beams, or deflector array to emit an energy conversion beam, direct it towards an interstellar body and just convert chunks of it into energy.
If phasers can disintegrate objects, then it's very possible they have the technology to 'capture' energy.
Voila... you just solved most of energy issues.
I would surmise that creating new antimatter reserves would be a bit more trickier, but definitely doable with what they have on-board.

Torpedoes could have been replaced by replicating the parts and assembling them later, and could have used antimatter from either the Warp Core, or when they were bartering with other races (there were mentions of Voyager making various stops off-screen as well - so it's reasonable to think they traded for antimatter to replenish their supplies, or found stellar phenomena from which they could extract it or boost existing reserves - using things like nucleogenic particles - of which living nebulae wouldn't be the only source in the galaxy).

So, replacing/repairing shuttles and even replacing used torpedoes is definitely doable.
The writers didn't think things through obviously.
If SF in the AQ can create torpedoes and shuttles, then obviously ships can as well if need be - it may take a bit longer though.
They already have everything they need to make it work.
But I guess people just like to ignore these things 'for the sake of drama'.

 

[Gary7]

Did they ever explain why they couldn't make a duplicate of the mobile emitter, as a kind of fail-safe in case the active one was irreversibly damaged or lost?

 

[Guy Gardener]

No.

But I think I recall B'Elanna saying that she was angry because didn't understand the technology.

 

[Ln X]

Well said, Gotham Central. Torpedoes, shuttles, giant chunks of the ship, crew members...everything was easily replaced, even though they were a gazillion light-years from a UFP port. How exciting could this show have been, if...say it with me, everyone!...IT HAD JUST FOLLOWED ITS OWN PREMISE.

Then along came ENT, which did the same goddamned thing. <sigh!!>

Well there were replicators, and since replicators needed lots of energy, and the Voyager crew also always managed to find power sources or more deuterium. Then you could replicate new torpedoes, new parts for new shuttles, replace damaged hull plating. So it is plausible...

In a way VOY did sort of follow it's premise, but I always thought that as the seasons progressed the VOY crew were more adept at running the ship with fewer resources and finding raw materials on planets, stars, nebulae and so forth.

 

[The Dominion]

So Voyager did have some industrial replicators on board? That didn't seem to really be explored. I never saw them doing anything about their supply troubles apart from rationing food, complaining, and visiting planets to get deuterium. They never said anything about having to build more shuttlecraft or anything, it just happened.

Remember how much crap O'Brien had to put up with to keep DS9 running? It should have been more like that.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Methinks industrial replicators are actually several times the size of Voyager and used for make multistoried buildings and objects the size of multistoried buildings.

i mean that's of course if industrial replicators are actually about quantity and not quality, that there's more processing power availaible that thee replicators can make/play with more unusual and rare/unseful elements?

Meh.

 

[The Dominion]

Methinks industrial replicators are actually several times the size of Voyager and used for make multistoried buildings and objects the size of multistoried buildings.

Which is what I thought was implied on DS9, when O'Brien refers to them in context of them being heavy duty machines that are installed on stations, or something to that effect. As well as being needed to make important ship parts for repair, and even then they could take a while and a great amount of power.

Unless Voyager was conveniently designed with state of the art industrial replicators on board to help out in prolonged emergencies, that even the Galaxy Class Ent-D didn't purportedly have (It still needed to dock to make repairs.) But none of this was talked about to my knowledge on Voyager. Everything was hunky dory by the next episode.

 

[The Dominion]

Actually, another thing I wanted to see was an episode where they try to recruit some more DQ aliens onto the ship. They could've used a few replacement crewmen after a while, and it would help to make allies (or was Janeway afraid of doing that?) Surely they could have found a few more people willing to join them in their journey than a mulleted space hobo and his girlfriend?

 

[Anwar]

The thing the fascinated me about the Holodoc from the beginning was the fact that he was trapped in sickbay (except of course to got to the holodeck). If anyone needed medical assistance anywhere else on Voyager, or on another ship, or on the surface of a planet, he could be of little help, because of his confinement. This was one of the character's defining elements for me. When he got hold of the mobile emitter (and very early in the series' run, might I add), he seemed to become just another "I must explore my humanity" Trek trope. I enjoyed the character when the series was in first run---and it goes without saying that Picardo's a brilliant actor---but in retrospect, I think they screwed the pooch with that mobile emitter thingie. The 'Doc lost a lot of his pathos, IMO.

One thing the writers on Voyager proved right from the start is that they had no concept of how to deal with limitations of any sort. This is the same show that specifically said that they had a limited number of torpedoes that could not be replaced...and then proceeded to ignore that.

The moment having the doctor confined to sickbay or even the ship became even a minor inconvenience out came the 29th century technology and voila...limit eliminated...no work needed on the part of the characters. The solution is just given to them via time travel. Of course that's how the ultimate plot of the show was resolved as well...so at least they were consistent in their laziness.

The limitations they set for VOY never made any damn sense in the first place, THAT was why they weren't dealt with all that much.

It made no sense they couldn't make new torpedoes, or repair shuttlecraft, or easily replenish basic energy. Stuff like dilithium should've been the top thing they needed.

What SHOULD have been their biggest limitation: That they are truly lost and don't know how to get back to the Alpha Quadrant, never even occurred to the writers when that should've been number one on the list.

Then again, this is what happens when you take the plot done by TOS and TNG and resolved in 1 episode and try to stretch it into a show pre-set to 7 seasons.

 

[picardo]

I think keeping the emitter was a clear violation of the temporal prime directive.

 

[Guy Gardener]

If the mobile emitter was constructed by Starling in the past, from 20th century raw materials, then no it wasn't.

If the mobile emitter was kit salvaged from the USS Aeon, then yes it most certainly is.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

No, I don't think the emitter was a bad idea. They could only keep the Doctor cooped up in sickbay for so long. After that it just becomes using the same joke over and over.

As for these other things we keep talking about: Shuttlecraft can be easily replaced (takes about a day, maybe two, to build one, we've seen them do it). Antimatter and torpedoes can be traded from friendly aliens they happen to come across. Problem solved.

What SHOULD have been their biggest limitation: That they are truly lost and don't know how to get back to the Alpha Quadrant, never even occurred to the writers when that should've been number one on the list.

They weren't lost - they knew exactly where they were. The ship's computer just has to lock onto the nearest stars and thus can plot their location instantly. So it wouldn't really make sense for the crew to really be lost, since they were still in the Milky Way galaxy which has already been extensively charted.

If the mobile emitter was constructed by Starling in the past, from 20th century raw materials, then no it wasn't.

That seems to be the case. There wouldn't really be a reason that Braxton would have carried an emitter like that aboard the Aeon. Starling, OTOH, was intent on making use of the Doctor's program, so it stands to reason Starling built the emitter himself for that purpose.

Although Starling could have still used material salvaged FROM the Aeon to build the emitter. Indeed, "Drone" implies this, since the drone that arises in that episode is based on 29th-century tech.

 

[JarodRussell]

If the mobile emitter was constructed by Starling in the past, from 20th century raw materials, then no it wasn't.

Then he still would have built it based on 29th century knowledge (which it clearly was since it was new and unheard of to Voyager), so yes, it would still have been a violation of the temporal prime directive.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

They definitely should have had Voyager strapped for resources more often. That seemed to me the very point of the premise. No rotating crewmembers, no restocking supplies, we're just out here and the consequences of one episode still exist the next.

But even if the mobile emitter was a big contrivance, they really couldn't keep their best character in one room for seven seasons. If anything, maybe they should have gotten the emitter from aliens instead of the future.

 

[Captain Kathryn]

I LOVED the mobile emitter. It allowed the Doctor to grow. If you watch Season 1-2 EMH and then watch, say Season 5 or 6 EMH...totally different. Still sarcastic and clever, but the bitterness is gone and him exploring his new life and gaining new experiences is what made his character arc so awesome.

 

[Melakon]

I think they could have gotten him out of the Sickbay trap just by installing unseen holo-emitters throughout the ship. He wouldn't have been able to go on landing parties, but it would have given Kes more things to do.

The EMH would still have some freedom of movement, but his irritability factor could still exist by not being able to leave the ship.

 

[F. King Daniel]

The doc getting the mobile emitter in "Future's End" and freedom from sickbay was one of the coolest things in Voyager. I was happy for him - and when one is happy for a fictional character, they've done good.

 

[MacLeod]

The thing the fascinated me about the Holodoc from the beginning was the fact that he was trapped in sickbay (except of course to got to the holodeck). If anyone needed medical assistance anywhere else on Voyager, or on another ship, or on the surface of a planet, he could be of little help, because of his confinement. This was one of the character's defining elements for me. When he got hold of the mobile emitter (and very early in the series' run, might I add), he seemed to become just another "I must explore my humanity" Trek trope. I enjoyed the character when the series was in first run---and it goes without saying that Picardo's a brilliant actor---but in retrospect, I think they screwed the pooch with that mobile emitter thingie. The 'Doc lost a lot of his pathos, IMO.

One thing the writers on Voyager proved right from the start is that they had no concept of how to deal with limitations of any sort. This is the same show that specifically said that they had a limited number of torpedoes that could not be replaced...and then proceeded to ignore that.

The moment having the doctor confined to sickbay or even the ship became even a minor inconvenience out came the 29th century technology and voila...limit eliminated...no work needed on the part of the characters. The solution is just given to them via time travel. Of course that's how the ultimate plot of the show was resolved as well...so at least they were consistent in their laziness.

The limitations they set for VOY never made any damn sense in the first place, THAT was why they weren't dealt with all that much.

It made no sense they couldn't make new torpedoes, or repair shuttlecraft, or easily replenish basic energy. Stuff like dilithium should've been the top thing they needed.

What SHOULD have been their biggest limitation: That they are truly lost and don't know how to get back to the Alpha Quadrant, never even occurred to the writers when that should've been number one on the list.

Then again, this is what happens when you take the plot done by TOS and TNG and resolved in 1 episode and try to stretch it into a show pre-set to 7 seasons.

Well they could easily plot their exact location using things like Pulsars so they were never truly lost.

And we've had the limitaton debate several times. The limitations might or might not make any sense, if you don't want limitations fine, don't mention that it can't do this or you can't replace this etc.. As soon as you mention a limit then it's not the audiances fault for holding you to a limitation unless you say inform the audiance as to why the previous limitation no longer applies.

Technology without limitations might as well be magic.