I can 100% buy the EMH getting attached to a "regular" holographic family, since they're the closest to his kind around. I've seen people cry over videogames IRL and this would be much more personal.
What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?
- Thread starter Amasov
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I believe the Moriarty holoprogram was genuinely sad that Dr. Pulaski was leaving and would not be returning. Daniel Davis gave an effective performance and managed to insert just enough pathos into Moriarty that I could buy that he was truly upset that Pulaski was going away and Picard was going to turn off his holoprogram.
Humans getting attached to non-living objects is an actual thing that happens in reality.
Holograms are far more lifelike and can achieve sentience with proper computer commands.
At any rate, changing the holo-program parameters to avoid Belle's life threatening injury would have defeated the purpose of the program in question.
Remember when Janeway changed practically everything about Sullivan after first meeting him? She almost did it again when he started snoring... but then she decided to leave instead and the Doctor convinced her to go back and stop trying to control every aspect of that relationship.
Same would have applied for the EMH.
Its one thing if you're going to the holodeck for fun, but for scenarios like this, changing the program to avoid Belle's death would have been the same as avoiding 'real life' - in fact, Torres did mention to the Doctor his first (lollypop) version of the program was ridiculously perfect and its needs 'tune-up'.
The program simply took a randomized turn into an area where death of a parent's child happened.
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The ship class appears in the Star Trek: Picard Countdown comic, though not as the Enterprise. Doesn't make it fully canon, but at least officially authorized decaf semi-canon-ish, or something like that.I hate the design of the Odyssey class from Star Trek Online, and do not regard the Enterprise-F as canon in any way. (Actually I hope this isn't that controversial an opinion.)
Same. And that is what drives my reaction. I have a connection with the Doctor and he is upset. That is sufficient.
I honestly found the whole of "Real Life" with the Doctor's family to be cliched, manipulative late 90s glurge ( https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Glurge ) and the only thing it was making me wanna do is throw up.
I mean it could almost have been an episode of Seventh Heaven.
And both the "perfect" family, and B'ellana's lame attempt a stereotypical 90s sitcom "dysfunctional family" were crap.
I mean it could almost have been an episode of Seventh Heaven.
And both the "perfect" family, and B'ellana's lame attempt a stereotypical 90s sitcom "dysfunctional family" were crap.
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Controversial opinion: I like Seventh Heaven.
I don't. But I do have a soft spot for "Touched by an Angel"
Ooof. No thanks.
But, more on topic, I do not care for the Doctor's holodeck family. In my opinion that episode was weirdly cruel. But, more to the point, I feel for the Doctor and so I care about his emotions in that moment about his daughter, hologram or not. I don't even remember any of his family's names but I remember the emotion. And, as I noted upthread, I felt it and that's what matters.
Mileage, etc.
I like "The Chute(VOY)." 
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RichT
Guest
But that also shows Data as the captain of the Enterprise-E, and Picard as a retired ambassador... we know that Countdown, while it may have been officially licensed, is not canon.The ship class appears in the Star Trek: Picard Countdown comic, though not as the Enterprise. Doesn't make it fully canon, but at least officially authorized decaf semi-canon-ish, or something like that.
One of Voyager's most touching scenes revolves around that: Part 2 of YoH, when Janeway chooses to stay with (and ultimately die with) Voyager.
It would have involved opting out of one thing, the very worst aspect of family life. Maybe it's not a purely accurate simulation, but that doesn't make it completely useless.
Michael Sullivan was a non-sentient hologram, his main purpose was as essentially a plaything for the crew. There was no wrong in Janeway adjusting him, any more than there was in her erasing another one from existence with three little words ("delete the wife"). But he was the closest thing Kathryn was going to get to a relationship, and she understood that if it's a relationship you want, you appreciate someone for who they are, rather than try to turn them into someone else. Even when (unlike a real relationship) you can.
Canon is overrated.
What makes me dislike the episode so strongly are two things:
1)Of course it's the little girl who comes down with a fatal case of carcanceritis. Little girls in stories like that have a very short lifespan.
2)The whole scene of the estranged wife and the rebel son hugging it out tearfully with the Doctor at the daughter's death bed because "tragedy makes us forget our differences and brings us closer together" or some equally cliched BS that this kind of story likes to push.
The Doctor abandoning the whole thing because it hurt too much was actually one of the better written parts of the episode, imho.
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RichT
Guest
"Latent Image" makes no sense coming in season five of Voyager. The Doctor struggling with the ethical problems of making choices that result in people dying would fit much better as a season one episode, but by this point in the show it stretches credibility that the Doctor a) hasn't evolved beyond that point and b) hasn't been in a position where he's had to make life-or-death decisions before.
Completely agree and if the episode had finished out with that with his recognition that it was too much I would hold the episode as far more understandable.
As it stands, the episode is cliched, a bit forgettable, but if we are talking emotional resonance what the Doctor goes through is painfully relatable for me. Holographic or not.
The issue wasn't that he made a life or death decision, it was why: there was nothing in his programming that allowed him to choose between saving Harry and saving the other ensign, so he chose Harry based on personal feelings. Be that as it may, though, if he could write algorithms into his system that made him act like assorted historical figures, then writing a "tie-breaker" program into his ethical subroutines shouldn't have been difficult.
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RichT
Guest
Seems rather strange that the EMH's basic software wouldn't include an "if you need to make a decision but all data points are equal, toss a coin" subroutine. We have mission-critical software that does this today.
The worst part of Latent Image was how they used those flashbacks in a vain attempt to makes us feel like the Redshirt the Doctor didn't save was an actual character or something.
Would have been more effective if they had introduced her as a minor character four or five episodes beforehand.
Would have been more effective if they had introduced her as a minor character four or five episodes beforehand.
Today, yes. Back in the 1990s? Maybe. But, a similar idea runs through science fiction with regards to robots and AI. Latent Image reminded me more of "I, Robot" to a small degree and was a bit more understandable as a result. As written it is a very binary way of looking at AI.
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