Putting this in TNG since my question is ultimately about Picard, even though the majority of this post is about a Voyager episode. Recently rewatched the Voyager episode Latent Image. To put it in a nutshell: 1.5 years before ep: EMH severely malfunctions because of an ethical dilemma he can't come to terms with and crew sees no other solution than denying him access to all his memories from those events (and presumably resetting some parts of him). EMH finds this out in the 'present' of the episode, Janeway initially tries to simply delete his memories of finding this out first. When this doesn't succeed he seems to go the same downward spiral as 1.5 years before and Janeway sees no other alternative than resetting him again, until after a discussion with Seven, she decides that perhaps the best way forward is to let him resolve this battle on his own, in terms of "personal growth" and 'exceeding his programming' and so on. Now, my issue is not with the episode itself, but in the setup: partially resetting the EMH as a solution, 1.5 years ago. I don't really think this is how Voyager likes to portray Janeway, but that it was simply necessary for the setup of this episode. So I was wondering: suppose Picard would have been in Janeway's position. Stranded in the Delta Quadrant with no Starfleet backup, critically dependent on the EMH, since no other doctor was aboard. Would he have adopted the same solution as Janeway did initially? If not, how would he have resolved this problem?
Treating the Doctor like a toaster is one of Janeway's defining characteristics. As I have often said, Janeway realizing she has been treating him as an object rather than a person and promising to change happens at least once a season. But enough ranting: answer the question. If we buy into the entire set-up, I see Picard making the same choice. That is, if the only options he saw were: A) let the Doctor cease to be functional in any useful way, B) wipe the Doctor completely and start over, or C) wipe his memory of the events that triggered the problem. The "C" is the best of a list of bad options. Would Picard have tried to come up with "Plan D"? Certainly, and so would Janeway. But the writers say they failed. I don't remember the episode really well, but I suspect it could be improved by making the following change: the Doctor actually asked to have those memories erased. He chose remaining functional over dealing with his psychological issues, and that doesn't work out so well for him. See, I think they were trying for a "repressed trauma/PTSD" thing for him, but that doesn't really work with someone who actually can't forget, so someone needs to have tried to make him forget. And that really only works if it was him.
^Or what if Picard had Geordi erase some memories from Data after an incident and told the crew not to speak of it in front of Data ever again, until one day....
Picard didn't take a moral stance against mind-wiping the entire crew in Clues, so I think he'd be OK with this decision.
I think Picard would have entertained the solution but then Data would have spoken to him and made the parallel to himself, and told a story about some similar dilemma he went through in his conscious infancy. Then they would have tried what Voyager ended up trying eventually.
That's true, but the alternative there was of course slightly different. It was either what Picard chose, or get the entire crew killed (or at least lifelong captivity) and the Enterprise confiscated/destroyed. In this case, the alternative is to take the risk the EMH will not recover, while there still is a decent chance he will (as the end of the episode proves). No-one else is directly affected by that, except that of course their situation becomes a lot direr without a functional doctor on board. In a way, this episode is contradictory. The point of the episode is to take the risk and allow the EMH his growth pains, but to make this story possible in the first place, the setup requires that they refused to give him that option in the past. It doesn't become clear from the episode what exactly makes the difference between these two times -- it's not as if Seven's little speech to the captain was that powerful, in my eyes at least.
It depends. In Clues Picard makes the extraordinary remark that the secretive Data would be summarily disassembled to find out "what's wrong". At the end of Descent, without any apparent due process, Lore is dissembled, switched off and left in storage Now if you take that at face value, yes, Picard would have no problem in wiping the EMHs memory. If you want to overlook the above as writer absentmindedness and would like to think that having won his rights in The Measure of Man, Data would be treated as everyone else then Picard would prolly let the Doctor work through his issues if he recognised the doctor as sentient. His treatment of Moriarty is also interesting. He seems to accept that Moriarity is sentient but does he? If he's sentient then it's a problem Moriarity is deceived and put into a holobox, again without any due process.
But Moriarity Thought he was free. As a sentient hologram what else could he have done for him? Left him running, sitting in an empty room with the yellow grip pattern all around him? It seems that would have been the only other option. Moriarity thought he outsmarted them and was set free. It was a good thing.
Quite regardless of the situation at hand, the responses of our heroes seem consistently and understandably dictated by who or what the AI facing them is. Data was never a tool built for the convenience or amusement of the heroes. It took ages to find out what he really was: a vanity project by Soong. Meanwhile, the heroes accepted him as a quirky person-equivalent. In contrast, the holodeck is a tool and an entertainment gadget through and through. This colors the treatment of everything created by the holodeck tech, or (as is customary) destroyed and endlessly recreated, not to mention endlessly user-customized. Picard also always had the clarity of mind to see the fundamental nature of Moriarty. He may be an AI and person secondarily, but this should not confuse the issue that he is an adversary primarily. Everything he will ever do will be adversarial; any free will on his part is only icing on that bitter cake. So Picard treats him as an adversary, but cleverly never shows or tells this to said adversary. Sympathy is a stalling tactic, respect a means of entrapment. Since the E-D appears to lack a Records Officer, it is up to Picard to contain this nasty computer virus by any means necessary. Data in comparison is low maintenance, and can be managed through the same sanctions system Picard uses on his biological crew. Although of course Data can inherently take more, so ripping him to pieces is just a mild disciplinary measure. Much like ripping to atoms is to the EMH, who is even more immortal than the android. Timo Saloniemi
What would Picard do? Put him in a box on a table. What would I do? Reset the EMH back to day one, and hope the same conundrum doesn't occur again.
Janeway was shown to be sitting with The Doctor exhausted but readily willing to take her 'shift' to help him work through his what seemed, never ending anguish. Picard would not have the patience.
This is the kinda stuff that happens when you either have no continuity monitor or you don't care to have one. If that person existed, then they could speak up and say "uh, wait a minute. Picard would never say that Data would be disassembled because of the events in Measure of a Man." Once again, this all comes down to story trumps continuity. Lore's and Moriarty's situations are interesting. Lore definitely should have been prosecuted and thrown in jail. Moriarty's "crimes" were much less egregious so I'm not sure what that outcome should have been. However, the ending as presented made for a much better ending than "let's drop Moriarty off at the nearest starbase for due process" (remember, story trumps every time)
It’s been ages since I saw the Voyager episode, but I suspect when the EMH originally malfunctioned Picard would have ordered the Doctor to see Counsellor Troi for therapy, so it might never have reached the point where they needed to wipe his memory.
IMO Troi wouldn't be able to use her empathic abilities and she would flip out on him like that episode where she lost her powers and became cranky