Post by stargazer1682 on Oct 11, 2020 17:16:14 GMT
I have to say, I've always liked this episode, namely the underlying arc the Doctor has with his holographic family and the loss of Belle.
Just re-watching it again now, I still thoroughly enjoy it, but this time I couldn't help but think how the short term nature of the story was clearly built into the narrative; and the potential it had to have been something much heartier if the writers had been inclined to go that way; which doesn't undermine the story they chose to tell, but it definitely has some interesting implications.
I'm not sure I had completely considered the full ramifications of the Doctor, who's a completely holographic, artificial intelligence, creating a holographic family. It seems like a simple and logical enough premise; if the Doctor was going to have a family, why not have them be a holographic family? Yet, I think there was always a disconnect, at least for me, of that fact that on a very basic level the Doctor and his simulated family were cut from the same cloth. Voyager's EMH had taken on such a distinct life of his own, it was easy to know on a conceptual level that he's a hologram, yet take for granted that he wasn't a "real" person in the conventional sense; while fully appreciating the fact that his family was "just" a simulation. This distinction didn't take away from the impact Belle's injury and death had, but before now I hadn't given much thought to exactly how the Doctor created this family.
It makes sense for the holographic Doctor to create a holographic family; and that said holographic family would be created on, obviously, the holodeck. But in so doing it kind enforces the conceit of the episode, that while the "story" of the family simulation has an affect on the doctor (and the audience) as any good work of fiction does; placing it on the holodeck and treating it as its own independent reality, separate from Voyager, makes it hardly any different from Tom's Captain Proton program or the simulation Seven would later run to practice dating with a holographic Chakotay. Eventually the Doctor turns the simulated family off and goes about his day in the real world.
When I thought more about the nature of the family in comparative terms, I wondered, do they, like the Doctor, know they're holograms? Do they know the Doctor is a hologram? Do they know they're actually on a holodeck on a starship thousands of light years from Earth? The wife mentions going to the Bolian Embassy to give a lecture, and obviously the son is visited by simulated Klingon teens; setting the entire scenario within its own simulated world.
So are they no more aware of the "outside" real world than any other character in a holonovel? This is where I started thinking how much greater potential the story might have had. Imagine if, instead of the holodeck, the Doctor did in fact secure quarters for himself, like he asked about in "Future's End" and had a holo-emitter installed in those quarters. It'd make sense; that way he doesn't have to rely entirely on his mobile emitter outside sickbay. Sure, they always seemed to have trouble installing the necessary equipment to allow the Doctor to leave sickbay before (except in "The Killing Game" - which, I guess just means Harry hadn't been motivated enough before; and all Janeway had to do was to threaten to kill him to get it done...), but at least in this scenario, it would have established that they weren't so incompetent about adapting the technology elsewhere on the ship; and that even without the mobile emitter, it would have just been a matter of time until the Doctor would be free to move about the ship.
Instead of hogging time on the holodeck, the Doctor at the end of the day would have slapped on his mobile emitter, strolled down the corridor to his quarters, and then been able to take off the emitter, like he was taking off his coat or kicking off his shoes at the end of a long day's work. It then could have been there, in the Doctor's quarters, that he creates his holographic family; and they could have had some knowledge about the fact they were on Voyager and even in the Delta quadrant. This could have potentially led to his family gaining self-awareness and eventual sentience of their own; wanting to move about beyond the confines of the Doctor's quarter's, eventually becoming integrated, fully realized recurring characters in their own right, living aboard Voyager.
Like I said, I still like the episode as it actually is just fine; even though now I can't help notice the parallels between it and TNG's "Offspring," including bother Data's daughter and the Doctor's daughter suffering a health failure that both try to repair. Even the Doctor's description of the hours he and the other simulated doctor he mentions, spending hours correcting one issue, only for another to occur, is very reminiscent of how Admiral Haftel in "Offspring" describes the work he and Data did to save Lal.
Just re-watching it again now, I still thoroughly enjoy it, but this time I couldn't help but think how the short term nature of the story was clearly built into the narrative; and the potential it had to have been something much heartier if the writers had been inclined to go that way; which doesn't undermine the story they chose to tell, but it definitely has some interesting implications.
I'm not sure I had completely considered the full ramifications of the Doctor, who's a completely holographic, artificial intelligence, creating a holographic family. It seems like a simple and logical enough premise; if the Doctor was going to have a family, why not have them be a holographic family? Yet, I think there was always a disconnect, at least for me, of that fact that on a very basic level the Doctor and his simulated family were cut from the same cloth. Voyager's EMH had taken on such a distinct life of his own, it was easy to know on a conceptual level that he's a hologram, yet take for granted that he wasn't a "real" person in the conventional sense; while fully appreciating the fact that his family was "just" a simulation. This distinction didn't take away from the impact Belle's injury and death had, but before now I hadn't given much thought to exactly how the Doctor created this family.
It makes sense for the holographic Doctor to create a holographic family; and that said holographic family would be created on, obviously, the holodeck. But in so doing it kind enforces the conceit of the episode, that while the "story" of the family simulation has an affect on the doctor (and the audience) as any good work of fiction does; placing it on the holodeck and treating it as its own independent reality, separate from Voyager, makes it hardly any different from Tom's Captain Proton program or the simulation Seven would later run to practice dating with a holographic Chakotay. Eventually the Doctor turns the simulated family off and goes about his day in the real world.
When I thought more about the nature of the family in comparative terms, I wondered, do they, like the Doctor, know they're holograms? Do they know the Doctor is a hologram? Do they know they're actually on a holodeck on a starship thousands of light years from Earth? The wife mentions going to the Bolian Embassy to give a lecture, and obviously the son is visited by simulated Klingon teens; setting the entire scenario within its own simulated world.
So are they no more aware of the "outside" real world than any other character in a holonovel? This is where I started thinking how much greater potential the story might have had. Imagine if, instead of the holodeck, the Doctor did in fact secure quarters for himself, like he asked about in "Future's End" and had a holo-emitter installed in those quarters. It'd make sense; that way he doesn't have to rely entirely on his mobile emitter outside sickbay. Sure, they always seemed to have trouble installing the necessary equipment to allow the Doctor to leave sickbay before (except in "The Killing Game" - which, I guess just means Harry hadn't been motivated enough before; and all Janeway had to do was to threaten to kill him to get it done...), but at least in this scenario, it would have established that they weren't so incompetent about adapting the technology elsewhere on the ship; and that even without the mobile emitter, it would have just been a matter of time until the Doctor would be free to move about the ship.
Instead of hogging time on the holodeck, the Doctor at the end of the day would have slapped on his mobile emitter, strolled down the corridor to his quarters, and then been able to take off the emitter, like he was taking off his coat or kicking off his shoes at the end of a long day's work. It then could have been there, in the Doctor's quarters, that he creates his holographic family; and they could have had some knowledge about the fact they were on Voyager and even in the Delta quadrant. This could have potentially led to his family gaining self-awareness and eventual sentience of their own; wanting to move about beyond the confines of the Doctor's quarter's, eventually becoming integrated, fully realized recurring characters in their own right, living aboard Voyager.
Like I said, I still like the episode as it actually is just fine; even though now I can't help notice the parallels between it and TNG's "Offspring," including bother Data's daughter and the Doctor's daughter suffering a health failure that both try to repair. Even the Doctor's description of the hours he and the other simulated doctor he mentions, spending hours correcting one issue, only for another to occur, is very reminiscent of how Admiral Haftel in "Offspring" describes the work he and Data did to save Lal.