Everything you always wanted to know about 'The Doctor'

[Captain Picard's Hair]

Or, his personality was just too damned obnoxious not to become sapient just to stick a thorn into Starfleet!

The question of why the Doctor can't be copied or backed up is curious (never mind the associated moral issues)... maybe code of that complexity has to be independently compiled for each instance and can't just be ran?

[Tyyr]

Since he's technically using part of the computer core it could be that his program is so integrated into the computer that copying will destroy all those links. You'd have to totally copy Voyager's computer and file structure to do it. Then again that's only an odd ball theory.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

Since he's technically using part of the computer core it could be that his program is so integrated into the computer that copying will destroy all those links. You'd have to totally copy Voyager's computer and file structure to do it. Then again that's only an odd ball theory.

Yeah, that's along the lines of what I was thinking: if the code were recompiled you'd be able to recreate every link but short of that he won't function.

[SomosFuga]

then it's easier to copy-paste Riker than the doctor.

[Mikey]

then it's easier to copy-paste Riker than the doctor.

Smugness of that degree would be naturally virulent anyway.

[Mark]

Sorry guys. It's not a matter of opinion or question. In "Living Witness" we SAW that, for a fact, the Doctor WAS backed up at some point, as that "back up" was the star of the episode.

[thelordharry]

This taken from Memory Alpha:

This episode suggests that it is possible to make a backup copy of The Doctor. However, in many other episodes (for example, VOY: "Blink of an Eye", "Life Line") it appears that his program will be lost forever if it is transferred and cannot return. This may be because the backup module was lost (as explained in this episode) and therefore unusable.
Depending on one's viewpoint, this episode either flatly contradicts or firmly upholds the events of VOY: "Message in a Bottle". In that episode, Harry Kim's efforts to make a new version of The Doctor fail. The presence of the EMH backup module in this episode means that either Kim had no need to make a copy of The Doctor or that his failed efforts to do so prompted the creation of the module. The determinative question never directly answered by any episode of the series is whether Voyager launched with this technology on board.

Anyway, I wonder if copy-Doctor ever made it back to the Alpha Quadrant after his tenure as Surgical Chancellor?

[Captain Picard's Hair]

*snip*

So IOW, that backup would appear to have been a dedicated module and it's still true that the doc can't be copied or backed up at will [to arbitrary media] like we're used to with ordinary digital files.

[Mikey]

Good thing, too - I could see it now:

"If you don't shut up, Doctor, you're going back into the flash drive!"

[thelordharry]

Say, what do you think the capacity of a USB flash drive will be in 2380? 1.21 jigaquads?

[Mark]

I have a question. Why didn't the Doc alter his program enough to give him some hair?

[Tyyr]

Probably just used to it. I don't think he associated his hair with his appearance the way people do now.

[thelordharry]

Probably just used to it. I don't think he associated his hair with his appearance the way people do now.

That's what Gene Roddenberry said about Patrick Stewart when he auditioned for the part of John Luck Pickud.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

I have a question. Why didn't the Doc alter his program enough to give him some hair?

Probably the same reason Picard stayed bald.

[Lazar]

Probably the same reason Picard stayed bald.

Same goes for the bald Dr Zimmerman on whom the Doctor was modeled.