The Doctor's holographic nature meant he had a very restrictive start to the show. Initially confined to Voyager's sickbay and the holodecks, Picardo's character eventually became autonomous when he gained a mobile holographic emitter in Star Trek: Voyager season 3. From there, his contributions to the show started to become even more significant than they were already becoming. The following season, bidding farewell to Kes marked another massive milestone in the Doctor's character development, but for very different reasons.
Voyager's Doctor Became Seven Of Nine's Humanity Coach After 3 Years Of Learning From Kes
The Doctor passed on the knowledge he'd learned from Kes
The Doctor's original personality subroutines were based on Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, a character who would eventually go on to be played by Picardo as well. Dr. Zimmerman created the Emergency Medical Hologram, and so also gave his physical likeness to the EMH MK I. Unfortunately, Zimmerman's brashness and lack of subtlety combined to form a terrible bedside manner, and I loved watching the Doctor grow into someone his patients felt comfortable around. A huge part of these lessons came from Kes, who was wise beyond her years and gently coached the Doctor into becoming a more warmhearted physician.
The Doctor had come a very long way by the time of Kes' departure, but the end of their relationship meant viewers were left without the Doctor's fascinating studies into human interactions. Thankfully, Picardo and producer Brannon Braga worked together to make sure a similar dynamic existed between the Doctor and Seven once Kes had been fully replaced. Speaking with Star Trek, Picardo told Braga he wanted the Doctor to think that, "the best person to teach Seven of Nine how to become human again is him," with the irony being that Seven is/was human, and the Doctor isn't.
The Doctor Learned Different Things From Seven Than He Did From Kes
Picardo's character continued to learn as he taught his new student
Kes being swapped out for Seven didn't keep the Doctor's storyline perfectly intact, but that's a good thing. It wouldn't have made any sense for Seven to teach the Doctor about human dynamics, as she knew almost nothing about the subject herself after being assimilated by the Borg at such a young age. However, Jeri Ryan became Picardo's scene partner roughly as often as her predecessor had. These sequences took on a similar feel to the Kes and Doctor moments, but with Seven, the Doctor learned different things in a new way.
While the Doctor was much more direct student to Kes than he was to Seven when it came to all things human, becoming Seven's humanity coach meant he started to compound the information he had taken from his conversations with Kes as well as his interactions with other members of the crew. Plus, while his time with Kes was focused on becoming more human, the Doctor's lessons with Seven quite often revolved around her feeling isolated because of her partially artificial nature. The Doctor experienced a similar phenomenon, so embracing his holographic origins was an unexpected advantage of teaching Seven.
The Doctor's New Role In Star Trek: Voyager Season 4 Caused Some Of His Best Moments
The Doctor teaching Seven led to some brilliant scenes
Some of my favorite Doctor moments happened before Star Trek: Voyager season 4, but it'd be a lie to say that many of his best moments and episodes didn't also come after becoming Seven's humanity coach. What would become one of the show's longest subplots was incredibly rewarding in several different ways. The Doctor teaching Seven how to regain her humanity allows for a surprisingly introspective look at what it means to be human. This not only leads to some comical moments from both characters but also some deeply heartfelt scenes with the Doctor at the core.
The Doctor spending so much time with Seven also resulted in their unrequited love story, which was a storyline I genuinely didn't expect. Seven wasn't Picardo's character's only love interest in the show, but she was certainly the most prominent. I didn't even think about pairing them romantically until the Doctor started to develop feelings for her, and then it started to make a weird amount of sense. Ultimately, I'm also kind of glad they didn't end up together, but the twist was one of the best interpersonal arcs in Star Trek: Voyager.
