This Awesome Robert Picardo Star Trek: Voyager Storyline Never Addresses Its Biggest Flaw

Star Trek: Voyager placed Robert Picardo's character in several scenarios that capitalized on his holographic nature, but one of his coolest arcs came with a big problem that the show never really solved. Picardo played the ship's Emergency Medical Hologram in every season of Star Trek: Voyager, and became an increasingly key character as the show went on.

Referred to mainly as the Doctor or "Doc" by many members of the Star Trek: Voyager cast, Picardo's character was thrust into the role of the position of the ship's Chief Medical Officer, despite being originally installed as a short-term supplement to Voyager's original Sick Bay team. Although Picardo played other Voyager characters, the Doctor was his most prominent role.

Star Trek: Voyager's Emergency Command Hologram Created A Big Problem For Captain Janeway's Crew

The ECH being utilized would have meant the Doctor being absent from Sick Bay during a crisis

The Doctor took his role aboard the USS Voyager very seriously, even when exploring his sentience and burying himself in hobbies not typical of an artificial lifeform. That said, he did also develop professional aspirations that ventured beyond the medical field, as proven in Star Trek: Voyager season 6, episode 4, "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy."

The episode in question reveals the Doctor's daydreams of taking control of the ship in the event of a dire emergency that incapacitates Voyager's commanding officers. As the Emergency Command Hologram, the Doctor saves the day, and even manages to do so while pretending to fill his made-up role outside his daydreams.

On paper, the ECH is an innovative idea that proves the Doctor was far more than a collection of subroutines. Sure, the concept may have arisen from the desire to stroke his own ego, but it just so happened to also be a spark of genius. However, it had a significant flaw.

If the Doctor had been needed to command the ship, he would have been unavailable to treat the crew's injuries that would surely have been caused by the same catastrophe that had thrust him into the captain's chair. Despite being a hologram, even the Doctor can't be in two places at once. His program is incredibly sophisticated and unique, so it can't be easily copied.

Star Trek: Prodigy Finally Proved The Doctor's ECH Idea Had Merit

The Janeway hologram goes on to become the USS Protostar's ECH

The ECH was never officially put into service in Star Trek: Voyager, which is probably for the best. Otherwise, what would have been a terrible scenario would have been made even worse by the absence of the ship's only physician being somewhere other than Sick Bay. Starfleet, however, did end up using the ECH after Voyager.

Picardo reprised his role as the Doctor among the Star Trek: Prodigy cast, but so did Kate Mulgrew as Kathryn Janeway. Mulgrew voices both the holographic training program based on Captain Janeway and the flesh-and-blood now-Admiral Janeway in the animated Star Trek show.

The holographic Janeway is eventually upgraded to the position of the USS Protostar's Emergency Command Hologram, and the character is perfectly suited for the role. Not only does it have all the same traits as one of Starfleet's most legendary officers, but the ECH becomes her primary role, which is where the Doctor's idea fell short in Star Trek: Voyager.