Application for TLV
User Name/Nick: Rycca
User LJ: moxispilot
AIM/IM: ----
E-mail: ----
Other Characters: Severus Snape, Randal Graves
Character Name: The Doctor
Series: Star Trek: Voyager
Age: He has been active for seven years.
From When?: I’m bringing him aboard after his ship’s return to the Alpha Quadrant in 2378 AD, so not long after the end of series.
Inmate/Warden: Warden. The Doctor has, with the exception of several instances, been a moral and ethical person his entire “life”.
Item: A PADD.
Abilities/Powers: Because the Doctor is a hologram, he has a small array of abilities beyond that of humans - for example, he can program himself with new abilities (though this rarely goes well), he can make himself solid or insubstantial, and he doesn’t experience pain under normal circumstances (though he can be reprogrammed to do so).
Personality:
Although the Doctor is basically a computer program, he has a distinct personality which has evolved over time from personal experiences. He is self-aware and sentient, and has over time grown to behave in an entirely human manner. Upon his original activation, however, his personality - that is, the personality subroutines from his original programming - was based upon that of Dr. Lewis Zimmerman. He was smug, arrogant, and even rude to his colleagues. Though he has grown to be more polite, he still retains those distinct, underlying behaviours - but they manifest now in overconfidence, bragging, and no small amount of self-righteousness. While he can empathize with others, he has to consciously do so. The Doctor is still exceptionally smug: he views himself as a brilliant doctor - and he believes he should view himself in that light: his program contains the knowledge of more than five million medical treatments. However, medical knowledge has little influence on personality, and the aforementioned tendency to behave with an air of superiority often gives him the bedside manner of a frog.
He has often been known to question authority or command decisions - and in most situations, has been wrong in doing so. His overconfidence, combined with the firmly-held belief that Doctor Knows Best, has often led him to make enormous mistakes: in the past, he has attempted to program himself to practice psychiatry, and in his preoccupation with the idea of being thus even more useful to the crew of Voyager (and a better person), he caused Seven of Nine to believe she had been repressing memories of an incident which had never actually occurred. In another incident, the Doctor directly disobeyed Janeway when he aided a group of holograms in an effort to escape their Hirogen masters; when he discovered that the leader of the rebels planned to start a new religion based on violence and bloodshed. It was after this latter incident that Janeway admitted he had done the human thing - a step forward for both of them - and made a mistake.
He has a tendency towards hypocrisy: when someone else makes a mistake or even slightly wrongs him, he responds with indignation. He dislikes being mistreated and kept out of the loop, and will often lecture others about the inappropriateness of their actions until someone disables his vocal processorts. He also has a propensity for viewing himself as better than "organics", and will often go on about the negative reaction organics have to holographic superiority.
Despite his overtly smug attitude, he is capable of kindness and generosity. Over the course of his seven years aboard Voyager, he developed close friendships and even romances. When he isn’t lording over his domain, he can actually be a pleasant person. He has an understanding of social interactions that helps him both interact in a cooperative manner and teach others to do the same. (For example, he spent several years mentoring Seven as she learned to work as an individual within a community.) He can often come across as a bit enthusiastic or even needy at times, and actively seeks and encourages social interactions. He can be a bit pushy in that respect, and will even resort to nagging if he thinks someone else isn’t being social enough.
The Doctor is able to grow and change just as any sentient being; he has evolved to deal with ethical paradoxes, the morality of situations, and emotional issues (such as being part of a family unit - in one instance, he created a holographic family which was subsequently altered by B’elanna Torres. His “daughter” was killed in a sporting accident). He is able to experience emotions, and has been in love several times since his activation.
He can enjoy food, participate in social activities, and even have sex. Due to his preoccupation with expanding himself as a self-aware hologram, he has several hobbies and personal interests, ranging from singing to golf to self-interest groups. He enjoys spending time on holodecks and has an imagination which is both extremely active and the cause of no small amount of trouble for himself and others (when first added to his program, much like Data's emotional addition, the Doctor was unable to control it; he was unable, at first, to stop himself from daydreaming).
Since (and even slightly before) his return to the Alpha Quadrant, he has begun writing holonovels and other works, including a book entitled The Hologram’s Handbook, which describes his experiences on Voyager and dispenses advice for other holograms.* He is a staunch advocate of equal rights for beings of artificial intelligence due to a culmination of experiences within the Delta Quadrant and one notable occasion during which a holonovel he wrote was distributed without his permission. The Doctor believes sentient holograms (and other forms of artificial intelligence) such as himself should be granted the same rights and privileges as any other entity, and will become defensive and pontificate for hours if someone suggests otherwise.
The only things he has difficulty with due to his design parameters involve breaking the Hippocratic Oath and choosing a name (though it is revealed in an alternate timeline that prior to 2404, he chose the name “Joe”, after his wife’s grandfather - further suggesting that he also succeeded in gaining equal rights as a sentient being: his wife was human).
His reaction to the Barge will be one of surprise. It will be a change from the 24th century; the disorganization on the Barge will be shocking to him, considering the fact that it carries dangerous criminals. This reaction will stem from the notion that he is volunteering for a rehabilitation center similar to those of his own time, with competent guards and inmates of a more passive nature. The Barge, compared to the vision he concocted of an ideal detention camp, will seem chaotic and senseless. His superiority complex will come into play quite often during his first few weeks until he gets into the swing of things.
As a warden, he'll be extremely involved in his inmate's life, and will view it as some great act of altruism. He'll spend a lot of time trying to "get to know" whoever is assigned to him, and will make sure to use all the facilities available, including the enclosure, art room, infirmary, kitchen, and spa. More often than not, he'll probably be a great big ball of enthusiasm - and an enormous nuisance - and every time his inmate backslides, he'll take it personally.
*This is an actual book written by the Doctor (or rather, Robert Picardo as the Doctor) as part of ST canon, and I seriously recommend giving the audio a listen for a better understanding of his personality and views of holograms vs. organics.
When he talks about the book he's writing, this is what he's referring to.
History:
Over here at Memory-Alpha.
Sample Journal Entry: [From Dear_Mun]
Please state the nature of the medical-
Oh, not you again.
Mundane, is it?
May I remind you the last time you attempted this, you failed and put me in the proverbial closet? Of course you couldn't be me. No one can be me except me.
Well, perhaps Dr. Zimmerman, but I am programmed in his-
This is beside the point.
You didn't even bother to turn me off when you abandoned me without my mobile emitter. You're a terrible mundane; I suspect you're a terrible human being based on your treatment of me, but I can't quantify it against past experience with anyone else because you played me for a grand total of five minutes. If I could put in for a transfer for some other headspace, as you call it, I'd have done it by now.
...
Well, you certainly don't need to use that kind of language.
...
The Barge? Is this a joke? I'm a doctor, not a warden.
...
Don't you laugh at me! I don't care how overused that line is. It happens to be true. Besides, there are already four doctors there - and not even medical doctors! They just call themselves The Doctor. Do you have any idea how confusing that will be?
You are not sending me to a game; I'm not a toy.
Computer, deactivate EMH program.
...Computer? Computer, deactivate- Do you mind?!
Sample RP:
[Yes, I know I'm taking some liberties with how things are stored, what's in the infirmary, etc. It's just a sample of the Doctor reacting to the crap conditions.]
The Doctor looked around the infirmary with an expression which could only be described as "abject horror". When he'd agreed to come aboard, he'd naturally assumed he'd be assigned to work here. He had also - reasonably, he thought - assumed the technology would be a little less medieval. Where were the computers? The medical tricorders? Oh, alright, there was a hypospray or two, but really, if they could manage a hypospray, couldn't they manage a bio-bed?
Here and there, he lifted instruments, inspected them, and set them down again with a mixture of disdain and bemusement. Finally, he picked up a vial of dark liquid and held it up to the light; the label read "Blood Repl. Potion" in a cramped, spiky scrawl. He gaped.
"How am I supposed to work in these conditions?" he asked no one in particular.
This was a prison ship, populated by violent criminals; surely people were suffering injuries regularly. Potions? Really? Was this a third-world country? Where was the local witch doctor?
And another thing: these weren't passive law-breakers who stole a few bars of latinum or swindled some poor dolt out of a cargo ship. Calling it a "center for rehabilitation" didn't strike the same chord as "prison ship". There were murderers here. He was going to have a word with the Admiral about this.
Action spam from Fourth Wall Week at Dystopian Flux.
Special Notes:
I thought this would be a good place for this info:
- The Doctor will have autonomous control over his deactivation protocols (meaning no one else should be able to shut him off).
- He can be reprogrammed by tech-savvy members of the ship, even if just to remove his ethical subroutines or make him experience pain.
- While he can’t die, per se, his mobile emitter can be destroyed or his program destabilized.