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Fictional character from Star Trek: Voyager

The Doctor, an Emergency Medical Hologram (or EMH for short), is a fictional character portrayed by actor Robert Picardo on the television series Star Trek: Voyager, which aired on UPN between 1995 and 2001. He is an artificial intelligence manifesting as a holographic projection, designed to act as a short term supplement to the medical staff of a starship during emergency situations. However, when the starship Voyager is stranded on the far side of the galaxy with no surviving medical personnel, he is forced to act as the ship's chief medical officer for several years. In an example of the Star Trek franchise's exploration of artificial intelligence, a simple software program becomes a major character in the show.

In a 2020 interview, Picardo said his agent told him that he was selected from 900 actors who auditioned for the role. He added that he first learned what a hologram was from being selected for the role. "I was confused, I didn't know what it meant for him to be a hologram or a computer program. I didn't understand enough about Star Trek 'science,' which is based on real science, although we still don't know how to make a hologram with density. So I got the part without knowing at all what I was in for." During his audition for the role of The Doctor, Picardo was asked only to say, "Somebody forgot to terminate my program." However, he then ad libbed, "I'm a doctor, not a nightlight!" (Picardo was initially afraid that he might have ruined his chances—ad libbing, he explained, was something that one just "did not do" in an audition.)

In a minor role in the movie Star Trek: First Contact, Picardo plays the emergency medical hologram of the USS Enterprise E. Doctor Beverly Crusher activates it/him, albeit reluctantly, as a means of distracting the Borg while she and other crew members escape from the besieged sickbay. He replies, "I'm a doctor, not a doorstop", an homage to Doctor McCoy's catchphrase line "I'm a doctor, not a "

In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Doctor Bashir I Presume", Picardo portrays Zimmerman, who here attempts to develop a Long Term Medical Hologram. (The EMH also was a feature in the defunct Star Trek: The Experience amusement exhibition at the Las Vegas Hilton.) In 2019, Picardo said CBS producers had expressed interest in also having him in Star Trek: Picard as either The Doctor or his creator, Lewis Zimmerman. Several other versions of the EMH have appeared onscreen. The EMH Mark II, a new and upgraded EMH, is played by Andy Dick in the Voyager episode "Message in a Bottle". Star Trek: Picard features an EMH called "Emil", part of a holographic suite aboard the ship La Sirena, modeled after Captain Cristobal Rios and played by Santiago Cabrera. Star Trek: Discovery features a 32nd century EMH known as "Eli", played by Brendan Beiser.

In 2018, The Wrap ranked Voyager's EMH as the 22nd best character of Star Trek overall, noting the character as a "sarcastic, overworked hologram", one that also had time for jokes and helping fellow crewmates. In 2016, Wired magazine ranked the character as the 16th most important character in service to Starfleet within the Star Trek science fiction universe. In 2016, SyFy ranked "The Doctor/Voyager EMH" as the second best of the six main cast space doctors of the Star Trek franchise. In 2013, Slate magazine ranked The Doctor one of the ten best crew characters in the Star Trek franchise.