EMH

History
The Doctor's extensive history can be found here.

Boomtown History
The Doctor arrived in New Dodge at the beginning of April, 2013.

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, boasting, and no small amount of self-righteousness. While he can empathize, he has to consciously make the effort to do so. The Doctor is still exceptionally smug: he views himself as a brilliant medical practitioner – 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; 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 heavy-handed self-righteousness and 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 processors. 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 (if a bit of a nag). 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 overenthusiastic or even needy at times, and actively seeks and encourages social interactions.

As mentioned previously, he can be pushy. If someone isn't following through on his advice (or medical opinion), the Doctor will start to nag incessantly until someone snaps or does what it is he wants of them. Often, he can be passive-aggressive about it, which serves to make him rather intolerable at times.

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).


 * 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.

Appearance
Insert appearance writeup here?

Links
Medical Questionnaire