Why it didn’t really register that SAM will now be the Doctor’s daughter — formed by an environment where he shared his preferences and 800 years of experiences — I can’t say.
That’s on me. But surely, this will be a wild ride for all.
It also follows that we will be seeing a different EMH Doctor going forward. Parental, warmer, probably overprotective…? Looking forward to see Picardo flex his acting chops a bit further with that change!
Sidetrack: What would that be in terms of personality, EMH version 5 or 7 as seen on screen so far, or potentially in the hundreds depending on what happened in the centuries we haven’t seen?
And I’m very curious to see where this takes the curmudgeonly Doctor we’ve come to love as fans.
After the Doctor’s rapid development in Voyager, his relatively frozen state of psychological evolution — through Prodigy and on for 8 centuries — needed an explanation.
At a meta level, I don’t think that fans would have accepted a very differently tempered Doctor at the beginning of the show. So, this allows both the writers and Picardo to take the character into new experiences and development.
As an aside, American screenwriters are so stuck on trauma being necessary for character development that it sometimes feel they are celebrating it or suggesting it is necessary for greatness. It’s good to see instead a situation where a significant trauma causes a lasting paralysis in development that might never be overcome without taking emotional risks.
On your aside — yes, from the setting down to individual character arcs, SFA is proving very good at recognising past trauma, but not allowing it to define the path ahead. Like I said elsewhere, it’s wild how well it addresses our current time, given it’s written a few years ago.
Why it didn’t really register that SAM will now be the Doctor’s daughter — formed by an environment where he shared his preferences and 800 years of experiences — I can’t say.
That’s on me. But surely, this will be a wild ride for all.
It also follows that we will be seeing a different EMH Doctor going forward. Parental, warmer, probably overprotective…? Looking forward to see Picardo flex his acting chops a bit further with that change!
Sidetrack: What would that be in terms of personality, EMH version 5 or 7 as seen on screen so far, or potentially in the hundreds depending on what happened in the centuries we haven’t seen?
You’re right!
And I’m very curious to see where this takes the curmudgeonly Doctor we’ve come to love as fans.
After the Doctor’s rapid development in Voyager, his relatively frozen state of psychological evolution — through Prodigy and on for 8 centuries — needed an explanation.
At a meta level, I don’t think that fans would have accepted a very differently tempered Doctor at the beginning of the show. So, this allows both the writers and Picardo to take the character into new experiences and development.
As an aside, American screenwriters are so stuck on trauma being necessary for character development that it sometimes feel they are celebrating it or suggesting it is necessary for greatness. It’s good to see instead a situation where a significant trauma causes a lasting paralysis in development that might never be overcome without taking emotional risks.
On your aside — yes, from the setting down to individual character arcs, SFA is proving very good at recognising past trauma, but not allowing it to define the path ahead. Like I said elsewhere, it’s wild how well it addresses our current time, given it’s written a few years ago.