As many of you who belong to some form of online interactive community know, it's only a matter of time before some sociopath manages to latch onto you and cause untold grief. (I see several of you nodding your heads. Been there too, have you?). By summer 2000, I had already set aside an identity of five-plus years. I was using a random one out of necessity, but it just wasn't "me."

I looked to Voyager.

Believe it or not, my first choice on impulse was Chakotay. But upon more lucid scrutiny, I realized that there was little we had in common (nor what I'd choose to associate myself with) other than an affinity for spiritual mysticism. That simply wasn't enough. I don't know whether it's so great to admit this, but it finally dawned on me that I could relate more to my favorite character: the Doctor. The cynicism, the sarcasm... Let's just say it wasn't a stretch for me to pull off. The more I investigated the character, the more I knew I had made the right choice.

Such a fan favorite, and no fansite representation on the web for the Doctor? While other Voyager characters had several sites devoted to them, the closest Doc had were a couple of sections on the actor's official site. So I set about working on a kind of performance piece, and thus the EMH Journal was born. Eventually there would be two parts to that site: the first part, on Geocities, was written by the Doctor. Anything off Geocities would be written in the third person about the Doctor. (Both parts have since been compiled into a single website under a hosted server. I suppose that removes the delineation)

While the Journal was still in its early stages, I was approached by someone who thought my Yahoo Profile page "looked cool," and lured me into the realm of simming (aka RPG or role play). Here was a chance to put what I knew of the Doctor into actual practice, and learn first hand what it's like to be an EMH.

My first meeting in conference with the simulation's initial participants was enlightening indeed. Someone portraying the chief medical officer of another ship in the fleet had apparently never watched Voyager before, and therefore didn't know anything about the Doctor. Except that he was a hologram. And she couldn't get past the "hologram" part. While we discussed what viable means to bring a copy of the Doctor to the Alpha Quadrant in its entirety, she kept making odd suggestions like putting my mind into an android body (she apparently didn't realize that I would arrive as one package deal. I tend to hesitate to explain that the Doctor is software and not hardware, in part for obvious connotative reasons, in part because the concept itself is generally over the heads of all too many in this AOL-drenched cyberculture).

I found myself having to explain over and over as the suggestions spewed forth that my character was to have full rights as a member of the crew, that he was being offered an official commission. He was not available to be manipulated like some technological prop. It was extemely frustrating, until I delivered that neutralizing volley of verbiage which blew her mind: I asked the CO what sort of recreational activities they had on board...

Of course, a lot's happened since then, both in characterization and continuity. An entire premise was developed for the post-Voyager timeline, a scenario which impacts the post-Voyager EMH's. I thought it might be nice to compile the story threads on the web to share with others, something to show for all that literary mileage.

One of the interesting aspects of ST: Voyager's run was that during the course of the final season, the writers themselves departed from canon. Constantly. Whether it was story continuity or characterization, the Powers that Be did a right good job of mucking it up.

Their contribution to the aberration of the Doctor's personality was when they had him refer to biological beings as "Organics."

Why would the Doctor ethically consider this term? After all, the only sources from which he could have picked it up were mentally unbalanced holograms with an agenda to decimate biological life forms (Revulsion and Flesh & Blood). He had sufficiently distanced himself from these unscrupulous types by the end of these tales. So does this make sense? Certainly not for someone of the Doctor's integrity. No doubt that's why the writers didn't have him use the term following the former episode.

The writers striketh. They managed to add a highly alienating factor into the mix to sabotage the Doctor's appeal. The word comes off as comparable to any number of derogatory racist slurs subject to parental lockout. Ditto its counterpart "Photonics." I only hope that future authors and EMH actor Bob Picardo - the latter of whom is set to come out with a book by The Doctor - have the perception and conscience to leave these terms out of their work. I know those two little words would be a major deterrent in my $upporting these projects, no matter how much I've looked forward to them. I know I'm not alone in this sentiment; we fans are counting on them to put the legacy back on track and do justice to the characters we revere.

So, for the record, you won't be seeing the words "photonic" or "organic" used in my material in any form other than for what they were always intended: as adjectives.

For those unfamiliar with simming, role play adventures are essentially the result of a writing collective. Various people play characters in a round-robin format. One posts on a message board, then the next player in that scene continues with their side. It is not unusual for there to be multiple storylines running simultaneously. Hence, often a line or action the previous message left off at is repeated at the start of the follow-up message from that next character's POV. Makes this more like literary leap frog than a definitive round-robin. To preserve the essence of characterization, I've decided to keep the occasional redundancies in those logs which appear on this site.

It's hard to tell objectively what works when presenting a compilation of messages, particularly to strangers not involved in the story themselves. Since I've succeeded with a system I devised for Simulated Star Trek Voyager (or so it seems based on the hits and E-mail it gets), I have decided to use a variation of that format for this site as well. The main difference is that I've prefixed the entries with their authors' aliases (note those with multiple names indicate a collaborative effort).

I've left the text from other writers intact, so that you can get an idea of the essence of the experience of participation. Role playing attracts people of all ages, and from all over the world. Some have their own method of expression by way of punctuation, an offshoot of their artistic side. Also: being not my own material, I have no desire to alter their words. (you should know that the material in the logs presented are publicly viewable in their original format, so this presentation falls into the realm of fair use.

On the Links page, you'll find many URL's leading to the original forums where these stories were generated. A glimpse of them will give you an idea of exactly how. You will also find other relevant websites, including one where you may purchase any of the original, full-color drawings you may run into while perusing these pages. Those who sim and RPG may also consider a commissioned piece of their character as well (the site may or may not be ready by I, Holodoc's debut, so keep an eye out for that link to appear if you're interested).

There's nothing more to be said, except: enjoy!